Unappreciated at Any Speed

Seventy Bay Area enthusiasts -- and thousands more across the nation -- don't care what Ralph Nader says. They want their Corvairs.
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1966 Corvair helped control the urge to speed

The company that insured young Norman Raddatz in the 1960s looked at his driving record and saw that it spelled S-P-E-E-D. He was advised to replace his high-powered Super Sport Chevrolet with a car that was rated at less than 300 horsepower. He abided by the request. "Five months after I got married," he says, "I bought a used Corvair. It was in my price range."

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At the wheel of a vintage Monza
I get a kick out of cars from the '60s. I just like the way they look. No frills, no cladding, long clean lines and chrome.

I also love to drive them. You know, vintage Corvettes, Mustangs. Caddies, even.

But a 1964 Corvair? With a rusty back floor and a tricky suspension? Worth $1,800 tops when it's not squeaking?

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OSTALGIA TRIP: Ypsilanti museum hosts classic Corvairs
They sit there, innocently, mint-condition old Corvairs, amid a collection of other vintage cars and trucks.
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Move over, Porsche Yenko turned lowly Corvair into swinging Stinger
It was Ralph Nader's nightmare during the 1960s, and brought the consumer activist to fame.

Yet Chevrolet's design for a rear-engine, air-cooled compact car to beat Volkswagen at its Beetle game became a Porsche beater when a Chevrolet dealer from Canonsburg, Pa., took the lowly Corvair and transformed it into the Yenko Stinger. And long before Ford raced its Pinto and Chevy even raced its Vega, the Yenko Stinger was even faster than the Porsches that were ruling the tracks.
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Governor shares love affair with his dad's 1965 Corvair
Beneath a near cloudless sky on a 70-degree afternoon, Gov. Bob
Wise put on his driving sunglasses, strode to the parking lot outside
the west wing of the Capitol and hopped behind the wheel of his
1965 Corvair Convertible.
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Gov. Bob Wise (WV) shows off his 1965 Corvair outside the state Capitol
Gov. Bob Wise shows off his 1965 Corvair outside the state Capitol. Wise says he harbors a
secret love affair with the Corvair, a sporty car that some say was America1s answer to
Germany1s Volkswagen Beetle.
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Corvair owners fight for respect
DAYTONA BEACH - How much respect does the Corvair get?

From the unwashed, unenlightened masses, not much.
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Blast from the past: Owners devoted to 'poor man's classic'
It's not unusual for people to have love affairs with cars, put pricey makes on pedestals, treasure vintage vehicles and wax poetic about their particular brand of pride and joy.

But it's probably safe to say that members of the Corvair Society of America are in a class by themselves when it comes to automobile aficionados.
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What goes around, comes around
If you wait long enough, everything comes back into fashion. Even the lowly Corvair.

But don't go calling the Corvair lowly to Steve Hammatt of Mount Vernon.

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Star-crossed Corvair finally gains respect
Nearly 1,000 Corvair enthusiasts descended on this Adirondack Mountain resort Thursday to show off their odd-looking cars and give the infamous model the kind of respect that eluded it in the 1960s.
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Woman picks prized Corvair for final rest
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Three decades after Ralph Nader portrayed the Corvair as a casket on wheels in his book "Unsafe at Any Speed," 84-year-old
Rose Martin was laid to rest in her beloved 1962 model.

"She prearranged with us, and this was her wish. It was very well known throughout Tiverton that she wanted this," said Robert Ferreira, a director of
the Oliveira Funeral Home in Fall River, Mass.
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