{"id":2850,"date":"2009-07-22T02:37:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-22T06:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2009\/07\/blowin-in-wind\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:00:56","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:00:56","slug":"blowin-in-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2009\/07\/blowin-in-wind\/","title":{"rendered":"Blowin’ in the Wind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chevy<\/a><\/p>\n

Ed Cole had a different idea. While competitors Ford and Chrysler were developing conventional compact cars in the late 1950s, Chevrolet general manager Cole<\/a> instead channeled from Volkswagen. Instead of a front-engine, rear-drive water-cooled car, Chevrolet would build a rear-engine<\/a> air-cooled design, but in keeping with American mores it would have six cylinders, not four. Thus was born the Corvair, introduced in October 1959.<\/p>\n

There were just two body styles, a plain but modern sedan<\/a> with GM’s panoramic rear window, and a close-coupled coupe<\/a>. The engine<\/a> was a horizontally-opposed “boxer” six of 140 cubic inches and 80 bhp. Transmissions were three-speed manual or a version of Chevy’s sturdy two-speed Powerglide. In the front was a fairly generous cargo space<\/a>, although the spare tire<\/a> intruded somewhat. Heating is notoriously difficult in air-cooled cars, so the Corvair used a gasoline-fired system<\/a>. While sales could be described as decent, at barely 250,000 they were no match for Ford’s Falcon<\/a> (435,676) and only modestly surpassed Chrysler Corporation’s Valiant<\/a> (194,292). Cole, however, stole a page from Porsche’s book with the Monza coupe, a tastefully-trimmed coupe with sporty appointments. It sold nearly 12,000 units, despite a late introduction.<\/p>\n

For 1961<\/a>, Corvair struck out in more directions. There was a new Lakewood station wagon<\/a>, with a cargo deck over the engine, and a Greenbrier<\/a> van-wagon that emulated the VW Microbus<\/a>. In addition, a rampside pickup<\/a> version of the Greenbrier was offered. Despite all this, the Monza coupe<\/a>, with nearly 110,000 cars, outsold all other models. In 1962<\/a>, the Monza<\/a> was spiffed up with additional trim and sales topped 200,000. By this time, Chevy had a real Falcon and Valiant competitor, the entirely conventional front-engine, water-cooled Chevy II<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 1963 line<\/a> continued two late-1962 introductions, the Spyder<\/a>, with a turbocharged<\/a> engine<\/a> making 150 bhp, and a convertible<\/a> that was available with or without the Spyder engine (children, please do not jump<\/a> from the car when it is in motion. The 1964 line offered yet another subtle trim variation<\/a>, but the Corvair was about to become a folk celebrity, courtesy of a young lawyer<\/a> from Winsted, Connecticut.<\/p>\n

While first generation Corvairs are certainly collectible, derelict examples are not hard to find. The one heading this feature<\/a> sits outside a restaurant<\/a> in Preston, Connecticut. Devoid<\/a> of all its trim, it’s difficult to date. Dennis David, the CarPort’s northwest Connecticut scout, reports that his territory is rife with crumbling<\/a> Corvairs<\/a> in need of salvation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed Cole had a different idea. While competitors Ford and Chrysler were developing conventional compact cars in the late 1950s, Chevrolet general manager Cole instead channeled from Volkswagen. Instead of a front-engine, rear-drive water-cooled car, Chevrolet would build a rear-engine air-cooled design, but in keeping with American mores it would have six cylinders, not four.….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2850"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3224,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850\/revisions\/3224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}