Jim Cavanaugh scored a coup in finding that quite rare gen2 Corvair 500 four door. I’ve pretty much given up on one myself; I’m still hoping to just find a genuine curbside Corvair Greenbrier van. Well, I did find this one just this past Sunday, way out in the boonies, and stopped the car long enough for a shot. But the environs just did not encourage a more in-depth photo shoot, so I’ll just keep looking. But I have written the Greenbrier up, thanks to some Cohort shots, and if one Corvair post for today isn’t quite enough, here it is: CC 1963 Corvair Greenbrier: We Don’t Really Want A Better VW Bus
Paul, you’ve triggered something I have not thought about in years.
My grandfather’s older brother lived rather close to us and on occasion they would babysit my sister and me. In front of their house was a rather large creek with a shaky old wooden bridge to access their house.
The creek would move a lot of water in a storm and usually cause scour on the bank. Lyle had a few old, crushed cars in the creek to prevent scour. He also had a few more on standby that he could crush with the loader bucket on his tractor and deposit where needed.
One of the standby’s was an old van. One day when I was quite young, I realized I had never seen anything quite like it. On it I found the word “Greenbriar”. It was much later when I realized what it was.
Lyle and his wife moved from that house years ago and both died a few years ago. I have no clue what happened to that van, but hearing the word “Greenbriar” takes me back to being younger than 10 and looking at the crushed cars in the creek being used for erosion control.
The Railways Department used to do this with old locomotives here.
That was a very memorable part of a canoeing trip I took on the New River in North Carolina about 20 years ago–seeing old cars embedded in the banks of the river as erosion control. Wish I’d taken some photos, but at the time waterproof cameras were rare and expensvie!
Locomotives…I’d like to see that!
I’ve always liked the Corvair Greenbrier. Better than the VW Bus of similar vintage. It’s a shame that Chevrolet discontinued it after 1965.
Certainly agree with that. I owned a 56 model van in Panama that I think had a 36hp engine. A Greenbriar would be a big step up.
Ol’ Clyde bought that Greenbrier back in 1978 for hauling parts around. He parked it there in 1985 and it hasn’t moved since. He’s gonna fix it up one of these days. Every once in a while some city slicker stops by and offers to buy it, but Clyde won’t have any of that. Once he gets it up and running and washed off, it’ll fetch at least 50 grand! He’ll get around to fixing it one of these days – maybe in time for his 90th birthday next year. His daughter, who stands to inherit the land and everything on it, already has the phone number for the local scrap yard.
“Already has the phone number for the local scrap yard.” On speed dial 😀 .
And he tells everyone that all it needs is a new radiator.
Well that Greenbrier looks good and hopefully there is not too much structural decay. Even in Portland there are a number of hidden and not so hidden gems if you know where to look. U.S 30 between Portland and Astoria has some good finds as does U.S 26 heading up to Government Camp from Gresham and WA 4 heading toward Long Beach.
Even better, try down in the Roseburg area. I swear, every other garage has something classic and damn sweet sitting in it. When I first moved to Oregon in ’00 I landed in Sutherlin. Never seen so many old Willys Jeeps before. Classic 4x4s I’d only ever seen in 4Wheeler magazine were always rolling around as daily drivers down there.
The Oregon coast has some gems too. When I go to Astoria theres always a 2dr Valiant putting around near Wet Dog Café. Im pretty sure whoever owns it works there. And an ex g/f lived in Warrenton….there was an immaculate orange Jeep FC-170 flatbed dually in regular service.
How can a true gearhead NOT love these? All of the original snubnosed vans have a certain charm about them. As a Mopar fanatic (and as a fan of the factory V8) Im partial to the A-100, but to say that the GB was an all around ‘better’ design in many ways is more than fair. And the rampside pickup version…*LOVE*
This van looks solid and very restorable. I hope it gets some much needed love and NOT from the crusher.
I love all of them too, from a distance! After all, in a head-on collision, your legs are the first line of defense. Of course, a head-on in any old car is bad news, so why not live it up?
Good point. As I see it, you only live once. ‘Safety’ is just another word for a false sense of security. You can have the latest model family sedan with 47 air bags, deployable bubble wrap, and a 13 star crash rating…but how is that gonna help you survive a runaway locomotive? A methed out semi driver? Alien abductions? Axe murderers? Ebola? Ostrich stampedes? Forks and lite sockets? OJ Simpson? Point is, the world is an unsafe place. Having your head on a swivel and paying attention to what youre doing is worth all gub-mint mandated safety devices that were ever made by a man….or weren’t. Personally, if its my time, then its my time. Id rather have 5 more years ahead of me driving cool cars that I love, spending good times with family and friends than to have 50 more years ahead of me driving some ugly jellyblob and wringing my hands over every little thing that can possibly kill me. None of us are getting out of this world alive, so live it up, laugh it up, and enjoy the time we DO have. And be thankful for our blessings!
Well said…
I hate flying on planes, and avoid it whenever I can. My mom always says, “You won’t fly in a plane but you’ll drive a Corvair on the freeway?” 🙂 At least I’m behind the wheel!
Well spotted Paul on picking this as a Greenbriar rather than ‘generic old van’. Then again I guess any van surviving from this era is of interest.
So THAT’s what happened to Scooby-Do and the gang…
Not too much in that photo that definitively says it was taken in Oregon; it looks very much like the rural areas around me in Central Virginia. However, it must have been ages since I last saw a Greenbrier van.
THANX Paul ! .
I *think* that one is white with red scallops ? .
I know right where one is sitting in Los Angeles , flat tires , Cragars (I think) ~ maybe I can get a photo of it ere long , I don’t like bothering stored vehicles behind fences .
These WERE nice trucks , I prefer the air cooled VW’s but these were great , too bad not many others thought so as GM only stopped making them because of poor sales .
-Nate