The story of the lost Chevrolet Corvair rotting away in the Darien Jungle for 60 years
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- Опубліковано 28 кві 2021
- This is a Chevrolet Corvair, and it sits here, in the middle of the Darien jungle, less than a mile away from Panama’s border with Colombia. It’s been here for exactly 60 years, with trekkers brave enough to cross the inhospitable Darien Gap wondering what an American made, compact four-door sedan is doing rotting away between North and South America.
So stick around until the end of this video to find out how and why this particular red Corvair got into the jungle of Panama.
It’s a story of sheer willpower, stubbornness and a bit of craziness, all wrapped up in an expedition that took twelve men and their six completely unprepared cars and trucks across the treacherous Darien Gap. A place where there are no roads, no bridges, and slim chances of survival.
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I think GM should finance an expedition to reclaim it for the GM museum..
Ya better think helicopter 😜
@@David-uu1oj call in the diesel brothers!! 👊
How humbling would it be for the rover and then jeep crews to battle through only to find a stock corvair a mere mile from the finish. Gutted!
What a cool story, gotta love them!!!!
Just shows quality will always win over quantity....
Two of the six survived ! So GM had a 66 Percent failure rate !
a mere mile is an "almost" and "almost" is not good enough. The jeep guys MADE it ! big difference.
@@GodiscomingBhappy The jeeps were also not stock, and went through every spare differential they had carried with them.
I remember that story from years ago but never realised 2 Corvairs actually made it !! Thanks for posting !!
It looks remarkably intact for sitting in a damp jungle for 60 years. And pretty amazing it's still there, as it would make a great display at a business for someone determined enough to go retrieve it.
i dont think it should ever be retrieved. it marks an important milestone in history and leaves mystery for anyone who stumbles upon it. either way i gander the frame and body are so rotted it would snap into pieces at the tug of a winch
This is why I watch UA-cam.
I love these crazy expedition stories, imagine being thrown the keys to a brand new car and told to go beat it through the jungle 😂
Take a brand new car though the jungle? Count me in lol
It’s like a top gear episode
Not only a new car but a completely new design from the ground up. This the Gm I miss! They really pushed the boat out with this car. Unfortunately the car gained a reputation and used to aid a political agenda disguised as automobile safety.
I think we just found the challenge for Grand Tour series 5!!!! James Jeremy and Richard must choose three completely stock compact cars from the 1960s...
TGT held a poll on YT once asking for destination ideas and one was the Darien Gap.
Top Gear UK, with Jeremy and the rest quit in 2015, so idk what you're expecting lol.
I was thinking the same…
Fascinating story. My father owned a Corvair back in the day. He's spoken of it often and said it was among his favorite cars (he's owned many over the years). He also owned an Austin Healey Sprite that he cherished. No jungle drivin' for him, however. He kept it to the streets.
I just found this video. I have had many Corvairs over the years and am a big fan of the car. I'm almost 80 now and to this day I will say that I'd love to own a Corvair. In my view the most practical vehicle ever produced by Detroit .. I work on what I drive still. and I miss the simplicity of that drive train...nice video
My dad had one of these in the 60's We have a few pictures of it. When I was young I had a Mr2 Turbo and he always talked about that damned Corvair. Lol I'd give anything to hear those stories again.
my dad also had a corvair!! he always boasted about how great of a car it was. would love to have one.
@@ralphharrison6622 where ya at Ralph? Contact Corsa for a club near you, lots of Corvairs to be had......i got three 4sale, Craigslist👍
@@David-uu1oj ny, ill give it a look, thanks!
Wow, that's a very interesting story and the old footages from this trip are really cool too.
So an episode of The Grand Tour/Top Gear then, before those existed.
True story:
I grew up in Winsted, Connecticut, seven houses down from Rose Nader; Ralph Nader’s mother. She taught me how to make Lebanese bread.
She and her daughter, Clair, knew I was a car fanatic, so they told me about all the unscrupulous and underhanded harassment that GM threw at Ralph and his family right before his congressional testimony.
Not only did they send ‘ladies of the night’ to hit on Ralph so they could get a photograph to use as leverage, but they also tried to bribe his mother. GM execs would show up in a Cadillac and told her she could have it, “if she played nice.” She refused. When that didn’t work, they started taunting her by saying, “I’d be a shame if Ralph got disbarred because of losing such an ‘unwinnable’ case.”
