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Vintage Starter Car: Chevrolet Corvair Monza
The rear-engine, air-cooled Corvair was one of the few totally original
automobiles to come from postwar Detroit. Nimble and sporting, it's a
delight to drive and makes an attractive starter car for the vintage
enthusiast who's not hung up on V-8 power or chrome flash. Find a
first-edition Monza coupe or convertible in good condition and you've
got a great little car for show or, with proper care, everyday use.
They're still reasonably common so if you're low on bucks but high on
style, a Monza's the car for you.
Chevrolet Corvair Monza: 1st
Edition
A starter car for
first-time collectors
When Detroit's Big Three
decided to go compact in 1960 the contrast between each of their
offerings was remarkable. Ford's Falcon was absolutely conventional,
Chrysler's Valiant had European overtones, and Chevrolet's Corvair took
a completely fresh and radical approach. Sales figures for the three
cars finished in the same order, which tells you something about the
average North American consumer's taste.
The Corvair began with a
completely blank sheet of paper, unusual in itself. It would even
include an all-new engine and indeed, the car was created around the
air-cooled, rear-mounted, flat-six, a complete reversal from the norm
where engines must adapt to the chassis and outer skin. However this was
a blessing, for it also dictated a fully-independent coil spring
suspension system plus a flat floor in the passenger compartment.
Footroom would be
increased and height decreased, making the Corvair a sporty yet
practical package.
It was produced as a
4-door sedan, coupe, convertible, station wagon (briefly), plus a
forward-cab 6-door Greenbrier wagon, delivery van, and pickup. Although
initial sales were good, the Falcon (and the company's own,
conventional, Chevy II) soon pushed the Corvair down the charts. There
was, however, one bright exception: the Monza coupe, which came onto the
market in 1960. Though the average driver shied away from Corvair's
uniqueness, enthusiasts had taken to it and when the sporty-looking
Monza appeared, people who enjoyed the art of driving were delighted.
Monza brought with it the
option of a 4-speed transmission; until then all Corvairs came with
3-speed manuals and 2-speed Powerglide transmissions. I remember testing
one of the latter for my radio show, expecting it to be a dog but in
fact that wasn't the case. The 140 c.i. engine seemed to have enough
low-down torque to cope with the 2-speeder and it made for a smooth
package.
Still, it was the
addition of performance and sports car-type features that made the Monza
coupe, and follow-up convertible, such a delight. The Monza Spyder
convertible came with a turbocharged engine, the first use of a turbo in
a production car. This raised power from 90 hp to a whopping 150 hp, and
included a package with heavy-duty clutch, 4-speed transmission, and
modified suspension.
One serious drawback was
the engine's turbo-lag, resulting in a 2-second gap between flooring the
accelerator and getting any action. For the unskilled, handling was also
a problem, due to the excess weight in the rear. It might have been less
so if the spare tire had been mounted under the hood as originally
intended, instead of moving to the engine compartment to increase
luggage space. To compensate, tire inflation was to be 15psi at the
front and 26psi at the rear, but too few owners bothered to properly
maintain tire pressure.
Knowledgeable enthusiasts
would alter the rear wheel camber from positive to negative, making the
car more stable in corners and all but eliminating wheel tuck-under
caused by the swing axles. This, of course, affected tire wear, so tires
needed to be rotated more frequently, again something the average owner
wasn't prepared to do. Ralph Nader (who didn't have a driver's license)
may have had a point when he charged the Corvair with being Unsafe at
Any Speed but many of us believed the true fault lay with the
incompetence of North American drivers. Nevertheless there were those
who believed in the sporty Monza, especially after the second edition
Corvair appeared in 1965.
The best known of various
modification packages came from Don Yenko, who produced a small run of
240 hp, race-winning Yenko Stingers.
I'll deal with the new
generation Corvair in another article, for it is one of my favorites. I
first owned a coupe, then a convertible, and coming from a Porsche
background with a growing family, I found them to be a perfect
compromise.
Meanwhile, the earlier
generation Monza is the one I'm recommending here as a starter car, for
it's a relatively uncomplicated automobile and, lacking the V-8
performance credentials of other cars in that era, is not in high
demand. On the other hand the Corvair Monza is more nimble and offers
better driver control than its conventional competitors, which means
that unless you're infatuated with tire-burning acceleration, you can
even purchase one of the humbler versions with stock engine and 3-speed
manual or 2-speed Powerglide and still have a lot of fun.
With the convertibles,
prices rise accordingly, even more when a turbocharger is fitted. And so
does the cost of maintenance. Find a Yenko Stinger and you will, of
course, be out of the starter price range entirely.
As a bottom line I would
suggest that if you come upon a humble 4-door Corvair sedan in good
shape, and coupe status is not important, go ahead and buy it. Even
today any Corvair stands apart as an honest attempt by Chevrolet to
build a car that drives to a different drummer.
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