The Corvair was a revolutionary car in a number of ways but the biggest and most lasting influence may not be so obvious. The Corvair’s rear engine and sporty handling was a first for an American car. The Monza became a hit with its bucket seats and floor shift and was the impetus for the Ford Mustang. Although the Corvair had no real lasting influence on car styling in America, it was a totally different reality in Europe—it instigated the biggest design revolution of the modern era, one whose effects are with us still today.
(note: I first wrote a similar article back in 2011, but this is a heavily revised and updated version, with almost all new photos)
Let’s briefly consider what made the Corvair’s design and styling so unique and influential. Clearly, the key stylistic goal for GM in designing their first American compact car was to absolutely avoid this. Ok; this Austin A30 is a somewhat extreme example, but the problem with small cars was always that as the length was reduced, the proportions became increasingly less attractive.
GM design was not going to replicate what Studebaker did in creating their 1959 Lark, by just drastically shortening the front and rear ends of their full-size car. Yes, the Lark was a better car for it, but its stubby proportions were not going to fly at GM.
Chevrolet’s solution was to make the proportions of the Corvair as close as possible to that of its full-sized cars, and they succeeded to an extent no one else ever has. The whole “greenhouse” and side windows are extremely close to those of the larger car, as seen here when we enlarge the Corvair to make it as long as the big Chevy. This was a very deliberate optical effect, and no one to my knowledge has ever shrunk a large car so successfully and completely.
Of course that required making the Corvair very low to maintain those proportions; it was only 180″ long compared to 211″ for the Impala. That something was height; the Corvair was a mere 51.3″ inches tall, exactly the same as the Toyota 86, a modern sports car. And it looks even lower in modern traffic.
One might assume that there would be a price to pay for that low height, as in reduced interior room. Somewhat surprisingly, not so. The interior dimensions of the Corvair were excellent given its reduced size, thanks to the flat floor being so low to the ground. Yes, one sat low, which very much enhanced the sporty feel, but headroom was excellent and six could be seated in more comfort than than other compacts thanks to the lack of a transmission and driveline hump.
The very distinct differences in stylistic approaches that Chevrolet, Chrysler and Ford took for their respective new 1960 compacts is very evident. The Corvair has a purity of line and an exceptional proportional balance as well as a bright and airy greenhouse. The Valiant (center) had some advanced and bold stylistic elements which tended to be blunted by overly complex details and side sculpturing. The Falcon (bottom) was a simple, pragmatic but quite clean design, but not one that stimulated much emotion.
Although the greenhouse followed the pattern of that on the large GM cars, below the belt line is where it departed from convention, and quite radically so. The most defining element is its circumference lip, a very distinct line that wraps fully around the car, with a dip in the front between the headlights. It creates the impression that the Corvair was joined there from two halves, but what it does is to create a point of visual interest on what would otherwise have been a very clean but visually boring “pontoon” design. It allowed the lower half to be totally clean and barren, with a very decided turn inwards at the sills.
This circumference lip worked in perfect harmony with the flying roof, as they worked in harmony to accentuate the Corvair’s perceived length as well as create a second point of visual focus to keep things interesting.
Although it’s charming in many ways, the coupe version of the Corvair, which came out some six months after the sedan, lacks that key element and very significantly changes the proportions and balance of the original. As we’ll see, it was the sedan that made such a huge impact on the design world for that reason, although the other Corvair elements are of course also there in the coupe.
Maybe it’s because my first car was a white ’63 Monza four door exactly like this one, but the sedan was clearly the first Corvair off the drafting table as well as the production lines, as its harmonious lines and proportions make all-too obvious.
Although many Americans came to embrace the Corvair as a sporty alternative (it sold much better than is widely assumed), they were perhaps unlikely to fully appreciate the uniqueness of its proportions and styling. But in Europe, it was a very different story.
The Corvair was the smash sensation of the 1959 Paris Auto Show (above), and unleashed a wave of copy-cats on an unprecedented scale. It instantly eclipsed Pininfarina’s influential 1955 Florida as the most significant influence in European design.
To help put it in context, here a shot of a ’60 Corvair (right front) in Paris traffic. It’s easy to see how different its low, wide stance, clean flanks and big car proportions stand out in the traffic of the times.
