The Chevrolet Corvair might be one of the best bargains in classic cars right now. Whenever I look for affordable classics, Corvairs reliably show up in running and driving shape for under $5,000. I’ve found decent ones for around $10,000. The amazing part is that the Corvair wasn’t some pile of crap or a boring, forgettable car. These cars look good and it seems like many current and former Corvair owners just love the things.
Today, Thomas explained why the Corvair is such a great classic car deal that people are missing out on. We’re talking about a car once hailed by the famed David E. Davis as “the most beautiful car to appear in this country since before World War II,” and yet, even on Bring a Trailer, a Corvair will sell for maybe $10,000 on a good day.
Now, if you’re thinking that this is just a Porsche, but American, COTD winner Sid Bridge has some quirks for you:
I bought two Corvairs back in 2004. One was too rusty to put back on the road, but at $500 it was a fun risk for a 1963 Monza 900 convertible. The local Corvair club helped me source a replacement – a driveable 1965 Monza Convertible and I paid less than $2,000 for it.
It was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work. Calling the air-cooled engine “simple” is a bit deceptive as to function properly it had a bunch of metal covers all over it to help direct cooling air. To do serious maintenance, you had to take them off or work around them. Not a dealbreaker, but messy. Mine never did sling a fan belt, but the design sure did encourage it. The fan belt takes a 90-degree turn. It was standard practice to keep the two wrenches plus an extra fan belt with you at all times. It was also standard practice to get out and check every once in a while to make sure you still had a fan belt. The Alt (or Gen) light should come on if it gets slung, but sometimes the alternator would motor off of the battery so you got no indicator light warning.
You also had to really get used to driving a Corvair. It’s fun. But if you are expecting it to behave like a normal car… well, no. Porsche and Volkwagen made air-cooled four cylinder engines in their early cars. The boxer six in the Corvair stuck way out behind the rear axle and acted like a pendulum through curves. Again, FUN, but you had to be ready.
That being said, these are good bargains. You can still get a good one for reasonable money. Just know what you’re getting into because they are weird. The engine block is aluminum (and two pieces), the cylinders are steel and the heads are aluminum. That is a recipe for copious oil leaks.
Also I’m still looking for backup on this one, but I believe there were issues with the usual spare tire placement – in the engine compartment. If you didn’t under-inflate the spare and the engine got too hot, it could pop all over the engine bay. I’ve definitely seen old Corvair engine bays with tire bits in them.
In sum, STILL WORTH IT. Would I buy another one? Probably not. I had my fun and I’m just not great with welding patches on unibodies – there is always rust. But I loved everyone’s reaction. I heard this exact same response over and over whenever I drove my Corvair (and I’m not kidding):”Is that a Corvair? Cool! I had one (or my dad/grandad/uncle/aunt) had one! I loved that car. We had a lot of fun in that car. It blew up.”
Every time.
Thank you, Sid! I think this year will be the year I buy my first classic car, and I want it to be a Corvair.
For a second COTD, we have some humor from Canopysaurus, who takes issue with the Volkswagen Champagne Edition IIs from this morning’s Cold Start:
These are fascinating VW editions, but unless they were built in the Champagne region of France, they cannot legally use the title. I’m afraid they’ll have to be rechristened the “Sparkling Wine Edition.”
Have a great evening, everyone!
Top image: GM
when I was in elementary school a neighbor had a Corvair convertible his kids nicknamed the rattletrap. I rode in it once and was fascinated by the dash mounted automatic shifter. FWIW it was less rusty than another neighbor’s Datsun 2000 roadster . The NYC suburbs hat more interesting cars I. the 70s since a friend of my parents had a Rover 3500 P6 and other friends had the odd couple of a Fiat 128 and a Ford Country Squire.
Mother had a ’62 or ’63 Corvair Coupe with the 2 speed automatic.
White over Blue interior.
She definitely recalls how frequently it needed head gaskets.
When my parents married in ’65 and were expecting me that spring, Dad traded that Corvair in for a ’65 Chevy II wagon.
Mercedes, if you buy a Corvair I wanna be the first to know. I’ll send you a fan belt.
