We spotted this trailered classic Corvair while driving through a parking lot in Grand Island, Nebraska:
The Chevrolet Corvair was GM’s attempt to take on the Volkswagen, and it was a valiant effort that included a full line of cars, station wagons, vans, and trucks. The vans and trucks were part of the utilitarian Corvair 95 series, with the “95” in the name referring to the 95-inch wheelbase. They were initially powered by an 80-hp flat six which, like the rest of the Corvair line, was a rear-mounted air-cooled engine. The 1964 versions featured a 95-hp engine with 110-hp available for additional cost.
The Corvair 95 trucks were available as a Loadside or a Rampside, with this gorgeous green example being among the latter:
The Loadside had a conventional tailgate which made access a problem since the floor of the truck bed had to be raised to accommodate that rear-mounted engine. In addition to the tailgate, the aptly named Rampside featured a brilliant, hinged door on the side that could be lowered to form a four-foot-wide ramp to the cargo bed with a loading height of just 14 inches. This unique concept helped fuel sales during the inaugural year, but those sales slumped the following year and the trucks were not produced after 1964.
Both the Loadside and the Rampside had two-door cabs and cargo boxes with capacity of 80 cubic feet. One story in the December 18, 1961, issue of Billboard Music Week magazine noted that the Rampside was ideal for a jukebox rental business, both due to the ramp for loading and unloading, and the dimensions of the cargo bed which was just the right size for accommodating either two jukeboxes or three cigarette machines.
