07/21/2025
Yeah, vindication day!
HAPPY CORVAIR VINDICATION DAY!
Today in Corvair history...(July 20, 1972) - We celebrate the 53rd Anniversary date when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) exonerated the Corvair (thus proving Ralph Nader wrong) when it published its report findings after a two year investigation of the 1960-63 Corvair. The report concluded: "The handling and stability performance of the 1960-1963 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles, both foreign and domestic."
Nick Gigante (Frank Winchell’s grandson) and myself created "CORVAIR VINDICATION DAY" in celebration of the Corvair being exoenerated, and we had (and still have) a specific goal to accomplish regarding the Corvair display in Mr. Nader's Museum, and the work will continue with the Winchell family's help (as Nick's grandfather, Frank Winchell, had a hand in helping to exonerate our air-cooled friend). Sadly, Nick passed away in 2020, but his mom, Judy (Frank Winchell's daughter) and I will still be partnering on this project.
To honor Nick’s (and Frank Winchell's) memory, I had this photo taken in front of Nader's museum, and I’m also publishing his last written speech for this special day (see below) that he was going to present in front of Ralph Nader’s American Museum of Tort Law while having Frank Winchell’s 1962 Corvair parked out front.
Thanks to Steve Dutton for taking this photo at my request of his 1966 Corsa with this memorial banner in front of Nader's Tort Museum for today's celebration. Take that ole Ralphie! Yes, it's not an early model (1960-63), but it's a Corvair and that's what counts!
Eva “Corvair Lady” McGuire
Corvair Historian/Creator,
Meet the Makers of the Chevrolet Corvair
P.S. Today happens to be David Cole's birthday (Ed Cole's son). How appropriate to celebrate a birthday of the Father of the Corvair's son vindicating his favorite air-cooled wonder car that was ahead of its time...the Chevrolet Corvair
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NICK GIGANTE'S SPEECH:
“Why Corvair Vindication day? Because the general public was misled by the media and; particularly, Ralph Nader, to believe that the Corvair was an unsafe car.... that it would, according to Nader, “Suddenly, unexpectedly, and for no apparent reason, go out of control.” Still to this day, “Car Guys” pass on these misleading statements, for example... People like Jerry Seinfeld, in an episode of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” released on July 19, 2019, referred to the Corvair as “The Death Car” and he wasn’t joking. His guest called the Corvair “a death trap.” There it is. The common misconception that there were “problems” with the Corvair.”
The world needs to know the truth. The truth is there were NO PROBLEMS with the 1960-1963 Corvairs. They handled as good or better than most cars on American roads at that time. My grandfather was Frank Winchell, the man credited for vindicating Corvair and exonerating General Motors in our courts of law. If Ed Cole is the Father of the Corvair, then Frank Winchell is the Corvair’s Big Brother. The kind of big brother that, when he heard someone was picking on one of his siblings, would pack a picnic basket full of knuckle sandwiches and take the bully out to lunch.
As far as the engineering aspects of the Corvair is concerned, Frank Winchell was responsible for the design of its powertrain. He was also credited for his vital role in using his engineering expertise which contributed towards the successful legal defense of the Corvair. At the onset of the Corvair litigation, Frank Winchell was head of Chevrolet Research and Development. His objective for the litigation was to educate the many lawyers, judges, and jurors about the elementary laws of physics and engineering aspects and how they impacted vehicle dynamics.
Frank Winchell, along with his right-hand man, engineer - Jim Musser, as well as a good one third of the Chevrolet Research & Development staff, designed various demonstrations and built elaborate models to accomplish this task which evolved into the production of an internal confidential movie called “A Car on Trial”. They were able to definitively prove that the 1960-1963 Corvair was not a defective automobile, that it did not “suddenly, unexpected and for no apparent reason go out of control.” They concluded that the 1960-1963 Corvair was as good or better than its contemporaries at that time both foreign and domestic; a fact agreed upon by our courts of law, the United States Department of Transportation (U.S.DOT) / National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as well as a United States Senate Committee investigation, among others.
Why Corvair Vindication Day on July 20?
On July 20, 1972, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its report “Evaluation of the 1960-1963 Corvair Handling and Stability” and concluded: “That the handling and stability performance of the 1960-1963 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover and that its handling and stability performance is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic. “
*(See below for entire conclusion statements of the NHTSA report)
The publicity from Ralph Nader’s book, “Unsafe at Any Speed” prompted legislation that created the NHTSA...the very organization that concluded Ralph was wrong in his accusations that the car would “suddenly, unexpectedly and for no apparent reason, go out of control.”
