1960 Chevy Corvair Offered First-In-Class Infant Storage Solution: A Touch Of Innovation
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The image above is from the Shasta Mustang Supply Facebook page.
“Oh no,” you say to yourself, “I have accommodated all that I needed to fit into my wonderful 1960 Chevrolet Corvair, but now there is no room for my beloved bundle of joy, ‘Joseph.'”
Don’t you worry, daddy; it’s a problem as old as time. That’s why the brilliant engineers at Chevrolet have ingeniously crafted a first-in-class baby cradle into the dashboard!
Incidentally, this is also a last-in-class.
From the comfort of his, shall we say, “exhilarating” perch, your baby will enjoy a second-to-none forward view of the road. And since the humble 80 HP engine is weaker than an asthmatic mule, you don’t have to worry about your precious, fragile little human tumbling onto the floor under hard acceleration; there is none!
Worried about your baby’s safety in the event that an abrupt stop is required? Don’t be! While the momentum of your tiny sack of fresh blood and bone keeps him speeding forward across the dashboard, he will be safely retained by the standard, soft glass* windshield!
But wait! There are other perks, too! Flip on the windshield defrost and set your HVAC to hot to quickly warm your baby – because a warm baby is a happy baby! Never leave your attention-hungry human cargo out of your sight, as his diminutive little body obscures your forward view of the road! And with the optional automatic transmission, gear shifts are hands free, perfect for one-handed coddling of cute little Joseph while your other hand rests safely on the wheel!
The 1960 Chevrolet Corvair: Smart at Any Speed.
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Actually that is the rear package shelf,you can see the cooling vents in the “trunk” lid, but seeing that is from a Mustang site what do you expect?
This is a story from someone who does not understand the era.
Back then seat belts were an option in some road cars and even F1 drivers went with out because they belt safer being thrown clear of their rolling gas tanks.
Speaking of gas tanks just look at any early Mustang and how that Ford to save cost would use the top of the gas tank as the floor of the trunk. Remove the gas tank and look in the trunk nothing but ground is all you would see.
Not long before this gas tanks were in the cab of the truck and we had kids sitting in a seat facing the car behind so they could see what was going to kill them before they were crushed when rear ended.
I remember my dads Corvair’s and how they had this box in the rear window. Yes I crawled up there going down the road too.
Things were a lot different back then and a lot of people died.
Today we have airbags in about ever spot in a car. We have anti crash everything and now they want to go to cars that drive us not use driving them.
The sad part is we have made the cars better but over all the people all have become dumber and more dependent on things other than Common sense. They still want to Text and drive and talk on a phone while they should be looking around where they are going.
Then with the cars that will drive you they are willing to give up control of when they go, how they go and where they go to whom ever controls the system. There easily could be charge for ever command you give your car. Think not just ask a old person if they ever thought people would have to pay for TV or Radio.
Also note 80 HP Corvairs were very rare. Most were 160 HP and that was good for a 6 cylinder back then.
Speaking as someone that owns 42 Corvairs – 80hp was very common and the base engine for the early Corvair with a manual transmission and 85 for the automatic unless it’s a ’64 when the base engine went from 140ci (1960) 145ci (1961-3) to 164ci and was 95hp. They never made a 160hp version in any year. The early was available with 80, 85, 98, 102, 150hp and in ’64 95, 110 and 150hp. The late models were available with 95, 110, 140 and 180hp engines. The 150 and 180hp versions were turbocharged. Most Corvairs didn’t come with seat belts and they didn’t have collapsible steering columns until I believe ’67.
I’ve driven Corvairs since ’86 and am still alive. I’m probably unsafe at any speed but the cars aren’t.
Sorry Joel, the engines were 80 (standard transmission), 82 (automatic transmission, 102, & 150 HP(urbo) 1960 – 1963. My first Corvair was a 1962 in 1962, named snowflake, because it was white, and would be lost in a snow bank. That snow bank ultimately killed snowflake, because she was totaled by a snow plow plowing the parking lot.
Never heard of 82 for any Corvair. I said 85 but it was actually 84 in ’61-’63 for the base automatic engine due to the higher compression. Not sure why I typed 85.
