Jay's such a pro that he apologizes for pandemic editions saying he has to record these videos on his own, but even on his own these videos are produced better than the most other car reviews on TH-cam.
I went to hear him speak. He signed his newest book I had just bought. “To William, drive safely in your Corvair!” He couldn’t have been nicer to me. A memorable moment!
@@JosephHowes2003 Jay does act like a real human off camera. I live in Burbank and I often see Jay in one of his cars. I honk & wave, and he waves back and says “Hi”.. I’ve seen him our local Automotive/ Airplane book store and he’s a regular guy and talks to everyone.
I had a 1965 110 HP Corvair when I was in High School. One day my Mom and I were on our way somewhere and in those days the California Highway Patrol performed roadside inspections. We were pulled over into a inspection station. The inspection officer was at the front of my Corvair and asked me if I had an inside hood release ? I told the officer in front of his fellow officers that the engine, which was running, was in the back. He had me get out and open the back while his fellow officers had a good laugh. He didn't know anything about the engine and gave me a sticker. My Dad sold it when I went into the Service.
@@johncastillo2194 The CHP issues s "passed highway inspection sticker" that went on the windshield. I was once in a group of fellow hot rodders and we were all pulled over. One of the hot rodders was a CHP himself. As the police were at the back car this CHP hot rodder walked down the line of cars and placed a sticker on every car before the police got to the next one. Ha, ha, ha !
@@bux49 now they go after you for aftermarket heatshields on your turbo and force you to a 'smog' refferree for having 'suspicious' underhood equipt and the car has to stay parked for months until a reff appointment is available. Things got way worse as bad as the inspections used to be. Now CA does NOT do ANY safety inspections at all(only smog) This review is a perfect anology to the fake liberal news of DANGEROUS Covid flu and the DANGEROUS Corvair...proves that the public will believe anything the media states as a fact that 'experts' say is true lol.
Those and the Corvette Rally wheels were awesome! Had them on my '71 Camaro (which I built from a $100.00 roller). Car looked good, ran like stink with the '67 327 I built and 4-speed from '67 Olds 442 (yeah, it was a mutt). Looked like a debadged Z28. Bright white, Sapphire hood and trunk stripes which I painted myself. I miss that car...
@@PhilG999 That’s my favorite Camaro body style (before the ugly rubber noses, I think til ‘72?). I had a ‘79 El Camino that I bought with a ‘68 327 and a four-speed (eventually a heads/cam aluminum L33 5.3 with a Tremec TKO 5-speed and a 3.89:1 posi disc brake Currie 9”) that had 15x8” Corvette Rallies with Disc Brake caps (eventually 17x8” billet AR Rallies) on it, satin black with the single strip of aluminum trim running from bumper to bumper and over the wheelwell arches, THAT thing was a laugh factory and pretty cool-looking to boot. I hate myself every day for trading it off right after I got it ‘finished’ (they never really are) for a 4WD truck when I got my first really good job and needed reliability. I should’ve hung onto it and bought a reliable FWD cheapo economy car to drive to work. I’ll get another one someday, or maybe a ‘70 split bumper Camaro.
I dont buy the classic cars thing are unsafe. I was born in 1999. My first car was a 64 impala, I flipped it when I was a stupid 18 year old at 80 mph. No injuries. Past 4 years I daily a 69 impala. Still dont wear my safety belt. I feel very safe in my american tank
We had 6 kids in our family mom had a 62 the a 65 Corvair both black, my mom and sisters loved them and drove the heck out of them. .Dad put a sack or two of concrete during the winter to weight the front end so it handled better in the snow. I remember many Sunday evening drives were I layed down in the package tray area behind the rear seat and slept while the engine kept me warm.
My grandfather had one, and my dad said he rolled it. My dad always said he told my grandfather not to buy it, my grandfather always did what he wanted,.
@@estpst What year was it? 65's and later were much almost impossible to roll unless you hit a curb or pothole while sliding. Ralf Nader was/is and card carrying Communist and wanted to hurt our biggest Co. at the time, his books claims about the Corvair were 100% filled with lies 1/2 truths and exaggerations GM proved this in Court a few years after the bogus trial where some rich kids daddy sued GM because he rolled a grossly overloaded Corvair that was speeding and hit a crosswind.
Jay , I really appreciate your spotlight on the Corvair. My dad was a Corvair fanatic ! We had the Coupes, the Sedans, the Greenbrier Vans, the sidegate pick-up , the Stationwagon, at anytime there was 10 or 15 Corvairs on our lot. In my teens I became a pretty good Corvair mechanic. I had my personal 140hp that I did a little tweaking to, I don't know how much extra HP the re-jetted Carter carbs or the Headers with Glass-packs added, or "Coil-over shocks in the rear, 14" American Mags with Tiger-Paws all around, I had to move the spare tire up front to balance the feel. I ran the quarter in the 13-14's ! No Turbo , no Nitrous ! Long live the CORVAIR ! Yes I did keep an extra belt , just in case ! Thanks, Joe B.
Friend of mines older brother also had a lightly breathed on Corsa w/ the single 4 barrel that also ran 13-14 second 1/4 miles.....wild stuff, sort of lit my fuse for the 5 Corvairs that followed.
I love Jay Leno's Covid Edition videos. They're genuine and enjoyable. This Turbo Corvair I didn't know about it that it existed. Very pretty looking car. Great video Jay.
Same here....I always had thought that they only had supercharged engines with 160 bhp (with 110 bhp being base)...didn't realize they made a turbo one...and I've been a fan of Corvairs for 30 years.
My neighbor in San Diego county had a Corvair Monza. He stuffed a 283 ci Chevy boat engine in the back, complete with radiator for liquid cooling. Hey Jeff & Dale we had a grand old time in 1980! You still out there?
Yeah, mine was a 110 dual carb and I swapped out those for the quad carb setup and 1/4 turn steering setup from my neighbor's 140 when he got into Datsuns for racing instead.
I put 100,000 miles on one. Then I sold it. It was almost my favorite car except for the '66 New Yorker. But if your wallet was a bit short that week. The Corvair wins in that department. Yes you could get over 30 MPG. If you took it real easy. Also Did not mind no A/C our a little less heat. Both used premium gas. Had a friend that had a midship 68 302 Chevy motor in one. Yes 5 point seat belts was really needed in that one. But if you did not mind getting the gear shift or arm rest digging into your side. You could leave it unbuckled.
Oh and the midship 302 would only do 120 in a quarter mile. The 1st gear full throttle would scatter the spider gears. No not so good for the 1st gear. Too much torque. Also real hard to keep front wheels on the ground so you could steer. Might be why it took so long to do a midship Corvette?
Absolutely true. To me my 1992 740 Volvo is the best car ever made. An absolute blast to drive. Yes it’s slow but has been faithful for almost 500K miles. I’ll keep it forever if I’m able.
I had a couple of these, absolutely fantastic cars! One time I asked a friend (a fellow Corvair owner) to help me take a V8 into the machine shop. He shows up in his '66 Corvair Monza and I'm like "How we gonna get the engine to the shop"? He's like we'll just put the block in the front, it'll be fine. When we got it in it sat there like it was made to be there. When we got it to the shop the guys were looking around for a truck to unload but were amazed to see the V8 nestled between the wheel wells. They even took pictures. When we brought the motor home we transported it in something more suitable: A Rampside pick up.
I was 16 in 1964. I was offered a 1963 Corvare Monza. A family friend wanted nothing to do with it when he encountered rear wheel hop at 75 mph. I added some bolt on suspension parts and converted the twin carbs to a 4- Barrel. Fantastic driver and surprisingly competitive. Terry&ThePirates South Florida
I love the look of the 2nd generation Corvair's like this one. (The silver rear-end of the Corsa models looks especially nice.) It might not suit everyone's taste, but I find this to be one of the most striking American car designs of all time. My parents owned both 1st gen and 2nd gen examples back in the day.
That's because Jay is 70 years old, like me! So much of what Jay is talking about are from previous experiences in life. I had a 1963 corvair that I bought in 1968 when I was still 17 years old. Only cost me $350 then. Used of course. Four-speed manual, 110 HP. Different body design first generation.
Absolutely! Jay is a walking, driving automotive encyclopedia!! Corvairs are obviously very special to Jay. As he said, he has 3 of them. Hemmings has an issue with Jay writing about his top 10 collectible cars - yeah, the Corvair is on the list! I've been driving Corvairs since I was 20 years old and now at more than 70 I am still as enthused as Jay is! Love the only air-cooled flat six American car made. A joy to drive and own. ; >)
Yep, I was picking up a car from the place around the corner from his place. I was walking across the street and he came barreling around the corner. He apologized as he went whipping by me. When someone almost kills you in L.A., they never do that. Props to Jay.
I was having a conversation with Jay at the Rock Store in Malibu when a "white-haired" old lady came up to talk to him. Jay said to me, "excuse me for a moment" so he could talk to her. Great guy.
If it wasn’t for the pandemic lockdown and being home so much I’d never have had so much extra time to watch these ... certainly it took the pandemic to even discover this show on TH-cam. I remember it from years ago ... glad he’s still doing them.
LM Corvairs are timeless. My daughters drove a 65 Corvair to high school and nobody knew what is was. My wife has a 63 Spyder I am nearly done with getting it back on the road, 4 speed, 150hp turbo, convertible...looking forward to Sunday drives in it. Thanks Jay Leno for keeping the car bug alive and the love of classic Corvairs.
10 to 15 years ago, there was a Corvair of that same body style that sat at the Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, CA that had a Ralph Nader For President bumper sticker in the back window.
The best thing that's happened because of covid is jay showing us his collection one at a time just him and his love of his collection don't stop jay till we have seen them all
Listening to Jay talk about cars is like listening to an encyclopedia on the auto industry. His breadth of knowledge is astounding and it shows his life long passion for cars.
