Wildguzzi.com
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: steven c on November 30, 2017, 11:23:58 AM
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Great vintage film shot at Lime Rock Park in Ct. Always liked the Corvair. Once they fixed the handling it was a really good car.
https://youtu.be/WmPpry8JiK0
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Thx.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTGayn3Y800
https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hmn/2014/08/1966--69-Yenko-Stinger/3741141.html
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My fam had two Corvairs when I was in high school.
My dad really liked them. I see the “off the beaten path “ similarities between Corvair owners and Guzzi owners. Glad to see others here have an interest
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Corvairs were alright until the engine fell out :rolleyes:
Dusty
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Corvairs were alright until the engine fell out :rolleyes:
Dusty
Such an event would even handicap a Guzzi????????
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Such an event would even handicap a Guzzi????????
True for sure Joe :laugh:
The '65 Spyder that I owned for about 2 weeks was certainly fun , until the engine fell out about half way down Lombard Street in San Francisco :shocked: Guessing the rich folks in that neighborhood didn't let it reside there very long :grin:
Dusty
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Corvairs were way ahead of their time. The main fault was that engine seals of the day weren't up to the task, thus the oil tossing about. Nader was a pawn, used by Ford. There is a fellow whose name I think is Wyman, who is considered the world's formost guru on homebuilt aircraft. His website had a list of 10 rewasons why you should use a Corvair engine over a Lycomings or Subaru. Corvair had forged everything, crank, pistons, rods. I had 2 when I was young, and bought one for my boys when they were in high school. They were different and required a Guzzi type personality to appreciate. Racers put Corvair engines in Porsches for the torque, they were called Porvairs. They've been modified for everything, airboats & such, even turned into outboard motors. As a younger guy, it was one of my favorite rides. I'd love to have one with a 3800 in the bay. I'm too old to start something like that, already got a Fiero set up that way.
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Had a Greenbrier; then a Monza. Other'n the serpentine belt, great cars.
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There was a turbo model produced which was a pretty hot little car. I have an old friend who has one.
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Got my first drivers license with a 65 Corsa, red with a white convertible top. Learned how to balance carbs with the four one barrels and to always carry a spare fan belt. The belts did not like making the 90 degree turns from the crank to the cooling fan. Also perfected how to leave rubber marks on the road when accelerating. :wink:
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A classmate from HS was eyeballing the mid engine conversion that a speed shop had sitting on the floor. He saved & saved until he bought it!! What a car w/327 in back seat. Real Fast at the drag strip too, something you don't see every day.
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After seeing that promo I'm surprised the army didn't pick some up!
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Thanks for the memories,My older brother had one of the Turbo charged Monza Spiders dark Maroon with white convertable Top. That was some car. Alas during one icy winter ride home while waiting at a stop sign a fully loaded fuel truck couldn’t stop in time and barely bumped the back end, the engine dropped to the pavement, thus the end of the hot Corvair, proving Ralph right,UnSafe at any speed. At times when we thought we knew how to improve the handling we would load the trunk with a couple 50lb sand bags to improve cornering, we thought it helped, but on the Northern Mn - North Dakota border near Grand Forks there are very few curved roads test the theory. 2 months before its demise an AirForce pilot had offered my brother $800.00 for the car,which was just about double what he had paid for it. Of course he kept the car,live and learn.
Fun thanks
Dave
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I had a '64 Monza Spyder 150 turbo convertible, should have not let it go. Then had a '67 Monza convertible 110 then later a 140 in it, should not have let it go either. The last was a '66 Monza coupe, Crown conversion. A 365 hp 327 ci where the rear seat used to be, I'm still not mature enough to own that car. It was the right thing to do to let that one go. The only car I have ever owned that could pull the front wheels off the ground.
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I had a '64 convertible, mom had a '65 coupe got me back and forth to college. Looking back a real cool car (not by todays standards) Wouldn't mind tricking one out with todays modern upgrades bigger wheels, forced induction, suspension.
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In the 1970's I daily drove a 66 Corvair 4 carb Corsa for about three years...It was fun and handled very well compared to the other cars of that era.....The first generation Corvairs were a handful in an emergency situation to most drivers used to the understeering handling of typical US cars...
This is a GM film from the early 60's on Corvair handling..it's long but you can skip around ....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6sMXCEgAJg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6sMXCEgAJg)
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Nader's hatchet job on the Corvair delayed the development of fuel-efficient autos in America by ten years. A friend's older brother drove a really sharp Monza in the early seventies that I inspected at every chance. The vans were cool, too...definitely more power than their VW counterparts.
