Welcome to Down On The Mile High Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the City That Rust Sorta Ignored: Denver, Colorado. You want to know what really killed the Corvair? This car!
Though I moved to Denver a couple months back, my 5-year, 1,000-mile romance with the Falcon Pinup Girl meant that I was in the Mile High City pretty frequently before that time. I shot this Nova a couple of winters back, and went digging through my vast photo stash for examples of the Corvair's competition after reading Ate Up With Motor's latest Corvair rant.
I consider the V8-powered Chevy II to be way more fun in real-world driving than any of the muscled-up Chevelles and Impalas of the era; a warmed-up 283 or 327 enables these little cars to blow the doors off their heavier big siblings. How light were these cars? About 2,700 pounds, or pretty much the same as a 2010 Honda Civic.