The problems with the original Corvair design were twofold:
*Swing axles that had a u-joint only at the inboard end, leading to poor rear tire contact on sharp turns and when the rear tires encountered a bump in the road.
*The need for drastically different tire pressures in the front and rear tires, as a result of both the swing axle design and the extreme difference in weight front and rear. While I can no longer swear to the exact numbers, the quoted 15 front/26 rear sounds correct.
If GM had prominently mentioned the crucial nature of the tire pressure differential in the Owner’s Manual, or if–more importantly due to the very crucial nature of the inflation pressures–they had placed a prominent sticker somewhere (door jamb, trunk, glove compartment) mentioning how important it was to have the correct inflation pressures, there would not have been many accidents that resulted from the drastically oversteering nature of the car’s handling when the tire pressures were not set properly.
From many posts on this forum, we know how few people bother to read their Owner’s Manual, and yet unless someone looked very carefully at the tire inflation information buried in the text of that manual, they would not have been aware of this vital information. I can recall, in the aftermath of the publicity, a couple of journalists visited a number of Chevrolet dealerships while driving a Corvair, and they asked the service department people at each dealership to write down the correct inflation pressure for the Corvair. In almost every case, the people at the dealerships quoted the correct pressure for models like the Impala–usually 26 psi front and rear. Something like only 1 in 10 dealerships had personnel who had any clue about how important it was to maintain the correct inflation differential between the front and rear tires.
When the tire pressures were set correctly, the handling of the Corvair was manageable and fairly predictable. When–all too often–the tire pressures were not set correctly, drivers who were used to the understeering cars of the era suddenly had to try to correct a vicious oversteer–and many were unable to correct properly or promptly.
Today, we have gone overboard in the other direction with labels telling us to remove the baby from the carriage before folding the carriage or to remove the sun shield from the windshield prior to driving the car. As ridiculous as these labels are, they resulted from situations like GM failing to give sufficient warning about the Corvair’s need for tire inflation pressures that were unlike any other American car of the era.
Without adequate notice from GM, very few people had any idea that the Corvair was unlike everything else that they had ever driven in terms of handling characteristics and tire inflation, and this lack of adequate notice led to a significant number of deaths in one-car accidents.
To compare the performance-oriented owner of a Porsche 911 to the family guy who bought a plain vanilla Corvair sedan to transport his wife and kids is a good example of why owners of 911s don’t complaint about the unique handling of their cars. One group is composed of aficianadoes who dote on their cars and the car’s unique performance characteristics. The other group were by and large just “average Joes” who simply wanted basic, economical transportation for their family. The original Corvair was marketed as an economy car–not as a car for enthusiasts. To expect the family guy to be as knowledgeable about the unique characteristics of his car as the 911 driver, is just not a valid expectation, and that is why GM needed to take special steps to inform Corvair owners of this vital information.