In 1965 I was 16. My neighbor had an Olds Jetfire in I962. An Internet search says the Corvair Turbo was introduced in 1965. It never in my wildest dreams occured to me that the Corvair had the first Turbo. In 1972 my girl friend had a Corvair Monza. I tore it down and then decided to give it to a mechanic... too damn many parts. (I owned a VW) Never did it occur to me that the Corvair came out as competition for the Valent et al. Valient, Falcon, Corvair, what else? They ALL came out as competition for the VW. VW was kickin' everybodies behind because American car companies were, let's here it Jay, infatuated with "Longer, leaner, lower." When America saw the simple to repair, inexpensive to maintain, drive up the side of a cliff, float down river VW, pass up every gas station in town they all wanted one of those. Jay evidently was born just a little too late.
He is like an automotive Rosetta stone...He is one of those rare people who has knowledge of those cars of yesteryear the younger generation have never even heard of, but also has a breadth of knowledge of current car models and manufacturers.
I drove one of these through box canyon outside of Thermal, CA, in the sixties. I was really blown away. Jay, you really understand these cars. Please do a show on the Chevy Vega, which was also a great car in its last year of 1976 when they finally got the engine dialed in.
My first car in high school. Nice red color 65 Corvair. Have to thank Ralf Nader for his book that scared previous owner into selling it cheap. I added oversize radial tires, heavy duty shocks and high speed steering arm. Great handling car and never got stuck in the snow. Sold it to a friend who passed it on to a dune buggy builder. Constructed to compete in the Baha 500.
Jay is so good at this - it's like being in the neighbor's garage hanging out. I really like his videos, being able to see and learn about the ACTUAL cars in their natual state.
As a high schooler, I bought my mom's 1965 Corvair convertible 110. My home room teacher talked me into road racing it at Montauk on Long Island and I had a blast... same class as the Porsches... and I was hanging right with track prepped ones with no experience along with the 2 full turns of the steering wheel lock to lock... I was worn out by the end of the race. Like you said, manual everything... so you had to work to drive it a bit. But an absolute blast once I had the front I-beam that was rusted through replaced and put viton pushrod tube seals in the engine. Great first car... thought about buying another one over the years.
"As a high schooler, I bought my mom's 1965 Corvair convertible 110. My home room teacher talked me into road racing it at Montauk on Long Island and I had a blast..." A high school teacher talked you into ROAD racing?
@@nonelost1 High School Teachers weren't always a bunch of SJW Karens. I graduated in 1984. And a lot of them even then were COOL people! As late as the mid-70s there were still school systems in the US that allowed kids to keep shotguns in the racks of their pick-up trucks (hardship drivers license from age 16 of course) and even some schools had SHOOTING TEAMS as part of the curriculum! It was a much better time then.
@@harrygaul4475 Plenty of teachers still smoke pot after hours... at all levels. Difference is that no one cares anymore because it has little of no relationship to their ability to teach. It isn't like they are pulling out a joint and lighting up in the classroom. As opposed to the alcholic ones that are showing up drunk or drinking throughout the day that are a danger to themselves and others.
My family refurbished a 1964 corvair convertible for my son. His mother and grandmother watched youtube videos on body work and fixed rusted holes in the side. He and I replaced parts on the engine and rewired it to factory settings and it fired and ran. We got all the lights working and taught him how to drive a stick in that car. We worked the entire summer and most of the fall on that car. He drove it his senior year. Last summer he bought a mustang for his college car. The corvair was always his baby. He was so proud of it and the way everyone treated him as he drove it around town. Sadly, my boy passed away this year from a embolism. Unexpected tragedy. He wasn't sick. He was in Air Force ROTC and was so excited to work to be a pilot. I miss him every day. I'm currently working on the corvair so I can drive it. Just once a week or so in his honor. Just to remember him. I'd made a similar comment earlier, then linked a writeup his bosses had done for a go fund me, but I didn't want donations, just someone to read about my son and how wonderful your kids can be when you aren't looking. If you Google Nikolai Hill and go fund me you'll find it. I'm not asking for funds. Just for you to know my son so his memory goes on. I miss that kid.
So sorry for your loss. How nice that you spent quality time with your son and that he had a rewarding (but all too short) life. His spirit will certainly be with you in that Corvair.
My dad had a stock 1963 Corvair that I drove for a year in college, around 1976. It had a three speed on the floor. My first car was a 1966 GTO and I loved driving the Corvair more. It's suspension was really tight, it didn't float around like most of the cars of the day. Fairly fast steering ratio, no power steering, but the front end was light and it turned easily. Gas mileage in the 20s around town. It felt lower to the ground than other cars that were easy to get into, looking at the highway spooling into the front end of it was really cool.
Jay makes his videos as if it just us & him. As if each one of his fans are with him one on one just having a chat about that car. Such an awesome opportunity for him to share with us. I am most grateful!
When I was kid in the early sixties, I had a babysitter who drove a Corvair. Sometimes I went to her house for the babysitting session, and we went in her sporty Corvair. I remember how nifty and bright the vehicle was in in comparison to my dad’s car. I was also fascinated by the automotive details including the taillights and the fact the engine noise came from the rear of the car.
Love the Pandemic videos as you show what people into Cars want to see. I would love to see more about the Owens Magnetic as you haven't really shown that in depth.
I agree. While I love seeing other people ride with Jay in their cars, with the pandemic, it allowed Jay to enjoy the cars himself, and give a more detailed description of the cars.
My Dad had on of those in some light, light green color that I suppose was cool at the time. Sold it to get married to my Mom. He drives an Audi A7 now, which is, by his own admission, the best car he's ever owned BUT, he fondly remembers and misses the Corvair. You can tell by the tone in his voice every time he tells a story involving that car (of which there are many).
I've always loved that mid - late '60s GM styling with the curvy Coke bottle body, that quasi-bubble top roof line, those thin pillars, and just the right angle and curve on the front and rear glass. They looked so light and airy. Gen 2 Corvairs are a great example of peak GM body styling.
The 2nd generation of that car: It's like the homely larva that was the 1st generation pupated and became the gorgeous 2nd gen butterfly. Such a looker. Beautiful car, Jay.
I had a 63, which I loved, but borrowed a friend's 180HP 66 and was blown away by how quick it was. I beat anyone who wanted to race, including an Olds 442. This was a truly great little car, and was far safer than Ralph Nader would have you believe. Love this video!
Wish I could give you a hug Jay! A corvair Rampside was my first vehicle, and i caught the corvair bug. thanks for your kind words about these mostly forgotten gems! they weren't bad cars, just misunderstood.
My wife and I love Corvairs! My wife drives a '65 Monza, I had a '64 Greenbrier van, and now a '63 Rampside truck. Love these things. I have an air cooled 911 and find the Corvairs just as much fun due to the diversity of cars that were built. Put together correctly, and you essentially have a first gen 911 with American styling...and we all know how air cooled 911 pricing has been going the past few years. You can still get these for a total bargain
One of my uncles had a Corvair and I remember it as the most outlandish cars ever... He bought it new and drove it his whole life, lots of other cars but he kept the Corvair spotless. Very interesting car, and video, thank you
@@aaronself2411 I wouldn't be so sure. I owned and drove for years a Daewoo Nexia in the late 90s and I think the quality/price ratio was awesome. Yet it was basically the european Opel Kadett that had been rebadged - I guess it helped a lot :-)
@@theothertonydutch I just really appreciate the engineering and styling a lot more. Its actually a very innovative design, but not enough people truly appreciated it.
I recall my Corvair well. My first car was a hand-down from my parents in 1968 when I got my drivers license. It was a beige ‘64 Monza sedan with the two speed “power-glide” automatic and air conditioning. Ugly through and through. As a kid I discovered it could reach 94 mph with the ac on and 100 with it off. The heavy rear end was a real issue when roads were wet. If you took a corner with any speed, the rear would easily break traction and swing around converting your intended 90 degree turn into a 270. The dashboard had a “gen” light and a “overtemp” light. When the fan belt broke, the “gen” light would come on. This served as the “two minute warning” that it would soon overtemp since the fan was no longer running. Putting a new belt on was a shop job since the AC coil mounted horizontally over the fan and needed to be unbolted to replace the belt over the fan pulley. I read the Nader book. As I recall, he made the issue about the sheet metal front end and the non-collapsible steering column. In relatively slow speed front collisions the front would crush and push the steering wheel back where it would catch the driver under the chin and break his neck. Thus, SAE reports aside, you had some drivers horrifically killed in slow speed accidents that would have been easily survivable in front engine cars. That’s what made it newsworthy. But, It got me to and from my first job where I earned the cash to buy a used ‘66 GTO. In retrospective, the GTO was far more likely to get me killed. Somehow I survived and grew up. Today, I’m more of an old Prius guy.
If GM had kept this in production for another five years they would have had a serious competitor against the imports when the fuel embargo hit in 1974.
Well, GM had the Vega. It was Motor Trend's Car of the Year in 1971. Great looking car, too bad it was worse than the Corvair. There was only two things wrong with the Vega, the engine and the body. The crappy engine lasted about 3 years before it needed a complete rebuild and the body rusted away after about 5 years. It was US subcompacts like the Vega that made millions of Americans flock to Datsun and Toyota dealerships for their next car. Oh, and Ed Cole designed the Vega too.
Thank you for this Jay. There's a blue one sitting in my grandma's back yard just wasting away. It's actually pretty complete, but hasn't functioned in years. People told me it was a horrible car to want to restore and collect so I never bothered to look into it. Even my neighbor who collects cars said it was garbage. Your video showed me how beautiful it can be. I'll let my grandma know.
You need to learn not to listen to other people - especially ignorant low IQ boomers whose only goal is to destroy everything for future generations because they are lazy and stupid. The Corvair is a highly collectible and well regarded car and there are several clubs with thousands of members. FURTHERMORE, you do not need to restore it only but mechanically. Less than $500-$1 grand in parts and it will be good to go. Will need to dismantle both the engine and fuel tank and drivetrain and give it all a thorough cleaning out and re-greasing and make sure it's all spotless. Also inspect all wiring for damage from animals. People make restoring cars more difficult than it actually is.
My wife's grandfather tried to give me his back in the '70's but I was too stupid to take it. I was a hardcore Ford man. Boy, I wish that I had it now..
I bought one exactly like this in 71 when I got out of USAF, but mine was a 65 and had a red interior. Put F70 14s on the back and had the 6.00 13s on front. Also had a telescopic steering wheel. Turbo kicked in at 3000 and sounded like a jet. Handled great and was a lot of fun for$600.
