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Topic starter
02/02/2026 5:13 pm
1962 Chevrolet Corvair Monza GT
Before the Corvair second-generation arrived in 1965, Chevrolet whetted the public’s appetite with two shockingly beautiful concept cars, the Corvair Monza GT and the Corvair Monza SS.
The Monza GT was the first to arrive on the show stage, but its story goes back much further than 1962. Chevrolet worked with many design houses, rebodying early-model Corvairs as a means of building interest not only in the USA, but also in Europe.The Monza GT made its debut in June of 1962 at Elkhart Lake.
Initial talk about the 1962 Corvair Monza GT Concept focused on its exterior, which is amazing, but there’s a lot more to it than that. The suspension on the first edition Corvair became infamous thanks to Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed, but by the time Nader’s book was published in 1965, Chevrolet had already revised the system, replacing the early model’s swing-arm setup (1960–64) with a fully independent design in the late-model cars (1965–69). Still, that later suspension design doesn’t come close to the Monza GT’s fully adjustable, double-wishbone arrangement, which allowed the maximum amount of tire contact throughout the range of movement. Even better, the Monza GT’s brakes were four-wheel discs; drums would remain standard-issue for production Corvairs until the final year in 1969.
Photographs were taken at the Cobble Beach Concours-d’Elegance except for the last one.
1962 CHEVROLET CORVAIR MONZA GT 1:43 AUTOCULT AVENUE 43 AVE 60022 Resin
Tekno (Denmark), Joel (Portugai) and Auto Pilen (Portugal) produced this model in diecast 1/43 scale in the late 1960s. Eidai Grip (Japan) produced a larger 1/28 scale version.
02/02/2026 5:35 pm
I might have said before but I wrote an article in Model Collector on all the variations and copies based on the Tekno. A fun fact is that none of those ever called it a Chevrolet (or GM), perhaps to avoid any legal issues. Tekno designers supposedly snuck into the Copenhagen Auto Show at night and measured it in 1964 when it was there on its tour of Europe! Here are some Joal, Pilen, and Teknos!
02/02/2026 5:36 pm
...I'm amazed there's models of ALL these Corvair concepts! 😎 😎
02/02/2026 6:24 pm
@chris I am amazed there were that many real Corvair concepts.
Ed Davis
Inverness, Illinois, USA
02/02/2026 8:07 pm
I still have these air cleaner stickers (bottom row) that my Dad had from the Chevrolet Corsa Monza Corvair and Chevrolet Spyder Corvair from those years.
Topic starter
02/02/2026 8:53 pm
I remember the Spyder Turbocharged 150hp from my mother’s 1964 Corvair Convertible.