Corvairs Through the Darien Gap

[Falcon Ranchero]

One of my favourite stories of old cars has to be about the three Roman Red Corvairs, that, in 1961, braved a section of roadless jungle between Panama and Columbia. First read about it in a past issue of my favourite magazine, Collectible Automobile, but from time to time when I see a corvair, this story comes to mind. Don't have the article with me at hand, but from my recollection, in 1960, three red Corvairs did something similar, but stopped before they got to the actual Darien Gap. It was in 1961 that another 3 red Corvairs actually went through it, with two making it out alive, and one having been ditched quite close to the Columbia border after running out of gas. They were accompanied by 3 Chevy trucks, two Suburbans, and an Apache 4x4 or something, and I don't think any of those made it out alive, one having broke an axle, the other having fallen down a gully. The whole thing was to promote the Corvair's rugged ability, but by that point consumers were more focused on muscle and sport than on whether or not you could brave a jungle with a passenger car, and so nobody really cared, and Chevy then focused on the sporty Corvair Monza. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, and even though I've heard stories about how bad these cars were, this accomplishment makes it kind of hard to believe. Mind you they were beaten senseless by the jungle, but became the first passenger cars ever that made it throught there. Pretty cool.

Here's a video from 1961-ish that has actual footage of the 1960 run, and the 1961 expedition through the actual Darien Gap. That part starts around 13:35 in the video. It's pretty crazy. 

 

  

[10543Modeler]

I had a '65 Corsa convertible back in the mid 80's.  It was a fun little car.    Another one I should've kept.............

[NOBLNG]

Awesome! Now I want a Corvair!🤪

[Mark]

Chevrolet concentrated on the sportier Corvairs because not enough people were buying the ordinary ones.  Ford's Falcon was running away from the Corvair sales-wise.  

They rushed out the Chevy II (pretty much a Falcon copy except for a couple of things GM wanted to experiment with--the bolt-on front end structure, and the single-leaf rear springs that they had been messing with for a few years prior). 

Chevrolet's own dealers weren't crazy about the Corvair either; the Chevy II bore that out.  Why bother with a rear-engine car that required more training and a few special tools, when you could sell a car with a cast-iron engine up front, driving the rear wheels, like everything else Chevrolet sold.  And, which, the average dealer mechanic could beat the flat-rate time for most repairs without having to learn anything new.

The Monza might not have happened either.  Ed Cole at first wanted all Corvairs to have automatic transmissions.  That might have dulled the effect of a sportier Corvair.  The sales people pushed for a manual transmission for the base model to keep the entry-level price down. 

Had GM pushed other divisions to take the Corvair (Pontiac was closest to getting it, though all divisions except Cadillac were offered it) the rear-engine car might have been better accepted by the general public.  Still, it probably wasn't needed, the Chevy II did just fine in that segment.

[Mattilacken]

Cool expedition! I believe no one would try some thing similar in that type of car today.

I wonder what the equivalent car would be today? 

Edited yesterday at 08:26 AM by Mattilacken

[stitchdup]

theres a book possibly called the burial brothers (thats what google says it is but the name doesn't ring a bell) that is a couple of guys driving an old hearse down through south america. i read it a lot of years ago and it was pretty good.

[Dragline]

Ralph Nader is an...... You fill in the rest.

[Ace-Garageguy]

14 hours ago, Dragline said:

Ralph Nader is an...... You fill in the rest.

Considering that at the time of his holy war against the Corvair, he didn't own a car, didn't even have a license to drive a car, had never ridden in a Corvair, and had zero engineering background...

There was nothing inherently wrong with the early Corvair (though it could have been better), and in fact, its rear swing-axle suspension design was identical to that used in VW Beetles and 356 Porsches, some production Mercedes cars, and even some highly successful F1 cars built years earlier.

The problems were that 1) a simple, inexpensive device known as a "camber compensator" could have been fitted to make the first cars more friendly to Mr. and Mrs. Joe Average Driver ("camber compensators" were common upgrades on hot Porsches and VWs at the time as well...I ran one on my own VW), but the bean counters nixed the idea, and 2) tire pressures were critical to achieving safe and predictable handling of the very first cars in the hands of average drivers too...and GM mistakenly believed that putting the information regarding said tire pressures in the owner's manual would be sufficient. Nope.

I've owned every flavor of Corvair ever made, and drove all of them hard. The 1960 (first year) with no camber compensator was indeed overly sensitive to tire pressures, but somehow I managed to avoid flaming death.

The later first-gen cars through '64 were great fun to drive rapidly, safe and predictable.

For 1965 Corvairs all got a sophisticated fully independent rear suspension design that was actually more advanced than what was on Porsches at the time and they handled great...but GM's gutless posture in the face of Nader's (and the hysterical yapping media's) largely exaggerated attack was what ultimately doomed the car. The last year was 1969.

Nader's attack on the Corvair was largely the initial event that allowed the gubmint to push its camel's nose into the car-design tent, and the result has been a legacy of overly complex, expensive, and largely useless (and ultimately withdrawn...can you say 5mph bumpers, boys and girls?) "safety" features.

EDIT: VW Bugs (below) and contemporary Porsches with swing-axle rear ends exhibited exactly the same extreme camber change in droop as the early Corvair, and were also sensitive to front/rear tire pressure differentials, but somehow managed to escape Mr. Nader's UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED !!!!!!! tirade.

                         

Edited 12 hours ago by Ace-Garageguy

[TECHMAN]

Setting outside is my 1964 Corvair , black inside/outside/back-belly-& both-sides, 58K original miles survivor.  Not a 100pt resto, but just a sanitary little car that has managed to "keep on keeping on".  Was a factory special order 110horse 4spd with the optional handling package, has Flowmaster duals, little larger carbs, K&N air filters and recurved distributor with a 40K volt coil.  STILL a ball to drive, and totally dependable!!!!!  My personal thought:  Ralph's wife ran off with a Corvair salesman.. 😉

DJ

[Carmak]

On 7/15/2025 at 8:40 AM, Dragline said:

Ralph Nader is an...... You fill in the rest.

First off, not a Nader fan, but.....

I read "Unsafe at Any Speed" years ago. The book does not focus on the Corvair in particular. Where the book does discuss the Corvair it explains and shows how the 65 rear suspension resolves the issues with the 60-64 rear suspension.

The reason everybody knows Nader - the book - it's connection to the Corvair is GM. They attempted hired a group of people to attempt to ensnare Nader with a young woman to smear his reputation. It blew up on GM and became front page national news. GM's attempt to smear Nader actually got him the publicity the books release did not.

Nader didn't kil the Corvair, the Mustang did. When GM released the F-body cars (Camaro/Firebird) to compete with the Mustang there was no need for two sporty coupes. GM made Corvairs until 69 but effectively stopped development after 67.