Troubled General Motors, which is rushing to develop more economy cars, lost its taste for innovative autos for years after it dropped its compact Chevrolet Corvair in 1969 -- although 1.7 million had been sold since that car's 1960 debut.

The Corvair was extraordinarily innovative for GM -- or for any American automaker. Like the costly German Porsche and popular Volkswagen Beetle, it had a rear-mounted air-cooled engine with the compact horizontally opposed piston layout of Porsche and VW engines. The Corvair's six-cylinder produced 80-90 horsepower -- sufficient for the fairly light, economical car.

The new Chevy was offered as a crisply styled coupe and sedan. It had unit construction and the 1960-63 models used a swing-axle rear suspension, when the new Ford Falcon and Plymouth Valiant economy cars had liquid-cooled conventional engines up front and an old-fashioned rear suspension.

The Corvair's power-boosting turbocharger -- first offered in 1962 -- also was an oddity for a domestic car. And its Chevy Corvette-style independent rear suspension for the 1965-69 models gave it sports car handling.

The first Corvairs were built to battle both domestic and foreign economy cars. But the new Chevy had a design not expected from conservative Chevy and didn't really take off until offered in sporty Monza form for 1961, with bucket seats and a four-speed manual transmission with a floor shifter. Here was an affordable, fuel-thrifty compact car that was actually fun to drive.

A Corvair station wagon, van and even a pickup truck arrived for 1961, but the Monza coupe racked up the most sales. It served as the inspiration for Ford's new 1965 Mustang that, ironically, indirectly caused the Corvair's demise.

The sexy turbocharged Monza Spyder arrived in mid-1962. It was a Monza coupe with a $317 option package that contained a 150 horsepower chrome-trimmed engine, shorter final-drive axle ratio for faster acceleration, heavy duty suspension for crisper handling and a multi-gauge instrument cluster with brushed metal trim. A four-speed manual transmission and more effective sintered-metallic brake linings were "mandatory options." This was the next best thing to the costly, limited-production Porsche.

Affordable Monza coupes with or without the turbo soon became favorites of college students and sports car fans. An 80-horsepower engine was standard, with a non-turbo 102 horsepower engine and the turbo motor optional. The Monza became even more attractive in 1962, when a convertible was added.

Suspension improvements arrived in 1962, and especially in 1964. Early Corvairs had handling problems if driven hard with incorrect tire pressures. Such pressures were ignored by many Corvair owners and service station attendants.

Nevertheless, advocate Ralph Nader accused the early Corvair of having unsafe handling. Porsche's popular 356 model, Volkswagen Beetles, early Triumph Spitfire sports cars and Renault models had a similar rear suspension design. But they weren't as easy a target as giant GM was for Nader. (A 1972 congressional investigation cleared the 1960-63 Corvair models.)

The 1965 Corvair got major improvements. Its styling looked as if from an Italian exotic car outfit and was partly responsible for Corvair sales to top the 200,000-unit mark that year. Car and Driver magazine said the new Corvair was "undoubtedly the sexiest-looking American car of the new crop and possibly one of the most handsome cars in the world." An auto photographer said, "It's simply impossible to photograph this car from an angle that makes it look [bad]. I don't know any other mass-production car from its period that you could say that about."

The Monza name was continued, but there was a special new Corsa model with an optional ($158) turbocharged version of the Corvair's six-cylinder engine that produced 180 horsepower. The Corsa had a standard 140-horsepower engine with four one-barrel carburetors that was optional for all Corvairs, which had standard 95- or optional 110-horsepower engines.

The Corsa had the Monza Spyder's sporty brushed aluminum dashboard and sports car instrumentation and deluxe interior. It also featured a sports suspension, larger brakes and quicker steering. It came as a two-door coupe and convertible.

A big improvement for all 1965 Corvairs was a new rear suspension nearly identical to the Corvette's. Next to the 'Vette, the 1965 Corvair was the first U.S. production car with such an independent rear suspension. Modified Corvairs from an East Coast Chevy dealer even beat Corvettes on race tracks.

But the first Mustang -- inspired by the Corvair Monza -- arrived in mid-1964 and was a spectacular success. It caused Corvair sales to fall by more than half in 1966. GM actually sealed the Corvair's fate in April 1965, with an internal memo that prohibited further significant development work on the car. It wanted a conventional front-engine auto to fight the Mustang -- the 1967 Chevy Camaro. Nader's Corvair criticism also didn't help.

The Corsa was dropped in 1967, but the Corvair soldiered on through 1969 as the "500" and higher-line Monza models because GM wanted to sell the car long enough to amortize its tooling. In its final year, only 6,000 Corvairs were built, of which 3,238 were Monzas.

Corvair expert Larry Claypool, of Frankfort's 'Vair Shop, says interest in the Corvair continues building, judging by the number brought to his facility to be worked on. But finding a Corvair mechanic can be tough.

"Service was a weak point even when Corvairs were new because they didn't have a conventional Chevy design," Claypool said. "It wasn't that the car was that difficult, it was just different. Many Chevy mechanics thus didn't want to work on them. Those who did are either retired or dead. Even those who buy a restored Corvair can't find a Chevy dealer or independent shop to work on it. So they encounter mechanic guesswork and thus high repair bills that don't solve problems. I see many Corvairs that never have been fixed correctly. A Corvair owner from Nebraska recently brought his car here after being told it needed a rebuilt engine. But all it needed was some carburetor and ignition work."

Corvair prices keep rising, but are reasonable. For instance, a 1962-64 Monza Spyder coupe in good shape is valued at $5,275, with a convertible at $8,150. A 1965-66 Corsa coupe is at $5,575, and the convertible is $8,625, says the Collectible Vehicle Value Guide.