Hall of Shame

47
6297
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

That we are inmates in a lunatic asylum ought to be obvious – except it’s not, which explains precisely why it is a lunatic asylum.Ralphie

Ralph Nader – the mortal enemy of everything on four wheels and everyone behind the wheel – just got inducted into the…  Automotive Hall of Fame.

“We are pleased to induct four individuals (the others are Carl Benz’s wife, former Ford CEO Alan Mullally and legendary engineer Roy Lunn) whose entrepreneurial spirit helped create today’s global automotive industry,” announced Hall of Fame President William Chapin. “Each made their unique vision a reality through tenacity, creativity and forward thinking, traits that still drive the auto industry evolution today.”

Italics added. Explanation not necessary.     

Maybe next week the KKK will elect Jesse Jackson its new Imperial Wizard.

Ralph Nader is an “entrepreneurial spirit”?  He “helped create” the global automotive industry”?

I got dizzy reading this.

And, mad.old mummy

Nader is a shyster lawyer and self-appointed “consumer advocate.”

I did not ask him to “advocate” for me.

Did you?

This man – who doesn’t even drive – has spent a lifetime devoted to gimping the automobile (and the automobile  industry) … always in the name of “safety.”

But let’s start with what made Nader famous  – and powerful – his attack on General Motors and specifically, the Chevrolet Corvair.

He vilified the air-cooled/rear-engined/swing-axled 1960-1964 Corvair as “unsafe” – but never said a peep about the much less safe VW Beetle and other import-brand models that had the same suspension/drivetrain layout.

And – one would assume – the same “defect.”

Which none of them did.Ralph's book

The problem wasn’t with the Corvair (or the Beetle or the Porsche 911) but with some of the people who drove Corvairs.

The imbeciles amongst us.

These were the people who ignored the critically important recommended tire inflation pressures – much less air in the front tires than in the rear tires. Critical because of the light front end and engine in the rear end – and instead added too much air to the front tires, unbalancing the handling. The car was now prone to oversteering (the tail breaking loose and coming around) during high-speed cornering.

VW Beetles had the same vulnerability – and the early Porsche 911 even more so. Yet neither was smeared as “unsafe” by Nader.

Both cars, accordingly, continued to be built for decades without a peep of derision directed their way while the Corvair was ruined by Nader’s demagoguery.

And in a very real way, so was GM.

The company was never quite the same – and neither was the car industry. Idiot-proofing became the new In Thing. The emphasis shifted away from style and fun and the presumption that Americans were adults who didn’t need to be Mommied by such as Ralph or controlled by his go-to enforcer, Uncle.

Henceforth, we would be Mommied and controlled.Uncle pic

And for this disgusting cuckolding, Ralph is to be honored by the Automotive Hall of Fame!

People forget – or never knew – that the Corvair was an extremely innovate design; in a very real way, it was a better VW Beetle. (Full disclosure: I’ve owned and driven both. Unlike Ralph.)

It was, first of all, larger – with a much roomier interior. The car’s larger size made it safer than the VW, in terms of being able to protect occupants in the event of a crash.

And it was less likely to be in a crash because it also had a larger, more powerful six-cylinder air-cooled engine – vs. the VW’s much smaller four cylinder air-cooled engine. The Beetle – which had top speed of around 80 MPH – was marginal (dare we say unsafe) on U.S highways, where the speed limit at the time (1960s) was typically 70-75 MPH. The Corvair could handle those speeds, with margin to spare. The Beetle could barely manage those speeds, with next to nothing to spare.

Nader never fulminated against the Beetle’s “dangerously insufficient” speed.

Nor the Porsche 911’s excessive speed.

Excessive not so much in terms of what it was capable of, but in terms of what could happen in the event a not-capable driver put one into a corner at high speed and then took his foot off the gas. The early 911 was known for “lift off” oversteer. But this was a driver inexperience problem, not a 911 problem.racing Corvair

If you kept on the gas in the corners, the ass end of the 911 remained glued to the road and the car handled phenomenally.

As would the Corvair – which became known (before Nader ruined it) as the poor man’s Porsche.

It is important to point out a fact that the Automotive Hall of Shame will never disclose. It is that Nader has no engineering background or mechanical savvy. If he had either thing, he’d have understood the Corvair.

And faulted the drivers who didn’t keep the tires properly inflated – and who didn’t know how to safely and properly drive a rear-engined car.