To fully grasp the extent of its impact, let’s quickly revisit the major historical design/stylistic themes up to that time.
Prior to the thirties’ aerodynamic revolution, almost all cars had their headlights in a prominent location on both sides of the central radiator, the “classic” arrangement.
The streamlined and rear-engined Tatra 77 of 1934 helped usher in a new kind of face, one which the VW Beetle soon made the world’s most recognized.
Its influence would soon spread, even if not in original form, as most American cars by 1941 adopted the wide-set headlights in a modern interpretation of the traditional front end.
During WWII, GM design studios considered many approaches to future post-war cars, including rear-engine cars with radically new front end styling that would have deviated dramatically from the traditional classic approach.
GM came very close to adopting such a front end on the first new post-war 1948 Cadillac. This was the Interceptor program and it was only killed after running prototypes were built. Harley Earl felt it was just too much of a radical change.
Pininfarina’s 1946 Cisitalia 202 GT resolved these two major design influences, in a harmonious and balanced package that still featured the basic aspects of the classic face happily married with smooth pontoon/aerodynamic styling. It was highly influential for years to come.
In the end, Harley Earl’s new 1948 and 1949 GM cars came to a very similar resolution, acknowledging how iconic and powerful the classic front end was, especially on a long hood.
Through 1958, every major American car still sported these basic design elements, most of all the prominent high-set, wide-apart headlights, including the dramatically new 1957 Chrysler products. Predicting 1960 turned out to be harder than imagined.
The only major exception in the US was the brief mid-fifties fling with close-set headlights at AMC. This was the direct influence of Pininfarina, which had a consulting contract with AMC, although except for the front end the rest of the Nash was designed in-house.
The 1956 and 1957 Ramblers also had a similar front end treatment, but in both cases it was a bridge too far for Americans. By 1958, Rambler headlights were back in their customary place.
It was GM’s grandiose 1959 big-car redesign that finally broke the mold, at least in the mass market (along with the ’59 Edsel). Although all the attention is often directed to the wild fins, it was really their front ends that were a lasting radical departure from the norm. No one had done this before, except on show cars. By 1960, almost every American car had lost its high headlights. The face of American cars was changed forever.
And of course, GM stylist Carl Renner’s “flying wing” rear window debuted here too.
Arguably the weakest of GM’s 1959 designs, the Oldsmobile, has a front end that predicts the 1960 Corvair’s. Below that strong horizontal line that dips in the middle, is a relatively flat face, with too much chrome, of course. It’s the work of Irv Rybicki.
He either had a hand in the Corvair’s front end too, or it was just a case of internal copying. Take a good look at it, because we’re about to hop a Constellation and fly to Europe, to see where things were at when the Corvair crashed their party, and all the love children it quickly spawned. But before we do that, let’s keep in mind that in the fifties, automotive design was in a very different state of development, especially in Europe.
The Big Three, led by GM (Harley Earl’s 1952 LeSabre above), invented the concept of in-house design studios, because they could afford it. Independents and most European companies commonly contracted out their design work, or hired freelancers for a specific job. This largely explains why Pininfarina became so influential; it offered a high-class service on a mass scale; unprecedented up to then. And it was largely the Big Three, Pininfarina, and a few smaller design houses that predominated the trends in the industry until well into the sixties, or later.
American design had already exerted its influence in Europe prior to the Corvair, but often in ways that Europeans had mixed feelings about. Fins, gaudy multi-tone paint jobs, chrome…these were imported particularly through the Big Three’s captive European operations, like this German Ford 17M. And although these design trends influenced other European companies, it was Pininfarina who most of all cultivated a distinctly European design language, and one so influential that it kept American influence in check.
The Peugeot 403 is a typical representative of Pininfarina’s “pontoon” style, very much influenced by his 1946 Cisitalia, which combined the smooth envelope of the thirties’ pure streamliners with classic (and practical) proportions and enough details to hold the eye.
