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The name Chevrolet Greenbrier was used by
Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ou ...
for two vehicles. The first vehicles were a six to nine passenger window van version of the Corvair 95 van. The Corvair 95 series also included the Loadside pickup truck and Rampside pickup truck that featured a mid-body ramp on the right side. All used the Corvair powertrain in a truck body and were produced in the model years 1961 to 1965. The Greenbrier name was used a second time from 1969 until 1972; for the mid-level Chevelle
station wagon A station wagon ( US, also wagon) or estate car ( UK, also estate), is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door ( ...
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1961–1965 Corvair Greenbrier Sportswagon

Chevrolet introduced the Corvair lineup for the 1960 model year as the first of a series of generations of passenger
compact car Compact car is a vehicle size class — predominantly used in North America — that sits between subcompact cars and mid-size cars. "Small family car" is a British term and a part of the C-segment in the European car classification. However ...
s. Chevrolet introduced a more utilitarian style of vehicle the following year under the model designation "Corvair 95". In appearance and design the vehicles were similar to the competing
Volkswagen Transporter The Volkswagen Transporter, based on the Volkswagen Group's T platform, now in its seventh generation, refers to a series of vans produced for over 70 years and marketed worldwide. The T series is now considered an official Volkswagen Group aut ...
, which was essentially a bus-like adaptation of the
Volkswagen Beetle The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...
that moved the driver over the front wheels ( Forward control), also commonly defined as a
cab over Cab-over, also known as cab over engine (COE), cab forward (U.S.), flat nose (Canada), or forward control (UK), is a body style of truck, bus, or van that has a vertical front, "flat face" or a semi-hood, with the cab of the truck sitting ab ...
vehicle. The
air-cooled Air-cooled engines rely on the circulation of air directly over heat dissipation fins or hot areas of the engine to cool them in order to keep the engine within operating temperatures. In all combustion engines, a great percentage of the heat ge ...
horizontally opposed Chevrolet Turbo-Air 6 engine was located in the rear of the vehicle under a slightly raised cargo floor. It was similar in principle to the 4-cylinder engine of the Volkswagen, but unusual for most contemporary cars. The engine developed at 4,400 rpm. Engine size was increased to for the 1964 model year, raising output to . Unlike the Corvair cars, the Corvair Greenbrier had a wheelbase and were thus known as "95s." They came standard with a three-speed
manual transmission A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission (mechanics), transmission ...
but could be ordered with a two-speed
Corvair Powerglide Chevrolet ''Corvair Powerglide'' is a two-speed automatic transmission designed specially for the then all-new 1960 Chevrolet Corvair compact car that emerged in the fall of 1959 as Chevrolet's competitor in the then booming small car market. The ...
automatic transmission An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving ...
(distinct from the usual Powerglide); eventually a four-speed manual was also made available. There were essentially two different bodies available in the 95 series: the van and the truck. The base version was the panel van (Corvan) with no side or rear windows. The van was named Greenbrier. The Greenbrier normally had windows all around and six doors, although an option was to have eight doors where there were opening double doors on both sides. The Greenbrier seated up to nine people with the available third-row seat. The 95s and cars had an optional heater using gasoline from the vehicle's tank. The Greenbrier also had a camper option. A Corvair truck could be ordered as a "Loadside" or "Rampside". The Loadside was essentially a pickup truck with a standard tailgate. The Loadside was only produced two years and is the rarest of the Corvairs; production totaled 2,844 in 1961 and 369 in 1962. The Rampside had a side ramp to be used for loading and unloading cargo. These were used by the
Bell Telephone Company The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1877, by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company – the New Engl ...
because loading and unloading of cable drums was eased by the side ramp. Ford and Chrysler introduced compact vans of their own (the Ford Econoline and
Dodge A100 The A100 is a range of compact vans and trucks manufactured and marketed from 1964 to 1970 by Chrysler Corporation under the Dodge marque in the United States and the Fargo marque in Canada. The A100 competed with the Ford Econoline and Che ...
), using a more conventional water-cooled engine mounted between the front seats. As these became successful,
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
responded with its own design which placed the Chevy II sourced engine in a "doghouse" between and behind the front seats. The forward engine design allowed a flat rear floor with low deck heights in the rear of the van for loading/unloading cargo. General Motors stopped producing the truck versions of the Corvair in 1964 and the Greenbrier was the only remaining wheelbase Corvair for 1965. Eventually, Chevrolet and Volkswagen would abandon rear-engined vans in favor of conventional or front-wheel-drive water-cooled engines. Although the Greenbriers were a limited success, passenger vans would continue to evolve through full-sized vans. The similarly sized 7–8 passenger would become a successful vehicle segment by the 1980s as alternatives to station wagons.


1969–1972 Chevelle Greenbrier

During the 1969 model year, the four-door station wagons of the mid-sized
Chevrolet Chevelle The Chevrolet Chevelle is a mid-sized automobile that was produced by Chevrolet in three generations for the 1964 through 1978 model years. Part of the General Motors (GM) A-body platform, the Chevelle was one of Chevrolet's most successful ...
, produced since 1964, were renamed: the standard-trim station wagon known as the Chevelle 300 was renamed as the
Nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...
, while the medium-trim Chevelle 300 Deluxe was now called the Greenbrier. The top-of-the-line model, the Chevelle Malibu 135/136, became the Concours and Concours Estate Wagon, the latter being distinguished by exterior woodgrain paneling. Except for the simplest Nomad line (which was only available in a six-seater form), all station wagons could be ordered with either six or nine seats. Standard engine was the
inline-six The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine bala ...
(not available for nine-seaters). For 1970, the Chevelle 300 Deluxe series was simply called Chevelle and the inline-six engine was no longer available in the station wagons. In 1972 the series' model code was changed to 1C. The Nomad, Greenbrier, and Concours names were all dropped for 1973 when the Chevelle was redesigned and the wagons all began sharing series names with other body styles.


References


External links

* {{Chevrolet vehicles 1960s cars 1970s cars Cab over vehicles Greenbrier Mid-size cars Motor vehicles manufactured in the United States Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Station wagons Vans Rear-engined vehicles