The tire inflation thing is particularly ridiculous – in terms of blaming the Corvair. Why not – using the same “reasoning” blame an engine failure caused by the owner under (or over) filling the crankcase on “defective” design?

But then, Ralph is an agitator, not an engineer.

He used the Corvair for his own purposes – which had nothing to do with “safety” and everything to do with establishing himself as a “consumer advocate” minister plenipotentiary.

But who appointed him?Nader at lecturn

I must’ve missed the election… .

It is a very curious thing that in Red Giant Stage America, a loudmouth with the right politics (that is, politics agreeable to the powers that be) can assume what amounts to a lifetime appointment as the “representative” of a “constituency” that never so much as held a straw ballot.

And, once appointed, the loudmouth’s views become policy.

Air bags, for instance. It was Nader who hopped onto that hobbyhorse and saw to it (along with the termagant Joan Claybrook) that what consumers had rejected they’d be compelled to accept… for their “safety,” of course.

Air bags had been offered as optional equipment by several manufacturers. Like the Corvair, you could buy them if you wanted them. No one forced you.

But when people didn’t buy them, Ralph “took action.” People like Ralph are always taking action. Not for themselves.

For you.

Whether you asked him to or not.Takata 1

And so now we have to have air bags – and accept the deaths caused by air bags. Which no one (except this writer) ever seems to blame Ralph and his ilk for.

It is very odd.

GM is evil when it sells a car that people were free to buy or not – and which maybe did require more in the way of driver skill and attentiveness to its maintenance requirements than other cars, but wasn’t dangerous if handled properly.

But force-feeding potentially and actually dangerous air bags to people while deliberately covering up the known dangers is No Big Deal.

I wonder when a statue to Klaus Barbie will be placed in front of the entrance to the Holocaust Museum in DC… .   

EPautos.com depends on you to keep the wheels turning! The control freaks (Clovers) hate us. Goo-guhl blackballed us.

Will you help us? 

Our donate button is here.

 If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:

EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079

PS: EPautos stickers – new design, larger and magnetic! – are free to those who send in $10 or more to support the site. Please be sure to tell us you want one – and also, provide a mailing address, so we can get the thing to you!EP magnet

   

   

 

47 COMMENTS

  1. We’d still be rolling works of art if it wasn’t for Comrade Nader and the anti-human environmentalists. Modern cars look so bloated and are no longer timeless. It’s hard for stylists to do their job when there is so much regulation. Those droopy front-ends we’ve been seeing (e.g. new Mustang) are thanks to the idiotic pedestrian crash standards. If people were responsible and not mindless robots, there would be very few accidents.

    • Forgot a word in my first sentence: We’d still be SEEING rolling works of art if it wasn’t for Comrade Nader and the anti-human environmentalists.

      No edit feature?

  2. BTW, I just noticed something…

    The photograph of Nader at the beginning of this article looks eerily familiar. I am reminded of Adolf Hitler at the Nuremberg Rally striking the exact same pose.
    WOW! Who knew Nader is, according to some people, the most evil vile human being to ever live (let’s not let Stalin and Mao get in the way of good ole Adolf. They both made Adolf look like a slacker) reincarnated! /s 😀

    • Hi David,

      They have more than just looks in common. Both were ascetics; killjoys. Literally. They could not experience normal joy themselves, so spent their lives making sure other people were just as miserable as they were. Both, apparently, never had normal relations with another human being (of either sex).

      Watch out for such defectives.

    • “Where’s Joan Claybrook’s nomination?”
      Why not, she deserves it as much as Nadir? And what about Tricky Dick, for inflicting us with the EPA?

      • PtB, oh but tricky did much worse with his war on some drugs that makes life even worse all the time even for people taking legal meds. Now a person has to go get a written script every time for many drugs. It’s a hardship for a lot of people who don’t really have extra money much less a car or money to fuel one.

  3. Also let’s not forget Nader’s ego was directly responsible for inflicting us with the Chimp. If he hadn’t been on the ballot in Florida in the 2000 election it’s highly unlikely the several thousand votes he got would have gone to Bush; hopefully that realization knocked his stock down among his cloverific followers.

    • Forget Florida. He got enough votes in NH to more than make up the difference between W and Algore. If Algore had carried NH, Florida would have been moot.

      • Hi Phillip,

        Not that I am a fan of AlGore… but his psychopathy probably would have been preferable to The Chimp’s.

        Gore was/is a typical Government Apparatchik; a bureaucrat. Dangerous, certainly. But I think less so than an imbecile religious fanatic (The Chimp).

