Carl F. Thelin

RALPH NADER’S BOOK

            In his book, Nader had written about unsafe automobiles with the help of Clarence Ditlow and Dr. Carl Nash. I thought their discussion was knowledgeable. Actually, I could name more reasons to find the Corvair defectively designed, but that was not my job. I, like many GM engineers, knew of the peculiarities of the handling of the Chevrolet Corvair (more about that later) that made it dangerous. Many of us learned of this during the engineering development before the car sales began. As early as 1957, Corvair handling peculiarities caused crashes that hurt people testing Corvair prototypes at the GM Proving Grounds. Letters written by test drivers, PG engineers and lower level managers suggested that the company should hold off until that handling problem was eliminated. I was still at the Structure and Suspension Department of the Engineering Staff, in 1957, when our people also condemned the design with its rear engine and swing axle independent rear suspension.

            Nader's main point was that [bad] drivers generally cause bad events, but serious injuries may be the result of careless design. The careless design could be a number of things that did not need to be, such as sharp pointed ends of the knobs on the instrument panel (IP). Other stupid designs featured meat cleaver edges in the IP styling; the non-collapsible steering columns when the steering gear was located well ahead of the front wheel, and the design of the Corvair. What about that car’s design?

            GM defense expert witnesses said and plaintiff’s experts agreed that the “normal” handling was generally superior to that of other cars of the day. That was when most cars were giant sloppy American sedans. The handling was superior only at low levels of maneuvering stress, known in the trade as high lateral-g driving. Our witnesses knew that the Corvair was indeed mildly understeering (us) at low lateral Gs.  At a level easily reached in some maneuvers, the handling morphed into oversteering mode. For an expert driver, who is expecting that transition, low levels of oversteer are not a problem. For someone who has seldom experienced it, panic responses and badly delayed reactions were the root of the problem. Unless corrected quickly, the unpredictable oversteering behavior will result into a spin out. Spinning out exposes the car to a side impact from other traffic, or, if the wheels dig in, being capsized.

NEXT: Whistle blowing