GM designed the Corvair to be a "Volkswagen killer." Of course, they started out with an incorrect assumption.
The reasonable man, if asked why people were buying Volkswagens, would say "people want a small car that looks different, is fun to drive and gets good gas mileage."
The GM executive, if asked the same question, would say "it's very obvious that people want a car with the engine in the back." So, that's what they made.
One thing must be clearly understood about cars with the engine in the back: they are very, very fussy about having more tire in the rear than there is in the front. You can go about this two ways: put bigger tires on the back, like Porsches and Italian supercars have, or put more air in the back tires, like a VW has. (I remember once going to Pep Boys to have tires put on my Bug because Bugs use a very uncommon size and they were the only ones who had any. I told the guy at the counter, "make sure you put 18 pounds of air in the front tires and 28 in the rear." The dude looked at me like I was nuts, so I showed him the tire pressure placard which said to do that exact thing.) Volkswagen dealership people were specially trained to make sure people knew this car was unlike most other cars and the tire pressure is critical, and people did what was required. GM dealership people assumed the Corvair was like any other car and didn't stress the importance of this, and that caused a LOT of accidents.
So it's very simple: IF the tires on a Corvair are correctly inflated, the car is as safe as any other car of the era. If there's the same PSI at both ends of the car, the thing is a disaster waiting to happen.
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