Chevrolet Corvair Monza
The American car industry was intrigued when Chevrolet presented the Corvair in 1959. It was a compact car in a time when compact cars were rare on US soil and produced mainly by foreign brands. It had the engine in the back rather than in the front as all other domestic vehicles had. Third, it was a six-cylinder boxer, not a straight six or V8 as everybody expected. Overall, it was a bold and unusual move by the usually conservative Chevrolet (via Curb Side Classics).
However, the most interesting model was the Corvair Monza, a two-door coupe or convertible. It was a performance car in the Corvair lineup and featured one of the most unusual power plants Detroit has ever produced – a turbocharged boxer engine. Think of it as Chevrolet’s four-seat Porsche 911 Turbo some 15 years before Porsche even thought of the idea. The heart of the car was the 2.4-liter, flat-six engine with the turbocharger mounted on top. The result was 150 hp. Despite the fact it wasn’t a significant number, the small weight of the Corvair Monza helped produce some lively performance for the standards of the compact car class.