Follies of the Madmen #288

No, it had a sanctimonious prick named Ralph Nader dogging it as he tried to make a name for himself.

One of our neighbors had one. That was the car I wanted when I was old enough to drive. Unfortunately, by the time I was old enough, they were few and far between. Another childhood dream shattered.

The Corvair was a decent compact car for what it was designed to do - get people from point A to B with little drama. Nader's beef was that the rear suspension design contributed to causing the car to roll over under certain cornering conditions. Nader also leveled the same charge against Volkswagen which used a similar design. As usual for such crusaders who have a wild hair up their posterior, the conditions were amplified out of proportion to normal driving conditions in order to prove their point. The National Broadcasting Company was called out years later for similar shenanigans with the GM pickup "non-exploding" fuel tanks.

I followed those cases claiming unintended acceleration of the Audi 5000's since I had one. It was all driver errors. The husband of a "victim" appeared on that one-sided 60 Minutes report in his priest habit to convince us about this evil, possessed car. It turned out he lied in that interview; he later changed his story in court.

I have a close friend who drove a Corvair, back in the day. That is, until it crashed while he was cornering a bit faster than normal. That's as far as it went, since there were no serious injuries. Some city property destroyed (paid by dad) and a bunch of youths banged up some -- they heal quick. It didn't roll, though; it fish-tailed due to being rear-heavy.

Untill this day I wish they would bring it back, I tought the spider was one of the coolest cars ever built.

As I recall they had some serious front end and stability problems also. The engine was an air-cooled flat opposed 4 or 6. We had the van version for a while, top heavy and unstable. Two friends nearly died when taking a corner in the sedan and a steering link failed. I thought the sedan was pretty cool looking and had a 3 speed manual on the floor.