At first glance, you would say the seller’s car looks like a customized 2nd generation Chevrolet Corvair. And you would be correct, except that it was built by Solar Automotive in the early 1970s. After buying up the leftover inventory of John Fitch’s Sprint of the late 1960s, Solar went one step further by retrofitting them with V8 engines. This Solar Cavalier is based on a 1965 Corvair and has a 327 cubic inch V8 (not installed). Located in a garage in Danielsville, Pennsylvania, this rare oddball is available here on Facebook Marketplace for $4.000. A shoutout goes to Barn Finder Gary for this nifty tip!
Race car driver John Fitch cooked up the Fitch Sprint in the 1960s to compete (on a smaller scale) with GT cars out of Europe. They were built on available Chevy Corvairs and usually involved tricking out the Corvair’s air-cooled engine. When that effort went bust, along came Solar Automotive and its owner Art Herschberger, who took Fitch’s extras and went the V8 instead, resulting in 42 assemblies at most.
The Solar Cavalier kept the “Astroroof” that Fitch developed (a tunnel back like on the Dodge Charger). Camaro taillights were embedded, and changes were made to the headlights, with the rest of the car retaining its Corvair looks. This Cavalier may have been assembled in 1971, and some of the 42 were factory builds while others were kits. This one may be the former and is said to be car #1 out of the bunch.
We’re told the seller has documentation that includes material provided by Solar’s owner. It was featured in at least one magazine article and has a 4-speed manual transmission. The 327 V8 isn’t pictured but comes with the deal, with no reference as to its mechanical health. The body is in fair shape while the interior has fared better, with perhaps newer upholstery. If you’re a fan of the Chevy Corvair and wouldn’t mind a customized project, here you go!
Did they put the 327 in the back or mod the front? Was it also air cooled? Google here I come again.
The pictures of the magazine article show the engine right behind the drivers seat. You can see the cover is still with the car in a couple pictures. That is something I would have clearly, shown. I’d want to make sure all custom/fabricated parts for installation and needed to transmit power to the rear differential are with the car and complete.
Steve R
If I could scrounge the parts I’d use a a Crown mid engine set up:
https://dailyturismo.com/mid-engine-crown-conversion-1965-chevrolet-corvair-v8/
Kinda like those Camaro tail lights too.
In 1970 my cousin built a mid engine 66 Corvair using the Crown kit. The kit was pretty neat coming with a subframe to add to the back seat area and a bellhousing adapter to mate a small block to the stock Corvair transaxle, but not much else. Cooling, firewall, and other details were left up to the builder. You had to flip the transaxle over to mate it to the engine, which unfortunately put the V8 pretty far forward in the interior. The only drawback I remember was the kit needed rocker area subframe connectors. The weight of the engine caused the body to sag or flex enough that the top of the doors would touch the top of the lock pillars.
My cousin used a brand new 70 LT-1 crate motor, and painted the Corvair a typical early 70’s green metal flake with gold lace SS stripes (again, it was the early 70’s). With the mid mounted V8 that thing handled amazingly. After playing with it for a few years he sold around 75. We stumbled across about 15 years later sitting beside a gas station near Asbury Park. It was for sale, but it was in pretty rough shape having sat outside for years, and the LT-1 had been replaced with a tired 350 truck engine.
It has to be in the back. It would fit there.
It has to be in the back. It would fit there. If you weren’t concerned about originality you could buy a 1999 Oldsmobile Aurora cheaply and use the aluminum block 250 hp Cadillac V-8 which was the factory set-up. It might fit easier. The Corvair was so light the Cadillac V-8 from the Aurora would be perfect.
Front or back is a good question. This is an all around great bit of information. Thanks.
When I saw “Solar” in the heading,I assumed this was converted
to an electric vehicle.
Glads I was wrong.
There actually Was an electric Corvair test mule but it suffered from the extra 700 some odd pounds of extra weight from the battery trays:
https://www.mobilityengineeringtech.com/component/content/article/49349-sae-ma-07254
What a great article North End, thanks!!!
The car is sold and now heading to w Lebanon, New Hampshire. I was its keeper since 2007.
Cool, maybe I’ll see it at some of the northern New England shows next summer!
Sold!
Maybe not sold? On the listing:
“I accidentally hit the button that marked the car as sold. It is not sold. Thanks”
@gbvette62 The Crown system did not flip the transaxle, it drove through the front of the transmission via a crown-supplied input shaft. The
Kelmark system Did flip the transaxle, and ran the ring and pinion gears backwards, a bit of a drawback for strength and longevity. Kelmark produced some bespoke R&P sets with the correct spiral/bevel to the gears, but IIRC, they had issues with proper heat treating and were prone to high wear rates.
Note that the two different setups had advantages and disadvantages. The Crown was generally stronger, but sacrificed precious distance with a more forward engine placement. The Kelmark allowed more seat room, but wasn’t as capable of handling the power of the V8.
@ Russ
The roof looks more like the AMC AMX than the Dodge Charger. IMO
Maybe still available. He says he hit the “SOLD” button by mistake.
People, start Googling the different V8 builds. There is a lot of mis-information above. I’ll try to provide a little clarity. The Crown kit does NOT flip the transaxle. It remains in the stock location with a conventional Saginaw 4 spd input shaft installed in it.
Another kit is the Kelmark/Mid-engineering kit. It does turn the transaxle around so the stock type input shaft (lengthened) points forward. It does move the V8 back a little but it’s weak point is that it turns the ring and pinion backwards. There also have been many other variations of the build using Porsche transaxles and even Getrag. Check out the V8registry.com for more info and examples.
Doesn’t seem to be any mention of the Olds V8 twin turbo featured in the 1978 Hot Rod annual(which was Kelmark inspired) there.
Here is a 1968 Solar Cavalier on Barn Finds back in 2017;
https://barnfinds.com/vairy-unusual-custom-1968-solar-cavalier/
Definitely not a mid-engine V-8.
If I were 10 years younger I’d be tempted to. Would look good parked next to my 65 Monza, and not too far away.
Hi all. The car is definitely sold and is heading to W Lebanon, New Hampshire. I accidentally hit the sold button while answering messages during the listing. The man that bought the car is an avid car guy, 54 years old and has the first car that he is owned since he was 14. He knew a lot of history about the car when he showed up to my home to look at the car. I am the one that spoke to art Hershberger before he passed away. And I had a ton of documentation on the car along with NOS Cavalier emblems.