Ford's launch of the popular compact Falcon as competition for the Chevrolet Corvair caused something like a crisis of confidence at GM's highest-volume division, leading to a complete revision of their compact car plans.
The Corvair was already getting a reputation as quirky and odd-handling, with unspectacular gas mileage and somewhat problematic reliability, so Chevy launched a crash program to design a thoroughly conventional compact to challenge the small car from Dearborn.
The result was dubbed the Chevy II and it went from drawing board to production in only a year and a half. The only thing unusual about it was that the base engine in the '62 Chevy II was the first four cylinder offered in a Chevrolet since 1928, being basically a Turbo-Thrift inline six shortened by two cylinders.
The second generation of the Chevy II debuted for the 1966 model year. While the 110" wheelbase and overall size remained the same, the slab-sided styling filled the car's look out some and made it appear larger than the first generation cars.
The top trim level was the Nova, which came in regular and Super Sport flavors. The base model was the Chevy II 100, like this Marina Blue sedan.
The base engine in the Chevy II 100 sedan was the Super-Thrift 153 cubic inch OHV four cylinder rated at 90 SAE gross horsepower. Buyers could opt for the 194 cubic inch Hi-Thrift six, making 120 horsepower, or the Turbo-Fire 283 cid V-8, putting out 195.
Extra-cost engines were the Turbo-Thrift 230 cube inline six, a high-performance 283 V-8 with a four-barrel carb, rated at 220, or two different 327 V-8s, making 275 and 350 ponies. All motors came with a standard three-speed manual transmission. All the V-8s could be had with a four-speed manual and all except the 350 could be specced with the two-speed Powerglide automatic.
This one was photographed with a Nikon D200 and an 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 VR II zoom lens in March of 2022.
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