Chevrolet’s Corvair beat the Ford Mustang to market in the sport compact role. Who knows how things would have played out if Nader had not gotten involved? All Photos from wikipedia.org

You’d never think that anti-automobile crusader Ralph Nader would be responsible for the creation of the Camaro but indirectly, he was. If you are unfamiliar with Nader’s story and how the Camaro is involved, here’s a quick summary:

The Corvair debuted in 1960 as a sporty compact model. The car was developed by one of GM’s brightest engineers and future GM President, Ed Cole. In 1953 Cole was developing the Gen I small-block Chevy engine, which would be introduced in 1955 for the mid and full sized car models. At the same time, Cole was covertly working on a rear engined compact car, spreading the funding around different work projects to keep the Chevrolet brass from discovering the project and putting a stop to the development. Meanwhile, Cole continued to climb the corporate ladder and was promoted to the top job at Chevy, becoming the youngest person to run Chevrolet at 46-years.

Cole finally informed the GM CEO, Harlow “Red” Curtice, of his secret project in 1957. After convincing Curtice that if Chevy didn’t manufacture the car, someone else would, the project moved into full speed. By the time that the Corvair hit the market in 1960, Chevrolet was also developing an economy compact car, the Chevy II. Released in 1962, the Nova II hit the market in direct competition with the Ford Falcon, which was book-end by the Nova II and the sportier Corvair. This prompted Ford to create a compact sports coupe of their own to compete with the Corvair.

Washington lawyer Ralph Nader.

The Corvair was having its fair share of success, due in large part to it’s sporty look and economy. The Corvair could get 29 miles a gallon which was double the mileage of most cars of that time. Ed Cole and the Corvair had been featured on the cover of Time magazine. Records show that GM sold nearly 330,000 Corvairs in 1961.

It was this success that attracted a young lawyer that was seeking fame and fortune. The unknown Washington lawyer, Ralph Nader, launched an attack on the popular Corvair that would critically damage the car’s reputation and kill sales. Nader showed up as expert witness anytime a court case involving a Corvair came to trial. Continual magazine attacks from the lawyer put a negative spotlight on the model. Sales started to drop. Nader’s book, Unsafe At Any Speed,” was published and after a congressional hearing, the book landed on the best seller list. Nader went from nobody to celebrity overnight. While the publicity seeking Nader saw his popularity rise, Corvair’s sales dropped 50 percent in 1966, then another 75 percent in 1967.

Chevy management realized early in the attack that the Corvair was not keeping up with the sales of the Mustang or other personal coupes in the marketplace. They began developing a new sports coupe using the X-body chassis and designs for the second generation Chevy II to create the new Camaro model. The Camaro was designed specifically to take the place of the wounded Corvair and compete with the Ford Mustang.

The Corvair’s unique rear engine, flat 6-cylinder design, was revolutionary for its time.

The Corvair would linger until 1969 when production ceased and history would log the car as one of the worst cars ever made. The car was actually a well designed compact car and in June of 1972, a Federal government panel exonerated the Corvair. After the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted comparison tests between the 1963 Corvair, and four other similar cars (Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, Volkswagen Beetle, and Renault Dauphine), which concluded that “the 1960-63 Corvair compares favorably with contemporary vehicles used in the tests…the handling and stability performance of the 1960-63 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover, and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic.”

The Corvair was exonerated in the end but Nader had won in the court of public opinion.

Despite winning in the very end, the damage had been done and Nader had made his name. Because of one man’s battle for popularity, the Camaro was born and we are forever grateful.