Pininfarina’s seminal 1955 Lancia Florida and the 1957 coupe ushered in a dramatic new roofline, crisp and elegant, to top off its smooth flanks. But the coupe’s front was still very much in the traditional idiom, and one that would soon grace a whole raft of cars. The Florida’s front end didn’t interest Detroit, who had mostly moved on from that, but its roofline sure did, and soon became the only way to go with coupes for some time. Pick and choose; that’s how the design world works.
By 1960, Pininfarina’s influence in Europe was almost omnipresent, profoundly flavored by the Florida coupe. Slab sides, sharper edges all around, just a hint of fins, but always very prominent headlights with the hood dropping between them, and that Florida C-Pillar, of course.
Compared to this now deeply-rooted design language, the Corvair turned it all on its head. Almost everything was different from the Fiat, except for the models in the same poses. The roof line, which was totally new but a bit too faddy to have long legs, played a secondary role to the Corvair’s other distinct features. That was its unique horizontal belt/character line, which completely encircled the car, like a seam by which the top and bottom halves were joined. This created an overwhelming feeling of horizontality, accentuated by the very flat front trunk and rear hood and the completely smooth sides that were gently curved in at their bottom.
And that face was unlike anything seen before, ever, except for that hard-to-look-at ’59 Olds. It was one that did not influence other American cars, which continued to favor strong and long front ends. But it was a face that would revolutionize European design, not just the obvious rip-offs but even many front-engine designs.
Before we take the grand tour of all of the Corvair’s far-flung progeny, let’s hop a DC-7 back for a brief look at the Corvair’s origins in GM’s design studios. GM’s ill-fated Cadet small car program may not have been an engineering precursor with its front engine and RWD, but it was designed by Ned Nickles, who is given credit for the Corvair along with Carl Renner. An appreciation for a clean line and smooth flanks was already on display here. Nickles would go on to head Buick design, and Renner had designed the Chevy Nomad and was the father of that flying wing roof.
The final Corvair design was mostly complete by August of 1957, and GM was rightfully protective of its new baby. Engineering prototypes had a completely different body (above), and were badged as Holdens to throw off the curious competition.
It’s noteworthy that what the Europeans saw in Paris was only the four door sedan, as the Corvair coupe didn’t appear until the following spring, and the Monza version not until May. So most of the Corvair’s early influence was the sedan, although coupe influences were seen later too.
Ironically, it was precisely the Monza coupe that became hugely influential in the US; not so much because of its styling but in offering a nicely-trimmed sporty package with bucket seats. floor shift and other details that turned the Corvair from an economy compact into America’s first compact sporty car. The Monza sold very well and had a huge impact on the market. Both Ford and Chrysler started offering sporty versions of their compacts, but that was not enough. Ford President Lee Iacocca decided he had to have a sporty coupe too, the result being the iconic 1965 Mustang.
Obviously the Corvair had essentially zero exterior styling influence on the Mustang, which played up its front engine with a very long front end and a stubby tail, had sculptured sides and the classic “Thunderbird” roof, all of them almost the polar opposite of the Corvair coupe.
Although this article is all about the Corvair’s styling setting off a global design revolution, that was all in Europe and Japan. But the Corvair Monza’s influence on the American market was in its own way equally revolutionary, as it ushered in the massive trend to better trimmed, sporty styled compact and mid-sized cars. I have called it “The Most Influential Car Of The Decade” in the US for that reason.
Enough of the Corvair, let’s hop a 707 back to Europe and take the grand tour of its progeny, in approximate chronological order of their appearance:
The most blatant copycat was also the first. The NSU Prinz, a complete 1961 restyle of NSU’s little two-cylinder car, was a faithful rip-off of the Corvair.
Even the flying wing roof made it here, although slightly blunted.
NSU’s slightly larger four-cylinder 1000/TT continued the theme, or even enhanced it with the Corvair-like quad headlights. Like the Corvair Spyder, the high performance TT/TTS versions were highly capable pocket-rockets.
And the 1000/TT even got round taillights, although with six it outdid the Corvair.
Perhaps the most surprising example is the Fiat 1300/1500 sedan that appeared in 1961. Given that Pininfarina had designed the larger Fiats, like the 1800 shown earlier in this post, the 1500 appeared with a very Corvair-esque design, albeit in a taller format required for the front-engine, RWD format. But the key Corvair features are quite intact.