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The world's largest dealer of Corvair parts is not far from me-there's a picture of Mr. Nader in the building! He may actually have one on display.
I also met Mr. Nader's first-maybe only -biographer. Interesting stuff. I am pretty darned sure Ford had nothing to do with anything related to the Corvair.
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Nader's famous book only had one chapter on the Corvair. Nader was/is a safety nut often with incorrect facts...But the cars back then were not designed for safety in an accident ...And when consumers were offered seat belt and padded dashboards at extra cost(1956 Ford), they declined...... GM was always a target because they were the largest car manufacturers by far back then...GM was was accused by our gov't for purposely trying to destroy the passenger rail system in order to sell more buses..GM was a leader in bus sales from the 40's-70's and the charges were maybe partially true... In 1959 GM was dragged before the Congress to face monopoly charges..It seems GM had 60 percent of new car sales...The buyers weren't forced to buy GM vehicles and that was the truth...
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Most people have not lived until they have experienced a moment in history with a Corvair.. Like the time we put out a fire with a six pack of tall beer cans. (through a small hole in the firewall) Then pushing the 63 Monza out of the field, while the Fire truck circled the place looking for us.. :copcar:
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My good buddy and his wife owned a 1964 two door coupe. Standard Transmission (can't remember if it was a 3 or 4 on the floor.) A fun car to drive, but I believe this model was built prior to factory suspension items that better-stabilized the car. Like VWs, Corvairs of the period would seriously oversteer.
My first Corvair ride as a passenger was in a first year model, owned by a friend's older sister. He wanted to show a carload of us how well it cornered, so he wailed really fast into a turn that was slightly less than 90 degrees. Things were going well until the independent swing axle sort of doubled under the car, and lifted the rear end high in the air momentarily.
The only other car I ever saw jack up the rear end in a fast turn was a buddy's Fiat X 1/9 at a parking lot autocross.
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There is a fellow whose name I think is Wyman, who is considered the world's formost guru on homebuilt aircraft.
Uhh, no. He's been building and selling Corvair conversions for many years, though. It makes a decent, relatively inexpensive powerplant for a homebuilt aircraft. Better than a Lycoming? Shirley :smiley: you jest.
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I had a '66 corsa 140 hp with 4 one barrels. What a great car!
Made many Porsche drivers go home and cry!
:-)
I had one too, great car.
Dean
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The only other car I ever saw jack up the rear end in a fast turn was a buddy's Fiat X 1/9 at a parking lot autocross.
Renault R8s and R10s had independent rear arms that would do that EXCEPT Renault provided a couple of very heavy canvas straps that prevented the axles from going too far afield ....
Lannis
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Renault R8s and R10s had independent rear arms that would do that EXCEPT Renault provided a couple of very heavy canvas straps that prevented the axles from going too far afield ....
Lannis
I remember while in college in the 1960s .... a good buddy of mine and I could get as absorbed in a JC Whitney or Warshawsky catalog as we could our textbooks when cramming for finals. That kind of activity usually brought a B down to a C, or worse.
Those old catalogs had special sections for VW and Corvairs, as well as Model A Fords. In addition to dual carb kits for VW, and a bunch of other stuff, I recall the transverse single leaf spring they offered for VW and Corvair. Pretty simple device ..... it sort of linked the right and left swingaxles so they couldn't roll up under the car.
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VW famously added the "Z" bar to their swing axle beetle in '67 to reduce the dreaded "tuck-under" They somewhat solved the problem without add-on bits when they went to the open axles in '68.
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Uhh, no. He's been building and selling Corvair conversions for many years, though. It makes a decent, relatively inexpensive powerplant for a homebuilt aircraft. Better than a Lycoming? Shirley :smiley: you jest.
Better because it cost 1/3 to do, made the preferred HP and torque at the preferred RPM all day long. Everything has a flaw, Lycoming's was price. When I was reading up on it, the Corvair was a 5K build, the Lycomings ran 15K. The fact that Corvair was in the mix is impressive. As to the handling, there were rally clubs all over Europe for them. If you do the research, you will find that Ford staged a fixed handling test with Nadar present, to use him as a tool. And in my entire life I have never seen an engine fall out of any car, let alone a Corvair. And I'm old. I have seen an engine cradle sag from rust & broken bolts. There is this, fron Wiki....
