The Corvair was Chevrolet’s first foray into the compact car space. They took an unorthodox path in emulating the VW Beetle by designing a vehicle with an air-cooled, rear-mounted engine. The auto was in production from 1960 to 1969, but later sales were hampered by safety concerns. This 1965 edition, likely a Monza, looks good overall (yet not perfect), but won’t start, though the seller has tried. Located in Sacramento, California, this temperamental project seems to be reasonably priced at $4,500 OBO here on Facebook Marketplace.
In 1965, the Corvair was treated to its one and only major restyle. It was attractively done, and Chevy had already addressed concerns raised by Ralph Nader in his book, Unsafe at Any Speed. But the damage to the Corvair’s image was already done, and sales declined to a trickle by 1969 when only 6,000 ‘Vairs were built before Chevy threw in the towel. A friend of mine had a ’65 Corvair, and it was a fun little car to put through its paces.
The seller presents this Chevy as a “mechanic’s special.” That’s because it cranks but does not start. He/she thinks fuel may not be getting to the carburetor (bad fuel pump?), so maybe the fix won’t be Herculean. The listing says the car has an automatic transmission, but the floor shifter suggests it’s a 4-speed. Also, the listing says 2,300 miles, but I’m betting the odometer has been around.
We’re told the dark blue paint (looks more like black) is good with some surface rust upon close inspection. The black interior seems tidy enough after 60 years (except the driver’s seat?). The black wheels and the absence of wheel covers give the Corvair something of a bad boy look. If this car can get back on the road with a minimum of effort, this could be a great cheap wheels classic. Thanks for another winning tip, Mitchell G.!
It appears to have a turbo on it. It probably will sell quickly at that price.
Looks like it has the Corsa dash but no Corsa badges. If it is, that could be the 180hp motor they came with. Except this has an aftermarket carb on it. Ad says “pending”.
It looks like it does have a Corsa badge on the driver’s quarter; it would be interesting to see the body tag to see if it’s a real one, but of course it doesn’t matter all that much. Looks like a decent car, especially for the price.
Is that can of cashews there to keep the rodents sustained? How Doctor Doolittle.
That’s a 65 Corsa Turbo. Has the Corsa interior and gauges. Has the wrong carburetor. Way too much for the turbo to run correctly. The Corvair differs from the Oldsmobile Rockette turbo set up. The Olds engineers used a waste gate to control boost. The Chevrolet engineers restricted the intake with the size of the carb. $4500 looks to be a good deal and as of this comment it’s pending sale.
Ralph probably did some dame to the Corvair reputation but it was GM’ s response to the published book that increased publicity. Also GM stalking Ralph and trying to discredit him earned them a lawsuit. GM spent money to have an independent laboratory investigate the handing issue and GM was vindicated in the early 70’s that the vehicle was no worse than others of the period.
Finally GM had internal plans to cancel the Corvair after the 66 model year when it was decided the best competitive product to combat Mustang sales was the Camaro/Firebird. Additionally Americans didn’t warm up to the rear engine philosophy and preferred conventional drivetrains. They continued to produce the Corvair till spring of 69 because of the Ralph book to save face.
Of course in typical political fashion, Ralph helped himself by buying a load of Ford stock during that time, too.
all Corsas had turbo engines.
The standard engine in the Corsa was the four-carb 140-horsepower 164.
I think the push towards emissions in the mid-60’s warmed up the coffin nails for the flat-6. GM didn’t seem to have a strategy for that motor past the Corvair.
The strategy for the car was a flat, 6 liquid cooled, beyond 1969 mainly because the high combustion chamber temperatures in an air cooled engine caused high NOX emissions. But, the damage was already done.
Black steelies make any old car look 37.3% better :| Love Corvairs,my Dad’s friend Al had a turbo Monza that was “fiddled with” he’d pop by on occasion when i was a kid and when he took off it screamed like a banshee.So from that day forward have always loved Corvairs.
Was that somewhere in Illinois?
First learned to drive in mom’s aqua blue ’63 Corvair…but the fan belt kept popping off at inappropriate times …so finally the old man had enough of getting a phone call to come to fix it…and soon it was traded in for a ’67 Opel Rallye Kadett and off we went once again…pretty sure Ralph Nader never had a Corvair in his garage either.
Hi Jeff, I believe there was a fix for that. An additional idler pulley prevented that unfortunate incident. When the belt went, so did the cooling.
The way that belt ran, the way it twisted around the pulleys, was a miracle it worked at all. I wonder how many people fried their engines driving the car home after it tossed the belt?
Don’t have experience personally, but I have read that the belt has to be adjusted exactly to spec – too tight or too loose and it will depart the pullies.
There were multiple modifications for that, but the best way was a Gates 8331 belt that was properly adjusted.
The floor shift disguised as a manual is the anti theft divice
Yeah, and it’s got a dummy clutch pedal to boot!
