Word: corvair
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...this story, TIME'S Detroit Bureau Chief Marshall Berges spent 50 hours with Cole, drove the Corvair and other cars on the G.M. proving grounds, as did Marshall Loeb, who wrote the story. For their combined work, edited by Joe Purtell, see BUSINESS, The New Generation...
...Cover) Not since Henry Ford put the nation on wheels with his model T has such a great and sweeping change hit the auto industry. Out from Detroit and into 7,200 Chevrolet showrooms this week rolled the radically designed Corvair, first of the Big Three's new generation of compact cars. Smaller and simpler than Detroit's chromespun standards, the Corvair is like no other model ever mass-produced in the U.S.; its engine is made of aluminum and cooled by air, and it is mounted in the rear. To Chevrolet's folksy, brilliant General Manager...
...rival camp, Chevrolet's Boss Edward N. Cole showed off his compact, rear-engine Corvair. Compared with Ford's Falcon, the Corvair is shorter (wheelbase: 108 in. v. Falcon's 109½ in.), lower (4 ft. 3 in. v. 4 ft. 6½ in.) narrower (66.9 in. v. 70 in.), less powerful (80 h.p. v. 90 h.p.). Compared with the standard Chevy, the Corvair is one-third lighter (2,375 Ibs. v. 3,760 Ibs.), will burn 25% to 40% less gas, sell for about $225 less than the cheapest Chevy when it goes into the showrooms...
Cole hopes to sell at least 300,000 Corvair '60s, plus 1,500,000 standard Chevies. If he does, he will beat 1955's alltime Chevy sales record of 1,720,000. He also expects the U.S. market to be big enough next year for all comers, big and small, to prosper. "Car sales for 1960," says Cole, "should be at least 6,900,000, including imports...
Last week Chrysler's fast-selling import from France, the Simca, joined the critical chorus. Aiming at foreign rear-engine cars as well as Corvair, it launched a massive ad campaign proclaiming "the advantages of front-engine cars over rear-engine cars.'' Among them: "Cornering is better . . . more luggage area . . . greater driving stability ... To relax your grip on the steering wheel [of a rear-engine car] at highway speed would be dangerous...