Stunning Corvair Concepts By Pininfarina, Bertone And GM

The Corvair’s impact in Europe was highly significant, and GM styling boss Bill Mitchel thought a dashing Italianate coupe to go along with the sedan would make some inroads there. Pininfarina was commissioned to build a prototype, but it was penned by Tam Tjaarda. The process started in 1960, and the design evolved somewhat, but the final 1963 version is certainly superb. The airy roof line certainly hints at the direction the 1965 production Corvair would take. And those teardrop headlights made their first appearance here, but it wouldn’t be their last. Pininfarina wasn’t the Italian to take a swing at the Corvair, and Americans and GM itself went at it too.

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  • GrumpyOldMan All modern road vehicles have tachometers in RPM X 1000. I've often wondered if that is a nanny-state regulation to prevent drivers from confusing it with the speedometer. If so, the Ford retro gauges would appear to be illegal.
  • Theflyersfan Matthew...read my mind. Those old Probe digital gauges were the best 80s digital gauges out there! (Maybe the first C4 Corvettes would match it...and then the strange Subaru XT ones - OK, the 80s had some interesting digital clusters!) I understand the "why simulate real gauges instead of installing real ones?" argument and it makes sense. On the other hand, with the total onslaught of driver's aid and information now, these screens make sense as all of that info isn't crammed into a small digital cluster between the speedo and tach. If only automakers found a way to get over the fallen over Monolith stuck on the dash design motif. Ultra low effort there guys. And I would have loved to have seen a retro-Mustang, especially Fox body, have an engine that could rev out to 8,000 rpms! You'd likely be picking out metal fragments from pretty much everywhere all weekend long.
  • Analoggrotto What the hell kind of news is this?
  • MaintenanceCosts Also reminiscent of the S197 cluster.I'd rather have some original new designs than retro ones, though.
  • Fahrvergnugen That is SO lame. Now if they were willing to split the upmarketing price, different story.