I had a Corvair with an automatic transmission. It was cheap transportation. I never gave it much thought as to what it was or could be, let alone how I would view it almost 50 years later. Today I view it much differently. Jay is 100% right! The car was way ahead of it's time.
I've driven multiple classics including Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, but my Corvair for some reason would bring tears to individuals' eyes because of the memories it brought back. No other classic has ever done that for me. I miss it!
Thanks for posting this. In 1968 I bought a 1965 red Corsa 140hp version for $550. Thanks Mr. Nader! I drove it through my college years. This video is a nice trip down memory lane.
My dad was a school photographer in Western Colorado. Drove all winter long to little mountain towns in his Covair station wagon. Never had to chain up. The thing was a goat on those snow packed roads.
The Covid editions have been the best for Jay. The pace is SO NICE and actually enjoyable to watch. It's so refreshing to get away from the overproduced and nonsense effects that most of the typical shows have. This is the way it should be!
My father was a design engineer on the Corvair, he worked at the Willowrun Plant in Ypsilanti Michigan until they transferred him to the Chevy Engineering Tech Center in 1963 to begin work on the Camero 😎 He would fight you on the safety of that car and I must say Corvairs live on all over America, the 64 has beautiful lines as well 🤨 My father passed at 91 and would love that Jay has a couple in his collection 😎
I love these. It looks amazing in red. I honestly prefer the pandemic edition videos to the normal ones. Just Jay Leno being enthusiastic about cool cars.
Any time I see a Corvair I’m reminded of my elementary school days, when Corvairs were everywhere and I loved them. Even then, as a budding gear head, I was smitten by the styling and their “difference” from other cars. Can you imagine GM doing something so audacious today?
When I was a kid I had a 62 Corvair coupe with a powerglide transmission and I loved it. Yeah it threw a fan belt one time but like Jay I kept a spare in the trunk. My girlfriend and I would go up into the mountains and I would take those curves and I wondered what all the commotion was about because there was no tires squeal and no feeling of loosing control . I really loved my little Corvair!
Nice to see Jay is a fellow Corvair enthusiast. A well engineered car, made back when GM gave a half of a percentage of a molecule of a crap about the vehicles they produced.
My parents owned a corvair when I was 4-5 years old. I can remember standing in the front seat with no seat belt on while driving down the road. When my mom would hit the brakes, she would hold her arm across my chest to keep me from falling.
My parents were safety-minded. I had to stand on the back seat, looking over the front seat, because dad didn't want to accidentally burn me with his cigarette.
Much the same in Australia in the 60s. I was carried around in a Moses basket, admittedly in the back seat while I’m told my mother-in-law used to pull the old arm across the chest trick.
Great video and great car! Ralph Nader was writing about the 1962-63 Corvairs. Once the suspension was fixed on 1964, the Corvair was a great classic sport car. With good care for corrosion control, the Corvair can last forever. Thanks for the video.
I was a VW mechanic in the 70s and was under the impression that the Corvair had a swing arm rear transaxle like the VW up to 68. What suspension fix are you referring to? Was it a Double jointed CV axle like the VWs went to? I searched it and I was correct. Nader didn't go after VW did he? They didn't have a handling issue other than if you let off the gas while cornering at high speeds.
Corvair only had swing arm 1960-63. 64 was the last year for swing arm setup but it was improved to include transverse leaf spring, very similar to what empi was doing for Porsche and VW with the camber compensator bar. 1965-69 Corvair’s are all full IRS with no swing axle. VW did not adapt until 68 which maybe your confusion
Oh and yes Nader did go after VW. He wrote an entire book on VW called Small on Safety in 1972 after the Corvair was found to have no propensity for loss of control or roll over. In the same testing they found the VW was prone to such problems so Nader set his sights there. It is also worthy of note that Unsafe at Any Speed is not a book on the Corvair. It has just a small chapter on the 60-63 Corvair. The book actually praises the 65 design. .08 percent of Unsafe at Any Speed is about a Corvair.
Thank you Jay Leno for clearing the air about the Corvair. My best friend had one when we were in the ninth grade in the mid-70s. Yes it is a fun little car to drive. Especially with a 4-speed.
Takes me back, literally - DECADES!. As many of my age group back then lusted after the unobtainable, famous German marque - these were more than a suitable 'stand-by' until we could inevitably reach the earning potential for obtaining the comparatively costly and elusive. My first was a '64 'spyder'. Same 164 cu. in. (upped from the prior 145 cu. in.) powerplant fitted with the 'YH carter' sidedraft but rated at 150 H.P. (smaller carb venturi and different hot/cold side compressor wheels). It was a fun little car which I used to autocross at venues all across California as time allowed. Being employed by Vilem B. Haan (a very famous automotive 'boutique' accessory outfit at 10305 Santa Monica Blvd in West Los Angeles) had me fortuitously 'rubbing elbows' with a veritable cornucopia of enthusiasts from all walks of life. Some, which remain friends to this day. Los Angeles, Culver City, and So-Cal in general was an automotive 'modding' mecca, particularly for budding gearheads like me. Aside from the too-many-to-recall celebrities and other notables which would frequent 'Haan', we had many engineers and proprietors of auto performance shops visit on a regular basis. One in particular which I greeted was a fellow - Ted Trevor of Crown Manufacturing who ran an outfit in nearby Costa Mesa which specialized in all sorts of performance enhancements for the Corvair. He was at Traco engineering picking up an L-88 aluminum headed 427 big block which they had just refreshed for him so he decided to swing by Haan's to pick up some 'coco-mats'. He saw my 'vair' parked out front and asked if I knew who it belonged to. Responding it was mine he smiled and suggested I come down to his shop and take a look at, and ride in, the mid engine V8 conversion they were offering for the (Gen II 65-69) cars. I did just that a week or so later only to have my mind completely blown. They had fitted that L-88 a few days prior and were working on "keeping the thing on the road". The machine was absolutely menacing in appearance, what with its massive (for the time) Caldwell racing re-cap rubber, small rear decklid lip spoiler and well fabricated aluminum air duct peeking from under the front bumper grabbing and guiding all the air possible for the radiator in the now repurposed trunk area. A somewhat weird looking fiberglass seating pod/engine cover affair was all the separated one's keister from the whirlies and burnies of the just barely tamed fuel/air ingesting, fire breathing (allegedly 500+ ponies according to Ted) behemoth mounted, literally - just mere millimeters behind. So ferocious was that experience that it has never left its ubiquitous omnipresence of my hippocampus. So terrifying was this 'demonstration ride' - I can only equate it to what one must feel if they truly believe a crash is imminent in the plane they occupy. The combination of intake roar elevating in sync with revs coupled to the ethereal, incessant and unrelenting gear to gear accelerations into regions theretofore unknown can only be equalled by what those brave few experienced whilst strapped inside a dainty capsule atop a Saturn V. Yes, so terrifying was THAT event... to me. I digress; Not long afterward I ended up with not one, but two more 'vairs'. a '65 corsa 140 HP and a '66 corsa 180 turbo similar to the one featured here by Jay. The 140 HP I highly modified by removing the captive intake plenums which carried the 4 downdraft single choke rochester carburettors and replaced that arrangement with manifolds which now allowed retrofitting of 3 bbl Weber IDA's to considerably modified big valve heads. Ed Iskenderian was making cams and springs and Venolia were making high compression forged pistons, so I opted for those as well. Coupled to the 'saginaw positraction' transaxle (same gear cluster as the V8 cars). The car was impressive - for what it was. I sold that car not long after to help finance a finally 'obtainable' 1964 Porsche Carrera 2. I say that tongue-in-cheek as 'obtainable' meant I could somehow swing the then still seemingly astronomical, yet attainable $6800 to buy the thing. The '66 turbo corsa I ended up just gifting my 10 year younger brother with who also autocrossed it with some success as I had in earlier days, though was all too often bested by, yes.... a Porsche of some type, be it a 356, 911, or 914. As well as they (vairs) could be made/modified to handle, they were limited by their wheelbase. The '65-onward cars were on another, far more capable level of handling than the swingaxle cars were/are. Perhaps the one outstanding aspect which Jay skipped over is the 'as if whittled out of a huge ingot of metal' feel of solidity and torsional rigidity imparted by the unit body construction. Unlike virtually every other US made auto of the time, save for some American Motors examples, the Corvair were not plagued by annoying rattles or the visible shaking of components as when, say, traversing over rail road tracks or encountering the unavoidable pot hole. They just plain feel 'solid'. Time marches on and I feel so blessed and fortunate to be old enough to inevitably becoming involved in and enjoying the fascinating, emerging cult of speed, yet being young enough to remember without the challenges of age stealing those precious memories. Mr. Leno. I sincerely thank you for taking me back.
Thanks for your post! I had my '66 Corsa (turbo, yellow) in the West L.A. area around the same time. (I think I had a Haan catalogue, too - went to the store once....) Wondering if your '66 Corsa was yellow perhaps, and was missing its chrome molding on the rear edge of the deck lid?
@@MarshallLoveday Hello, Marshall. It was indeed. 'Lemonwood Yellow' with black interior. An immaculate example. Purchased 'preowned' from Schonlaw Chevrolet in Hollywood with just under 10k miles. I ended up fitting a side draft Weber which REALLY woke it up though required some proper jet 'fettling' before an acceptable compromise between output, driveability and range per tankful was achieved. The handling was outstanding particularly after fitting a complete IECO suspension kit comprised of springs, sway bars, quick steer steering arms and a bracket which relocated the lower control arms out back. I recall anxiously awaiting my KONI shocks, GoodYear Blue Streaks and Superlite 15 x 7 wheels. All of those mods set me back another $1200 or so as I recall, (which was more than half of what the car cost me!) - but the transformation was pretty epic. I often turned at, or near the top of my class at autocross events once I swapped the 3.55 for a 3.89 differential. Mini Cooper, Lotus 7 and Europa, Cobra and Porsche (especially the well prepped and piloted) were my nemesis. To reiterate, the wheelbase was just too much of a limitation. A well manhandled, relatively mediocre car will more times than none take the win over a less capably piloted Q-ship, regardless of marque. Aptitude behind the wheel is a defining quotient. Referencing the decklid 'trim'. It very well could have been my car while waiting for my spoiler to be completed by a fiberglass craftsman who laid glass for boats in Marina del Rey and had a side gig making spoilers and other things in 'glass. He owned a '69 Z-28 and I asked that he duplicate that rear spoiler which he did. It turned out absolutely perfect. As you know - there were a fair number of these running around around SoCal back then, so who knows but it's certainly a possibility. Thank you for rekindling yet more memories, Marshall!
