I have no idea what Nader is thinking, other than selling more books. Total egomaniac, but he always has been. It's now been shown that the Corvair was as safe or safer than other cars of the time..
Unsafe at Any Speed is often characterized as the book "about the Corvair", though only one of the book's eight chapters covers the Corvair. The theme of tire pressures chosen for comfort rather than safety is recurrent, and the main theme throughout is the way in which the motor industry evades even well-founded and technically informed criticism.
Each of the book's chapters covered a different aspect of automotive safety:
- Chapter 1: The sporty Corvair
- Chapter 2: Disaster deferred
- Chapter 3: The second collision
- Chapter 4: The power to pollute
- Chapter 5: The engineers
- Chapter 6: The stylists
- Chapter 7: The traffic safety establishment
- Chapter 8: The coming struggle for safety
"The sporty Corvair"
The subject for which the book is probably most widely known is covered in the first chapter,
General Motors'
Chevrolet Corvair. The chapter is subtitled "The One-Car Accident". The
1960–
1963 Corvairs had a rear engine and a
suspension design which was prone to "tuck under" in certain circumstances and which required drivers to maintain proper
tire pressures which were outside of the tire manufacturer's recommended tolerances for the tire. The tires had an unusually high front:rear differential (15psi front, 26psi rear, when cold; 18 psi and 30psi hot). The tire pressures were more critical than for most contemporaneous designs, but this was not made explicitly clear to salespeople or owners. According to the standards laid down by the
Tire and Rim Association, the relevant industry body, the pressures also rendered the tires overloaded when there were two or more passengers on board. An unadvertised at-cost option (#696) included upgraded springs and dampers, front anti-roll bars and rear axle rebound straps to prevent tuck-under. Aftermarket kits were also available, such as the EMPI Camber Compensator, for the knowledgeable owner. The suspension design was modified for the
1964 model year, just far enough ahead of publication to allow its inclusion in the book; most significantly a second, outboard
constant velocity joint was added to maintain a constant
camber angle at the wheels. Corvairs from 1965 on were of this type and did not suffer the characteristic tuck-under crashes.
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