        Gore, at least, spoke in complete sentences and didn’t seem to delight in violence – as The Chimp did and does.

        This, by the same token, is why I prefer Trump over Hillary.

        He’s an egomaniac, certainly. But Hillary’s a killer.

        • eric, the shrub is an “end of lifer”, meaning he’s of the mindset, as are all his good buds with their flag and bible in hand the end of the earth is nigh and what they do doesn’t matter. I just wonder what they tell their kids and grandkids(sorry chilluns, you have no future)?

          • Hi Eight,

            Yup!

            The Chimp is everything subsumed under “redneck.” The southern-ish version of “yankee.”

            Both are more accurately described as assholes.

          • I don’t know why end of lifers seem to need to take lives. If I felt that way I’d sit back and watch the world go by, puffing on a big doob and sippin some fresh shine and the devil could take care of the details. Well, I guess they got the last part right.

            • Because they’re psychotic.

              You can’t be entirely right in the head if you are certain (no doubt whatsoever) that not only is there a Sky Santa but that you have a “personal relationship” with him (it’s always him) and he has told you, like a mob boss, exactly what he wants done…and you feel no hesitation whatsoever doing “his” bidding.

              It’s the same psychosis that afflicts the hard-core Mooslims.

              Chill, dudes.

              And (for those who’ve not read my views on this before): I am not an atheist; but neither am I a believer in any particular doctrine. I admit the possibility that there might be “something” beyond our ken. But what it is, exactly (if it’s anything at all) I cannot say.

              And neither can anyone else.

              Religion is a matter of belief – and belief ought to be a matter of personal opinion, not binding on any other person.

              Believe whatever you like about the nature of existence, whether there is a deity behind the curtain of Nature. Just please don’t insist that others also believe – much less castigate (or kill) them for not believing. Or for believing in some other thing.

              • eric, sounds like sour grapes to me. You’re just miffed the shrub claimed to speak with God before you did. Think of your followers(sic) and the money you’d be rolling in if you used this site to send the direct message from god to anyone who’d listen.

                That God deal has always been lucrative. I recall a program where Billy Graham and some of those old guys were together speaking of the (first…..bad)depression. People were starving, bankers were broke, good folk were starving all around and they smirked about how good the money from preaching was at the time, esp. radio preachers. Yayus, Jim Baker, bless his little old tiny heart, thought it was the nads and so did Tammy Faye……Andy walks with me Andy talks with me, Andy tells me I am his own…..who the hell is “Andy”?

        • Gore is the pope of the religion of climate change. Of course one doesn’t have to believe in a religion to run one.

          With the Chimp he surrounded himself with nixon-ford people who best anyone can tell told Chimp what to decide. Chimp was no where near as blood lusting as HRC. That woman seems to relish killing, power, wealth, etc.

          Trump is very a dangerous. A totalitarian with random ideas who seems to lack any solid core to reject ideas presented to him by the establishment people he is surrounding himself with.

  4. My uncle had a turbocharged Spyder when I was a kid. Black, which made the car about as good looking as it could get with (let’s face it) less than classic lines. I’m glad Nader didn’t get this ridiculous award when my Dad was alive; he (Dad) absolutely hated the man and would rant about him given the slightest excuse. 😉

    I think GM was somewhat negligent in not stressing the importance of asymmetrical tire pressure. Back then, gas station attendants filled your tires without asking; how many had a clue about this? People did crash and burn as a result. But yes, Nader cared less about safety than puffing himself up as someone ready and able to run other people’s lives.

    • The local dealer brought a new ’67 convertible of some special sort, don’t remember what it was called but it looked more like a Malibu than the old Corvair. My dad thought it keen as did I. Black over red, TTU colors. Of course he didn’t intend to buy me a NEW car and I didn’t expect him to. I lost that dream when he turned down my request for the new 911 when it debuted. It’s only 3 grand, say it real fast, it won’t hurt. Of course you could get two Impalas for that but it didn’t keep me from dreaming.

  5. Nader is reportedly still a virgin. Like Newton and Tesla, he is an asexual.

    Asexual list
    http://www.nndb.com/lists/913/000116565/

    Nikola Tesla Was a Virgin with OCD who Fell in Love with a Pigeon
    http://historybuff.com/4-strange-facts-about-nikola-tesla-to-share-at-your-next-nerd-gathering-6Q0pA9jgDgao

    As Tesla aged he withdrew from normal society, instead opting to focus on the daily feeding of local pigeons. In particular, he claimed to have a very special bond with a certain white, female pigeon, stating he loved her “as a man loves a woman.”