My first non Ford was 1961 Corvair as a Young Marine in SoCal. Had heard of the handling problems, 1/4 reversed chrome rims and over sized tires made it stick in corners better than any Ford I had owned to that time. Was fun to drive but it got sold, bought a 1957 Ford hardtop. Fast forward a couple years in North Carolina, said 57 Ford and I took an unscheduled trip in to the pinnie woods, killed a good Ford that day, its replacement was a 1965 Covair Convertible, ended my Corvair ownership in KCMO traded for first new car 1968 390 4 speed Torino fast back!! What a car that was! The American public was not ready for an air cooled engine, American made car. But I being a helicopter mech understood air cooled, no big deal. The 65 handled better that the 61 in stock form so did not change the 65. Thank you Mr. Leno for keeping the cars alive and letting the get out and play! Would like to still own the 4 mentioned above, but such is life. Thank you again sir. Gunny Joe
The triumph herald had a worrisome swing axle but maybe not enough power to be lethal. Know the weakness and drive accordingly? Oh and don't let the money men start removing things like anti roll bars!
I'm glad to see Jay give the Corvair some love and respect. I had a couple of them back in the day and everything Jay says is correct. It is a great driving car and still a looker today.
I had a first generation 63 Corvair back in 1973. I was driving over the C&D Canal bridge (4 lane) near Chesapeake City, MD in the passing lane, when a gust of wind blew me into the outside lane with no warning and no steering input on my behalf. It's a tall bridge and that increased pucker factor immediately. Got home and added about 100 pounds of sandbags into the front trunk. There was also a Crown conversion for the later models that installed a small block Chevy V8 into the area where the back seat was previously located. Now that was a great handling car.
My father had a '64 Corvair Monza Spyder Turbo, black with red interior. The car kept blowing head gaskets and the last time scorched the cylinder walls. He got it fixed and sold it. He then bought a new '68 Corvair 140 sport coupe, red with black interior, similar in appearance to this one. The 140 HP version was the big engine for the '68 Corvair and had four 1-barrel carburetors. It was 6 years old when I was able to drive it and it drove like go-kart. Cornering was amazing. It also would easily hydroplane in the rain with the front-end being so light. My father would put ballast in the front trunk in the winter to help it turn on icy roads. He drove it until it threw a rod in 1978.
He had a Corsa which came with either a 180hp turbo or a 140 with four one-barrel carbs. I rebuilt a 66 Corsa 140 engine and put it in my 64 Monza convertible. It was a great running and fun car to drive. I sold it a few years ago and moved on to different projects, but I enjoyed my time learning about the Corvair and re-building the engine.
GM was afraid to take it to the next step. Mid engine. I have ridden in one. '68 Z28 engine. 290 HP. 4 speed. More like a Ferrari. Capable of 190 MPH average speed at Michigan International in 1971. Even better handling than a Corvette. I was going to have mine converted. BUT got laid off in 73.
takes me back - had a '62. couple of things. when you're in a turn - don't brake or you may get a wild ride. 2nd - front end becomes very light at high speeds...
I used to live in Burbank. I saw Jay driving some really cool cars around town. He absolutely honks and waves back. After a while, I got more excited to see his cars than him.
I appreciate Jay Leno speaking about the Corvair fondly. My father bought a 1962 Corvair 110 with the power glide automatic for my step mother. She didn't want it so my father used it as a daily driver, traveling from Long Beach, CA to Palmdale. He took good care of it and in 1976 U bought it from him and kept up his maintenance schedule. I sold the car in 1992. It had 485000 miles on and was never rebuilt. It wasn't pretty, but ran great. The Cactus Corair/Corvette club in Arizona said they believed it had the most mileage of any Corvair in the state and wondered about the nation. I shouldn't have sold it, and still miss that car. Jay's 1966 turbo is still my dream.
I’m not a GM guy but the Corvair has always caught my eye. I have done some AutoXing and there was a guy that had a Turbo Corvair. He would put down some very respectable times.
I remember Corvairs well. We took a Corvair van to Yosemite when I was in high school. I loved the lines of the Corsa and I remember the turbo charged flat six which was a Porsche killer in its time. Another great Leno's Garage. Thanks Jay.
![[TH] JFT vs RLF - VCT Ascension Pacific - Day 2](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PuIH7w_jO6c/mqdefault.jpg)
Styling of the '65 - '69 is one of the most beautiful cars ever...even today 😍
Easy fella. It’s nice but not even top 100
Jay's such a pro that he apologizes for pandemic editions saying he has to record these videos on his own, but even on his own these videos are produced better than the most other car reviews on TH-cam.
Jay Leno is basically the Doug DeMuro of the classic car world :)
I like these more than the "regular" videos
Yes! But, as an auto TH-camr myself... Ouch.
Well he still has a professional production team backing him. I think Jay means he films himself.
@@nathanjoseph4284
Except Jay is a man not a soy boy simp
This show is better now than ever. When its just you and the camera, the video’s are the most genuine and relatable.
COMPLETELY CONCUR Jay!!!
Almost alone. Cneck the reflection at 6:58
Totally
Yeah the shooting is almost perfect, unless you studied cinematography
@@ericbelletynee5448 it’s a TH-cam video, not a feature film. Who really cares about the cinematography of youtube videos.
I remember all this, I feel so lucky to have lived through those days, great cars, great music, good life.....
When Ralph Nader spoke at the University of South Dakota, we picked him up at the airport in a white Corvair convertible!
HaHa! Good one! i would have loved to see his face when he realized that he was going to be riding in a Corvair
🤣🤣🤣🤣 Great !
I went to hear him speak. He signed his newest book I had just bought.
“To William, drive safely in your Corvair!” He couldn’t have been nicer to me. A memorable moment!
😳😬😜😂😂😂
He really gets a bad rap, but he helped standardize seatbelts and automobile safety standards
The fact that Jay acknowledges, waves, and converses with fans on the road says everything you need to know about him.
Assuming that he does the same off camera. I'm guessing that he does but you never know.
@@JosephHowes2003 Jay does act like a real human off camera. I live in Burbank and I often see Jay in one of his cars. I honk & wave, and he waves back and says “Hi”.. I’ve seen him our local Automotive/ Airplane book store and he’s a regular guy and talks to everyone.
@@danf321 that's good to know.
@@JosephHowes2003 well I think we know who to look for if Jay goes missing LMAO
and he always says we did it.
I had a 1965 110 HP Corvair when I was in High School. One day my Mom and I were on our way somewhere and in those days the California Highway Patrol performed roadside inspections. We were pulled over into a inspection station. The inspection officer was at the front of my Corvair and asked me if I had an inside hood release ? I told the officer in front of his fellow officers that the engine, which was running, was in the back. He had me get out and open the back while his fellow officers had a good laugh. He didn't know anything about the engine and gave me a sticker. My Dad sold it when I went into the Service.
They gave you a sticker?
Similar experience. My 1963 was only the 80 H.P. version with a three speed manual. Not very quick, but handled really well.
(Con’t). My parents also sold mine when I went into the Army in 1966.
@@johncastillo2194 The CHP issues s "passed highway inspection sticker" that went on the windshield. I was once in a group of fellow hot rodders and we were all pulled over. One of the hot rodders was a CHP himself. As the police were at the back car this CHP hot rodder walked down the line of cars and placed a sticker on every car before the police got to the next one. Ha, ha, ha !
@@bux49 now they go after you for aftermarket heatshields on your turbo and force you to a 'smog' refferree for having 'suspicious' underhood equipt and the car has to stay parked for months until a reff appointment is available. Things got way worse as bad as the inspections used to be. Now CA does NOT do ANY safety inspections at all(only smog) This review is a perfect anology to the fake liberal news of DANGEROUS Covid flu and the DANGEROUS Corvair...proves that the public will believe anything the media states as a fact that 'experts' say is true lol.
Jay's saved us from a Covid meltdown with his excellent verbal on priceless cars
You get rid of that spider problem?
excellent verbal
Man, that thing looks GREAT with those rally wheels, I’ve never seen a Corvair with them before. Makes me want one.
Those and the Corvette Rally wheels were awesome! Had them on my '71 Camaro (which I built from a $100.00 roller). Car looked good, ran like stink with the '67 327 I built and 4-speed from '67 Olds 442 (yeah, it was a mutt). Looked like a debadged Z28. Bright white, Sapphire hood and trunk stripes which I painted myself. I miss that car...
@@PhilG999 you from Texas County?
@@PhilG999 That’s my favorite Camaro body style (before the ugly rubber noses, I think til ‘72?). I had a ‘79 El Camino that I bought with a ‘68 327 and a four-speed (eventually a heads/cam aluminum L33 5.3 with a Tremec TKO 5-speed and a 3.89:1 posi disc brake Currie 9”) that had 15x8” Corvette Rallies with Disc Brake caps (eventually 17x8” billet AR Rallies) on it, satin black with the single strip of aluminum trim running from bumper to bumper and over the wheelwell arches, THAT thing was a laugh factory and pretty cool-looking to boot. I hate myself every day for trading it off right after I got it ‘finished’ (they never really are) for a 4WD truck when I got my first really good job and needed reliability. I should’ve hung onto it and bought a reliable FWD cheapo economy car to drive to work. I’ll get another one someday, or maybe a ‘70 split bumper Camaro.
@John Jackson I assumed they were a weirdo pattern, I’m super-impressed with how good they look/fit.
@@RohanSanjith No. Atlanta Georgia.
That is a design that will never age.
:)
You mean, like the Nissan Juke?
It already has.
It truly is a great 1960s classic GM design. The big rear glass with thin pillars and true hardtop will never be seen again!
My parents had two in a row. Oddly enough they didn’t get killed. Instead, they managed to raise a family. They even made it to retirement. Amazing!!!
