2/7/2024 0 Comments Corvair driving impression![]() ![]() It’s sadly almost a moot point that the Corvair being sold at the time of Unsafe At Any Speed’s 1965 release was a vastly different car from the one the book chose to skewer. What’s worse is that this identical drivetrain and suspension layout was used by thousands of other European cars, many of which were sold in the United States at the same time, including the vaunted Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche 356. The Corvair was a very restrained, practical and almost austere design, like something that a French or German company would make (in fact, NSU famously copied the first generation Corvair for one of Torch’s favorite rides, the NSU Prinz). Still, besides the swing axle, the car was hardly the killer jukebox-on-wheels Nader seemed to rightfully go after. It was far less conventional than competitive products like the Ford Falcon, and even offered advancements like an optional turbocharger. This bathtub-shaped car was GM’s first real compact when it debuted for 1960, with an air cooled flat six-cylinder engine mounted in back of the car. However, his automobile of choice seemed a bit odd- the Chevy Corvair. He published a book and, to prove his point, Ralph was going to kill a car. He wasn’t wrong car companies were indeed peddling gargantuan three-ton objects with steel daggers on the fronts to transport unrestrained passengers in front of sharp, pointed chrome trim dashboard with little regard for safety. ![]() In the sixties, a young lawyer named Ralph Nader went after the auto industry for knowingly selling dangerous products to the public. Don’t you hate it when the wrong person is the fall guy? I mean, an individual not necessarily devoid of guilt, but someone like the getaway driver or bag man that gets the brunt of the punishment for the crime they were really only tangentially involved in? It’s actually happened in the automotive world, and with a car itself.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |