Jay Leno Shows His Stunning Red 1966 Chevrolet Corvair Corsa

It's pretty rare to see a Corvair in such mint condition, plus it's got the desirable Corsa spec and red paint. Of course, the arrival of the mid-engined C8 Corvette is what makes this car more exciting since it's the original mid rear-engined Chevy, but don't think it was designed to be a Lamborghini fighter.

Over 60 years ago, the concept of an American compact car must have seemed pretty strange. The Corvair sold something like 1.8 million units during its 10-year production run, so it's a mass-market car. That's why Jay Leno describes it as a cheap restoration project you can look into.

But there's a lot of controversy surrounding the Corvair, too, partly because it was so outside-the-box. Detroit mainly focused on making large cars with plenty of features at the time. Sure, there was the Nash Rambler or the Studebaker Lark. But in this environment, the Europeans began to thrive.

To counteract demand for the VW Beetle, we got scaled-down versions of existing cars, such as the Ford Falcon and Chrysler Valiant. However, Chevrolet was way more ambitious, creating a rear-engined car. While innovative, it got a bad reputation in terms of safety.

The Corvair featured a swing axle suspension, which required about 10 lbs (4.5 kg) of extra tire pressure in the rear. But consumers were used to setting their pressure the same on all corners, and this could result in crash-prone handling. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader famously wrote a book called "Unsafe At Any Speed," which is why so many YouTube reviews focus on this subject, including Jay Leno's, right from the title.

It's important to note that in 1971, the Corvair was found to be about as safe as any car on the road at the time. Not only that, but the Corvair also had some racing success. If you want to know more about that, enjoy the second video dedicated to the Yenko Stinger version.