The oil leaks were from the head end of the pushrod tubes that conveyed oil to keep the valve train lubricated. The tubes had o-rings to keep the oil in, but were neoprene, and the hot heads quickly baked them rock hard. The answer was Viton, which Chevy never tumbled to. The leaks were directly above the exhaust manifolds, which generated fumes that were sucked into the passenger compartment, at least on the cars that still had the engine shrouds that contained and directed air flow around the engine. These were subject to road salt spray, and didn’t last long. Air doors at the rear of the shrouds regulated cooling airflow, and were controlled by thermostatic bellows that also didn’t last long, leaving the doors open all year, which meant little heat in winter.
All this from several cars up here in the lake effect road salt belt and friendship with top Corvair mechanic the late Kim Battenhouse.
Good point on the push rod tubes. Definitely a spot for leaks, but the replacement was not as insane a job as you would think. And the other byproduct of spray getting into those air shrouds was schmutz building up in between cooling fins. You definitely want to dig in and clean that if you want a cool engine. And don’t get me started on vapor lock. During the summer, I would plan on having to chill out a bit after a drive.
Man, I love those F5 Tigers.
you mean Mig 28
I was inverted!
Despite my best attempts, I never managed to flip a Corvair. Did manage a couple spin outs, though!
In high school I had a friend whose dad was the president of the local Hells Angles chapter. Among the bars, bike shops, and businesses he owned, was a small shop that repaired & restored corvairs.
One night I’m driving with her to a party, and she asks me to stop by the corvair shop. She hops out, enters a code on the door alarm, and we go inside this dingy shop where there are maybe 15 corvairs in various states of disassembly. She opened the front trunk of the car nearest the door – and it was entirely filled by a huge plastic bag of weed. She pulled a gallon zip lock bag from her purse, filled it with choice buds… then we resealed the big bag, shut the trunk, and continued on our way to the party!
To this day I cannot look at a corvair without immediately imagining that it has a trunk full of weed.
What a glorious memory!
I saw no mention of the Corvair Rampside pickup truck in all of the comments on the Corvair. I suspect not many people know about those.
Probably because AT&T Bell System bought the bulk of them and ran them into the ground, I’ve seen exactly two in the past few years that weren’t in junkyards
I saw one recently. Well, technically two, considering it had rusted itself in half. Had the markings on the door for some kind of previous service life, so it may have been a Bell utility van. The guy seemed to like weird vans, because he also had one of the GM Dustbusters in the same yard.
Those dustbusters have a drag coefficient of 0.30, which was world class for a minivan of that era.
They have one at the auto museum in Hershey, PA
There’s the remains of one some 30 miles from me. Even 20 years ago when I first saw it, it was beyond being worth while. I can only figure the shell was dumped there off a rollback because there was so little of the original pan holding it together.
I sort of salute it on my way to WV mountain twisties every few weekends
There was one running around the neighbourhood I worked about a decade back, looks like it’s still going, and the owner is a Corvair person in general (another two or three first gen Corvairs in the driveway).
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7997213,-79.4259855,3a,29.8y,320.98h,81.42t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sOuIedD_MHy-eVxAQ9jteVg!2e0!5s20210701T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu
That’s cool!
A neighbor of my mother has a Ford Econoline that looks very similar, and I mistook it for a Corvair Rampside, until he corrected me, and I took a closer look. He fully restored it from a shell found in a junkyard, including making cast aluminum parts for it that were no longer being made/sold.
the lter model 66 and 67 were definitely the better versions, revised suspensions, and more sporty looks definitely make them desirable to me
While Corvairs are definitely fun, it’s quite true that air-cooled cars usually provide tepid heat at best. And noxious fumes at worst.
—but I’m talking to someone who has done a Gambler in a car without doors 😉
Drove my ’66 up to International Falls one winter night. Stopped in Superior at a funky old bar with steamed up windows, temp was already below zero. Got to Frostbite Falls about 3 am, with the scraper and all the heat aimed through the defrosters about the best I could do was keep some of the windshield in front of me clear. Slept on the back seat warm and comfy in my down bag, was 38 below at 8 when I woke with the sun. Of course, the Corvair started right up!
I ran an old Westfalia in Virginia for some years. The heat channel was basically wi-fi by then, so I get it. But I can’t even imagine International Falls!
These days, I’d have a little propane bottle torch for those emergencies. I didn’t mind the bundling, but keeping the wing vents open as to prevent fogging was suboptimal. Good thing it didn’t go very fast 😉
but I had Harmon Kardon tunes—and tie dye curtains, so loved it