Vehicle Description
Gifted engineer and manager, Ed Cole, joined Chevrolet in 1952
working his way through the ranks before becoming the Vice
President of Chevrolet Motor Division. His aggressive design team
pushed to have a smaller, more economical car to compete with
imports such as the Volkswagen Beetle and sporty Porsche 356. Few
American manufactures were building a compact vehicle in the
1950's, so this venture was unique for Chevrolet. The concept was
built upon a first ever Fisher unibody chassis, with a rear mounted
air-cooled, aluminum 6-cylinder engine, 4-wheel independent
suspension, low profile wheels, and a great variety of platform
models! It hit the showrooms with huge success in 1960 and became
the Motor Trend's "Car of the Year!" By 1962, after swift showroom
sales, Chevrolet introduced a Monza Spyder performance option for
the coupe and convertible models. This Spyder package provided a
Turbo-charged engine, multi-cluster instrumentation with dash
tachometer, intake manifold pressure and cylinder head temperature
gauges, as well as special Spyder body badging!
The Corvair was Chevrolets first ever production car to feature a
turbocharged engine! It was also America's only car of its day to
be powered by a rear engine platform. The name Corvair comes from a
combination of Chevrolets Corvette and Bel Air, and came with
multiple variants including a wagon, van and truck setup. There was
much to love about the style of the Corvair with its iconic accent
body line, slanting nose, small quad headlights, and lack of grille
made the car very distinctive and fresh, especially for an American
car as it sported no fins or other similar era styling. Chevy's
Corvair faced some unnecessary negative press in its early days,
but the car held strong with a good community of enthusiasts and
dedicated part suppliers who see it for the unique car it is. Sales
for the Corvair really took off when it debuted its Monza model
with the Spyder performance package. A total of 6,894 Spyder coupes
were made compared to just 2,574 convertibles like this example
were produced in 1962.
We are happy to represent this 1962 Chevrolet Corvair Monza Spyder
finished in Roman Red with a White convertible top and Black vinyl
interior. Powering this largely original Corvair is its sporty
air-cooled 2.4-liter turbo flat 6-cylinder engine producing a stout
150 horsepower and mated to a 4-speed manual transaxle. Along with
the Spyder performance package this Corvair also features a 3.55
axle ratio, heater, defroster, power convertible top, floor
shifter, AM radio, dual side mirrors, de-luxe steering wheel, sun
visors, electric windshield wipers, and 6.50-13 U.S Royal tires
surrounding the Monza hubcaps.
This desirable Corvair Spyder shows 60,458 miles on the odometer
and had been resting in its former, large-scale collection for many
years driven only sparingly. Since its arrival at our museum we
have installed a rebuilt Carter YH turbo carburetor unique to these
engines, v-belt, spark plugs, condenser, ignition points, engine
oil/filter change, transmission & rear end fluid changes, fuel
pump, fuel hoses, heater hose, motor mount, transmission mount,
transmission output seal, front & rear engine cover seals, engine
to body seal, engine shroud retainer, shift bushing, shift shaft
seal, shift shaft rod boot, selector shaft seal, under hood weather
stripping, right rear wheel cylinder, axle u-joint, right front
ball joints, both front struts, rear brake hose, front sway bar
bushings, along with 4 new period-correct U.S. Royal tires with 1"
whitewalls. Thank you for your interest in this unique Chevrolet
and please call us directly or come to our showroom for a tour!
