The Corvair remains the only mass-produced, rear-engine, air-cooled car ever built by an American manufacturer, and for most of the 1960s it genuinely competed with the VW Beetle — even spawning a turbocharged Monza Spyder and a 180-horsepower turbo Corsa. Then a single book changed everything, and sales collapsed from more than 300,000 units a year to just 6,000. Read on for the full story of the Corvair’s rise and its rapid fall.