Hill's concept also had the support of the nearly forgotten Ed Glowacke, Mitchell's design director. Glowacke, in the words of Pruneau, "the best designer GM ever had," was surely destined to succeed Mitchell when GM's design boss retired in 1977, until Glowacke was cruelly struck down by leukemia in mid-1962. His support for the project was vital and helped by an interest in sail planes shared with Jon Kuhn, the studio's talented modeler.
Hill produced a full-size tape drawing, not in the more conventional profile view, but a three-quarter top view that served to emphasize a theme that lowered the body over the wheels. Pronounced fenders bulged upward, as if the wheels bumped them out, a styling cue begun by the 1963 Corvette. Hill also lowered the original Corvair's wraparound line, beginning at the nose and running low along the body sides, but without linking up at the tail. The only controversial aspect to the styling was whether the front should get a grille. In the end, Hill's design followed the first Corvair and remained faithful to its air-cooled, rear-engine layout by ignoring management requests for a fake radiator grille. Instead, the four circular headlights were separated only by a wide nose badge below and a pointy evolution of the Corvair's design line that sweeps along the flanks just above bulging wheel arches.
Given its strong sporting emphasis, it's no surprise the 1965 Corvair range lacks the wagon and van of the original. The convertible and two-door hardtop coupe share the same sleek lower body, the coupe getting lovely thin C-pillars, while the four-door hardtop sedan wore a more formal and wider C-pillar and longer roofline to improve headroom. The flat-six ran 95, 110, and 140 horsepower, with four single-barrel carburetors, the range topped by the 180-horse turbocharged Monza. Not enough to combat the V-8 Mustang. In April 1965, a formal GM edict killed any chance of long-term success. It blandly stated: "No more development work. Do only enough to meet federal requirements."
In three years, Corvair sales crashed from 1965's 235,500 to 15,400 in 1968. On May 14, 1969, little more than a decade after production of GM's air-cooled compact began, the last example was assembled. Few cared. By then, the Camaro was running hot against the Mustang, and GM's brave experiment was increasingly an automotive dead end. But the decades since have only reinforced the allure of the 1965's exquisite styling and importance.