General Motors fans will be all-too-familiar with Ralph Nader’s 1965 book Unsafe At Any Speed, which attempted to frame the Chevrolet Corvair as an inherently dangerous vehicle with significant flaws in its design. Whether or not Nader’s claims were completely accurate has been debated for decades, but one thing is for sure, GM had no reservations about the vehicle’s capability when it was developing it.
We say that after watching this 1960s promotional video for the Chevrolet Corvair, entitled ‘The Corvair in Action’. The video shows the Corvair in several different driving scenarios and/or environments, including on track at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, on the skidpad, off-road and even in a river. The video also attempts to show off the Corvair’s braking capability in both wet and dry conditions, along with its safety in a variety of different collisions. GM engineers even try to roll the vehicle in one of the collisions, but find it hard to tip it over completely, so they lock the wheels before making their successful second attempt.
This video is actually highly interesting in light of Unsafe At Any Speed, as GM seems confident not only in the Corvair’s handling and braking performance, but also in its ability to withstand damage in the event of a crash. Little did the producer of this short promotional film know the subject would later become synonymous with poor road safety – an image that the Corvair has never managed to fully shake off. Even today, people still jokingly reference cars as being “unsafe at any speed” and make jokes at the Corvair’s expense.
Check out the video embedded below to see the Chevrolet Corvair how you’ve never seen it before.
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Comments
This video makes my heart bleed that Chevrolet had to kill it, it could have been so much.
It did have a whole decade run and sold nearly 2 million cars…….
Back when GM had the guts to challenge the norm. It was GM that killed the Corvair not Nader. Instead of challenging him on the facts and proving him wrong they went after the man himself creating negative press for the self and the Corvair. Big cooperation vs small writer.
The Mustang killed the Corvair, which is turn of fate because the Corvair also created the Mustang…
the decision had been made to fund the F-car right after the 1965 2nd gen was released for production in 1964, even before “Unsafe” came out.
Incorrect about the mustang “killing” the corvair. GM’s plan was to cease corvairs production in ’66 but they extended it because it was still selling okay, and to thumb their noses at Ralph’s book.
Sorry Charlie, the F body was already in development and ready to launch in 1966, the Corvair was already a dead duck and yes the Corvair did kill the Mustang.
Corvair sales pre Mustang-
1963-288,419
1964-215,300
(peak Corvair was 1961 with 337,331 made)
Year of the Mustang
1965-247,092
Post Mustang
1966-109,880
1967-27,253
By 1966 Ford had made the millionth Mustang and Camaro was introduced summer 1966 and went on sale Sept 1966.
Congrats you can look up sales numbers, and read about “what was in development” according to press releases. You probably believe that the ’70 chevelle LS6 only had some 400 odd HP too lol.
You can do almost anything to any car…once.
I had a 1963 Corvair Monza that my sister put up on a guardrail, my brother spun out in a park and ended in the grass(didn’t know about that one) and I bounced it off two trees and through a cyclone fence. The early Corvair’s rear suspension was deadly. Took my grandfather 56 Chevy the next night through the same turn with no issue. I had come over a rise and into an immediate left turn and the right rear tire tucked in under the car and away I went. Shame that reputation carried on after they fixed it in 64.
When I was in High School in 66 ,I bought used 62 Corvair for $200 dollars ! I drove the Corvair all over town and out in the country Rds. I chased Jack Rabbit out in the open fills ,made all kind of sudden turns and went though ditch ‘s with out bit of trouble ! The only problem I had with my Corvair was that it leaked oil a lot . that is the reason ,I bought it chip !
Hey Charlie, you don’t drive an early model Corvair the same way you drive your gran’ pappys ’56 Chevy. If you knew how to drive the ‘vair properly you wouldn’t have wrecked it. Also, there is no way that you drove the 56 exactly the same way as you did when you wrecked the corvair. Unless you have absolutely no impulse control, your brain wouldn’t have let you take that stretch of road the same as the last time you took it and crashed. The EM (early model 1960-1964*) suspension was not deadly, if you knew what you were doing, AND had the tires at the correct air pressure. Yes I know that sounds piddling, but just a few pounds too much pressure in the front tires can completely change the way the vehicle handles. It bugs me when people make statement like “that vehicles suspension is deadly” when 9 times out of 10 it was operator error. It’s a shame that the internet gives people like this a voice that others can hear, when they clearly dont know better.
A friend of mine had a dark green 2 door Corvair,(don’t remember what year it was),that car had the nicest, smoothest ride! And it was so comfortable.
If done right the Corvair and all of it Varieties (sedans ,coupes,convertibles wagons ,vans and pickups.) could still be competitive today with Morden day upgrades. There were flaws that could have been easily fixed. The problems they had were not nearly as bad as Nader claimed. Instead of fighting to prove Nader wrong and correcting the problems the Corvair did have GM chose to go after Nader with a smear campaign. By the way they did eventually address some of the problems just not all of them and not soon enough. Just imagine a morden daY flat six with overhead cams and direct injection that don’t leak oil in such a variate of vehicles. Chevrolet would still be the king of the hill.