In the end the American government certified the Chevrolet Corvair was NOT Unsafe at Any Speed, and that Ralph Nader was wrong.

That finding came from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 1972. By then, however, General Motors had killed the Corvair and Nader had prevailed in the court of public opinion. Many experts also disagreed with the government and deemed the car unduly prone to rear-end spinouts.

But in 1972 Americans were preoccupied with Nixon visiting China, Watergate, Vietnam and The Godfather movie.

Dial back a dozen years. When Chevrolet’s innovative 1960 rear-engine, air-cooled economy car hit the streets, Time put the car and its creator -- Chevrolet chief Ed Cole -- on its cover. Renault’s Dauphine and Volkswagen’s Beetle proved small cars were ideal for the growing number of two-car families that didn’t want two full-size cars.

Ford and Chrysler responded with shrunken front-engine, rear-drive sedans. But Chevy and Cole eschewed such convention for daring innovation.

Motor Trend named the Corvair its 1960 Car of the Year. The magazine got the original 80-horsepower version to 60 mph in 21.2 seconds, and estimated fuel mileage at 18.2-24.8 mpg. (Chevy claimed 29 mpg.)

In its maiden road test, Road & Track concluded “...the Corvair is a sane, sensible, well-designed car of a type we’ve been asking for for 10 years.” Chevrolet sold 337,371 Corvairs in 1961. It sold at least 215,000 more in each of the four subsequent years as the Corvair became a mini-family of vehicles with cars, vans and trucks.

However, even R&T’s first test -- in November, 1959 -- hinted at what would undo the Corvair. “All the gossip about this car’s dangerous handling characteristics can be dismissed,” the magazine reported, prematurely as it turned out.

The problems were three-fold: rear suspension, tire pressures and weight distribution. The Corvair’s “swing axle” rear suspension suffered camber changes that could dramatically alter how the rear rubber met the road and destabilize the back of the car.

Chevrolet also recommended sharply different air pressures for the front and rear tires (18 pounds per square in the front tires and 30 psi for the rear when the car was hot) at a time when consumers and gas stations alike used equal pressures front and rear. The Corvair also had slightly more weight in the rear end than originally planned

Some of these issues could have been resolved by installing an “anti-sway” bar under the front end to add weight and balance. GM finally did that in 1964 and switched to independent rear suspension in the 1965 second-generation Corvair. Too late.

Race driver Phil Hill once recounted that Chevrolet flew him to Detroit to test the Corvair and possibly become an expert witness in the growing number of Corvair lawsuits. He drove the car successfully at ever-faster speeds through a prescribed cone course. But after the last run he decided, just for fun, to run the course in the reverse direction -- and the car rolled up on its side.

Hill wasn't ever called to testify. ∎

Here's a 1962 promotional film from General Motors on the Monza Spyder version of the Corvair.