BR-60-13 tires(!) how long has it been since the last time This Corvair has been on the road (?!) pretty cool it looks to be a four-speed turbo Corsa :)
I thought the 2nd gen Corvair was an awesome car. I don’t have many praises for the original, except it was a good car. Many didn’t like it, went agin everything our fathers held dear. Perhaps just calling the 2nd gen “Corvair” hurt sales. I always wondered what Europeans thought of the Corvair? As unconventional as it was for us, it had many features found on European cars, at a fraction of the cost, I might add. Didn’t matter, Americans like my old man were hard to sway, and the poor Corvair didn’t have a chance.
This car is really sharp, it’s “California compliant” with the “Wutang War Whistle”( turbo) I could do without. I think that spare tire may indicate its performance and toned some some, be a great ride.
Wutang War Whistle lol 😅
The Corvair actually sold quite well in Europe…
Also, Porsche basically stole the IP by copying the Corvair’s engine design for the 911. Porsche could not figure out how to keep the center cylinder in each bank cool on the flat 6 (the 356s all 4 cylinder like the VW).
When I sell one of cars in the garage the next to occupy a parking spot will be a ‘65 or ‘66 Corsa Turbo.
There were some that were sent as “kits” to Europe and assembled there.
I love the late model Corvair. I have a ’67 Monza in my garage. I’ll restore it if I live long enough.
A Corvair has never been very high on the old “wish I had one” list, but I have to admit that this one sort of strikes my fancy. Pretty darn attractive car. For someone that has a yearnin’ for a Corvair, they could certainly do worse than this one.
The second generation Corvair is such a good looking car. As modern as anything on the road at the time. The dk blue with the black steel wheels give it a more contemporary vibe. This seller must read BF as they took great care to make a non running car look ready for delivery.
My mother had a ’64 Monza – small engine and powerglide. It wasn’t a bad car – dependable and good in NH snows. I borrowed it several times – once in a cold February to visit my then girlfriend in Providence. The car had leaking pushrod tubes and a fresh-air heater, so the car would fill with choking smoke. My mother only took short trips, so she wouldn’t spend $$ to fix it. I spent the night with her and reported back that I was too sick from the smoke to drive home. After that, my parents got the leaks quickly repaired.
Really good cars, yes that carburetor is a bit larger than the stocker. I have owned maybe 6 or 7 of these amazing cars. So where are the Vair people here. My last one was a 66 Monza body and transaxle ( they had the big Muncie gear set) with a 65 turbo in the engine. Chevy was pretty slick with the engines. 140 had large valves and bigger bump stick and higher compression. 110 and 180 were similar but valves were made to operate with higher temp. Same rotating assy oil pump etc. So swap heads and don’t forget that magic distributor that retards timing under boost and that’s basically their magic. Now add some oil for cooling, seal up the oil leaks and your golden! On a roll that Corviar would show a 5.0 a thing or two. Yeah had a high flow air cleaner and a glass pack muffler. Car would scat, my oldest daughter learning to drive it was fun times.
The turbo head had a different combustion chamber shape. The step that the 110 and 95 heads had was not there. The turbo head was a dish so there weren’t any hot spots that would cause detonation under boost.
What would be more fun than the turbo; except a 455 Olds Toronado/transaxle conversion. Always wanted a water pumper Monza!
Or a small block Chevy in the back seat.
About the best carburetion for a Vair turbo is a side draft Weber. They original Carter YH was the same carb used on the 53 and 54 Corvette. They were a little too quirky. Clark’s may still carry that conversion.
I am glad to see someone else mention the real safety issue with the Corvair that Nader completely missed in his book. I had a 64 Monza 110 hp / 4 spd as my first car. Purchased from a neighbor down the street for $300. My second Corvair was a 67 Monza 110 hp Poweglide. I bought the 67 from a seriously dishonest used car lot. It had leaking pushrod o-rings driving off the lot. I bought several Corvair specialty products from IECO in CA including hi-temp o-rings, larger capacity aluminum oil pan and a set of tube headers. Working on install of the headers, I realized that if you had a cracked exhaust manifold gasket ( 3 individual circular style per side) you would have carbon monoxide entering the passenger compartment when running the ventilation for heat. If you had the oil leak on the seals, you would also have that odor and film cost the windshield. Living in PA, corrosion was a major problem. Most GM products in the mid 60’s had the windshield channel corrosion problem as I discovered with the 67. In spite of all that, I really liked the way the 67 drove (Radials did wonders for handling) and the sound with headers was unique.
You really didn’t have to worry about those donuts, between the manifold and the exhaust tube from the cylinder head, cracking. In the hundreds of Vair engines I’ve worked on, I’ve never seen that once. For that matter, if you wanted to replace them, they are a real bear to remove. An extremely sturdy exhaust packing.
Second gen Corvairs are one of the best visual designs from GM. I have two 1965 Crown Corvairs, 283 & a 327. 50/50 distribution makes these very fun cars. My 65 Corsa runs IDA 40 Webers and kicks out 250 thrilling HP. These are great cars and still very affordable for just about anyone.
growing up there was a grass covered “driveway” in our backyard and I remember a brown corvair station wagon sitting back there derelict. it was gone before I was a teenager though, wish I had been older before it was removed.
I often say I was born just a bit too late as all the cars I really liked were either already used up or way to expensive.
sold.