A 1972 safety commission report conducted by Texas A&M University concluded that the 1960�1963 Corvair possessed no greater potential for loss of control than its contemporary competitors in extreme situations.[24] The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a press release in 1972 describing the findings of NHTSA testing from the previous year. NHTSA had conducted a series of comparative tests in 1971 studying the handling of the 1963 Corvair and four contemporary cars�a Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, Volkswagen Beetle, and Renault Dauphine�along with a second-generation Corvair (with its completely redesigned, independent rear suspension). The 143-page report reviewed NHTSA's extreme-condition handling tests, national crash-involvement data for the cars in the test as well as General Motors' internal documentation regarding the Corvair's handling.[1] NHTSA went on to contract an independent advisory panel of engineers to review the tests. This review panel concluded that "the 1960�63 Corvair compares favorably with contemporary vehicles used in the tests [...] the handling and stability performance of the 1960�63 Corvair does not result in an abnormal potential for loss of control or rollover, and it is at least as good as the performance of some contemporary vehicles both foreign and domestic." Former GM executive John DeLorean asserted in his book On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors that Nader's criticisms were valid.[28]
Journalist David E. Davis, in a 2009 article in Automobile Magazine, noted that despite Nader's claim that swing-axle rear suspension were dangerous, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Tatra, and Volkswagen all used similar swing-axle concepts during that era.[29] (The handling of other rear-engine swing-axle cars, particularly the Volkswagen Type I and II,[30] has been criticized as well.) Some contend that Nader's lack of an automotive engineering degree or a driver's license at the time he wrote Unsafe at Any Speed disqualifies him as a critic of automotive safety.[31] In response to Nader's book, Mechanix Illustrated reviewer Tom McCahill tried to get a 1963 Corvair to flip, at one point sliding sideways into a street curb, but could not turn over the vehicle
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Dunno about you but all those swing axle cars had a reputation for oversteer at awkward moments. Many had a fix applied by the maker.
I doubt any had a wheel "tuck under" and that includes Corvairs-but the real killer for the Corvair was GM. They weren't selling well.
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Didn't WV eventually go to a trailing arm double u joint suspension like the 65-69 Corvair? Old beetles were known for flipping over and seeing them with wrinkled roofs from a slow speed rollover was not all that uncommon... My 66 Corvair was designed to understeer with a stock front swaybar. Quick turns at low speeds had the front end running wide, the tires scrubbing off speed like a Ford...When doing autocrossing, the front bar links were removed so the car would go to oversteer and be faster on the tight track.A Posi rear differential also helped to bring the ass around..At higher speeds on the road, oversteer can be a handful, especially with the Corvair slow steering..
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Didn't WV eventually go to a trailing arm double u joint suspension like the 65-69 Corvair? Old beetles were known for flipping over and seeing them with wrinkled roofs from a slow speed rollover was not all that uncommon... My 66 Corvair was designed to understeer with a stock front swaybar. Quick turns at low speeds had the front end running wide, the tires scrubbing off speed like a Ford...When doing autocrossing, the front bar links were removed so the car would go to oversteer and be faster on the tight track.A Posi rear differential also helped to bring the ass around..At higher speeds on the road, oversteer can be a handful, especially with the Corvair slow steering..
Yes, after the Z bar in '67, VW went with open axles with CV joints (not u-joints) in '68. I used those axle shaft/CV joint combinations for the drive shaft and rear axles on my trike.
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The factory claimed 160hp with the turbo.
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Dunno about you but all those swing axle cars had a reputation for oversteer at awkward moments. Many had a fix applied by the maker.
I doubt any had a wheel "tuck under" and that includes Corvairs-but the real killer for the Corvair was GM. They weren't selling well.
My evidence is anecdotal. admittedly. but I was personally riding in the 1960 Corvair when the right axle in a left turn tucked, causing the rear end to jump upward. I was an eye-witness to the outer rear axle on the FIAT X 1/9 tucking under at a local autocross, lofting the rear end vertically. You are certainly entitled to your doubts.
Bob
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RK, from memory (no Goggle), I think the turbo was 180hp.
:-)
I think 180 was the hp quoted by the manufacturer.
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Are you saying you don't believe that figure?
:-)
Absolutely not! I was simply stating that I also recalled the hp rating being 180 on the turbo'd Corvair.
Bob :thumb:
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Like any forced induction engine, if the supercharger has enough capacity, you can raise the boost and make a lot more power if detonation is kept under control and engine durability is adequate.. Back when, a drag racer a 64 Turbo Corvair in a stock class did great by increasing boost...
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Engines falling out of Corvairs? Sounds like some folks have them confused with GM's first mainstream front wheel drive cars in the early 80s which would lose their engine subframe and all if the car wasn't lifted and towed properly. But the Corvair's engine could neatly be unbolted and the rest of the car jacked up to liberate it- I took advantage of that feature a few times, once even pulled a Corvair engine with nothing but the car's jack and a big stack of wood blocks.
