Pikes Peak Corvair commercial
A wonderful example of how car companies promoted their vehicles, this 1960 film from General Motors highlights their Chevrolet Corvair. Note the period-appropriate custom orchestral backing track, something that sounds a lot more Tom & Jerry than what we'd expect in a car advertisement today.
Comments
Chris Paukert
Good stuff. I love the fact that the video shows an unpaved Pike's, and I always enjoy period ad videos with voiceovers like that.
Chris Paukert
Editor-In-Chief
Winding Road // NextAutos
miata 1990 & 2001
When I drove from Vancouver, Canada, to the New York Worlds Fair in 1964 the Corvair was the only car that was driven consistently faster than I could drive. A great car in its day.
Anonymous
My parents had a 1962 Corvair convertible back in the early 80's. Ralph had it right...it was unsafe at any speed. I recall negotiating a tight right hand corner under power in which the rear right wheel actually lifted off the pavement and accelerated. When the wheel returned to the pavement, now spinning at a much higher rate of speed, the car lurched violently to the left sending the vehicle out of control. Just luck that there was no on coming traffic. Still....it had style! My cousin favorite ice-racing car was a 1967 hardtop Corvair inwhich he consistiently did well(also early 80's).
Anonymous
I sure wish that you would use international standard display files. (Or at the very minimum tell us what you are using.)
I have no trouble with you tube or face book,. nor with most advertising videos, but I was unable to view the Corvair ad.
Anonymous
Fabulous to watch. I had a Mitsu Evo up near the summit once and couldn't believe how much the thin air lowered the torque.
Bill Fedorko
I drove a 1960 Corvair in a demolition race and came in second. I was up against station wagons and full sized passenger cars, but with the engine in the rear I was able to drive in forward instead of reverse. In the end, the engine was still running great and no overheating from loss of coolant. Great car.
tmartin
Now watch this for an interesting contrast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aah32sRUd0g
Donald C Hancock
The traction in snow was great. However no one ever mentioned that the snow would pack in the front wheel wells causing the tires to sieze and consequently loose steering. It was a painful accident. Still paying for it.
Bellcord
I believe this same year,1960, Chevy held a 24 hour P.R. run for two Corvairs at Riverside Raceway. Of course, a couple hours out one of the Covairs tucks in it's rear swing axle and cheerfully flips over rolling itself into a tidy little ball in front of God and the assembled press core. Chevy decides to continue the event at a much reduced rate of speed and finally wraps up the 24 hour run. In a early attempt at corporate spin, a Chevy's P.R. flack states that having to cut one their driver's out of the crumpled Corvair in no way diminished the fact that the remaining one had used less than a quart of oil. A fiasco of this magnitude would not be repeated until decades later during the Mercedes Radar Rear- ending debacle...
Bellcord
A few rewinds of the commercial reveals a lot more than you could catch watching on our old RCA's back in 1960. Notice in the driving closeup how the outside rear tire is tucking in at a alarming angle even though they're just tiptoeing around the corner. Also note in the same shot that door fit is so poor that you could fit two fingers into the bottom of the passenger door.. ....Finally, wonder why they are driving in freezing weather with the windows down ? Corvair heaters were know to pour out great goughts of nice warm carbon monoxide straight into the cockpit...
J.David
Corvair heaters, like any air cooled car, get heat from the cylinder heads. A new car is not going to have an exhaust manifold leak. That is what would be required to get carbon monoxide into the hot air stream; an exhaust manifold leak, which can be heard by anyone who knows hir car.
Semi trailing arms, as used on Vairs and Porsche and VW, do have extreme angle changes on rough roads. Early vairs had suspension settings which were too soft, to give an Impala ride. If you never drove back then you've probably never heard of Beetles and 356's flipping. It happened often.
I have a 1964 Vair convertible. Hasn't run in quite a while tho. Love the car.
V.Singer
I happen to own a 1960 Corvair - the same year as the ones in the video. The 1960 cars did NOT have the fresh-air heating system you allude to. They utilized a gasoline-fired heater under the front decklid. This heater used gasoline pumped from the fuel pump on the engine into a combustion chamber. The fuel was ignited by a coil and sparkplug in the combustion chamber, which was surrounded by a fresh-air heat exchanger. The combustion chamber and heat exchanger each had their own fan and air supply. Basically - the heater would blow the driver right out of the car with it's output, hence the open windows.
Why did GM ditch the gas heater for the design using engine cooling air? Simple. Customers balked at the (optional) heater's price, and the fact that it robbed the car of some of it's overall fuel milage. The VW-inspired system that was introduced in 1961 (gas heater still an option) was simple and cheap, and WILL blow smoke into the cabin if oil is leaking in the wrong place from the engine.
Jerry James
First, thanks to TMartin for the Peugeot/YouTube link..awesome! Second, the Corvair - I think - was an unfortunate recipient of Nader's rath (from a guy who never owned a car I read) although GM with their detectives didn't help either. I owned many Corvairs back in the day and even drag raced a few of them. My best one was a "Corv-8"; a 66 Monza coupe with a 350 horse 327" small block in the back seat. Crown Engineering at it's best! and I wish I had it now. I could successfully "play" with any Porsche at will and as long as brakes held out...was good for it. Anyway, memories of a younger life and fun Corvairs!
antiqueron
From car of the year to unsafe at any speed. Hard to believe how Ralph Nader was able to get a perfectly good automobile trashed. Why didn't he pick on the VW bug? I was able to drive the Corvair several times and over some twisty mountain roads and never had a problem.
TKCorvair
I had a much different experience than most I owned a 1962 4 door, drove it 100,000+ miles. I drove it more along the lines of the youtube video and it always stayed right side up, never fliped it. High speed on snow & ice, even had a 356 beat over Indepence Pass until the brakes faded and he decided to pass on one of the narrow stretches. 120 mph in south park, fun high speed turns. I put in the station wagon springs, over 100 mph it would settle down some and handle better. Jeep roads I drove fast to stay on top of the bumps. Too bad they did not improve it - better steering etc.
Canman
I had a new 65 Corvair when I got out of the Army and love to drive it on mountiain roads. I put fenton duals on it and it sounded great and the new body change looked great also. I had to buy a bigger car when I got married.
But it was fun while it lasted.
eurotive
I simply love the Corvair film. all the wonders you can do in your 60's Corvair! their simply great..
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