Jalopnik
It's a good thing I use a pseudonym, because it's always dangerous drawing the attention of Corvair lovers, even if it's just to share photographs of a surviving street-driven Corvair. Corvairistas possess not only the usual single-minded obsession with their (incredibly superior and innovative! I swear!) rear-engine GM vehicles but a sense of having been wronged by an evil, corrupt cartel. Kept down! Why, if it hadn't been for that commie rat bastid Nader, we'd all be driving brand-new Corvairs right now! In fact, they'd be required by law! Right. Now that we've got my... uh... disclaimer out of the way, let's get right to Down On The Street business: this here is a Corvair 95 van from the 1961-63 era...
In any case, this Corvair 95 has been a fixture in Alameda for decades now, parked on a busy street when it's not at work.
And work it does, because this isn't some coddled vintage vehicle that's just for show- this Corvair is a painter's truck! Not sure how much I like the three-tone paint job and air intake scoops, but the fact that this van's a driver makes that stuff acceptable.
The Corvair 95 van had a grille/headlight treatment similar to its car sibling, though of course it's quite a bit taller. We hope it didn't share the Corvair car's unfortunate spear-the-driver-in-minor-wreck steering column design. Just kidding, Corvair lovers- you can put the pitchforks and torches down!
These are some of the nicest-looking taillights you'll see on a van. In fact, it's a damn shame GM didn't keep this look when they went to the front-engine small van design in '64, opting instead for dreary industro-taillights.
This ain't no poser rack- this van hauls ladders and paint buckets to job sites, by God! In fact, call me crazy, but I'd take the Detroit air-cooled van over the '57 VW Type II that parks a couple blocks away, were I forced to make a choice.
Related:
World's Largest Corvair [internal]
Comments
It's a pseudonym? Now I'm hurt, it was like I knew you, and now I don't...
Creepy, cyber-stalking-esque, kidding aside, I'm too lazy to google and a quick check of wikipedia came up empty, so anyone know why it was called a "95"? HP? Certainly not displacement.
Funky awesome! Big props to a working man rolling to the jobsite in a ride like that.
Gotta love the little perfunctory grille on the bow.
My buddy Sam drove his Corvair van to work today. Officially his is called a "Greenbriar" and it's in near perfect original condition complete with a big "CB" whip antenna for keeping tabs on the smokies. Anyway, he informs me that the "95" designation represents the wheelbase. In inches presumably. He's a Corvair geek and should know.
I love the pickup version.. I've only ever seen two in person. They have the side door still, which is really bizarre. Not the most practical pickup, though, with the non-flat load floor and the weird engine config. But I'd still rock it.
Nice pictures of the '63 Cayenne.
Corvairs WERE rebadged Porshes, right?
The Corvair lineup was really the "Saturn" of its times.
Yes I am a Corvair geek, and I must say that, the comments above do describe the Corvair crowd. We also have a much bigger sense of humor than most other car groups and we are fully aware that we are the black sheep of the GM crowd.
The Truck version of the van is called a Rampside, and is one of the most handy vehicles I have ever owned. When I was driving it regularly I helped more move than any other time in my life.
Up until about five years ago there was a guy about five blocks from me that had TWO of the old rampside pickups parked in his back yard. I don't think they were daily drivers, but I'm pretty sure they weren't dead, either: every couple of weeks, they'd switch places.
@Sam95: A Corvair geek, really, with a name like that?
When I was a kid the neighbor had a convertible Corvair coupe in his garage. Not even sure it ran. He was planning to restore it, but I think he never did get around to it. It just sat there parked with the top-down. He actually let his kids and me play in the thing, so that was pretty cool.
Didn't these things eject you through the windscreen if you crashed?
@78TLC: There's a long story behind the pseudonym... will get around to explaining it at some point. For now, it keeps me safe from roving gangs of enraged Corvair owners.
I think the blue/blue stripes work for it. It fits the era. That's such a cool ride, too. I hate the midwest. That thing would last 2 months of winter and then rot into dust.
@Collins1990: Just think of it as being the first one on the scene of the accident. Forward Control FTW!
The "95" refers to the wheelbase, it's 95 inches from the center of the front axle to the center of thre rear axle. Why that'd be important enough to name your vehicle after I don't know. We Corvair zealots tend to refer to them as "FC"'s. There were also windowed passenger fans and pickups - including one with a side loading ramp, know as a "Rampside".
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