As for Corvairs flipping, that was mostly caused by too low rear tire pressures. Tom McCahill wrote about that in his road test, finding that even Chevy dealers were delivering new Corvairs with too low rear tire pressures. He cranked the rear tire pressures above Chevy's oft ignored recommendations and found it impossible to flip even the swing axle Corvair, no matter how hard he tried.
But the American people are a gullible lot and instead took the word of a lawyer who didn't even know how to drive and bought the inferior Falcons and Valiants instead. GM cowered and joined Ford and Mopar in offering mediocre small cars. Meanwhile, a little automaker in Germany that had helped design the Corvair came out with a similar car called the 911, and a half century later it's still in production and one of the world's most admired cars.
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Had the blue one in college
great until the clutch blew.
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I used to run my Volvo P1800 in autocrosses in soCal in the early 60s. 1 time I saw the latter Corvair (Monza?) version slide sraight right past a corner instead of turn like every other car did with it's front wheels turned to make the corner.
Another time while driving my Volvo 142S there was an early version of the Corvair in front of us on the freeway going 80 mph with 4 women in it. All of a sudden the Corvair started doing donuts repeatedly over both lanes !! :shocked: I don't know what broke but for sure if it had been any other car it would have flipped. Far as I know no one was hurt, but still.....
I knew a CHP officer who showed me pics of Corvairs that had come apart right where the windshield was. Right in half! :huh: So if that happened to the driver his feet/shoes would be on the pavement while he sat on the driver's seat. :evil:
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My evidence is anecdotal. admittedly. but I was personally riding in the 1960 Corvair when the right axle in a left turn tucked, causing the rear end to jump upward. I was an eye-witness to the outer rear axle on the FIAT X 1/9 tucking under at a local autocross, lofting the rear end vertically. You are certainly entitled to your doubts.
Bob
I would not question your experience-however the X1/9 doesn't have swing axles so if the wheel tucked under something broke.
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The 1st turbo Corvair was rated 150 HP, the later version was 180.
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The 1st turbo Corvair was rated 150 HP, the later version was 180.
I remember the 1st turbo Corvair rated @ 140 hp and challenged 1 w/by buddies Austin Healey/6....................it blew me off even tho I had blown off a 409 Chevy with the Healey.
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I remember the 1st turbo Corvair rated @ 140 hp and challenged 1 w/by buddies Austin Healey/6....................it blew me off even tho I had blown off a 409 Chevy with the Healey.
<scratching head> I had a new Healey in 63, and it wasn't about to blow off a "She's real fine, my 409." Unless it was about going around corners, of course. :smiley:
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I would not question your experience-however the X1/9 doesn't have swing axles so if the wheel tucked under something broke.
Aaron, you've caused me to go back and check production dates for the X 1/9, and now I'm thinking I called out the wrong car. My buddy and I were at a local autocross where he ran his Fiat and I ran my 1968 VW Beetle, which I traded in 1970. So, my buddy's Fiat was most likely a pre-X 1/9, most likely an 850 Spider, not an X 1/9. I'll have to research the rear suspension on the earlier 850. You seem to know Fiats quite well ..... could the Spider have had the swing axle?
Bob
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<scratching head> I had a new Healey in 63, and it wasn't about to blow off a "She's real fine, my 409." Unless it was about going around corners, of course. :smiley:
It was a `61 Healey which I didn't even know I was racing but I got the AH up to 120 mph @ night on a 2 lane road near Costa Mesa, Ca. While I stopped @ a red light this Chevy pulls up next to me the driver says, "you just blew off a 409 Chevy"! Then he wants to race me when the light turns green....whatever.. .light goes green, his rear wheels are laying rubber but he's hardly moving forward....I let out the clutch and blast away never to see him any more. That's the rest of the story. :smiley:
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IIRC, the X1/9 was a transverse mid engined car with double jointed rear suspension. The 850s came in sedan, coupe, and "Spyder" convertible flavors and carried over the Fiat 600's swing axles.
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Just for you, Ralph Nader!
(http://corvairalley.com/wpimages/wp75e7ef59_05_06.jpg)
(http://www.corvairunderground.com/govair/Untitled-1.bmp)
(http://drag.race-cars.com/carsold/chevy/1153153604/1153153604lj.jpg)
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http://www.carnut.com/specs/gen/vair60.html
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Fiat 850: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_850
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My nephew had an 850 Spider, and I had a 124. The 850 had the rear engine, with a water pump sitting remotely off by itself on the side, run by a belt. The fuel pump sat directly above the muffler on the other side of the engine. Can't believe they didn't all burn down. Really a good looking little car, slow.
