Before there was a Camaro, before there was even a Chevy II or Nova, the Corvair was Chevrolet’s sporty compact. In this look back, Drew Hardin tells us about the efforts to turn a 1962 Corvair into a performance powerhouse.
Yes, it was kind of funky looking, and yes, it had an air-cooled engine that was mounted in the “wrong” end of the car, but there were a lot of go-fast goodies offered for the Corvair in its day. Tuners ranging from old-school hot rodders like Barney Navarro to Chevy dealer/racer Don Yenko all tried their hand at making the Corvair faster through competition.
In November 1961, the editors from several Petersen Publishing magazines, including HOT ROD, MotorTrend, Sports Car Graphic, Car Craft, and Rod & Custom, gathered at Riverside…