I dont buy the classic cars thing are unsafe. I was born in 1999. My first car was a 64 impala, I flipped it when I was a stupid 18 year old at 80 mph. No injuries. Past 4 years I daily a 69 impala. Still dont wear my safety belt. I feel very safe in my american tank
We had 6 kids in our family mom had a 62 the a 65 Corvair both black, my mom and sisters loved them and drove the heck out of them. .Dad put a sack or two of concrete during the winter to weight the front end so it handled better in the snow. I remember many Sunday evening drives were I layed down in the package tray area behind the rear seat and slept while the engine kept me warm.
My Mom had a station wagon.
My grandfather had one, and my dad said he rolled it. My dad always said he told my grandfather not to buy it, my grandfather always did what he wanted,.
@@estpst What year was it? 65's and later were much almost impossible to roll unless you hit a curb or pothole while sliding. Ralf Nader was/is and card carrying Communist and wanted to hurt our biggest Co. at the time, his books claims about the Corvair were 100% filled with lies 1/2 truths and exaggerations GM proved this in Court a few years after the bogus trial where some rich kids daddy sued GM because he rolled a grossly overloaded Corvair that was speeding and hit a crosswind.
Jay , I really appreciate your spotlight on the Corvair. My dad was a Corvair fanatic ! We had the Coupes, the Sedans, the Greenbrier Vans, the sidegate pick-up , the Stationwagon, at anytime there was 10 or 15 Corvairs on our lot. In my teens I became a pretty good Corvair mechanic. I had my personal 140hp that I did a little tweaking to, I don't know how much extra HP the re-jetted Carter carbs or the Headers with Glass-packs added, or "Coil-over shocks in the rear, 14" American Mags with Tiger-Paws all around, I had to move the spare tire up front to balance the feel. I ran the quarter in the 13-14's ! No Turbo , no Nitrous ! Long live the CORVAIR !
Yes I did keep an extra belt , just in case !
Thanks,
Joe B.
Friend of mines older brother also had a lightly breathed on Corsa w/ the single 4 barrel that also ran 13-14 second 1/4 miles.....wild stuff, sort of lit my fuse for the 5 Corvairs that followed.
Spare belt AND a wrench to adjust the tensioner pulley 🙂
I've always thought that, from a design standpoint, the second generation Corvair is one of the best looking cars America has made.
I quite like the 1st gen tbh.
I love Jay Leno's Covid Edition videos. They're genuine and enjoyable. This Turbo Corvair I didn't know about it that it existed. Very pretty looking car. Great video Jay.
Same here....I always had thought that they only had supercharged engines with 160 bhp (with 110 bhp being base)...didn't realize they made a turbo one...and I've been a fan of Corvairs for 30 years.
Agreed!
exact name is CONvid edition videos
My neighbor in San Diego county had a Corvair Monza. He stuffed a 283 ci Chevy boat engine in the back, complete with radiator for liquid cooling.
Hey Jeff & Dale we had a grand old time in 1980! You still out there?
Yeah, mine was a 110 dual carb and I swapped out those for the quad carb setup and 1/4 turn steering setup from my neighbor's 140
when he got into Datsuns for racing instead.
It really has great lines. It has aged very well
And so has Jay.
Beautiful car.....
Like a baby '66 Chevelle.
My mom had a '64 and my dad had a Greenbriar van as did my uncle.
I put 100,000 miles on one. Then I sold it. It was almost my favorite car except for the '66 New Yorker. But if your wallet was a bit short that week. The Corvair wins in that department.
Yes you could get over 30 MPG. If you took it real easy. Also Did not mind no A/C our a little less heat. Both used premium gas.
Had a friend that had a midship 68 302 Chevy motor in one.
Yes 5 point seat belts was really needed in that one. But if you did not mind getting the gear shift or arm rest digging into your side. You could leave it unbuckled.
Oh and the midship 302 would only do 120 in a quarter mile. The 1st gear full throttle would scatter the spider gears. No not so good for the 1st gear. Too much torque. Also real hard to keep front wheels on the ground so you could steer. Might be why it took so long to do a midship Corvette?
I love how Jay always credits the car as the reason people smile and wave at him. Such a modest man.
First thing Jay said is the truest of them all, it’s all about how it makes you feel:)...
Absolutely true. To me my 1992 740 Volvo is the best car ever made. An absolute blast to drive. Yes it’s slow but has been faithful for almost 500K miles. I’ll keep it forever if I’m able.
@@12yearssober Good webernet handle. I wish I had never sold my 81 vw scirocco s. I think it was under 1900 pounds dry.
Only problem is that the libtards that are trying to run the country now have taken that to replace common sense and reasoning...
So the best car in the world is one with Butt massagers IMO
Tell that to Ralph Nader, lol.....
I had a couple of these, absolutely fantastic cars! One time I asked a friend (a fellow Corvair owner) to help me take a V8 into the machine shop. He shows up in his '66 Corvair Monza and I'm like "How we gonna get the engine to the shop"? He's like we'll just put the block in the front, it'll be fine. When we got it in it sat there like it was made to be there. When we got it to the shop the guys were looking around for a truck to unload but were amazed to see the V8 nestled between the wheel wells. They even took pictures. When we brought the motor home we transported it in something more suitable: A Rampside pick up.
I'm glad you too liked your Corvair. I had one for nearly 4 years and just loved it!
I was 16 in 1964. I was offered a 1963 Corvare Monza. A family friend wanted nothing to do with it when he encountered rear wheel hop at 75 mph. I added some bolt on suspension parts and converted the twin carbs to a 4- Barrel. Fantastic driver and surprisingly competitive. Terry&ThePirates South Florida
I love the look of the 2nd generation Corvair's like this one. (The silver rear-end of the Corsa models looks especially nice.) It might not suit everyone's taste, but I find this to be one of the most striking American car designs of all time. My parents owned both 1st gen and 2nd gen examples back in the day.
I owned a 63 and a 64 . My dad and I stuffed a 500 Cadillac in one.
@@stevenlindsey2056 Ouch.
It is so underrated
It is basically a Porsche, comes with a turbo option, flat 6 or 4 cylinder boxer, rear engine, fun to drive
My EV conversion fantasy. I love the lines on this car.
Amazing how much knowledge jay has about cars and engines. Always impressed
I like when he has GM execs on the show and Jay knows more than them
That's because Jay is 70 years old, like me! So much of what Jay is talking about are from previous experiences in life. I had a 1963 corvair that I bought in 1968 when I was still 17 years old. Only cost me $350 then. Used of course. Four-speed manual, 110 HP. Different body design first generation.
Absolutely! Jay is a walking, driving automotive encyclopedia!! Corvairs are obviously very special to Jay. As he said, he has 3 of them. Hemmings has an issue with Jay writing about his top 10 collectible cars - yeah, the Corvair is on the list! I've been driving Corvairs since I was 20 years old and now at more than 70 I am still as enthused as Jay is! Love the only air-cooled flat six American car made. A joy to drive and own. ; >)
These videos are so heart warming. You can feel the geniune love Jay has for his cars. This has to be one of the most wholesome channels on YT
Yes any age group can watch this and learn alot to
Jay is always a gentleman! Watch him wave and say hello to the “white haired lady, just like him who likes his Corvair”. Classic video, classic Jay.
Yep, I was picking up a car from the place around the corner from his place. I was walking across the street and he came barreling around the corner. He apologized as he went whipping by me. When someone almost kills you in L.A., they never do that. Props to Jay.
I was having a conversation with Jay at the Rock Store in Malibu when a "white-haired" old lady came up to talk to him. Jay said to me, "excuse me for a moment" so he could talk to her. Great guy.
I was trying to break into TV. I met Jay Leno when he was a local comic. "See you at the top!" he said jauntily. I'm still trying to get to the top.
If it wasn’t for the pandemic lockdown and being home so much I’d never have had so much extra time to watch these ... certainly it took the pandemic to even discover this show on TH-cam. I remember it from years ago ... glad he’s still doing them.
LM Corvairs are timeless. My daughters drove a 65 Corvair to high school and nobody knew what is was. My wife has a 63 Spyder I am nearly done with getting it back on the road, 4 speed, 150hp turbo, convertible...looking forward to Sunday drives in it.
Thanks Jay Leno for keeping the car bug alive and the love of classic Corvairs.
10 to 15 years ago, there was a Corvair of that same body style that sat at the Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, CA that had a Ralph Nader For President bumper sticker in the back window.
The best thing that's happened because of covid is jay showing us his collection one at a time just him and his love of his collection don't stop jay till we have seen them all
Listening to Jay talk about cars is like listening to an encyclopedia on the auto industry. His breadth of knowledge
is astounding and it shows his life long passion for cars.
In 1965 I was 16. My neighbor had an Olds Jetfire in I962. An Internet search says the Corvair Turbo was introduced in 1965. It never in my wildest dreams occured to me that the Corvair had the first Turbo. In 1972 my girl friend had a Corvair Monza. I tore it down and then decided to give it to a mechanic... too damn many parts. (I owned a VW) Never did it occur to me that the Corvair came out as competition for the Valent et al. Valient, Falcon, Corvair, what else? They ALL came out as competition for the VW. VW was kickin' everybodies behind because American car companies were, let's here it Jay, infatuated with "Longer, leaner, lower." When America saw the simple to repair, inexpensive to maintain, drive up the side of a cliff, float down river VW, pass up every gas station in town they all wanted one of those. Jay evidently was born just a little too late.
He is like an automotive Rosetta stone...He is one of those rare people who has knowledge of those cars of yesteryear the younger generation have never even heard of, but also has a breadth of knowledge of current car models and manufacturers.
@@billchessell8213Corvair turbo ("Spyder") arrived with the 1962 model year.
I drove one of these through box canyon outside of Thermal, CA, in the sixties. I was really blown away. Jay, you really understand these cars. Please do a show on the Chevy Vega, which was also a great car in its last year of 1976 when they finally got the engine dialed in.
@@billyhack9673 When I was a kid in the 70s we had a Vega Wagon...Mechancal/rust issues aside, it was a fine looking car for the period.
My first car in high school. Nice red color 65 Corvair. Have to thank Ralf Nader for his book that scared previous owner into selling it cheap. I added oversize radial tires, heavy duty shocks and high speed steering arm. Great handling car and never got stuck in the snow. Sold it to a friend who passed it on to a dune buggy builder. Constructed to compete in the Baha 500.