Luckily, she was a strong Lebanese woman, who valued integrity, human lives and her sons legal expertise, over money.
Ralph won his case, and GM was forced to pay him for their harassment and attempted entrapment.
I’ll never by a GM product after what they did to her, let alone Ralph. She carried that anger everyday, much like a fighter shows off his scars, until she passed.
It ended up jading her view, regarding “the American dream.” After all, the American dream threatened to ruin her son, “unless he played nice.”
That is kno2n as g angstalking a t argeted individual. It's a tactic the government and large corperations use to stay in power against all of us. Sometimes those sick people bet wrong loose big time when one man like Ralph stands up to them and doesn't falter.
@Homeless Home Movies
You can read the judgement of R. Nader v. GM Corp.
It’s public record. (25 N.Y. 2d 560, 1970)
Argued: October 28, 1969
Ruling: January 8, 1970
Nobody ever mentions that most of the information in Nader's book came from GM archives. They gave him free access to records of recalls and breakdowns. What did he tell them to get this access? I doubt he told them he was working on a hit piece that would make him famous at their expense. When they found out what his racket was naturally they investigated him and fought back. The way he behaved must have convinced him they were dealing with another sleazy lawyer looking to be bought off. They weren't wrong, they just under estimated his ambition.
Perhaps the motive was to write a novel about a road trip and call it Off the Road. And I grin but post-war America was road-trip happy and it was surely good times for these guys to try this, something wild and fun and you can always just fly home. And the Corvair was not unsafe at any speed. My Grandmother had one for years and she drove the wheels off it, figuratively speaking. And she loved that car.
That's crazy, this is the first time I've heard of it. ;-)
It's kind of funny that two out of three Corvairs made it while the two 4WD "Travelalls"(?) didn't, but mainly due to being unprepared and accidents.
The reason I like this video is beacus I comes to show you how much tougher older cars are than new cars
Love my 1960 Corvair but I never would’ve thought that they could make it through the jungle 😂
great video mate, I've been trying to find info on this car for a long time then one day this just shows up in my recommended videos, always thought t was crazy putting 3 2wd cars through one of the hardest expeditions ever undertaken, and 3 4wds and of all those only 2 of the 2wd Corviars completed the trip, I wonder where the 3 suburbans are now and how they are look
Ok, nice. That was good timing. Just ending a doc on the 1970s Jeep group traverse of the Darian Gap and was a lingering loose end ... for about 3 seconds until I see this suggested. Well done and thanks.
Dick Doane owner of Doane Chevrolet in East Dundee, ILL was one of the Great Chevrolet innovators racing Corvettes in the 50s & 60s.
Cool information. The fact that two Corvairs made it through is amazing. I had a 65 Monza and loved that car. little
Great info, great video, great narration. You sir deserve more subs and attention. Found your video about the Land Rovers and hoped you'd do this video. Goodjob bud, keep it up.
Thank you. Really!
love you sir to bring such great informative videos...
Love from INDIA
that makes me want a corvair even more.
Very interesting and I was not aware of this expedition. I had to do a project back in college on Ralph Nader's fight with the corvair.
i love your videos man hopefully you get more many more subs 🤙
I heard the story of the Corvairs going across the gap but I never knew what happened to the car left behind until now. Super neat!!
Fascinating! Thanks!
You have very interesting videos. Thank you.
Awesome bit of history! I never knew any of it before. I have been a Corvair fan for a long time.
Excellent, excellent,excellent.
love this effort
This is real insanaty. I like it
Thank you very much for sharing this mind-blowing chapter of the Corvair. In the United States it had been bashed as notoriously lethal dangerous car by Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile is a landmark non-fiction book by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, first published in 1965. of the book and how that contrasts some of the notoriously dangerous reputation it had, with the whole crew through the Jungle, not a single member actually died other than getting airlifted and then malaria, everyone survived!
Excellent video! thanks again for sharing.
My father owned a few Corvairs (including the fairly rare van). I drove his cars a few times. They were lethal - braking moderately hard in a corner brought the rear end around quickly and then car was out of control because the rear was too heavy to recover. I'm a decent driver and barely recovered from a few low-speed "tests". An average driver would easily lose control in some normal driving cases whereas if they were in a typical sedan would have no issues. Since they were air-cooled (boasted as if it were something of a great design when in actuality it was a cost-cutting measure), the typical oil leaks from these scourges would gum up the complex thermo-controlled air vents and the engines would then run too hot or cold. They were a terrible design all around. Yeah, they are different and if you only need milk and eggs at the local grocery and want to be different, they'll cover for that. Not much else.
