As GM Authority reported way back in January 2023, General Motors filed to trademark “National Corvair Museum” with the intent on renaming the Corvair Preservation Foundation Museum in Illinois. Now, the rebranded facility is looking for funding to construct a new building for the museum.
Labeled as a capital campaign, this proposed building would provide accommodations for donated vehicles, engine displays, historical artifacts, and production-related archives. At present, the current museum is a rented space, and isn’t large enough to display all the collections. For those interested in supporting this effort, be sure to contact Carl Jones at [email protected] for further details and how to submit a donation.
It’s worth noting that the organization is also open to acquiring an existing building and modifying it to suit its needs.
For reference on the current museum, the facility first opened its doors in 2016 and contains a wide array of Chevy Corvair models, trucks, and powertrain displays, as well as related memorabilia. The museum also added to the Route 66 Historic Traveler’s Tour Guide, making it appeal to more folks outside of Corvair fans and enthusiasts.
“It is with great joy and genuine excitement that we announce the official new name of our ‘National Corvair Museum’, which has just been approved by General Motors,” Corvair Preservation Foundation President and Museum Curator Mike Hall claimed earlier this year. “We look forward to a long and productive partnership with General Motors as Corvair will now have a national home for its display of historical vehicles, engines, artifacts as well as containing an archive for the history of this air-cooled wonder.”
Of course, the Chevy Corvair itself was quite the interesting vehicle back in its day. Spanning two generations across the 1960 and 1969 model years, the Corvair remains the sole American-designed, mass-produced passenger car that featured an air-cooled, rear-mounted engine, and was available in a range of different body styles, including a four-door sedan, two-door coupe, convertible, pickup truck, and even a van.
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Comments
I really appreciate that GM was so dominant and influential in the 1950s and 1960s that they could invest the resources to develop strange birds like the Corvair and other cool cars like that. Hopefully with this Ultium thing they’ll be able to sculpt amazing vehicles like the 66 Corsa.
Disclaimer: I love Corvairs, especially second-gens. The Corvair happened at a time of mighty GM innovation actually becoming available to the general public. There is a distinct lack of this ability for “gm” to follow through on delivering (albeit questionable amid valid buyer disinterest) with their Ultium BS in this day and age.
That was the day and age in which GM and many other companies invested back into the company with R & D instead of grotesque CEO pay and stock buybacks.
The story is somewhat vague just saying the present museum is in Illinois. I believe it is in Springfield but do not know if
that is where they hope to expand and/or build a new structure.
had a 65 monza 140 hp 4speed in high school 1980 fun to drive in the back country roads, great gas mileage , nice hum of the factory dual exhaust corvair monza. Started the bucket seat trend in 1960 61 and other brands copied it ,early adopters of 4 speed one the first turbo s , sold lot of them 61-63 til the 64.5 mustang stole the sales 65 late model still look great today to be 17 again
It’s funny I drag raced a 1964 in 1964 and won 12 trophies in the summer at Oswego Drag strip in Il. that doesn’t come close to how much I made running on the street 283’s and smaller were easy to beat and paid well.
It was a shame that GM didn’t have a rear sway bar on the 60′ Corvair as was originally designed. The approximately $14.00 cost cutting move was a killer to the Corvairs reputation. It would have been interesting to see where the Corvair would have evolved and developed into long term. Great looks, low cost and great gas mileage.
Probably for the last 100 years, every auto manufacturer’s biggest enemy hasn’t been its competition, it’s been its own purchasing department. Some pencil pusher decided they needed to be a hero and vetoed the idea of the rear sway bar on the first gen cars and the results were disastrous. Panned horribly for poor handling, snap and often fatal oversteer, GM was almost shamed into putting in a fix that no doubt cost nearly as much as the original bar would have. There doesn’t seem to be a way to measure the cost of all of the bad publicity that such moronic actions produce, but you can bet that the pencil pusher in purchasing was totally insulated from any repercussions of the decision.
i had i think it was 1964 corvair four door sedan .and i loved it .my wife and my three children went on vacation three years in a row in the northern part of new york state it even went up white face mountain like it was nothing .apparently GM listened to Ralph Nader that didn.t know anything about cars .he kept it up about no matter what or where it was unsafe to drive and GM quit makeing them .well make take on that is that car was just as safe as a lot of these small cars that.s on the road today .GM has made several small cars that nice and okay and they quit makeing them . JELLY
Just curious, does this Corsair museum have to be in the mid west or back east area or can it be located say in Southern California where we too love the little Corvair’s too! Seen them cruising around SoCal and even seen both Jay Leno and Tim Allen driving their Corvair’s around The SF Valley a few times! Lots of nice original (no rust) Corvair’s still driven, some of these cars were made local at the GM Assembly Plant in Los Angeles up until 1966 When they converted the plant over to the up and coming ‘67 Camaro at that plant and while working there got to see them coming off the Van Nuys plant line along with the bigger B Body Chevy’s…quite the site back in the day , two very different model of Chevys being made on the same line!
Oh well, just a thought…I know it would cost more to put up a museum here in SoCal but I betcha folks would still pay money to see a well run Corvair Museum loaded with every model made from ‘60 to ‘69! I’d sure love one here!
Please built it or relocate to central part of America so as many of us can travel by car to view the great Corvair! PLEASE NOT on west coast, nothing good about WOKE California. Many of will NEVER go there for any reason!
Can you describe or define WOKE?
Not sure how “Woke” politics got into this forum, I was simply asking about a possible California Museum for Corvair’s (of which I’ve had two over the years, a 1962 Monza sedan and a 1965 Corsa Coupe) and have a lot of respect for these amazing vehicles and simply stated that there were Corvair’s made in Southen California back in the 1960’s at the Van Nuys Plant, and someone had to state their discourse with the State thinking that everyone who lives here practices “Woke-ism” as a third religion! Please, no politics in this forum lets just stick to what we all enjoy talking about in an automotive vane and I believe we’ll keep this forum moving in the correct direction being able to discuss our adult thoughts about various things brought up on this wonderful site. “Nuff said, long live the Corvair, it’s past and curent owners and those who admire this amazing and unique GM Icon from the 1960’s.
Thank you Rick, well said.
My first car was a used Corvair. I got immersed in the Corvair community and enjoyed it for quite a while.
Then came a Chevelle and a whole new world for me. But I will never forget that Corvair, loved that car.
Never understood how the Corvair Museum moved out of Ypsilanti Michigan in the first place. Ypsi was the home of Corvair Production at Willow Run.
It is now September 2024. Has there been any movement on a new building to house the museum. Now that the Corporation has usurped the name of the Corvair Museum, are they volunteering to donate one of their old Pontiac, Oldsmobile or Saturn facilities to house the museum? Just a thought.
What is the latest news on the acquisition or purchase of a new building in which to set up shop, so to speak?
In 1959, I believe the net cost to the assembly division for the Corvair rear sway bar was $13.14 each. The bad decision to eliminate that component from the rear suspension ended up being a fatal blow to kill what I always felt was a great platform. It was Ed Cole’s gold star to his legacy along with the small block motor.