As I said the other day to the guys at work, the second generation Corvair has the most beautiful C-pillar of any 1960's car.
I too, think the Corvair (especially this one) is one of the best looking cars of the day. The styling is just fantastic!
One can definitely see origins of the early Camaro in the late Corvair.
@@-oiiio-3993 yeah, me too...definitely one of the first "pony cars".
They're such beautiful cars. That era had the best styling
I agree, you could tell the make by looking at it, they all had there own distinct styling !!
Jay Leno is a real American treasure 😊I really appreciate these shows and Jay
Jay is so good at this - it's like being in the neighbor's garage hanging out. I really like his videos, being able to see and learn about the ACTUAL cars in their natual state.
As a high schooler, I bought my mom's 1965 Corvair convertible 110. My home room teacher talked me into road racing it at Montauk on Long Island and I had a blast... same class as the Porsches... and I was hanging right with track prepped ones with no experience along with the 2 full turns of the steering wheel lock to lock... I was worn out by the end of the race. Like you said, manual everything... so you had to work to drive it a bit. But an absolute blast once I had the front I-beam that was rusted through replaced and put viton pushrod tube seals in the engine. Great first car... thought about buying another one over the years.
"As a high schooler, I bought my mom's 1965 Corvair convertible 110. My home room teacher talked me into road racing it at Montauk on Long Island and I had a blast..."
A high school teacher talked you into ROAD racing?
@@nonelost1 High School Teachers weren't always a bunch of SJW Karens. I graduated in 1984. And a lot of them even then were COOL people! As late as the mid-70s there were still school systems in the US that allowed kids to keep shotguns in the racks of their pick-up trucks (hardship drivers license from age 16 of course) and even some schools had SHOOTING TEAMS as part of the curriculum!
It was a much better time then.
A few of my teachers in high school smoked pot and got stoned together - that was the 70s for ya!
@@harrygaul4475 Plenty of teachers still smoke pot after hours... at all levels. Difference is that no one cares anymore because it has little of no relationship to their ability to teach. It isn't like they are pulling out a joint and lighting up in the classroom. As opposed to the alcholic ones that are showing up drunk or drinking throughout the day that are a danger to themselves and others.
My family refurbished a 1964 corvair convertible for my son. His mother and grandmother watched youtube videos on body work and fixed rusted holes in the side. He and I replaced parts on the engine and rewired it to factory settings and it fired and ran. We got all the lights working and taught him how to drive a stick in that car. We worked the entire summer and most of the fall on that car. He drove it his senior year. Last summer he bought a mustang for his college car. The corvair was always his baby. He was so proud of it and the way everyone treated him as he drove it around town.
Sadly, my boy passed away this year from a embolism. Unexpected tragedy. He wasn't sick. He was in Air Force ROTC and was so excited to work to be a pilot. I miss him every day.
I'm currently working on the corvair so I can drive it. Just once a week or so in his honor. Just to remember him.
I'd made a similar comment earlier, then linked a writeup his bosses had done for a go fund me, but I didn't want donations, just someone to read about my son and how wonderful your kids can be when you aren't looking. If you Google Nikolai Hill and go fund me you'll find it. I'm not asking for funds. Just for you to know my son so his memory goes on.
I miss that kid.
So sorry for your loss. How nice that you spent quality time with your son and that he had a rewarding (but all too short) life. His spirit will certainly be with you in that Corvair.
My dad had a stock 1963 Corvair that I drove for a year in college, around 1976. It had a three speed on the floor. My first car was a 1966 GTO and I loved driving the Corvair more. It's suspension was really tight, it didn't float around like most of the cars of the day. Fairly fast steering ratio, no power steering, but the front end was light and it turned easily. Gas mileage in the 20s around town. It felt lower to the ground than other cars that were easy to get into, looking at the highway spooling into the front end of it was really cool.
Jay makes his videos as if it just us & him. As if each one of his fans are with him one on one just having a chat about that car. Such an awesome opportunity for him to share with us. I am most grateful!
When I was kid in the early sixties, I had a babysitter who drove a Corvair. Sometimes I went to her house for the babysitting session, and we went in her sporty Corvair. I remember how nifty and bright the vehicle was in in comparison to my dad’s car. I was also fascinated by the automotive details including the taillights and the fact the engine noise came from the rear of the car.
And I'm sure that added to those 'naughty' thoughts you had of your sitter.... (in your later years)
Love the Pandemic videos as you show what people into Cars want to see. I would love to see more about the Owens Magnetic as you haven't really shown that in depth.
Yeah that would be a good one to revisit
These videos are truly great.
I agree. While I love seeing other people ride with Jay in their cars, with the pandemic, it allowed Jay to enjoy the cars himself, and give a more detailed description of the cars.
More motorcycles! I’m sure there are a few he hasn’t shown yet!
Don't worry the scamdemic will go on for quite some time…
My Dad had on of those in some light, light green color that I suppose was cool at the time. Sold it to get married to my Mom. He drives an Audi A7 now, which is, by his own admission, the best car he's ever owned BUT, he fondly remembers and misses the Corvair. You can tell by the tone in his voice every time he tells a story involving that car (of which there are many).
I love the fact that Jay will say hi to anyone on the street.
He did the same when he visited the car museum where I work. It was cool to watch.
He is a classy guy.
I've always loved that mid - late '60s GM styling with the curvy Coke bottle body, that quasi-bubble top roof line, those thin pillars, and just the right angle and curve on the front and rear glass. They looked so light and airy. Gen 2 Corvairs are a great example of peak GM body styling.
As is the entire 62-27 run of Corvette.
Sweet analogy . . . and on point. 😊
The 2nd generation of that car: It's like the homely larva that was the 1st generation pupated and became the gorgeous 2nd gen butterfly. Such a looker. Beautiful car, Jay.
Probably one of the best looking, timeless cars to ever be made.
In America.
Really beautiful especially red with black interior.
color
Had one...Fun!
@@jimbojones101 You Bet!..50"s all around..4 Speed..Duel exhaust..Craiger Rim"s...
Stop featuring these great cars. You're driving up the price I'll have to pay to get one someday.
(Great show!)
I know right???? Ugh between this and bring a trailer, LOL
@@reginaldbowls7180 I think fans of raw power pass on them still. But I want one. '66 seems the way to go. But for a Sunday drive, any year would do.
you are right i was looking for my old rambler station the other night the prices they are looking for is totally ridiculos
I had a 63, which I loved, but borrowed a friend's 180HP 66 and was blown away by how quick it was. I beat anyone who wanted to race, including an Olds 442. This was a truly great little car, and was far safer than Ralph Nader would have you believe. Love this video!
Nader's complaint wasn;t specificaly against the Corvair, he hated most automobiles.
@@timothykeith1367 Not true at all.
+Douglas Clements Ralph wasn't wrong about the Corvair, though. It killed Ernie Kovacs.
Wish I could give you a hug Jay! A corvair Rampside was my first vehicle, and i caught the corvair bug. thanks for your kind words about these mostly forgotten gems! they weren't bad cars, just misunderstood.
My wife and I love Corvairs! My wife drives a '65 Monza, I had a '64 Greenbrier van, and now a '63 Rampside truck. Love these things. I have an air cooled 911 and find the Corvairs just as much fun due to the diversity of cars that were built. Put together correctly, and you essentially have a first gen 911 with American styling...and we all know how air cooled 911 pricing has been going the past few years. You can still get these for a total bargain
One of my uncles had a Corvair and I remember it as the most outlandish cars ever... He bought it new and drove it his whole life, lots of other cars but he kept the Corvair spotless. Very interesting car, and video, thank you
Confession--I'm not a Chevy guy. But I love Corvairs.
I may not like many Chevy's, but a beautiful car, is a beautiful car regardless of the badge.
Being anti brand or a brand loyalist In general is just plain dumb.. every brand has great cars and terrible ones too
@@aeroboozt9455 I dunno man, I don't think Daewoo has ever made a vehicle that didn't have at least two major issues.
scotty kilmer would agree with you
@@aaronself2411 I wouldn't be so sure. I owned and drove for years a Daewoo Nexia in the late 90s and I think the quality/price ratio was awesome. Yet it was basically the european Opel Kadett that had been rebadged - I guess it helped a lot :-)
As a kid, I thought about it not being a muscle car. As a man, I consider this one of the best Chevys ever.
Imagine a modern day Corvair based on the corvette C8 platform ?
It's better for not being a muscle car I would say.
@@theothertonydutch I just really appreciate the engineering and styling a lot more. Its actually a very innovative design, but not enough people truly appreciated it.
@@reginaldbowls7180 unheard of. GM will never do something like this again.
It never was a "muscle car."
I recall my Corvair well.
My first car was a hand-down from my parents in 1968 when I got my drivers license. It was a beige ‘64 Monza sedan with the two speed “power-glide” automatic and air conditioning. Ugly through and through.
As a kid I discovered it could reach 94 mph with the ac on and 100 with it off.
The heavy rear end was a real issue when roads were wet. If you took a corner with any speed, the rear would easily break traction and swing around converting your intended 90 degree turn into a 270.
The dashboard had a “gen” light and a “overtemp” light. When the fan belt broke, the “gen” light would come on. This served as the “two minute warning” that it would soon overtemp since the fan was no longer running. Putting a new belt on was a shop job since the AC coil mounted horizontally over the fan and needed to be unbolted to replace the belt over the fan pulley.
I read the Nader book. As I recall, he made the issue about the sheet metal front end and the non-collapsible steering column. In relatively slow speed front collisions the front would crush and push the steering wheel back where it would catch the driver under the chin and break his neck. Thus, SAE reports aside, you had some drivers horrifically killed in slow speed accidents that would have been easily survivable in front engine cars. That’s what made it newsworthy.
But, It got me to and from my first job where I earned the cash to buy a used ‘66 GTO. In retrospective, the GTO was far more likely to get me killed.
Somehow I survived and grew up. Today, I’m more of an old Prius guy.
If GM had kept this in production for another five years they would have had a serious competitor against the imports when the fuel embargo hit in 1974.
Yess
Indeed.
