Tired: ’65 “Fitch” Corvair Monza
The 1965 model year began the transition from an economy car to a driver’s car. Car and Driver magazine’s David E. Davis Jr. showed enthusiasm for the 1965 Corvair in their October 1964 issue: “And it is here too, that we have to go on record and say that the Corvair is — in our opinion — the most important new car of the entire crop of ’65 models, and the most beautiful car to appear in this country since before World War II…The ’65 Corvair is an outstanding car. It doesn’t go fast enough, but we love it.” Enter John Fitch. If you want to know everything about John Fitch, you need to go the Wikipedia page to see just a glimpse of what this man accomplished in his life. We know him best as an A-list racing driver who raced for Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Cunnigham and Chevrolet. But that is not all. He was a champion of auto racing safety and invented the Fitch barrier that we see on American highways across this country. He had an uncanny ability to evaluate a car’s performance and instinctively knew how to make it better. He drove the 300SL prototype for Mercedes Benz, the first American racer to join the team we believe, and helped make that car the icon it is today. So it isn’t surprising for him to take a shot at upgrading production cars that he felt needed his touch.He tackled the Oldsmobile Toronado and the Chevrolet Corvair. Sprints received modifications to the engine, better shock absorbers, springs, tweaks to the wheel alignment, faster steering, alloy wheels, metallic brake linings, a wood-rimmed steering wheel made it competitive with sports cars costing much more. Today’s featured listing is Fitch Sprint and it is a tired looking example. The convertible top has a cloudy window. The wheels and tires look “old”. If it is a real Fitch (didn’t know he did Convertibles), it is a pretty rare car and we do not know how many survived. In fact, even John Fitch didn’t know how many he built or how many kits were sold. There are no serial numbers specific to the Sprint or any positive way of identifying one. If you have a receipt from John Fitch & Co with the VIN # is about the only way to do it. What are they worth? A totally verified one as we described could be worth more than double what a standard Monza is worth. It will be interesting to see what this one does. Read more about Fitch Corvairs here. The seller is asking $25,000 and that is an ambitious if not impossible number. He’ll have to have some serious paperwork to prove it is a factory built kit too. Click here for the listing.