Chevrolet Corvair

Corvair

Before all you American patriots start roasting us, hear us out. Rear-engined vehicles are a joy to drive most of the time, even if they’re sort of scary. A lot of manufacturers have tried to implement the concept, but it never worked, because putting the heaviest car component at the back usually results in spinning, it’s as simple as that. Nazi officers in Czechoslovakia were even banned from driving the rear-engined Tatras at the time due to the number of accidents associated with them. And yet, none of those things stopped Chevrolet from launching the Corvair in 1961. Chevy did manage to put an air-cooled flat-six engine, so we’ll give them that, but they failed to provide adequent swing-axle rear suspension to cope with the motor. This made it ridiculously prone to oversteer, and we’re talking at regular speeds here, and, perhaps even worse, it was almost always fatal in the event of a crash, since there was no engine at the front to lessen the impact. Not Chevrolet’s finest hour then.