Unsafe At Any Speed

Who amongst us as bona-fide car enthusiasts wouldn’t like to be like Jay Leno the former American chat show host?  I’m sure all will be familiar not only with the man himself but also his awe-inducing collection of cars that he keeps in a purpose-built facility in Los Angeles.  

If you’re not aware then go and visit his website ‘Jay’s Garage’ and see for yourself the massive range of unique, rare, bizarre and desirable motors he has at his disposal.  What a lucky man.  Whether you’d want to own them all – with the massive maintenance charges involved - is debatable but I’m sure if you had free reign there’s one or two you’d happily drive off in! 

Regular readers will have noted I occasionally reference cars I’d put in ‘Anthony’s Garage’ and most are fairly mundane compared to some of the exotic American confections Leno has access to.  To be honest, I’m not a massive fan of Yankee Classics finding many to be rather gauche and, in some cases, egregious and vulgar.  So the chances are that I’d turn my nose up at a lot of Jay’s collection. 

However, at Gawsworth a couple of year’s ago I saw an American car which actually took my fancy; the Chevrolet Corvair Corsa, a car I’d never encountered before.  The sky blue version on display was not only very pretty but was highly unusual as it was one of the few rear engined, air cooled cars produced by the American car giants. Part of its appeal for me was it’s not so long that you couldn’t feasibly park it in Costco and you might actually be able to afford the ‘gas’ required to run it.  

It reminded me a little of an Hillman Imp (which is a car I’d put in my collection) but one that had been sent to pimp-up heaven and returned as an insane, stretched out, fired-up shadow of its former self. What’s more it was for sale.  And, just for a moment, my head suddenly filled with financial calculations that if I hadn’t pulled myself together might have had me negotiating with the owner. Luckily, good sense prevailed and we moved on after suitably complementing the vendor on his car. 

Later, when I had a moment, I fired up t’internet and had a shufty around to find out more about this automotive vision that had grabbed my attention (and very nearly my money).  Interestingly, it was a car that had been referenced by the designers of the Imp as they were mapping out their rear engine effort which I thought was a bit spooky. More startling though was that the Corvair is one of the most controversial American Cars ever made. At this point I understood why my interest had been piqued. I think I have an instinct that causes me to gravitate towards cars that just don’t conform. Whether it’s their design, innovation, their problematic nature or simply that they’re death traps. I seem to like them.  Hmmm must ponder on that a bit more but for now let’s return to the Corvair. 

The very early model Corvairs (1960 – 63) were heavily criticised in a book called: Unsafe At Any Speed by Ralph Nader (1965). The primary issue being the rear swing-axle suspension which, it was claimed, had the potential to ‘tuck under’ in extreme conditions making the car inherently dangerous at the driving limits. Combined with the highly unequal pressures recommended for the front and rear tires (intended to balance out the handling) this created, Nader claimed, an accident waiting to happen. The alleged root cause was the insidiously prevalent trade-off between cost to build and safety that was used by US car manufacturers in an age when NCAP safety ratings and ‘moose tests’ were not such an issue.  Nader's attack did materially affect the car’s reputation and sales to the point that the suspension was redesigned in later models so perhaps in this case he did the American car buyer a favour.  

As the controversy rolled on, tests carried out in the seventies by learned engineers on the suspect 1960 – 63  models, pronounced the Corvair was no more prone to safety issues than competitor cars such as the VW Beetle or Renault Dauphine. In the end this research did little to convince industry big wigs (including John Delorean) who agreed that Nader was largely right and declared the Corvair to be an ‘unsafe’ and ‘terrible’ car.

Nader went onto highlight many issues with contemporary American cars such as the danger that elaborate internal and external ornamentation posed to drivers and pedestrians. His arguments were often very prescient and included now familiar issues such as the positive effects that mandatory seat belt wearing would have on accident survival and how cars contribute to pollution levels. All seem pretty reasonable one would think but only when looked at with a modern day perspective.  At the time the book was heavily attacked by the industry, many of its claims were strongly refuted and Nader became the subject of harassment, blackmail and personal attacks for which senior car industry figures were later forced to apologise.  

As ever, in these cases, there’s no clear cut outcome. Unsafe At Any Speed divided opinion and has in the intervening years been described as one of the most harmful books of the twentieth century. Harmful to whom is the key question one thinks…

What is true is that a Chevrolet Corvair made it to the car show I attended safely enough and Jay Leno has a 1966 model in his garage so I can only leave it to posterity to decide the ultimate fate of this conflicted car. Whether I’ll contribute financially to that debate is, I think, now open to question.

                                                                     Copyright Anthony Boe 2015.  All Rights Reserved