    He said that the pigeon was the “joy of his life,” and claimed that one evening she flew into his window, let him know that she was ill, and died in his arms. He insisted his entire life’s work was complete in that moment.

    From PRODIGAL GENIUS: The Life of Nikola Tesla by John J. O’Neill:

    “I have been feeding pigeons, thousands of them, for years; thousands of them, for who can tell —

    “But there was one pigeon, a beautiful bird, pure white with light gray tips on its wings; that one was different. It was a female. I would know that pigeon anywhere.

    “No matter where I was that pigeon would find me; when I wanted her I had only to wish and call her and she would come flying to me. She understood me and I understood her.

    “I loved that pigeon.”

    “Yes,” he replied to an unasked question. “Yes, I loved that pigeon, I loved her as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. When she was ill I knew, and understood; she came to my room and I stayed beside her for days. I nursed her back to health. That pigeon was the joy of my life. If she needed me, nothing else mattered. As long as I had her, there was a purpose in my life.

    “Then one night as I was lying in my bed in the dark, solving problems, as usual, she flew in through the open window and stood on my desk. I knew she wanted me; she wanted to tell me something important so I got up and went to her.

    “As I looked at her I knew she wanted to tell me — she was dying. And then, as I got her message, there came a light from her eyes — powerful beams of light.

    “Yes,” he continued, again answering an unasked question, “it was a real light, a powerful, dazzling, blinding light, a light more intense than I had ever produced by the most powerful lamps in my laboratory.

    “When that pigeon died, something went out of my life. Up to that time I knew with a certainty that I would complete my work, no matter how ambitious my program, but when that something went out of my life I knew my life’s work was finished.”

    Stories like this are both touching and scary. For me, the thought of my life possibly ending all alone with only a pet or animal as my friend is sobering. But when life brings us to our knees we sometimes are comforted by these special graces and are better able to experience beauty and love. Knowing and loving pigeons has helped me see the whole world in a much deeper way.

    • This (Nader being asexual) would not surprise me. People who are defective in some significant way carry a lot of resentment, are frustrated by their abnormality and their energies find expression in other ways.

      I understand that.

      What I don’t understand is why normal people accept it.

      How is it that this Nader guy came to be the “advocate” for “consumers” just by saying that’s what he is?

      Because people let him.

      The mooing, cattle-like masses that always defer to a loudmouth Leader.

      It only works Because Democracy – the vilest system there is because it empowers First Citizens such as Nader who – unlike a king – obtain their powers “from the people” and are therefore much harder to delegitimize and get rid of.

      Of course, it’s only a portion of “the people” (the cattle, the Clovers) whose support is necessary to assume the cloak of all “the people.”

      Just as a drop of black ink will change the color of a gallon of water….

      Nader and his ilk can only be kept in check when a working majority of the populace refuses to allow anyone’s rights to be put to a vote.

      • Nader reminds me a great deal of Hitler who had what most considered to be extreme sexual problems. I can’t see Nader having sex, having time for it after filing documents, filling out paperwork, running it through his legal constituents, etc. And you might ask, who’d want to have sex with him? Well, that’s another thing. I lost confidence in women being able to sort shit from shinola decades ago. The people they obviously have sex with is astounding at times. Even the lines they’ll swallow, hook, line and sinker are something to behold. I’ve heard it and even participated in it before. Oh shit, do I really want to have sex with her if she’ll go for that line?

          • Which is why men are increasingly refusing to deal with or marry women. Women have become nothing more than shakedown artist in most cases. Why would a man risk becoming a slave to a woman merely because he dated one? Date one of the shakedown artist and the next thing you know she has your house, car, half your other assets and a payment for life from you all ordered by an asshole called a judge. This is called palimony.

            Hell, women are now suing men for child support they’ve never met for a child that never existed (this actually happened in New Mexico)! To hell with that! I’d rather pay a professional for services than take a chance with an unknown bitch. Mind you I don’t hate women in general just the ones that are shakedown artist. So paraphrasing Eric, just as a little crap will ruin a whole gallon of ice cream, so has crappy women ruined it for women in general with men.

              • I would agree, but sometimes when she’s wailing and pummeling away about some kind of nonsense that has become a major issue in her mind it becomes more understandable why some guys join the other team.

