Description
By: Edward N. Cole .
One of the most controversial cars ever made, Chevrolet's Corvair is celebrated in this unique pictorial history. From his files on the Corvair Karl Ludvigsen presents a plethora of photos of the original 'Holden' prototypes on test and even a Corvair engine installed in a Porsche, its first running test bed. Photos of the production Corvairs down through the years are interspersed with wild and woolly prototypes and concept cars based on this unique rearengined auto, the one whose unusual handling helped make Ralph Nader famous. It's a feast for fans of the novel and endearing Corvair.
- Production cars
- Prototypes and Concept cars
- Cut-aways
- Engine details
Acknowledgments:
The photos and illustrations in this book are from the holdings of the Ludvigsen Library in London, England. Many of them were gathered by Karl Ludvigsen from the files of Chevrolet when he wrote an article about the Corvair for Automobile Quarterly. Stanley Rosenthall took some of the Fitch Sprint and Phoenix photos and those of the racing Corvairs at Sebring and Daytona. Larry Shinoda kindly allowed Ludvigsen to copy some rare photos of the Corvair prototypes and styling models that he co-created with Tony Lapine for Bill Mitchell.
In the 1970s, L. Scott Bailey of Automobile Quarterly interviewed Edward Nicholas Cole on the story of the Corvair. Ed Cole was born in Michigan on September 17, 1909 and died there in the crash of a light plane he was piloting in treacherous weather on May 2, 1977. This brilliant, enthusiastic and inspiring engineer contributed to the design of the great Cadillac overhead-valve V-8 of 1949, the immortal Chevrolet V-8 of 1955, and the Corvair - among many other achievements. Ed Cole's was the initiative that led to the removal of lead from fuel and the use of catalysts to cut car emissions. In 1967 he was made president of General Motors, the job from which he retired in 1974.
With the kind permission of both Scott Bailey and Dollie Cole, Ed's widow, this book's Introduction is Ed Cole's first-hand account of the creation and the extinction of the Chevrolet Corvair, one of the most interesting and controversial automobiles ever built. As Dollie Cole put it, "The Corvair is still admired by so many. In this era of high- priced fuel, a Corvair would be the car to own. Safe, comfortable and still stylish. The Corvair deserves better than history remembers it." The Ludvigsen Library hopes that this book will help win many new friends for an exceptionally appealing automobile.