I got a Vega!lol
Not really. A Honda Civic, Toyota Corona or Datsun 210 got double the fuel mileage of the Corvair.
Well, GM had the Vega. It was Motor Trend's Car of the Year in 1971. Great looking car, too bad it was worse than the Corvair. There was only two things wrong with the Vega, the engine and the body. The crappy engine lasted about 3 years before it needed a complete rebuild and the body rusted away after about 5 years. It was US subcompacts like the Vega that made millions of Americans flock to Datsun and Toyota dealerships for their next car. Oh, and Ed Cole designed the Vega too.
Thank you for this Jay. There's a blue one sitting in my grandma's back yard just wasting away. It's actually pretty complete, but hasn't functioned in years. People told me it was a horrible car to want to restore and collect so I never bothered to look into it. Even my neighbor who collects cars said it was garbage. Your video showed me how beautiful it can be. I'll let my grandma know.
Fix it up! They're lovely cars, and there are plenty of clubs and enthusiasts for support
You need to learn not to listen to other people - especially ignorant low IQ boomers whose only goal is to destroy everything for future generations because they are lazy and stupid. The Corvair is a highly collectible and well regarded car and there are several clubs with thousands of members. FURTHERMORE, you do not need to restore it only but mechanically. Less than $500-$1 grand in parts and it will be good to go. Will need to dismantle both the engine and fuel tank and drivetrain and give it all a thorough cleaning out and re-greasing and make sure it's all spotless. Also inspect all wiring for damage from animals. People make restoring cars more difficult than it actually is.
hurry
My wife's grandfather tried to give me his back in the '70's but I was too stupid to take it. I was a hardcore Ford man. Boy, I wish that I had it now..
Never turn away a free car
@@MyLifePixeled Easy lemon learned the hard way.
I bought one exactly like this in 71 when I got out of USAF, but mine was a 65 and had a red interior. Put F70 14s on the back and had the 6.00 13s on front. Also had a telescopic steering wheel. Turbo kicked in at 3000 and sounded like a jet. Handled great and was a lot of fun for$600.
I had a Corvair with an automatic transmission. It was cheap transportation. I never gave it much thought as to what it was or could be, let alone how I would view it almost 50 years later. Today I view it much differently. Jay is 100% right! The car was way ahead of it's time.
One of the most beautiful cars of all time. Another Bill Mitchell home run.
I love this TH-cam channel. Jay is the most generous and entertaining comedian. Jay is a role model and a treasure to America.
One of my favorite cars. Absolutely beautiful.
I've driven multiple classics including Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, but my Corvair for some reason would bring tears to individuals' eyes because of the memories it brought back. No other classic has ever done that for me. I miss it!
Thanks for posting this. In 1968 I bought a 1965 red Corsa 140hp version for $550. Thanks Mr. Nader! I drove it through my college years. This video is a nice trip down memory lane.
My dad was a school photographer in Western Colorado. Drove all winter long to little mountain towns in his Covair station wagon. Never had to chain up. The thing was a goat on those snow packed roads.
From Colorado as well, and you are right these were great in the snow. Just remember to bring a coat, the heater was warm at best!!
If you have studded tires, yes. I use stud tires upstate NY which has even more snow.
The Gem in the Garage is Jay , That's all Diamond Dave has to say , 👌😀😀😀‼️
My favorite classic chev, it just looks so stylish, looks almost like an Italian car but yet still somehow retains some American styling.
I think that model has some Camaro lines in it.
When I was a kid, my mom owned a Corvair Monza. Great car and she loved it.
The Covid editions have been the best for Jay. The pace is SO NICE and actually enjoyable to watch. It's so refreshing to get away from the overproduced and nonsense effects that most of the typical shows have. This is the way it should be!
My father was a design engineer on the Corvair, he worked at the Willowrun Plant in Ypsilanti Michigan until they transferred him to the Chevy Engineering Tech Center in 1963 to begin work on the Camero 😎 He would fight you on the safety of that car and I must say Corvairs live on all over America, the 64 has beautiful lines as well 🤨 My father passed at 91 and would love that Jay has a couple in his collection 😎
I love these. It looks amazing in red.
I honestly prefer the pandemic edition videos to the normal ones.
Just Jay Leno being enthusiastic about cool cars.
Any time I see a Corvair I’m reminded of my elementary school days, when Corvairs were everywhere and I loved them. Even then, as a budding gear head, I was smitten by the styling and their “difference” from other cars. Can you imagine GM doing something so audacious today?
Well, they just did with the C8 ! (Following the Pontiac guys' track with the Fiero, of course ! Ha !) 🤣
Good point! :-D And come to think of it, there were the Solstice and Sky, too. Then they killed them. :-(
@@marcryvon thats what I was thinking they did it a couple times already. Just not the flat 6.
When I was a kid I had a 62 Corvair coupe with a powerglide transmission and I loved it. Yeah it threw a fan belt one time but like Jay I kept a spare in the trunk. My girlfriend and I would go up into the mountains and I would take those curves and I wondered what all the commotion was about because there was no tires squeal and no feeling of loosing control . I really loved my little Corvair!
Beautiful car, I remember riding in one when I was a kid. It actually has more styling than a Mustang of the Era. Thanks, Jay. Love the videos.
i did too. yes was fast too for then.
Everyone I know that owned a Corvair loved them. Truly a unique car and still a looker! Thanks for letting us drool, Jay!
Nice to see Jay is a fellow Corvair enthusiast. A well engineered car, made back when GM gave a half of a percentage of a molecule of a crap about the vehicles they produced.
My parents owned a corvair when I was 4-5 years old. I can remember standing in the front seat with no seat belt on while driving down the road. When my mom would hit the brakes, she would hold her arm across my chest to keep me from falling.
I remember laying down in the rear window cubby that had just enough space to fit me in.
My parents were safety-minded. I had to stand on the back seat, looking over the front seat, because dad didn't want to accidentally burn me with his cigarette.
@@douglasruen495 did the same thing. Damn, we're old. 😉👍
Yep! Mother's arm. That was the 60's safety device. (Never see one utilised in those crash dummy demos !?)
Much the same in Australia in the 60s. I was carried around in a Moses basket, admittedly in the back seat while I’m told my mother-in-law used to pull the old arm across the chest trick.
Great video and great car! Ralph Nader was writing about the 1962-63 Corvairs. Once the suspension was fixed on 1964, the Corvair was a great classic sport car. With good care for corrosion control, the Corvair can last forever. Thanks for the video.
I was a VW mechanic in the 70s and was under the impression that the Corvair had a swing arm rear transaxle like the VW up to 68. What suspension fix are you referring to? Was it a Double jointed CV axle like the VWs went to? I searched it and I was correct. Nader didn't go after VW did he? They didn't have a handling issue other than if you let off the gas while cornering at high speeds.
Corvair only had swing arm 1960-63. 64 was the last year for swing arm setup but it was improved to include transverse leaf spring, very similar to what empi was doing for Porsche and VW with the camber compensator bar. 1965-69 Corvair’s are all full IRS with no swing axle. VW did not adapt until 68 which maybe your confusion
Oh and yes Nader did go after VW. He wrote an entire book on VW called Small on Safety in 1972 after the Corvair was found to have no propensity for loss of control or roll over. In the same testing they found the VW was prone to such problems so Nader set his sights there. It is also worthy of note that Unsafe at Any Speed is not a book on the Corvair. It has just a small chapter on the 60-63 Corvair. The book actually praises the 65 design. .08 percent of Unsafe at Any Speed is about a Corvair.
Thank you Jay Leno for clearing the air about the Corvair. My best friend had one when we were in the ninth grade in the mid-70s. Yes it is a fun little car to drive. Especially with a 4-speed.
This car is sentimental in our family- this is the car my dad was driving when he met my mother
Takes me back, literally - DECADES!. As many of my age group back then lusted after the unobtainable, famous German marque - these were more than a suitable 'stand-by' until we could inevitably reach the earning potential for obtaining the comparatively costly and elusive. My first was a '64 'spyder'. Same 164 cu. in. (upped from the prior 145 cu. in.) powerplant fitted with the 'YH carter' sidedraft but rated at 150 H.P. (smaller carb venturi and different hot/cold side compressor wheels). It was a fun little car which I used to autocross at venues all across California as time allowed. Being employed by Vilem B. Haan (a very famous automotive 'boutique' accessory outfit at 10305 Santa Monica Blvd in West Los Angeles) had me fortuitously 'rubbing elbows' with a veritable cornucopia of enthusiasts from all walks of life. Some, which remain friends to this day. Los Angeles, Culver City, and So-Cal in general was an automotive 'modding' mecca, particularly for budding gearheads like me. Aside from the too-many-to-recall celebrities and other notables which would frequent 'Haan', we had many engineers and proprietors of auto performance shops visit on a regular basis. One in particular which I greeted was a fellow - Ted Trevor of Crown Manufacturing who ran an outfit in nearby Costa Mesa which specialized in all sorts of performance enhancements for the Corvair. He was at Traco engineering picking up an L-88 aluminum headed 427 big block which they had just refreshed for him so he decided to swing by Haan's to pick up some 'coco-mats'. He saw my 'vair' parked out front and asked if I knew who it belonged to. Responding it was mine he smiled and suggested I come down to his shop and take a look at, and ride in, the mid engine V8 conversion they were offering for the (Gen II 65-69) cars. I did just that a week or so later only to have my mind completely blown. They had fitted that L-88 a few days prior and were working on "keeping the thing on the road". The machine was absolutely menacing in appearance, what with its massive (for the time) Caldwell racing re-cap rubber, small rear decklid lip spoiler and well fabricated aluminum air duct peeking from under the front bumper grabbing and guiding all the air possible for the radiator in the now repurposed trunk area. A somewhat weird looking fiberglass seating pod/engine cover affair was all the separated one's keister from the whirlies and burnies of the just barely tamed fuel/air ingesting, fire breathing (allegedly 500+ ponies according to Ted) behemoth mounted, literally - just mere millimeters behind. So ferocious was that experience that it has never left its ubiquitous omnipresence of my hippocampus. So terrifying was this 'demonstration ride' - I can only equate it to what one must feel if they truly believe a crash is imminent in the plane they occupy. The combination of intake roar elevating in sync with revs coupled to the ethereal, incessant and unrelenting gear to gear accelerations into regions theretofore unknown can only be equalled by what those brave few experienced whilst strapped inside a dainty capsule atop a Saturn V. Yes, so terrifying was THAT event... to me.
