The Corvair was a highly controversial product, but there’s no dispute about this: With a few straightforward changes, the ’65 edition was a car transformed.

When the 1965 Corvair was introduced on September 24, 1964, the controversial rear-engine compact was not just better, it was even more beautiful. Designed by Ron Hill in the Chevy advanced styling studio, the new car was reminiscent of Pininfarina’s best, but totally fresh and more refined in detail. In fact, the ’65 Corvair is regarded by critics as one of the great designs of the Bill Mitchell era at General Motors. This Corvair was “as new as any new car can be,” gushed the GM vice president of styling himself.

As striking as it was, the new exterior was not the most remarkable feature of the second-generation Corvair. The big story was inside and underneath, with a redesigned chassis and suspension that righted all the widely publicized wrongs of the original Corvair design. Long story short, they fixed it.

The graphic above quickly illustrates how the Corvair was transformed. The original ’60-’64 chassis used a swing axle at the rear, which produced extreme camber change and  wheel jacking, exaggerating the rear-engine layout’s natural tendency to oversteer. For ’65 a fully articulated independent rear suspension was adopted with a universal joint at both ends of the left and right axle shafts, which doubled as the upper control arms.

This simple but significant change, combined with a revised front suspension with greater roll stiffness, eliminated any criticism or controversy about the original Corvair’s handling. Car and Driver magazine for one reported that the final oversteer, while still present, was far more gentle in transition and now the car was a total joy to drive at the limit. Engineered by Frank Winchell and crew, the new suspension was reportedly based on lessons learned on Chevrolet’s CERV 1 research mule and similar to the IRS used on the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray.

The Corvair’s engine received important upgrades as well. The year before, the air-cooled flat six had been enlarged from 145 to 164 cubic inches via a bigger crankcase and a .340-inch increase in stroke. Base horsepower was increased from 80 to 95 hp, and for ’65 a normally-aspirated 140 hp version was introduced with four Rochester carburetors and better-flowing cylinder heads. And the innovative turbocharged version, introduced on the ’62 Monza Spyder (see our feature here) was boosted from 150 to 180 hp—almost V8 territory.

The model lineup was reshuffled, too. The new alignment was 500 base model, mid-range Monza, and top-of-the-line Corsa. The 500 and Monza were offered in two-door and four-door hardop styles, while a convertible was offered on the Monza and Corsa. The four-carb 140 hp engine was standard in the Corsa with the 180 hp turbo optional.

The ’65 redesign eliminated the Corvair’s most contentious feature—if anything, the handsome compact was now greater than the sum of its parts. Even Ralph Nader praised the changes in his damning book, Unsafe at Any Speed, published in late 1965. But ironically, by then the Corvair was already a lame duck at Chevrolet.

All future development had been frozen in the spring of that year, in part to make way for the Camaro. With only minor revisions, the second-gen Corvair remained in production until May 14, 1969, when the final unit, an Olympic Gold Monza coupe, rolled off the line. In its ten years and two generations, more than 1.8 million Corvairs were produced.