This article was published in the July, 2002 CORSA Communique.

Russ Thuleen told me about the existence of a Stateside 1966 Belgian Corvair in the spring of 2002. After learning how rare Sam Christ's Antwerp-assembled 1966 Corsa coupe was, I was very surprised to hear of another 1966 Belgian Corvair that survived, especially in the U.S.

In case you haven't read the article on Sam's car, Antwerp, Belgium was the location of GM Continental or "CA" (Continental Antwerp), General Motor's wholly-owned importer, distributor, and assembler.

Russ' friend Russell Noble, of Birmingham, AL, was kind enough to visit the car three times to check out facts and to take the pictures shown below.

This Monza coupe has a GM Continental body tag and a Willow Run Fisher Body tag, along with a Willow Run VIN tag! Clearly this car was different from Sam's car, which has body and VIN tags from GM Continental only.

Dave Newell explained the situation:

"This is a 1966 Monza coupe assembled in Willow Run during the third week of November, 1965. This car was one of 49 1966 Corvairs imported by Belgium from the U.S. during the 1966 calendar (not model) year as Single Unit Pack (SUP) cars. (Some of the 49 could have been SUPs from Canada, but I suspect that these cars were ordered by U.S. servicemen stationed in Europe--most likely Germany, which was GM Continental territory.)

Since the cars would eventually be shipped back to the U.S. when their owners' tours were over, they wouldn't have been subject to the prohibitive duty that Europeans had to pay on U.S.-built cars. It also may have been important that these cars be U.S. spec, built at Willow Run, for warranty, paint repair, etc.

U.S. servicemen stationed abroad could place their orders at the base PX. They had a guy there with a desk who had ordering info, prices, etc. for all U.S. cars. That's how they got the same prices or better than they'd pay in the U.S.: no shipping fees, tariffs, nothing. The serviceman didn't have to "deal" with the local dealer. But the local GM dealer would deliver the car and possibly service it. I think some military personnel (definitely the officers) had their cars serviced right on the base.

Even in the U.S., servicemen could buy their cars from some PXs. For years, this was a bone of contention between U.S. car dealers and the manufacturers, who let the military do it. The dealer near the base would get a $50 courtesy delivery fee and maybe some service and warranty work, but no other profit on the sale. This led some dealers to offer military discount prices in an attempt to get the business.

We can tell the car was assembled in the U.S., not Belgium, in several ways:

The GM Continental tag is mounted on the left side of the rear frame rail of the engine compartment while the Fisher Body tag occupies the familiar right side of the rear frame rail. The VIN tag is attached to the left frame rail, as usual.

Everything else we can see from the pictures confirms that this was a Willow Run car, delivered by GM Continental to a U.S. serviceman, through one of its dealers. The MPH speedometer means that the car was destined to return to the U.S.

The "T1115" on the engine block means that the engine was built in Tonawanda, NY on November 15. The "RG" indicates '65 - '67 95 HP with PowerGlide transmission and the "2M" on the Fisher Body tag confirms the PowerGlide equipment. The 95 HP engine was standard in all Monzas and 500s from 1964 through 1969 although most dealers ordered a 110 HP engine for Monzas.

The "0016" engine code suffix, found on both the block and on the body tag, was no doubt added by GM Continental so that the engine could be traced to this particular car. We've seen this done on other European Corvairs, both CKD & SUP. The regular Tonawanda-stamped engine code indicated only the date built and the engine type; it didn't connect an engine to a specific car until the 1968 model year, when Willow Run started stamping the car's VIN after the Tonawanda code.

Finally, Russell found no evidence that the car ever had a foot operated headlamp flasher, like Sam's car had. Perhaps GM Continental did install them on SUP cars that were staying in Europe permanently; we’d have to see one to know."

Russell commented, "The current owner, Carl Smith, has no clue of the car's background. The car is in poor shape, although it is all there. Rats have infested this car! Carl is an elderly gent looking to divest his collection." If you are interested in buying the car, contact Russell.

Many thanks to Dave, Russell, and Russ for helping bring the story of this rare Corvair to light!

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Last updated: March 20, 2006.