Does anyone here know about the chevy corvair? I think it's probably history's most neglected vehicle. It was way ahead of its time in an era of muscle cars. Chevy brought it out in 1960, produced it till 1969. It died because of reports of "unsafe" handling by ralph nader (twitchy rear end in 60-64 models due to rear swing axels, which was proven wrong in another study in 72) which was corrected in the later models anyway, and also bacause muscle car competition (particularily the mustang) was too steep.
Anyway, when it debuted, the corvair corsa had an all aluminum, 2.3L air cooled flat 6. I believe that the base Hp was 80 and top was ~140
By 1965, displcement got bumped up and spyder models could be had with a 2.7L turbocharged flat 6 with 180Hp. I think it was one of the first, if not the first turbocharged engine offered by an american manufacturer.
here's that engine:
The engine was rear-mounted, and there was a fully independant suspension all around. The early models had lots of oversteer, but later models handled extremely well.
here's a cutaway of a 65 corsa:
There were 3 trims: the base 500, Monza and Corsa. Corsa had the most options and was the most powerful. They made many 4 doors (only 500 and monza trim) convertibles (only monza and corsa), and even a wagon and a truck!
this is the model I'd want the most: a 66 turbo corsa spyder
There were also many nice concepts of the corvair made by chevy. I wish some of them made it into production
Anyway, this would have been a great car. I love everything about it. Too bad it died, I guess it just came out at the wrong time in the wrong place.