Saw this on the way home from the gym yesterday... which is pretty remarkable. Not the car, the fact that I went to the gym for the first time in 3 months and didn't pass out on the treadmill.

Thanks, ß®@ƒƒ! Now let's listen to a catchy little tune from our favorite HB band:

If we look at Robert Kubica's recent 75 G crash, it becomes obvious that no one ever has to die in an automobile accident. Never forget what Colonel Stapp taught us: deceleration alone does not kill humans. Years ago I was involved in a horrible accident that was phoned into 911 as "two fatalities." A 6-ton delivery truck going about 45 mph rear ended my buddy's stopped Mazda 323 at a funny angle and pushed us into oncoming traffic where the little compact was struck again by a car coming the other direction. However, both my friend and I were belted in and able to walk away virtually unscathed. In fact, the cops who arrived on scene refused to talk to us because they didn't believe we could've been in the totally deformed Mazda. I contend that if not for Ralph Nader, you wouldn't be reading this sentence, as I'd be dead. Discuss.

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. – Murilee Martin

Related:
World's Largest Corvair [internal]

Er, we mean a re-badged Corvair. Still though, as nifty as the Corvair was, it would have worked much better as a Pontiac. After all, what builds more excitement than flipping over? Oh we know, we know. Mean old Ralph Nader said nasty things about the poor little Corvair. And he wasn't alone. Here's what a Pontiac brand manager named John Z. Delorean had to say about the Polaris,

"Frank Winchell, now VP of Engineering, but then an engineer at Chevy, flipped one of the first prototypes on the GM test track in Milford, Michigan. Others followed. The questionable safety of the car caused a massive internal fight among GM's engineers over whether the car should be built with another form of suspension."

That's from a book of his called, On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors. Obviously, the Corvair's propensity for falling on its roof is the greatest thing that has ever happened, because instead of building the Polaris, Pontiac released the Tempest — which sucked — but into which John Z. eventually shoved a 389-ci engine, creating a little thing called the muscle car. Still, would Delorean have felt the need to run off and party like Stevie Nicks start his own company if the Polaris had been allowed to live? We're sure GM brass would have let him add gullwing doors to the mid-cycle refresh. Oh, and below is a picture of Oldsmobile's badge-engineered Corvair clone. Rumor has it that Buick was set to make one, too. – Jonny Lieberman

Swing Away, Eddie! The Corvairs that Never Were [autopuzzles.com]

Related:
Unsafe at Any Altitude: Corvair-Powered Plane Crashes [Internal]

Our tabloid-y bretheren at Sploid bring us the story of a Corvair-loving Iowan who's been muzzled by the man. It seems the "F Nader" plate on one of his beloved whippities has tapped a wellspring of righteous indignation in one of his fellow motorists, who wonders how to explain the plate to his kids (their apparently having learned the alphabet from the little-known TV spinoff "Sesa-f***-me Street"). The motorist ratted out the guy's secret f-bomb to the Iowa Department of Transportation, which is taking back the plate sporting the man's personal message to the author of "Unsafe at Any Speed." Sounds like a job for the ACLU.

"F Nader" [Sploid]

Related:
More on license plates [internal]

Our pal Jason Rosenberg, who played guitar in the East Bay's late, lamented The Pattern, used to work at Mother Jones. We've always liked the mag, even as we can only take so much alarmism. But now, the MoJos have busted out with some insight into Ford's flaming cruise-control switch situation.

The problem, apparently, is Kapton, a DuPont-manufactured material that has been banned from use in US military aircraft due to its propensity to catch fire. Ford's being nebulous and denial-heavy, as is Texas Instruments, manufacturer of fine scientific calculators and fire-prone cruise-control switches. Ralph Nader, of course, is pissed. But even better, they've got flaming Pinto footage here. That's the real money shot.

Flaming Fords [Mother Jones]

Related:
Ford Recalls Trucks [Internal]