                • Still can’t see that.

                  You have to have a single, solid, voice to captain the ship.
                  Can’t rule by committee.
                  Or you end up committed.

                  Mine is in therapy; she’s just as bad in her thoughts, she’s merely tempered the reactions. It’s early yet – but I have long since had my fill.
                  There are many pretty women I could spend time with.

                  To quote Benny Hill, “Why make one woman miserable when I can make so many women happy?”

              • It is my opinion, the homosexuals want marriage so they can do what heterosexuals do when they divorce. Shake down the partner for everything they have.

                • That’s what the lawyers hope, anyway… 😉
                  Note, BTW, that child support is STILL an issue in gay divorce these days (yes, it’s happening already.)

      • How is it that this Nader guy came to be the “advocate” for “consumers” just by saying that’s what he is?

        Because people let him.

        Right on.

        It’s a textbook case of what Etienne de La Boetie talked about in “Discours de la Servitude Volontaire”.

        … every tyranny must necessarily be grounded upon general popular acceptance. In short, the bulk of the people themselves, for whatever reason, acquiesce in their own subjection. If this were not the case, no tyranny, indeed no governmental rule, could long endure.

        Hence, a government does not have to be popularly elected to enjoy general public support; for general public support is in the very nature of all governments that endure, including the most oppressive of tyrannies. The tyrant is but one person, and could scarcely command the obedience of another person, much less of an entire country, if most of the subjects did not grant their obedience by their own consent.

        This, then, becomes for La Boétie the central problem of political theory: why in the world do people consent to their own enslavement? La Boétie cuts to the heart of what is, or rather should be, the central problem of political philosophy: the mystery of civil obedience. Why do people, in all times and places, obey the commands of the government, which always constitutes a small minority of the society? To La Boétie the spectacle of general consent to despotism is puzzling and appalling…

        https://www.lewrockwell.com/1970/01/murray-n-rothbard/overthrowing-the-state/

        • bevin, amen to that. It was going to be “public opinion” that shut down pirate radio stations that were only pirate because the gunvermin(low down moralistic shitheads)didn’t care for the music or their supposed morals, the law breakers, the drug takers and the bottom bashing fornicators, whatever the hell that means. When public opinion garnered 93% of the popularity then the immoral bureaucrats decided to make it illegal because “they didn’t like it”. As the Hitleresque bureaucrat in Pirate Radio said, That’s the great thing about being the government. If you don’t like something you simply make it illegal.

          Just what the AMA has jumped on board and now declared gun violence an epidemic as if it were influenze. One more bunch of evil dipshits who wish to quash human rights.

          And this is just exactly how the Taliban were in the beginning, a tiny minority who wreaked havoc on the rest of society. Then the US(Charlie Wilson’s War…bullshit bullshit bullshit)gave them weapons and money just to cause the Soviet Union to look bad when it was the USSR trying to protect the general public in the first place. Now look what has happened and Russia can now rightly claim any amount of being the good guys they want in public opinion. They have certainly done much less harm since the 80’s than the US has. But we won the cold war. More bullshit. The USSR was never a long term solution for govt. in any way,shape or form and it finally collapsed on its own.

          Oh yeah, on the planet of Mayo, the chief chimp(RR) was revealed to be the emperor without clothes. But never according to Pat Buchanan nor the evil neocons he now hates. What Pat, bad memory?

          • “the AMA … One more bunch of evil dipshits” – one more group that convinced the gunvermin to protect their income by granting them monopoly power over ‘licensing’ of health care.

  6. Back in the early 70’s my dad was given a ’64 Monza by a client. A beauuuuuuuuuutiful car that I had hoped he would one day pass down to me when I became old enough to drive in a few years. Alas, as bad luck would have it, a leak apparently developed in a coolant line that eventually caused an engine overheat and seizure. Dad decided not to put any time or money into an engine replacement or overhaul and the Monza sat in our garage for almost six years before Dad sold it for a pittance to a family friend who rebuilt classic cars for a hobby. It was like my heart got pulled through a paper shredder. I really had my heart set on that Monza as my first car (eventually had to settle for 1970 Ford LTD. A bigger PoS of a domestic car never built, except maybe for the Pinto).

    So yeah, FUCK YOU, Ralph Nadir [sic], as well as all of your buttbuddies in Washington, and that fraud of an AHF that gave you unmerited awards!