The Corvair’s distinctive front has been adapted for a conventional front engine car, but the eyebrows dropping slightly to the flat hood is almost perfectly preserved. Was Pininfarina shocked? Undoubtedly. The Corvair was the first car to upset his apple cart and near hegemony on European design.
Next up: the Simca 1000 of 1962. A brand-new rear engine small car to compete with the similar Renaults, the Simca has a very nice Corvair face facsimile, but doesn’t carry the horizontal line back from there. Still, the overall influence is unmistakable.
The Renault R8 appeared the same year, a major restyle of the very rounded Dauphine. Like the Simca, the Corvair’s influence is strongest in the front end. Hardly a blatant rip-off, but clearly the Corvair had a hand in its transformation from fifties round to sixties box.
A comment was left at the older version of this posts pointing out that the R4 was a rip off of the stillborn Alfa Romeo Tip 103. But the prototype 103 wasn’t hand built until 1960, which would have allowed the Corvair to influence it too. Nobody in Europe was doing such blunt, flat front ends with the lip above it until the Corvair appeared.
The VW Karmann-Ghia 1600L of 1962 was quickly dubbed the VW Monza, for very obvious reasons. It’s one of the fewer Corvair clones that played off the Monza coupe’s very long rear deck.
The most beautiful and faithful homage to the Corvair—thanks to their proportions and low height—was Panhard’s 24 1963 coupes, both in the longer 24 C seen here,
and the 2+2 Model 24 TC. Now that was an exquisite application of creativity to the basic Corvair theme (Panhard History here).
On the other side of the globe, Mazda’s 1963 Familia 800 appeared sporting that distinctive Corvair waist-line bulge and band. And who designed it? None other than a young Giorgetto Giugiaro, working for Bertone at the time. Everyone is getting into the act.
The Familia family also included a handsome little coupe.
Well, it wasn’t only Bertone that got Corvair fever. Already in 1961, Pininfarina’s lovely “Jacqueline” Cadillac Coupe showed perhaps the first departure from his previously ubiquitous high and stand-alone headlights.
One year later, the Pininfarina 1962 Alfa Romeo 2600 Coupe concept shows some elements of the unmistakable influence of the Corvair’s dominant horizontal break line, which were also seen on the 1959 Corvette Sting Ray concept, along with the bulges on the front fender tops.
Here’s Pininfarina admiring Mitchel’s Sting Ray. A lot of styling influences were flowing in both directions across the Atlantic during this time. Hardly cribbing in the usual sense, but the change from Pininfarina cars just a year or two earlier is obvious. It should be noted that by this time the firm employed a number of designers, including the American Tom Tjaarda.
And Pininfarina’s work on mainstream cars also reflected their adoption of Corvair principles, as in the Fiat 1300/1500 further up and their design for the Datsun Bluebird/410 of 1964.
The flying wing rear roof edge was on display here, quite similar to the Fiat 1300/1500.
The all-new rear-engined Hillman/Sunbeam Imp also debuted in 1963, with a face was a remarkably faithful copy of the 1960 Corvair (minus two headlights) right down to the badge in the center.
The additional two headlights came along soon enough.
The 1962 Prince S40 Gloria shows some Corvair influence in its circumference lip and its rear end treatment.
And back in Japan, Hino’s new 1963 Contessa coupe also paid its respects.
CC Contributor JP Cavanaugh noted that the 1963 Chrysler shows some Corvair influence in its circumference line, smooth and rounded sides and aspects of its rear end. I have to agree.
Now we come to the most lasting and broadly dispersed influence of the Corvair. BMW’s Neue Klasse of 1964, which started with this 1500 sedan, carries the Corvair’s front end and circumference crease quite proudly, if somewhat disguised.
The BMW 2000 Coupe is a bit more unabashed in flaunting its Corvair roots.
The 1602/2002 popularized BMW’s Corvair themes,
especially from the rear.
BMW adopted these design principles wholesale, and made them their own. When BMW speaks of their design DNA, it’s really the Corvair they’re referring to.
