With news abound about the Corvette and Camaro ZL1 besting some of the world’s greatest imports and exotics, it’s only fitting that we dive into the storied and lengthy history of these two American greats. The story begins with a grandfather of American muscle: The Chevy Corvair.
Many think the 1953 debut of the polo white Corvette was what laid the inspiration for the modern two-door Chevy supercars we know today. They’d be wrong. No, it was the 1954 Chevy Corvette Corvair Concept that spurred the original design of the fastback Corvette now dominating race tracks.
The original Corvair did use the Corvette’s original front end, though it sported ribbed air intakes on the hood which, contrary to so many other design elements on sports at the time, were actually functional. They fed air to the engine to keep things cool. A wrap-around windshield and an aircraft-inspired roof swept all the way back to the registration plate, which too was inspired by the exhaust ports found on jet fighters.
There was no storage behind the seats in the cabin, and the trunk area used a contoured decklid panel that met the roofline seamlessly. To be sure, the ’54 Corvair Concept was perhaps the most streamlined, “supercar-esque” vehicle developed in the states at the time.
The actual Corvette developed as a convertible with a 4.3L sold slowly, and a proper Corvette fastback in true name did not arrive until nearly a decade later – much after the Corvair took root as a mainstay at Chevy. In fact, it wasn’t even a Corvette that boasted a rear-engine configuration. That title was won by the 1960 Corvair, and it is this futuristic, exotic powerplant that is said to have helped inspire the mid-engine Corvette being unveiled today.
But was the Corvair a success in its own right? Well, no. Simply put, Ralph Nader himself despised the vehicle so much he wrote a book lovingly titled, Unsafe at Any Speed. To be fair, the rear engine configuration was of poor design. A disastrous “swing axle” caused the Corvair to quite literally bounce and occasionally leave the pavement when it would hit large potholes or road obstacles. The swing axle inexplicably ditched conventional u-joints and mated the wheels and hubs directly to the axle, while the axle itself would pivot against the rear differential.
This eccentric design provided no performance benefit by any measure, and although on paper the design was said to improve cornering, many wonder why Chevy developed the swing axle in the first place. The rear engine displacement also caused the vehicle’s front end and steering to be unstable. No anti-roll bar was included in the front suspension, exacerbating the problem. These combinations of driving characteristics made the Corvair a dangerous vehicle to handle, even in tempered conditions.
Ultimately, legal fallout – the result of too many crashes and pending lawsuits – caused the demise of the Chevy Corvair. Production ceased in 1969, just ten years after the first production vehicles rolled off the line.
So, in the end, the Corvair was a dud. It never hosted a proper V8, handling was poor, and it was killed in court. But its spirit and inspiration live on. The Corvair laid the groundwork for developing the modern Corvette being unveiled soon, and one can even spy styling elements hidden within the Camaro, spurred by the Corvair. Independent rear suspension with MagneRide handling (which conceptually accomplishes the task the swing axle was intended to accomplish), a mid-engine configuration, and of course, that classic swept and streamlined cockpit-to-tail bodywork are all thanks to the Corvair’s original concept and its short run of production.
