Henty van der Merwe proudly showed off his 1960 Chev Corvair to a small crowd of curious bystanders in the Pepper Grove parking lot last Saturday 23 August.
Henty van der Merwe proudly showed off his 1960 Chev Corvair to a small crowd of curious bystanders in the Pepper Grove parking lot last Saturday 23 August.
He has rebuilt the car which he describes as his 'experimental model', upgrading the engine from a 2.4 litre to a 3.6 litre flat six with four carburettors.
The Corvair was the only American designed and mass-produced car powered by a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine.
Van der Merwe turned on the engine so that admiring onlookers could enjoy the throaty grunt of the big six engine which he says is still capable of powering him up to 190km/h. He insists however, that he could only risk that speed on a long straight because the Corvair always had a dubious handling reputation – mainly due to the fact that American drivers were not used to a rear-mounted engine.
This poor reputation was the subject of a book and campaign by well-known consumer rights activist, Ralph Nader who insisted that the car should be recalled because in his opinion it was unsafe.
The 1960 model has a surprisingly large boot in the front of the car because of its small fuel tank. This, Van der Merwe says, is a bit of a problem. He says that later models of the Corvair had a larger fuel tank but had less space in the boot.
The Corvair was revolutionary in many respects making the front cover of Time magazine in 1960 and receiving the Motor Trend "Car of the Year" award in that same year. Its aesthetics were no less controversial than its mechanics.
Car and Driver editor, David E Davis described it as the most beautiful car to appear in the US since before World War 2, while in 2007 Time included the Corvair in its list of the 50 worst cars of all time. Controversies aside, the Corvair sold rather well, notching up just over 1.8 million sales in its 10-year production cycle.