And not just the gen1 Corvair, as we’re now seeing some decided influence from the gen2 (1965) Corvair too. CC’s Don Andreina has a more detailed look at the influences of six cylinder BMW sedans.
And since BMW’s horizontal accent line became such an indelible part of almost every subsequent BMW, it was with us through 2003 (if in ever less prominent form), until Chris Bangle finally flamed it away.
Let’s not forget the cute little Peugeot 204, also designed by Pininfarina.
It appeared in 1965, and its rear end is its most faithful aspect.
Since the USSR was always a bit late to design parties, it’s almost surprising that the ZAZ 966 appeared in only 1966. Vladimir Putin’s beloved little rear-engine sedan carries an air-cooled V4. I suppose they may have more likely bought an NSU to actually crib, but the end result is the same, and quite faithful indeed.
This last one may be a bit controversial, but it can not be denied that the Tatra 613 of 1974 (designed by Vignale) is still paying homage to the Corvair, to some degree or another. Ironic too, that the granddaddy of (semi-modern) rear-engine cars would acknowledge its latest member to the club. The circle is completed.
Another commentator suggested that the NSU Ro80 pays homage to the Corvair with aspects of its front end and rear as well as the crease connecting them. It becomes difficult to make that call, as elements of the Corvair’s design themes became almost universal to one degree or another.
And that applies to the NSU K70 to, if not more so.
I was going to leave it at that, but is it too much of stretch to say that the increasingly ubiquitous face of modern cars that predominated the next few decades can all trace their roots back to the Corvair?
The Audi 100 C3 represents typical exponent of the school: a simple horizontal face, with lights planted at each end.
The Ford Taurus of 1986 takes it even further back to the Corvair, lacking a grille altogether. The aero look soon became predominant and overplayed, and soon burnt itself out. It was the same problem the Corvair had in the US back in 1960:
Americans generally prefer a bold and strong face on their cars and trucks.
In more recent years, styling has very much deviated from the Corvair school of thought.
But EVs have fostered a design revolution, as grilles are not only unnecessary but clearly are a marker of an IC engine behind it. Tesla ushered in a new look that has once again brought clean and simple front ends to a wide array of new EVs.
I’m still waiting for someone to do a neo-retro Corvair, flying wing and all. Did the Corvair’s styling influence make it to China?
Related CC reading:
Pininfarina’s Revolutionary Florida: The Most Influential Design Since 1955
No, The Corvair Was Not A Flop; It Had A Higher Market Share Than The F-Series Does Today by PN
One may even find certain similarities with the Audi 100 LS, emphasized by its circumventing chrome strip and quad headlights:
It could be argued the Corvair simply connected all the creases/dips of the ’59 Oldsmobile together… along with thoughts of the clean styling/creases of the ’59 Sting Ray:
https://www.motorcities.org/images/SOTW_9-25-2019/1959_Chevrolet_Corvette_Sting_Ray_GM_Archives_1_RESIZED.jpg
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At first glance, I wondered what that white Renault R8 (halfway down) was so ANGRY about? Didn’t anybody point that out before they put it into production? Or was that intentional?
This ‘American’ does NOT prefer the big gaudy ugly down almost to the road grilles seen on some vehicles lately! Who buys those? Maybe they drop the price until they sell…
The Corvair’s creases were also further popularized by it’s Y-body cousins, the Oldsmobile F85/Cutlass/Jetfire, Buick Special/Skylark, and Pontiac Tempest/Lemans. The Tempest even carried the Corvair’s front and rear designs.
With GM having 52% of the market, other automakers had to see their designs as popular in the lucrative American Market, something they all aspired to. Especially since many countries at the time, other than USA, had recently seen their economies/populations destroyed by WWII.
Oops. The other two images were in need of a trim:
Let’s see if this is now trimmed down enough:
Great article Paul! I do remember when the Corvair was first introduced. I do recall that the attention that the 4 dr. received for its unique design when it first appeared was quickly surpassed by the introduction of the much sportier Monza Coupe.
Fascinating and so many great images .
-Nate
It’s funny, the first time I saw a photograph of Corvair I thought it looked like a bigger better Hillman Imp. It’s a real shame that the flying roof wasn’t more durable it really works for me.
