Car of the Week: 1965 Chevrolet Corvair 500

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dodgechargerfan

In a 55 gallon drum, floating down river, and
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Rick Sanford is one of those fanatical “Corvair guys” who can’t get enough of Chevrolet’s famed — and star-crossed — rear-engine sports cars. He’s rescued them, rebuilt them, raced them, swapped them, restored them and showed them.

A few years back he realized his dream of assembling an award-winning Corvair, one that was restored to the highest standards and was a close to a brand-new Corvair as he could come. That car was a stunning, red 1965 Corsa turbo coupe that has earned the AACA HPOF recognition and top honors from the Corvair Society of America.

Having a “top of the heap” car wasn’t enough, however. Sanford can’t pinpoint the reason why, but he also had a longing to own a “low-budget” Corvair with no bells and whistles. He owned the thoroughbred, and wanted the plow horse to go with it.

“Some guys call them ‘bookends’ … I started to really want to have both ends of the spectrum,” laughed Sanford, a resident of Frederick, Md. “My red car is fully equipped. It has every option on it. It’s completely restored and in perfect condition. It’s a beauty queen, but I always wanted a ‘Plain Jane’ to go with it.”

When he probably least expected it, the perfect candidate fell into Sanford’s lap: a 1965 no-frills Corvair 500. It was a green coupe that belonged to another Corvair enthusiast, Ward Bourgondien. The car had been sitting for years, was all-original, and was in need of a new home.

- See more at: http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/car-of-the-week/car-of-the-week-1965-chevrolet-corvair-500
 
My dad had a Corvair for about two weeks.

I never did get a ride in it.

He brought it home a day or two before I went in to the hospital for surgery and someone ran him off the road while I was in the hospital. He rolled it down an embankment to the highway near our house. He walked home and called the cops.
 
Never did see the appeal of those things, particularly from a visual perspective..... Our auto shop teacher in High School loved 'em. Even built one that he retrofitted a Olds 455 and tornado running gear into. (This was 1978, before there were kits to do such things....) It would do wheel stands in the school's shop parking lot all day long.

Funny thing is, he was an Aussie - not sure why he loved those cars so much. We thought it was cool to help him work on the things as a class project, but we still found 'em ugly as sin....
 
My Godfather bought a red '65 convertible new, with a red interior and a white top, the hotter engine and the 4-speed. He still had it well into the '90s and it was in really-nice shape as it was a summer toy only since new. He was splitting a lot of time between Australia and the U.S., and eventually just moved to Australia permanently. I honest don't know what happened to the car, though. That was the first convertible in which I ever got a ride, and the last time I saw it we were talking and he told me he was the only person that had ever driven it. I don't think that car had 50,000 miles on it at the time, but that would've been around '94-'95.

I kind of like the '65-'69 hardtop coupes, but the earlier ones look like a freakin' tugboat in the front.
 
With 1960's tire technology those things were an accident waiting to happen as soon as the roads got a little slippery. With little warning they would end up pointing 180 deg. of your original direction. On dry pavement they handled like a sumbich. Which probably contributed to their wet road treachery. It was easy to become over-confident on its' abilities. All-in-all, they were a very ingenous assembly. Accept for the fan belt arrangment, the engines were quite durable. The fan belt was driven from the crank pulley up to the alternator on one side and an idler pulley on the other side. These made the belt do a 90 deg. bend so the belt could drive a large cooling fan on top of the motor. As soon as the belt got a little loose it was laying somewhere on the motor, (or gone). This lead to many motors getting cooked.


The transaxle assembly had the differential mounted directly to the motor with the power going thru it to the transmission, which was mounted in front of the diff. Power was then directed back to the diff. This meant that the transmission input & output shafts were in the same location, one inside of the other.
Little known fact is that the Corvair was the only Detroit engine that rotated counter-clockwise. The "pinion" gear was on a shaft that allowed it to be moved from one side of the ring gear to the other, therefore creating one forward gear and many reverse. :doh:
 
i beg to differ on the "only" counter rotator....look at almost ever twin boat motor made by any of detroit..and some industrial aplication engines too....

some of the covair bodys i like more than others yet that all look the same....i wouldnt want one but i kinda dig em

the first time i saw that double L fan belt i stopped dead in my track with a WTF
 
69.5CUDA said:
i beg to differ on the "only" counter rotator....look at almost ever twin boat motor made by any of detroit..and some industrial aplication engines too....
Click to expand...

My oversight, I should have said "Detroit built automobile​ engine"
 
hehehhe i had to rib ya on that one...i think even ford did some of the i6 for tractors that were counter's .....i also know fiat did a whole mess of counter car engines as well for the 500 and 600'sback when they were tiny
 
69.5CUDA said:
hmm theres a fun thought..take a corvair....and slip 911 turbo gear under it..suspension and all
Click to expand...

Better idea yet ---- because Porsche and VW are built by the same company, they share the same block -bell bolt pattern. Drop a flat six in place of your flat four. You need to either enlarge the bonnet, or leave it off. And that's been done. :vroom:
 
I think I've posted pics previously of the VW Beetle in Green Bay, WI with the big-block Olds with four Weber downdrafts, a TH425, and all 911 Turbo suspension. I can't access that PC at the moment, though, or I'd put one up here. Yep, it's mid-engine. :dance:
 
i know ive seen the hemi bug as well

68 thats been done far too many times...if i was to stay all vw it would be baja'ed giha with a 911 turbo out back
 
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