@@scotttaggart I started last and finished in second place behind another Corvair in my first ice race in 1967 driving a 1964 Corvair Monza which was my daily driver.
The Corvair did over steer but the average American driver was totally unable to cope. Most American cars of that era plowed (under steered like a farm tractor). The real problem with the car was that Chevrolet recommended tire pressures were 28 rear and 14 front. The front sidewalls would deform and cause snap over steer in the best case, the rim contacting the pavement in the worst. The rear sidewalls also would deform and either the front or rear wheel rim would dig into the pavement and flip the car.
The first time I pushed the car I thought something was broken, checked the tire pressures and said to myself, "this is crazy". I inflated the tires to 32 lbs. front and rear, after which the car was stable and predictable albeit a bit over steerie.Later on I was able to reduce the pressures to 28 lbs. front and rear.
The rear swing axle suspension wasn't ideal, having no limiting restraint to prevent the suspension from "jacking up". When this happened it caused a big "tank slapper" which was difficult to control.
This happened to me when I was run basically run off the road and hit a high curb with the right side suspension, propelling the right side of the car about a foot into the air. Th rear suspension was fully "jacked" but I got it back on the pavement and had quite the adventure "walking" the suspension back into it's proper position. This happened the day before I was to trade the Corvair for a used MGB.
The next model Corvairs, which I Ice raced for several years, had virtually the same rear suspension as did the Corvette. The problem with these cars is the artificially added under steer to keep average drivers from going through a guardrail backwards. With this setup drivers were back to going through a guardrail forward, as god intended.
Under normal driving conditions with proper tire pressures the Corvairs were just fine. In the winter snow though the things really shined.
In ice racing I went on to drive a modified Fiat 850 with 3 wins 2secnds one third palace and one DNF a result of being punted in the rear by the second place Corvair.
During the following twenty years I raced formula cars in SCCA club races. But funds were limited and I only won a single race if FC, which at the time was running 1 liter F3 cars. At the end I was going to go semi pro in the Skip Barber Turbo SAAB series I tested at LRP and doing lap times that would have put me fifth on the grid for the race the previous weekend. Alas I ran out of mad money and had to quit racing altogether.
-dave
@@dgwachtelgreat story and yes tyre pressure matters. In Europe the easy Porsche 911 and the Volkswagen Beetle had the same issues that the rears would brake away and most people did not like that, only people understanding racing, and stearing a car with a loos rear like you would do on a off-road motor cycle.
Those early Corvairs actually had rear swing axles like VW Bugs, not independent rear suspensions. This caused handling issues on these early models, and then Chevy redesigned the rear suspension for later models.
The issues ended in 62. Also, they only had issues if you didnt follow the manuals recommended tire pressures.
@@TheCatOfAges The tire pressures were way too low, particularly in the front. (former owner and ice racer of a '64 and approximately four newer model Corvairs). And later on SCCA Regional and Nationally licensed racing driver.
-dave
As a local citizen of Panama, Darien is full of abandoned cars, especially in the northern area and its coasts, the problem is not to run into the national guard.
That's literally my great grandpa's car. The long story: so my grandpa left that car inside of the forest, it seems like you guys found it. Also the other thing is that used to have an air freshener in it, I think that's gone. Anyways he left it there so it could be like a time capsule what ended up happening is that his car ended up breaking down and he couldn't move it, *this was in (1988)* and he decided to leave it out in the middle of the woods for about 30 to 40 years, only because he forgot where he left his car. That's all of his story. 👋 thanks for fixing it up and giving it a better purpose in life.
Update: my grandpa was an explorer that didn't really care about his family.
still, very cool! and two of them made it! That is adventure!
I hike through the woods following the creek looking for arrowheads,old bottles etc. as often as I can. I just know that one day I'll find a abandoned 61 or 62 Impala or Bel-Air 2dr bubble top. I know I'm closing in maybe next time🙏
This sounds like a more intense top gear special
Is through punishing roads through swollen jungles through rivers rivers Corvair Proves it can stand the gap!
Seems like an episode of the American Top Gear from the early 2010s lol. I know the show wasn't great, but I still enjoy it
The gap was much larger back then. Now there is a good quality paved road all the way down to Yaviza, reducing the gap to about 60 miles.
