Photos from the Cohort by Slant Six. Found at the Rose Enterprise Motor vehicle display area, in Greigsville, Piffard, NY.
This isn’t the first time one of these Corvair-powered vans has appeared at CC, with quite a few entries of the passenger-friendly Greenbrier version serving as proof of our liking of the model (links below). Even the pickup Rampside version has made a few showings on this site. But the delivery van?
Indeed, the more austere panel version has rarely showed up at CC. Which makes sense. Utilitarian vehicles hardly make the upper lists in the collectible market and are awfully rare on the ground. Also, being just a ‘van’, it lacks the quirky factor of the Rampside truck versions. So, by all available evidence most have died away.
Now, officially speaking, the model is a Corvair 95 Corvan. In general, as it’s been told before, these Chevy vans were meant to go head-to-head against the likes of the VW Transporter. And as such, the Corvan’s many variations competed in almost every bracket pioneered by the Wolfsburg hauler. It’s a story already told at CC a while back.
Understandably, these vans benefitted from some advanced technology shared with the Corvair. A new unitized body, 4-wheel independent suspension, plus good traction and weight distribution thanks to the rear-mounted air-cooled six. Cargo capacity was 191 cubic feet with 80hp and good to haul up to 1700lb.
All in all, superior in specs to the VW hauler; yet, it failed to catch on.
Naturally, against the Greenbrier passenger version, these delivery vans were more austere. To start with, the cabin was a more spartan affair, with minimal instrumentation, though a radio was still available. Also, online literature tells some of these came only with a driver’s side seat. That said, all online samples show bench seats.
As austere as these were, they got even auster-er as time went on once sales didn’t pick up. The rear windows mark this as being a’61-’62 model, since they were phased out for ’63-’64. The glovebox also disappeared for some time, starting in ’63.
Of these panel vans, most were the 6-door variant, with a rare 8-door also being available.
The question comes, how many of these still survive? I guess not many, since none of these vehicles did hot numbers to begin with. Not the Greenbrier, nor the Rampside versions. In the case of the Corvair 95 Corvan, only 18K buyers were found in ’61, with the numbers dwindling to 8K in ’64; the last year of production.
Now, this Corvair 95 has certainly been idle for quite some time. But against some other finds, it actually looks rescueable. I could see it back in service at some point, in a limited form of course. What we want is to see this old Corvan back on the road, not to overwork itself, right?
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1961 Chevrolet Corvair 95 Rampside – It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time
Curbside Classic: 1963 Corvair Greenbrier – We Don’t Want A Better VW Bus
I remember seeing one of these for sale back when I was in college – six door with windows in the rear doors. So tempting for a few moments until I crawled under it. I though it would have been fun to have such an unusual vehicle. My father had already rebuilt two Corvairs so I’d have had his knowledge to draw upon….he knew his way around the flat six.
Recently attended the Corvair Cruise-in that was hosted by the Crawford Auto Aviation Museum in Cleveland held in conjunction with their current Corvair exhibit. https://www.wrhs.org/do-see/exhibitions/corvair-the-american-porsche
So in a few more years, will the entire van be that cordovan-red color? It’s some of the most smooth and even rust “patina” I’ve seen.
As for sales vs. Volkswagen’s vans, were these up to VW reliability and ease-of-service levels?
With the enactment of the “chicken tax”, VW effectively stopped selling the Transporter in the US in 1962, so there was little direct competition. The real competition was the Econoline, which buyers preferred over the Corvan.
The Corvair was generally quite reliable, and the engine had a rep for being long-lived.
Super cool, would be great to restore with the original sign repainted on the side. Too bad we can’t make out what it used to say.
Makes you wonder what year it made its last delivery and what replaced it. A Handi Van? Were they GM people? Maybe a 1964 A108?
I think it is awesome the way it sits. Get all of the safety, mechanical, and electrical systems up to spec. and drive it.
I too like this and hope it gets saved and resurrected .
Un crashed and not beaten to death by work commercial vehicles of any kind are always good hobby cars .
IIRC these could haul quite a big of weight too .
-Nate
All first-generation Corvairs used the same instrument cluster, no matter if they were cars, cargo vans, or passenger vans. I just learned yesterday that the same piece was even used in the unrelated front-engine ’64-’67 Chevrolet Van.
The only exception was the turbo cars, which needed a tachometer, temperature gauge, and boost gauge because the turbo engines would overheat under any kind of sustained boost.
None of these trifles should detract from the author’s gist that Corvans had only the most essential instrumentation and that GM continually de-contented them. This process began even before the first Corvair shipped, when accounting-types insisted at a late date that the Corvair be available with a manual transmission, so they could charge more for the Powerglide while still advertising a low base price.
The sparse instrumentation makes a bit more sense when you consider that Corvairs were intended to be automatic-only cars and vans.
Or put a porsche / Subaru Turbo Engine in the back and leave the outside alone. I could also see someone making a hot read sleeper van out of it too.
Not that difficult nor expensive to build a higher output non-turbo Corvair engine. Plenty of parts available if you know where to look, such as Clark’s Corvair parts. Starting with a ’65-’67 140hp version, big bore VW cylinders and a Clark’s OT-20 cam. I have a lightly modded one in my airplane.