If you’ll indulge one more rear-engined American feature (come to think of it, are there any others your average person can buy?), the real lookers of the Corvair family are the second series car. Given the whole legal mess, the introduction of the Chevy II compact, and slim profit margins, it’s a bit of a miracle the second generation even made it to production. But thank goodness it did, because while the first generation car certainly had strong influence on car designers, German ones especially, the second generation was arguably the best looking economy car ever built in America. Maybe that sounds like a back-handed compliment, but it’s not meant that way – creating an economy car that’s fun and good looking is not something many manufacturers have achieved. Check out this 1965 Chevrolet Corvair 500 Coupe for sale for $3000 somewhere near San Pablo, CA.
A quick search does not turn up an obvious inspiration or source for the hood scoops – Fitch and Yenko, two prominent sellers of hopped up Corvairs at the time, didn’t use these. That said, they’re nicely integrated, and the spoiler does appear on one or two Fitch Sprints. This car is said to have been sitting for a while since the seller has been busy with work, yet he also says he’s getting a new project, so has likely just lost interest here.
White suits the shape, and chrome looks to be shiny, while the interior is said to be complete with the exception of carpet. From this angle, you could easily say this car also had some influence on the shape of BMWs to come. The car is said to have only minor rust, which sounds about right for a car wearing black and yellow California plates.
What looks to be the base 95hp 2.7-liter flat six was rebuilt 10,000 miles ago, and the battery on the left of the picture is new. With 2400 lb. to motivate, it won’t be fast, but it won’t be boring, and likely has decent torque. The manual transmission will also help make the most of what you have, and it’s nice to see there’s a modern alternator installed.
If you didn’t know this was a Chevrolet, could this pass for Italian? German? It’s certainly a nice looking one, though the ad is lacking in detail photos, and this apparently base-specification car seems like a good start for some performance upgrades. Time to break out How to Hot Rod Corvair Engines and the Clark’s Corvair catalog and start dreaming…
Rusty But Trusty 
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