Minneapolis Street Sighting: Chevrolet Corvair "gasser"

Since the introduction of my blogging career, I have let my reader-base know what my favorite cars are; the obvious British cars, and German cars, but I do like a select few American vehicles as well, particular from the 1950s and 1960s. I've always liked the later Corvairs, but the early ones need some getting used to--for me anyway.
Equipped with a rear-engine,rear-wheel-drive setup coupled with an iffy suspension, handling was compromised at best. So, this owner tried another type of compromised suspension setup--the "gasser" look. Gassers are throwbacks to a era when drag cars relied on straight angles, and ridiculous stance to deal with weight transfer to prevent "squatting" and bad launches. On the street, the idea of driving a gasser is all but pointless. So, rather than making his Corvair handle better, he probably made it handle worse.








Aside from the iffy build quality of the thing, (it has manual steering, no front brakes, and rear drums) it appears to be..well.. not quite hacked together.. but almost. The paint has what little patina a half-assed barn find can have, and the chrome is in fair shape. I'd almost say if it wasn't for the stupendously dumb gasser setup--no, I will say that if not for the way it was set up, I'd like it more.
Inside, it remains mostly stock, with the exception of rather uncomfy looking seats. At least the factory steering wheel and trim was left untouched.
I hate gassers with a fiery passion, and given my new-found interest in Corvairs.. this one just pisses me off. I had to refrain from bitching at the owner. At least he seemed to be a nice guy, and cared enough to park and let me get a full shoot. Sorry, man, a nice owner does not a sweet car make.

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Chrevrolet Corvair convertible

I know I recently posted a similar Corvair; as of late, these cars have been become my latest automotive obsession; as a casual observer of most GMs, I never really paid these little cars any attention until recently. While I am not quite a fan of the first generation cars, the second generation fixed everything I didn't like about the first. The tapered rear fascia, and more aerodynamic front fascia take away all the chrome excess that seemed, quite frankly, out of place. Gone are the chunky, off-balance lines of the the front fascia that made the first generation have the appearance of a pre-wrecked vehicle. While some may argue that the later cars almost look European, I counter with, "so what?" The styling is much cleaner, and the details are executed far better than those of the first generation car.
Usually, I give a car a good once over before I begin to shoot it; this Corvair was no exception. Parked just off of Lake, I knew I found something worthwhile when I caught a quick glimpse. I had to turn around and take a peek. I think this was the first example of this generation I shot, and despite my claiming otherwise, this might have been the car that got me hooked on these things. I stood there, barely taking in what I had seen. I tried for the best pictures, but I did feel as if I was in a rush for some reason or another.
This example wasn't quite as nice as the one I posted earlier, but I do understand that living in a fairly harsh climate does what it does to cars; no, this little gem didn't have any rust that I could see, but the paint wasn't quite as shiny as I would've hope-- then again, off-white doesn't need to be horrendously shiny. I also like the factory hubcaps on this example, though I think the slot-style seen on the maroon car I posted earlier looks worlds better. Granted, that one was a sportier model than this 140-series vert, but still.
I definitely have a soft sport for these later-series Corvairs, and despite their iffy driving dynamics, I don't understand why they get such a terrible rap. Sure, they're "prone to rollover" and have "handling issues", but I'm sure they're nowhere near as dangerous as a certain politician, who coincidentally knows nothing about cars, made them out to be. After all, he drives a Ford Explorer-- which as you may remember was subject to a recall insinuating that they would rollover at the mere hint of a flat tire. That being said, I quite like these cars, and I hope more and more owners cherish their babies and keep them alive for a new generation of car enthusiasts.

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Chevrolet Corvair convertible

In my few years of blogging, this is my first street-shot post-facelift Corvair; and man, is this one a stunner! To be fair, the Corvair a rather recent interest for me; not that I didn't pay attention to them before, it's just that.. well... I can't lie. I never really did pay attention to them before, and honestly this is the very car that sparked my interest in these cars. I've long had a soft spot for unloved, and uncliched compact domestic cars, and to that event, the rear-flat-six-engine, rear wheel drive Corvair fits to a tee.
Launched in 1960, the Chevrolet Corvair orginially spawned a four door sedan, a coupe and convertible, and a wagon. Later in its life, the Rampside pickup, and passenger and commercial vans were introduced to do battle with the Dodge A100 and Ford Econoline. Shortly after the Corvair's introduction, the car quickly become a hot-topic in the safety debate. Republican/Independent Ralph Nader decided that the Corvair was unsafe, and the propensity to roll over was quite high; this topic would later be recalled with the likes of the Suzuki Samurai and later, the famous Ford Explorer/Firestone "debate". All three of these automotive "dangers" have widely been debunked by automtive experts, including many car magazines, though many "researchers" conclude that all three of these automotive "dangers" still exist.
The first generation car is, to me, not that great in design. It looks frumpy, almost like the GM design team was simply rushing out sketches so they could play in the ever-growing compact car field. Up front, the headlights were inset just enough to render the surrounds a major rust area, and as a whole, the front end looked out of place with the rest of the body's characteristic; it's almost like Chevrolet was trying to out-Citroen Citroen. It didn't quite work, and in 1965, the car was redesigned and smoothed out, definitely for the better.
While I don't care for the 1960 to 1964 cars, as one can tell simply from reading this far, I quite like the post-1965s. For 1965, everything I didn't like about the car was corrected. Not only was the front end smoothed out, the whole car seemed to mesh like it didn't before. The profile was sporty, and evoked [to me] thoughts of much pricier sports cars, not an "economy car". Chevrolet though so too, and in 1965, it introduced the Yenko Stinger, a Corvair specifically bred for SCCA racing. With this new addition, GM brass tried to the get their compact to compact with likes of the Triumph TR4, MGBs, Fiat 124 spiders, and to an extent, contemporary Porsches. Not a bad target, I say. To this day, Stingers are quite rare, and do fetch quite a pretty penny. While the non-Stinger isn't necessarily as rare, I wouldn't consider it a worse car. What's not to like about a rear-engine car with reasonable-if not decent handling? I quite like the idea of a flat-six powered rear wheel drive car. After all, Porsche seems to be doing well with it, so it can't be all that bad.