I think the Vair was an awesome piece of engineering. I’m also an admirer of Ralph Nader, a fearless defender of common people against tyrannical corporate criminals…
Check out “Matt’s towing and recovery” channel. He built one of these for off-road towing and it is amazing.
I was just watching his channel peace mate
Call Matt.... He'll get 'er out!
What could Chevrolet have done to increase the popularity of the Corvair?
KEPT RALPH NADER AWAY FROM IT!!!!
Or Chevy could have built the first gen cars with the rear transverse leaf spring and front sway bar the car needed and eventually got in '64. These changes made the handling much better.
OR Chevy also could have marketed the car for what it was, a sport touring car with unique handling characteristics, and not as a standard grocery-getter with the neutral handling of any other compact car of the time.
I own a Corvair and I love it, but GM isn't blameless in the demise in what I feel is an well engineered car. Nader's still a tool though.
@@preston6736 Ralph Nader tried to kill the vw beetle too since it has essentially the same suspension but it had such a following that nobody listened to him. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did a thorough investigation of the Corvair and concluded that the allegations of unsafe handling and rollover risk were completely unfounded. I did hear an explanation for the Corvair's demise saying that the Ford Mustang cut into that market segment too heavily, which sounds believable. The Corvair is a great little car with a strong following of supporters and that will never change.
@@markpospichal6529 I wish the Ralph Naders of the world could mind thier own damn business.
@@russgould707 Yes, please, if you don't like it, don't drive it!
Interesting I enjoyed it but one thing at least they didn't have to use the windshield defroster.
Engines Of Change by Paul Iglesia talks about how Chevrolet was aiming for the VW beetle's crowd with the Corvair.
Rear engine + rear wheel drive is great for traction, apparently. This might have been the thought process.
4:18 Just look at how flat the side of that suburban is. It had gorgeous curves at one time.
Cool story. I knew about it.
I remember about this, tho not much was published. Now I know why.
My first car was a 67 corvar so I know good they can get around. They were tuff little cars 🚗
Interesting video........................... 🤔
Just watched a video of guys recently on Kawasaki KLR650s who left Deadhorse,AK and did it,though there now a Kawasaki also abandoned in there now!
My Mother had a 1960 Corvair when I was a kid. She loved that car and would not drive anything else for many years. I finally got her a Dodge Shadow in 1991 and told her to drive it it's got power steering and brakes. The Corvair was much too rusty and finally became unsafe just like Ralph Nader said
I hope someone finally rescues that Corvair!
Incredible story and well researched! Thanks for this! (I just bought prints of these two films and was looking for background. You provided it wonderfully. Kudos!)
What happened to the Carryalls? everyone has stumbled over the Corvair but I don't think there are any pictures or videos of the trucks. Are they still in there?
I HAD A NOW EX-WIFE WHO DESPERATELY WANTED ME TO TRADE MY 1963 OLDSMOBILE
88 CONVERTIBLE FOR A NEW
66 CORVAIR!!
WORKING AS AN AUTO MECHANIC, OF COURSE I KNEW BETTER!
HAD I KNOWN ABOUT THE LOST CORVAIR THEN I WOULD HAVE TOLD HER " GO GET THAT ONE ,DRIVE IT HOME!!"
LOL!!
No wonder she left
the american beetle !
incredible to see how offroad capable this chevy is ! and that without all-wheel drive and with diagonal tires ! if the guys had been a little more careful back then, this thing would not be standing there today !
"...diagonal tires !" Perhaps *"bias ply"* is the description you intended?
Seems I have seen a GM Promotional Movie about this expadeition .. The Covaris looked a lot better in their Film.. I was Impressed with the 4 wheel drive carryalls.. Sounds like they needed heavier cables for their winches..
I have researched riding a Motorcycle to South American .. they say you have to get around this section by boat.. Some of thier Bridges look like a lot fo work ..to buld .. Then needed a Buldozer and some metal fabricated matts..
Road and Track Mag. did a story on the journey April 2021
Noice mate 🙌🤘🇦🇺
There is a similar history about some ford expedition in the 40's (i think) from caracas Venezuela to USA in a vintage cab truck
I lived in the village of Darien, Wisconsin when I was a kid. Not as wild a place.
This could have been the Lewis and Clark trip of the car industry.
