Porsche and the Corvair Connection

People usually recall the Chevrolet Corvair as the car that was “unsafe at any speed” which is rather unfair because the Corvair itself occupied barely a chapter in Ralph Nader’s infamous book. Indeed, amongst others, the VW Beetle also received a pasting—and Mr. Nader thought the VW Microbus was too dangerous to be on the road.

The real interest of the Corvair, though, is how a General Motors known for its V8 front-engined, quintessentially ‘American’ products could turn to an air-cooled, rear-engined compact, which on first sight appeared to owe more to the Germano-Czech engineering traditions of Hans Ledwinke and Ferdinand Porsche.