Being a born in the late 70s, I remember in my toddler youth how my sister and I would stand up in the back seat and look out over the parcel shelf of the back window. Sometimes on long drives we would even climb up there while playing. It was not a rare sight to pass another car on the road with kids doing the same as well as sleeping in the back window.
In the early 80s my dad used to let me sit in his lap and actually steer the car on long drives! NO ONE said a thing or found it alarming when we were passed or passed another car – to include police. Many simply waved and smiled.
A different era indeed.
That’s the rear package shelf, not the dashboard. You have to take into account the era in which this happened. Though the laws of physics were widely know, seat belts were not required or common in cars yet. Steering columns looked like harpoons, dashboards were often a rigid wall of pointy glass and stamped steel. While I’ll admit the photo is humorous, it isn’t as crazy and outrageous as it is made out to be, considering the rest of the insanity going on in every other make and model of car. To this day, the Corvair is the only car proven “safe” in the US courts.
As a young kid I don’t recall my dad ever telling me to buckle up (he still doesn’t, except on rare occasions). Tired? Lay down on the back seat. Want to ride in the back of my pickup truck? Have fun, just don’t stand up for too long. And railroad crossings: those were built just to give us the feeling of weightlessness.
My how times have changed… and rightfully so.
Careful this holiday season, guys.
It’s a company run by people who have never been known to use their heads for thinking.
Magirus, it’s a joke,lighten up.
Hes conditioned himself to be so serious that he is incapable of seeing humour in things.
It’s the same kind of joyless mindset that killed the hippies, soon to kill the hipsters, and anyone else whos level of certainty in themselves is unshakable; because they don’t want to entertain the idea of being wrong about something. Simple humour can undo them.
Magirus is not being serious he is just being a troll. It is nothing new. It has nothing about humor just being difficult.
That reminds me of a joke. How do you drown a Hipster?….. You toss him Mainstream. Now that is humor. LOL! No I will not quit my day job!
The times may have changed and there may be a generation gap; but there is no excuse for sloppy or no research evident in this story. And if humor was the intent, it works only if viewed in the context of then and now. I think of all the activities we enaged while growing up on my grandfather’s ranch including operating cars, light and medium duty trucks, tractors, and harvesting equipment equipped with blades, tines, belts, and hooks, all moving at blinding speeds. But stern warnings, simple lessons from adults and COMMON SENSE (not warning labels commanding you to avoid the obviously stupid) kept us safe.
My apologies for falsely identifying that as the dashboard; I should have realized that, being a rear-engined car, the hood would have no need for vents (duh). But I, too, recall being allowed to (for instance) ride in the bed of my dad’s old pickup – when I was about 5 years-old and older. You have to remember that babies are much more fragile things.
And then there’s the difference between what everyone privately does in their automobile, and the sort of use that the automaker advertises. That this was an actual ad put out by Chevrolet simply made me chuckle; I just had to write a mocking, satirical piece on it.
Ride safe.
You wrote a piece all right…but not what I would call “satirical”…
I have a rather extensive collection of Corvair ads and I have never seen that photograph in any advertisement put out by Chevrolet for the Corvair. I feel safe (no pun intended) in saying that the photograph in question was NOT “an actual ad put out by Chevrolet”.
So delete it!
I have a theory on safety items.
Anyone notice that the more air bags we have and more seat belt / helmet laws the dumber society has gotten?
I feel at times we used to cull the heard and now we are saving all the”hey watch this” people. Just check out YouTube and they are all on their now.
I am kidding but at times I do wonder.
It is sad but I do wonder how many kids we did lose in this era since none were strapped in. The numbers have to be staggering.
To be honest the rear window well was deep so in some ways it may have been better than the kid laying on the back seat. Not that I would recommend it.
Baby storage in the back seat eh, well “What goes on in the back seat, stays in the back seat”…………….
1964 Beaumont 4 door sedan, what a great car to travel in as a kid.
The Corvair was a rear engine car. This is in the window well in the back and wasn’t an official option. The handles are also a dead giveaway.
The original is here. It wasn’t an option and it’s not the dash-
http://gmauthority.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/1960-Chevy-Corvair-Baby-Cradle-ad.jpg
Slightly off topic but relevant to the state of insanity of our youth. I remember riding my bike with my friends following the cloud of “smoke” from the back of the mosquito spray truck and breathing deeply!!