Someone should try to rescue this car and put it in a museum and preserve it for what it is
OG Grand Tour
In 1970 my high-school days people would give me their corsairs, "PLEASE" GET THE DAMMED THING OUT OF MY YARD! I owned 15 of them. (Only 2 ran at any one time)
GM should really go rescue that thing and put it in a museum
Just a question of time before GM is put in a museum !
GM should man up , get a helicopter and airlift that Corvair out of there. It really should be in an Automotive Museum in the states somewhere .
I think they chose some crap drivers for the suburbans I have watched a 67 suburbans go straight up a rock slide at around a 55 degrees
Wonder how Ralph Nader would feel about this mishap?! :P
It was only a mile from the border but a long way from the end of the Darien gap
Bet a Sherp could make that trip 👍🏾😊
No mention of where the trucks went?? Yes you said they failed and got lost. BUT are they still there or did they get removed?! I'm assuming got removed.
Nobody really knows.
Adventurous Expedition Indeed....They Should Save the Car Out From the Jungle ..
How did the AC work? Did they keep everyone "cool".
Hmmm looks like a lot of work
Rust in peace corvair!👌😂👉🙏
Exactly ! Lol
Be cool to make replicas of all those vehicles I mean shit man they're going thru that shit.
I think this is where top gear got the idea of challenges from, unfit cars in harsh environments
Great Story !! I followed the British Trans Americas Expedition avidly with the 2 Range Rovers !!!- guess you have to forgive Land Rover engineers at the time for the Diffs not been strong enough for the Massive Swamper Tyres !!
Those Old Range Rovers were the Dogs Bollacks !! and still look fresher than the shit Land Rover produce today !!.
Land Rover arent the genuine people they use to be !!- just Greedy ferret faced accountants nowadays.
David Drew did a documentary series.. call footsteps... documentary series about ancient ruins. has one episode. About the Mayans in the show of shows that car the corvair.. unfortunately it's hard to find the episodes used to have them on video.. interesting documentary series call footsteps play David Drew
Dodge should have done it with Power Wagons! Oh wait! They already survived WWII!
@Motorheads Great video man, I found it very enlightening. You did some good work stitching all that archival footage together. Big thumbs up!
Want to know where those parts went? The "Tony Comiti" Deadliest Roads Series,
ua-cam.com/video/CTYNGzKIh1s/v-deo.html&ab_channel=FreeDocumentary
documents the people who travel the "Gap" through the Darien jungle. To them, free parts mean their next meal. I'm surprised that's all that went missing.... In N.Africa for example, the entire car would be dis-assembled within hours of being left unattended in the jungle. (There's a video of that too... lol)
Are the suburbans still in the jungle ?
I haven't been able to find any info on them, apart from a guy saying that they've been probably stolen. But nothing tangible.
4:41 I'd only take a m35-a2 through there.
But it did make make it, a full sized vehicle would not have made it.
Has anyone ever seen the movie About a car that was possessed called Christine?
I want to do this with my Saturn.
We build highways through huge mountain passes. Like BC Coquihalla highway. Immense bridges through swamps and waterways. I'd like to know the true reason why there is no passable road, through the Darian? Has to be alot easier than building the Panama Canal I'd think? This would finally complete the Pan American highway. Or is this stretch of land purposefully left as a blockade of transport for a political reasons? Seems very odd to me in modern 2023.
I think it's a Scream that the vehicles LEAST adapted to making it, made it. I would have bet that the fuel truck would have towed the corvairs from 100' from the end of the pavement to the nearest Chevrolet dealership in Columbia, with the Suburbans close behind! Lol instead all the trucks were lost, and most of the corvairs made it!
Ran fine when I parked it.
i dont understand how they cant build a road through it. seems like a conspiracy to me.
Now days, youll see that all new cars are super low, you can even get out of a shopping center without scraping something ynder your car.
Oh let me not forget, (Ricers) lowering cars and stancing for no quite reason.
Drug delivery?
You are in the Jungle with no roads or cars anywhere and you run out of gas. So you leave the car while you go and get gas. You come back and your car has been striped. Are you sure this isn’t LA?
Nowadays the Darien Gap is a no man's land of guerillas and drug traffickers. It was probably much less so in the early Sixties when this expedition took place.
GM lost interest when sales starting tanking...but alas the Vega was an improvement(??)....but the Chevette was better than the Vega(??)...oh but Cavalier was superior(??)...no it was the Cobalt that was best(??)..no seriously it was the Cruze that was tops....then GM gave up period...
Those were all just replaced with little crossovers instead.
#mattsoffroadrecovery