I digress;
Not long afterward I ended up with not one, but two more 'vairs'. a '65 corsa 140 HP and a '66 corsa 180 turbo similar to the one featured here by Jay. The 140 HP I highly modified by removing the captive intake plenums which carried the 4 downdraft single choke rochester carburettors and replaced that arrangement with manifolds which now allowed retrofitting of 3 bbl Weber IDA's to considerably modified big valve heads. Ed Iskenderian was making cams and springs and Venolia were making high compression forged pistons, so I opted for those as well. Coupled to the 'saginaw positraction' transaxle (same gear cluster as the V8 cars). The car was impressive - for what it was.
I sold that car not long after to help finance a finally 'obtainable' 1964 Porsche Carrera 2. I say that tongue-in-cheek as 'obtainable' meant I could somehow swing the then still seemingly astronomical, yet attainable $6800 to buy the thing. The '66 turbo corsa I ended up just gifting my 10 year younger brother with who also autocrossed it with some success as I had in earlier days, though was all too often bested by, yes.... a Porsche of some type, be it a 356, 911, or 914. As well as they (vairs) could be made/modified to handle, they were limited by their wheelbase. The '65-onward cars were on another, far more capable level of handling than the swingaxle cars were/are. Perhaps the one outstanding aspect which Jay skipped over is the 'as if whittled out of a huge ingot of metal' feel of solidity and torsional rigidity imparted by the unit body construction. Unlike virtually every other US made auto of the time, save for some American Motors examples, the Corvair were not plagued by annoying rattles or the visible shaking of components as when, say, traversing over rail road tracks or encountering the unavoidable pot hole. They just plain feel 'solid'.
Time marches on and I feel so blessed and fortunate to be old enough to inevitably becoming involved in and enjoying the fascinating, emerging cult of speed, yet being young enough to remember without the challenges of age stealing those precious memories.
Mr. Leno. I sincerely thank you for taking me back.
Thanks for your post! I had my '66 Corsa (turbo, yellow) in the West L.A. area around the same time. (I think I had a Haan catalogue, too - went to the store once....) Wondering if your '66 Corsa was yellow perhaps, and was missing its chrome molding on the rear edge of the deck lid?
@@MarshallLoveday Hello, Marshall.
It was indeed. 'Lemonwood Yellow' with black interior. An immaculate example. Purchased 'preowned' from Schonlaw Chevrolet in Hollywood with just under 10k miles. I ended up fitting a side draft Weber which REALLY woke it up though required some proper jet 'fettling' before an acceptable compromise between output, driveability and range per tankful was achieved. The handling was outstanding particularly after fitting a complete IECO suspension kit comprised of springs, sway bars, quick steer steering arms and a bracket which relocated the lower control arms out back. I recall anxiously awaiting my KONI shocks, GoodYear Blue Streaks and Superlite 15 x 7 wheels. All of those mods set me back another $1200 or so as I recall, (which was more than half of what the car cost me!) - but the transformation was pretty epic. I often turned at, or near the top of my class at autocross events once I swapped the 3.55 for a 3.89 differential. Mini Cooper, Lotus 7 and Europa, Cobra and Porsche (especially the well prepped and piloted) were my nemesis. To reiterate, the wheelbase was just too much of a limitation. A well manhandled, relatively mediocre car will more times than none take the win over a less capably piloted Q-ship, regardless of marque. Aptitude behind the wheel is a defining quotient.
Referencing the decklid 'trim'. It very well could have been my car while waiting for my spoiler to be completed by a fiberglass craftsman who laid glass for boats in Marina del Rey and had a side gig making spoilers and other things in 'glass. He owned a '69 Z-28 and I asked that he duplicate that rear spoiler which he did. It turned out absolutely perfect. As you know - there were a fair number of these running around around SoCal back then, so who knows but it's certainly a possibility. Thank you for rekindling yet more memories, Marshall!
My first non Ford was 1961 Corvair as a Young Marine in SoCal. Had heard of the handling problems, 1/4 reversed chrome rims and over sized tires made it stick in corners better than any Ford I had owned to that time. Was fun to drive but it got sold, bought a 1957 Ford hardtop. Fast forward a couple years in North Carolina, said 57 Ford and I took an unscheduled trip in to the pinnie woods, killed a good Ford that day, its replacement was a 1965 Covair Convertible, ended my Corvair ownership in KCMO traded for first new car 1968 390 4 speed Torino fast back!! What a car that was!
The American public was not ready for an air cooled engine, American made car. But I being a helicopter mech understood air cooled, no big deal. The 65 handled better that the 61 in stock form so did not change the 65. Thank you Mr. Leno for keeping the cars alive and letting the get out and play! Would like to still own the 4 mentioned above, but such is life. Thank you again sir. Gunny Joe
ralph nader: unsafe at any speed!
everyone else: beautiful from any angle
**Including me!!!**
Must've had a grudge against GM. The VW beetle is way more dangerous
The triumph herald had a worrisome swing axle but maybe not enough power to be lethal. Know the weakness and drive accordingly?
Oh and don't let the money men start removing things like anti roll bars!
Nader is a putz
Nadir was ticked because he didn't get his paid off
I'm glad to see Jay give the Corvair some love and respect. I had a couple of them back in the day and everything Jay says is correct. It is a great driving car and still a looker today.
I'm not a Chevy guy but I've always loved these corvairs. Back in the late 60s my uncle had one and I remember riding in it and I had so much fun.
It and the 2 stroke Detroit Diesel are my GM favorites.
I had a first generation 63 Corvair back in 1973. I was driving over the C&D Canal bridge (4 lane) near Chesapeake City, MD in the passing lane, when a gust of wind blew me into the outside lane with no warning and no steering input on my behalf. It's a tall bridge and that increased pucker factor immediately. Got home and added about 100 pounds of sandbags into the front trunk. There was also a Crown conversion for the later models that installed a small block Chevy V8 into the area where the back seat was previously located. Now that was a great handling car.
My first car, at age 17, was a '62 Corvair. Fond memories. Thanks, Jay.
Here to listen to Jay's voice.
A calm cadence that helps me tune out all the background noise in the world.
Thank Jay!
JAY...You're so right the styling still looks outstanding today. Never cared for the pre 1965 boxy bodies, they look outdated in comparison.
My father had a '64 Corvair Monza Spyder Turbo, black with red interior. The car kept blowing head gaskets and the last time scorched the cylinder walls. He got it fixed and sold it. He then bought a new '68 Corvair 140 sport coupe, red with black interior, similar in appearance to this one. The 140 HP version was the big engine for the '68 Corvair and had four 1-barrel carburetors. It was 6 years old when I was able to drive it and it drove like go-kart. Cornering was amazing. It also would easily hydroplane in the rain with the front-end being so light. My father would put ballast in the front trunk in the winter to help it turn on icy roads. He drove it until it threw a rod in 1978.
He had a Corsa which came with either a 180hp turbo or a 140 with four one-barrel carbs. I rebuilt a 66 Corsa 140 engine and put it in my 64 Monza convertible. It was a great running and fun car to drive. I sold it a few years ago and moved on to different projects, but I enjoyed my time learning about the Corvair and re-building the engine.
Jay Leno’s Garage: Pandemic Edition proves true the saying 'every cloud has a silver lining.’
Thank you Mister Jay Leno. You really are a true HERO in my book.
Air cooled, flat six, 180 hp in 1966 and the lines on this car are beautiful.... Yea revolutionary! Gorgeous car
GM was afraid to take it to the next step. Mid engine.
I have ridden in one. '68 Z28 engine. 290 HP. 4 speed. More like a Ferrari. Capable of 190 MPH average speed at Michigan International in 1971.
Even better handling than a Corvette. I was going to have mine converted. BUT got laid off in 73.
takes me back - had a '62. couple of things. when you're in a turn - don't brake or you may get a wild ride. 2nd - front end becomes very light at high speeds...
I really enjoy these episodes with one camera. A true reality show.
Last time I saw someone actually driving one in town here, he had Nader for his vanity plate.
I am convinced that Ralph Nader was in it for the money. I can make any car handle badly if pushed beyond its limits.
@@bcgrittner8076 Truth. Reminds me of the Consumer Reports Suzuki Sidekick fiasco.
That lady waving at him in the traffic was probably thinking "Jay Leno's talking to himself again"
Stolen comment
I wouldn't be at all surprised if she watches his videos! :D
I used to live in Burbank. I saw Jay driving some really cool cars around town. He absolutely honks and waves back. After a while, I got more excited to see his cars than him.
I appreciate Jay Leno speaking about the Corvair fondly. My father bought a 1962 Corvair 110 with the power glide automatic for my step mother. She didn't want it so my father used it as a daily driver, traveling from Long Beach, CA to Palmdale. He took good care of it and in 1976 U bought it from him and kept up his maintenance schedule. I sold the car in 1992. It had 485000 miles on and was never rebuilt. It wasn't pretty, but ran great. The Cactus Corair/Corvette club in Arizona said they believed it had the most mileage of any Corvair in the state and wondered about the nation. I shouldn't have sold it, and still miss that car. Jay's 1966 turbo is still my dream.
My Mom had a Corvair, and she still says it's the best car she ever had.
at one point back in the mid 80's my dad had 6 1st gen...lol three were junkers he used to rebuild two to sell off tho :D
So your mother has owned one car I supposed...
I had an uncle with one who couldn't keep a fan belt on the thing to save his life
She probably drove it carefully
My Mom loved hers as well, not the best she ever owned but it has a place in her heart.
I owned two of these back in the 60’s and loved them never any problems
I’m not a GM guy but the Corvair has always caught my eye. I have done some AutoXing and there was a guy that had a Turbo Corvair. He would put down some very respectable times.
I remember Corvairs well. We took a Corvair van to Yosemite when I was in high school. I loved the lines of the Corsa and I remember the turbo charged flat six which was a Porsche killer in its time. Another great Leno's Garage. Thanks Jay.