    • Hi Lib,

      I had a ’64 Monza coupe (sold back in ’03)… Daytona Blue with a white parchment interior; 4 speed car. It was a much better car than the VW Beetle (I’ve owned two of those). Vastly better body integrity; a heater that worked. Great ride, good power.

      I wish I had not sold it!

    • Um, to pick a nit- what kind of coolant line leaks in an air cooled engine???

      Oil cooler perhaps? Or the bizarre fan belt on the corvair?

      • IIRC (sold the car about 12 years ago) my ’64 had an oil cooler, but Lib might have been referring to the tendency of Corvair engines to seep oil from various places. That said, the tinwork for the cooling fan/heater was much more effective than the VW’s. I’ve owned both and can vouch for this from personal experience.

  7. Another good example of lunatic asylum honors, the noble “peace” prize going to guys like Obama, Arafat and a few others.

    If it wasn’t for the Corvair, Nadar would be just another shyster lawyer wearing a bad suit who advertises on late night TV.

    • Even Henry “Ve vill vage var venever ve vant” Kissinger got the Peace Prize. Just like the other Nobel prizes, it’s all political. And the politics ain’t concerned with the liberty and integrity of the individual.

  8. I think that Nader made some good points in his book, however, the culture that he spawned has been corrosive to drivers in America. In addition to making dubious safety claims about the Corvair, he was also an unabashed advocate of slow driving as he screamed and wailed when congress removed the 55 mph speed limit from the nation’s highways. Nader was the automobiles first most prominent enemy. He doesn’t drive to this day, so how would he know anything about safety.

    In response to Naders notariety, the automobile industry has cowered ever since.

    • You can tell Nader couldn’t drive a nail up his ass with ping pong paddles. Just a weird brain in a body that never experienced anything as did his brain. Those types are dangerous wherever they are. He makes clover look like a ravin daredevil. Really though, WTF does anyone care if I kill myself? Answer, they couldn’t care less but somebody like an insurance company and a “grieving mother” has convinced them it would be a great societal tragedy if I somehow took a chance and got killed. You know, one of those chances like walking out the door to cops with AR’s and auto shotguns. Oh, they don’t mind coming to the boonies as long as there’s something in it for them.

      I was easing through the pasture one day and sat down to glass an area. I’d been there just a few minutes when I saw a big cougar. It saw my binocs by the way it stopped and looked. I didn’t move, not glasses or anything. We had a stare-off. The old saw about not moving is the best advice you can take. I didn’t move the glasses and tried to not breathe hard. This went on a few minutes and then the cat finally eased off a few feet, stopped and looked back at me. I never moved and was glad CJ wasn’t with me. It eased on a few feet further and looked back again. It was finally out of my sight but I stayed put, glad to have nobody with me. I wasn’t worried for me since I had an AR and am a good shot but still, I didn’t want to kill it or have to kill it. I wonder how many people would want to deprive me of being there and being armed since they couldn’t imagine being there with that big cat. I guess they wouldn’t have wanted to be out there in the tall grass on that howling wind day in the winter when i startled a bunch of sows with litters as well as those boars. CJ’s predecessor, Buck was only 6 months old and latched on to a sow coming up behind me. I heard it, was able to flip up that AR with my one hand by that oh so bad handgrip and shoot the hog just a few feet off my ass with Buck latched on. But clover is sure there is no use for a gun like that except to kill chilluns. This country has gone to hell in a handbag….literally. Colt…..forever. You wouldn’t believe it now Sam.

  9. GM made a couple of critical mistakes.

    With the Corvair, GM initially decided to save a few bucks by not including a front anti-roll bar or a rear camber compensator. These items, which were finally made standard in 1964, brought the car’s handling more in line with most people’s expectation. Had GM included them from the beginning the car would have been less of a target. (Of course the 1965 redesign that got rid of the swing axles entirely was even better. I’d love to have a 2nd-gen Corvair.)

    I’ve driven early Corvairs and owned a 1964 Monza many years ago. These were not ill-handling cars. They were just different than what the driver of typical domestic products of the time would expect when pushed to the limit.

    Here’s a crash-test film of the 1960 Corvair. Note that the passenger compartment stays intact in some pretty severe crash scenarios. Doesn’t look particularly “unsafe” to me:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoYKloKeymk

    GM’s mistake with Nader was going after him with private investigators trying to dig up dirt. The failure and blowback from this put Nader on the front page. Otherwise he would likely have remained in obscurity where he belonged.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here