I do love the grand progenitor for its drama (and bold engineering), but yet again, I am left to wrestle with the question of whether or not it and its many lineal descendants are actually good-looking cars? The Mazdas, the ’60’s BMW’s, the Imp, the Fiat 1500, the (‘orrid) Bluebird/410, all these cars that threatened to slice your hip bone if you had to squeeze through a parking lot, they weren’t my favorites at all when young and they were still everywhere to be seen, and now, now I vacillate still.
One thing I am certain about: the style did not work when copied to a smaller and taller shape. The Imp and NSU are just unfortunate, and the 1500 Fiat only just gets away with it because the nose-down-longish tail design has enough flair to squeak through. The 2002 is ok, but has a dangerously high Mr Magoo head that does not assist.
I feel sure I have read somewhere that the idea of getting big-car proportions of the time (quite low-roofed) into a compact format was a significant factor in choosing rear-engine, because that low floor could mean a those low-roof proportions done small could still fit people, but I’m damned if I know where I did.
Paul, this is a terrific article explaining the place of the Corvair in automotive design. Thanks.
If you google FE/FC Holden you’ll see those badges in their natural environment, something far removed from that prototype which I actually like, Corvairs are rare in NZ according to my dad they could be got but nobody in their sales area ordered one, but occasionally now I do see one a convertible was the most recent sighting, nice looking car.
The styling influence is amazing when its all laid out some of those I hadnt noticed, oh but I did notice you put the wrong Simca in, thats a late model facelift 1300 from the 70s there was no fake grille on the original, it was more corvair like, Ford went to a no grille front on their Zephyrs in 66, Corvair influence? I think so, the influence was only at the front but recycled on the Sierra/Taurus 20 years later.
One of the best pieces on automotive design I’ve ever seen. Bravo.
Paul – I read CC every single morning and have for years now. A piece like this from you is what I hope for and is pure pleasure for a 70+ person who fell in love with cars in the 60s.
Thank you! This was a fun one to put together, a bit like a treasure hunt.
What a great article! Amazing work, Paul. I became car aware about 1970 and even then Corvairs were thin on the ground. Fast forward to 1980 and I got my driver’s licence. The oldest car in my orbit was from 1968, or twelve years old. Cars didn’t last very long in those days and that’s the reason I didn’t see many Corvairs during my childhood.
That 1959 Sting Ray concept inspired decades of beautiful GM designs, which had that mid-body horizontal crease in common with some of the cars here but angled inward below that crease. Besides the obvious ’63-7 Sting Ray, there were the ’63 Rekord A, ’64-’65 Chevelle and their ’65 Opel Diplomat clones, ’65-’69 Corvairs, ’67-’68 Camaros and Firebirds, ’67-’68 Impalas, ’67-’70 Eldorados, and F-bodies from the ’70s and mostly right up through the last Camaro. Not to mention concepts like Chevy’s Astro I, the 2009 Stingray, and even Ford’s Cougar II.
What is the big white and red thing in the center of your picture of Paris. À bus or a bateau mouche escaped from the Seine?
Citroen U55 Citirama Bus
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/1958-citroen-u55-citirama-bus-see-paris-in-style/
Several BMWs have been mentioned but not the 3200 CS from 1962, especially around back where I definitely see the Corvair eyebrow-over-the-round-taillights thing going on, as well as in the curve of the decklid. A horizontal crease in the body stands in for the Corvair’s chrome strip that runs across the entire car. Also, the very thin C pillar and a rear window that wraps around the sides some evokes the Corvair to some extent.
I should note a few of these were built for 1960 but BMW’s financial situation forced a delayed intro, so the designers may not have had time to crib the Corvair. Whatever the situation was, this is one of the most beautiful and well-proportioned cars ever made.
A beautiful and highly influential car – thank you for such an extensive and interesting article. The size and, in particular, the height of the Corvair were a revelation to me. I put it next to a car I’m familiar with (in the UK) in the ‘Carsized’ comparison tool. It seems the Corvair is smaller in many respects than a Ford Focus. Mind you, many things are, these days.
https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/chevrolet-corvair-1959-sedan-vs-ford-focus-2022-5-door-hatchback/front/