Corvair vindication?

Was the car really ‘unsafe at any speed’, and who knew?

- MARK ORTIZ

Q What do you think of this Mark? www.hemmings.com/ stories/2020/03/19/corvairvindication-day-aims-to-set-the-record straight-with-ralphnaders-tort-museum

According to the article, an event is being planned at Ralph Nader’s Tort Museum to ‘vindicate the Corvair’, organised by Nick Gigante, the grandson of Frank Winchell, who was head of R & D at the time of the lawsuits surrounding the Corvair.

What’s your take on the Corvair? Was the car actually dangerous?

THE CONSULTANT

First, fair disclosure: I own a Corvair. Mine is a late model, 1965, with a Crown V8 conversion. I have also voted for Ralph Nader, twice (no, not in the same election). So you could say I’m personally involved, but I don’t categorically hate Corvairs, and I don’t categorically hate Nader.

From the Hemmings article: ‘We showed that there were millions of rearengine cars…[and] that the Corvair violated neither Newton’s nor Galileo’s predictions; that the restraining force was proportional to the weight so that, at the limit of friction, the forces were essentially in balance; that neither end was destined to let go fi rst. We showed that it oversteered, but not because of tuck-under. We never denied the Corvair could be rolled, or that it was possible to do so on a smooth pavement if the coefficient of friction was high enough. There were many cars with wide tracks that were harder to turn over. There were also many narrower cars that were easier to overturn.

‘In the end, the car was exonerated but did not survive the ordeal. We didn’t win. The plaintiff didn’t win, and it cost a lot of money.