Even after NHTSA’s findings, Ralph is still attacking the Corvair. The following is an excerpt from a 2015 interview of Ralph Nader by PBS to commemorate the opening of Ralph’s American Museum of Tort Law in his hometown of Winsted, Connecticut. The host stated, “Nader first gained national attention in 1965, when he documented dangerous cars in his book Unsafe at Any Speed, Exhibit A, the Chevrolet Corvair made by General Motors. It’s the museum’s center piece.” Nader replied, ‘Yeah, it was not a stable car, it leaked carbon monoxide, the steering column starts a few inches from the leading surface of the front tires. So if you get in a collision like this, the steering column becomes a spear in the chest of the driver.’”
Ralph Nader is wrong on all counts. First and foremost, the Corvair was not unstable. Second, any car that has not been properly maintained will leak carbon monoxide. Third, the Corvair steering column design was not any different than any other car at that time.
In Ralph Nader’s hometown of Winsted, Connecticut, he has erected “The American Museum of Tort Law.” In this museum, he has a 1963 Corvair on display like a trophy. A tort is an act or omission that gives rise to injury or harm to another and amounts to a civil wrong for which courts impose liability. Therefore, by definition, there is absolutely no justification for a Corvair to be in The American Museum of Tort Law, let alone be its largest and most prominent exhibit since it does not represent all the accurate history regarding this matter. We don’t expect the car to be removed from the museum, but what we feel would be fair and accurate is for this display to include a copy of the findings of the July 20, 1972 NHTSA report in which the Corvair was exonerated by the U.S. Government.
My grandfather, Frank Winchell, was instrumental in proving there was nothing wrong with the suspension design of the 1960-1963 Corvair, and he convinced General Motors to fight the lawsuits. In 1979 he gave a speech to the Corvair Society of America (CORSA) telling the history of the Corvair’s vindication. As proof of my grandfather’s belief in the value of the Corvair, his family drove Corvairs and he bought one for his daughter (my mom).
In conclusion, I want to thank Eva McGuire, who’s known as the Corvair Lady, who partnered with me on this project and named it “Corvair Vindication Day.” We want to recognize July 20th each year to commemorate the day the Corvair was officially vindicated by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and encourage all fans and owners of Corvairs to join us in celebrating this date in history."
Nick Gigante
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*CONCLUSION FINDINGS OF THE NHTSA PUBLISHED ON JULY 20, 1972:
The 1960-1963 Corvair were reviewed by NHTSA engineers and information included extensive data obtained from General Motors, input from Mr. Nader and his associates, numerous technical and consumer publications concerning vehicle handling, sworn testimony from several court proceedings, comparison vehicle testing by Ford Motor Company, and NHTSA vehicle test data.
After careful and deliberate analysis of the information, the following conclusions are made:
1. The 1960-1963 Corvair understeers in the same manner as conventional passenger cars up to about 0.4g lateral acceleration.
2. The transition from understeer, through neutral steer, to moderate oversteer occurs in a range from about 0.4g to 0.5g, lateral acceleration. This transition does not result in abnormal potential for loss of control.
3. The limit of control for the 1960-1963 Corvair is 0.6g sustained lateral acceleration, which is comparable to contemporary solid rear axle, front engine domestic vehicles.
4. The 1960-1963 Corvair was found to have no critical speed.
5. The limited accident data available indicates that the rollover rate of the 1960-1963 Corvair is comparable to other light domestic cars. One accident study shows the Corvair to have a higher percentage of rollover accidents, while another indicates it to be slightly lower.
6. The Corvair compared favorably with the other contemporary vehicles used in the following NHTSA Input Response Tests:
Steady Turn Breaking, Smooth Road simulating the maneuver
required in an emergency situation, bringing the vehicle to a stop on a curve with little or no deviation from its intended path.
Step Steer simulating a “J” turn.
Reverse Steer Input simulating a modified “J” turn.
Drastic Steer, Drastic Brake This test was mechanically controlled
test without a driver and was the one which Highway Safety
Research Institute had concluded was most apt to place a vehicle in
the rollover mode. For many of the tests the plotted data indicated that the Corvair performance fell between the Valiant and Falcon on one side and the Volkswagen and Renault on the other side. Outrigger contact (representing vehicle rollover) did not occur in any of the comparative tests for the Corvair, Falcon or Valiant. Outrigger contact was made by the Volkswagen and the Renault in some of the comparative tests.
It is concluded that the handling and stability performance of the 1960-1963 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover and that its handling and stability performance is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic. “
