Retroautos. How the 1960 Corvair elected George W Bush. All images copyright GM Media RETROAUTOS November 2013 ISSN

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1 All images copyright GM Media 2013 How the 1960 Corvair elected George W Bush

2 You might think that the Model T Ford is the most influential car ever produced in the USA, but I disagree. My pick is the Chevrolet Corvair. Chevrolet released the Corvair in late With its engine made out of aluminium, cooled by air and mounted in the rear, this was a different American car by any measure. Its driving force was Mr Ed Cole, soon to be president of all of General Motors, but in 1959, he was the general manager of Chevrolet. The Corvair was GM s answer to the rising tide of imported small cars. Ford and Chrysler went with conventional driveline layout for their compacts, Falcon and Valiant, but Cole, the engineer, wanted to go radical. He reasoned that an air cooled engine eliminated all of the complexity, costs and weight of cooling systems. A rear mounted engine also meant no drivelines, saving even more weight and costs. And, of course, there were those swing rear axles, with no stabiliser bars. So Ed and his team spent a considerable sum of money, largely in secret, to develop a six cylinder air cooled engine that they believed would appeal to American buyers. They first tested the idea in a modified Porsche. Once that proved a success they developed a series of test mules to better understand the dynamics of such a large rear engined car. To throw everyone off the scent, even within General Motors (GM), Cole decided to disguise the project as a development program for Holden in Australia. He went to great lengths to establish the Holden deception. even using Holden stationery, letterheads and forms with Holden logos on them for all of the paperwork. Components

3 Above: The Chevy flat six in the Porsche test car. Below: The Vauxhall Victor being given a rear engine. developed for the project carried Holden parts numbers. Even the styling of the Corvair was done in the international styling studio at GM headquarters, not in the Chevrolet studio. The first running prototype was tested in at GM s Arizona track in the northern spring of 1958.Still badged as a Holden it used the FE and FC chrome work and side sweep spears.a Holden steering wheel and hub caps completed the disguise. polarised opinion. The Vauxhall name also was used to camouflage the Corvair, with a lengthened Vauxhall Victor, with the Corvair engine stuffed in the boot, being used as a second test mule. Chevrolet unveiled the new car mid 1959, and it immediately polarised opinion. Even so, GM sold over 300,000 Corvairs in the first year, which was a sensational start for any new model. But soon the stories of accidents started to spread. And you know the whole sad story for there on, which can be summed up in three words: Oversteer. Crashes. Injuries. In November 1965 an unassuming Washington lawyer. Ralph Nader, who d been working for a Senate subcommittee, published his book Unsafe at Any Speed. Only the first chapter was about the Corvair and the accidents and injuries it was claimed it have caused.

4 Above and below: Building the first test Corvair by hand. but that was enough for it all to unravel for Ed Cole and GM. By early 1966 the lawsuits had really started to roll into GM, and politicians had started to take notice. During 1967 the political pressure was so great that the US congress started to pass laws regulating automobile design and safety standards. And so the great consumer protection regulatory reforms began in the US, covering many industries and products. That regulatory tsunami swept around the world. Quite simply, the Corvair changed consumer laws on a global scale. The burden of proof on accidental injuries caused by faulty products now fell on those who made and marketed those products. Meanwhile, Nader had become a global celebrity, his name synonymous with consumer protection. In the year 2000, a 66 year old Nader decided to run for President of the USA against then Vice President Al Gore and Republican nominee George W Bush. Nader received nearly 95,000 votes in Florida, which George W Bush won by less than 2000 votes. It was Florida which kept Al Gore out of the White House. Perhaps, had not Nader been on the ballot it is possible that many of those 95,000 votes would have gone to Gore. And if it had not been for the Corvair, Nader might have been just one of many unknown names on the ballot. You might say, the Covair legacy elected George W Bush.

5 Above and below: The test car with Holden insignias.

6 Above : The front compartment of the test car. Below: Checking the engine. Left: The bare-bones interior of the test car.

7 Tortional strength testing shows the deficiencies of the rear swing axle suspension. Had Chevrolet heeded the early signs, maybe the Corvair would have been a mammoth success.

8 Fisher Body engineers constructing the first Corvair

9 The first body in white is painted and mated to the engine.

10 Ed Cole, all smiles, in 1959.

11 The Corvair styling also influenced others across the world. Designed by Ned Nickles and Carl Renner it was the high and definitive beltline which was the inspiration for many cars in the 1960s, including the Fiat 1300/1500, NSU, Mazda 800, BMW 1600/2002, the French built Panhard and the Hillman Imp. Today, Corvairs are gaining more attention as classic car collectors search for something beyond a Mustang or a Chevrolet. The hot items are the 1962 two door Monza Spyder coupes and convertibles with the turbochargers. They churn out a spritely 110kw from only 2.4 litre six cylinder engines. Prices in the USA now top $20,000. In Australia, the Corvairs have a small but dedicated following. It is estimated there are less than 20 in the country.