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Aaron, you've caused me to go back and check production dates for the X 1/9, and now I'm thinking I called out the wrong car. My buddy and I were at a local autocross where he ran his Fiat and I ran my 1968 VW Beetle, which I traded in 1970. So, my buddy's Fiat was most likely a pre-X 1/9, most likely an 850 Spider, not an X 1/9. I'll have to research the rear suspension on the earlier 850. You seem to know Fiats quite well ..... could the Spider have had the swing axle?
Bob
The 850s had trailing arms, and a serious rust problem! On mine, if I lowered the top the doors wouldn't open!
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My roommate in college built a dune buggy with a Corvair engine. We would ride the dunes at Pismo Beach. Lots of air with that motor. :laugh:
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I think the real killer of the Corvair was the Mustang (or other cheap muscle cars). The horsepower race was on, the Corvair, even with the turbo, was not going to win any drag races with any v8's.
They still hold a very special place in my heart. They wear just the perfect size, large enough for four adults, small enough to park in todays parking lots. My '67 with the 110 engine could take on-ramps here in CA much faster than my 240Z. All the weight on the rear wheels planted that thing solidly. You could really push the corners fast and tight, it didn't grunt, squeal, or complain right to the point the rear broke loose. At that point it was hopeless, when the rear swung out there was no recovery, unlike the little Z car. Corvairs don't do Gymkhanas!
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Not sure if the lack of a V8 was much of a factor, as IIRC most Mustangs were sold with Ford's anemic sixes and most Corvairs, even the best selling Monza 2 door couples, were sold with the 95 and 110 HP engines during the same 65-69 time frame rather than the 140 HP 4 carb and 180 HP turbo variants. BTW, the Corvair probably instigated the Mustang- Ford noted how well the Monza coupes with bucket seats were selling and slipped bucket seats into the Falcon 2 door and called it the Falcon Futura. It sold well too, so Ford took a gamble and built the Mustang. More likely it was Nader who chased off Corvair buyers, as well as in house competition from the Camaro.
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Rusty Goose, I have to disagree with your statement about Corvairs not doing gymkhanas.
Back in the day I was an avid SCCA autocrosser in my 66 Monza, winning 5 regional championships, 3 divisional championships, and 1 National championship.
My Monza was classified in H Stock, the lowest stock class, yet the year I won Nationals out of the approximately 200+ Stock class cars, only 6 A stock 911/914/6 Porsches, 1 B Stock Corvette and 1C Stock RX7 had quicker times. Autoweek was impressed enough with this, that in their coverage of that year's Nationals, they highlighted the fact these times were faster than the supposedly quicker classes.
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Never had the budget to compete beyond local gymkhanas (what they called autocrosses back then) or do any real mods, but my '61 Monza 102 HP/4 speed and my mom's '66 Monza 110HP/"Powerslide" were both competitive. Look at the stats- 2500 pounds, independent suspension all around, and up to 180 HP- And the Corvair could clearly compete with some much more expensive and legendary cars!
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My neighbor has (I believe, still has) a TorVair, Corvair with the Olds Toronado big block (455 cu.in.?). Supposedly one of a small number of "engineer's prototypes", if you believe the firewall plaque.... I was not overly impressed the little bit I drove it, but it was not running well at the time.
Worked for a guy who had several 'Vairs of several different configurations, including wagons, vans & pickups. The Monza was indeed impressive. His take was that the turbo motor often did not survive well because of a higher compression ratio in combo with the boost....
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Rusty Goose, I have to disagree with your statement about Corvairs not doing gymkhanas.
Back in the day I was an avid SCCA autocrosser in my 66 Monza, winning 5 regional championships, 3 divisional championships, and 1 National championship.
My Monza was classified in H Stock, the lowest stock class, yet the year I won Nationals out of the approximately 200+ Stock class cars, only 6 A stock 911/914/6 Porsches, 1 B Stock Corvette and 1C Stock RX7 had quicker times. Autoweek was impressed enough with this, that in their coverage of that year's Nationals, they highlighted the fact these times were faster than the supposedly quicker classes.
Did a bit of that in the early 70's , even got a mention in the SCCA newsletter for placing 2nd in class at a regional ran at the old paved oval track on the Zink ranch near Tulsa with several chicanes and using the little bit of infieldcourse. Drove two classes , one in a friend's RX4 and another in his wife's TR4A . She never let me near that car again :shocked: :laugh: Memory says there were only about 5 cars in the class I won 2nd in :rolleyes:
The top time of the day was set in a full race prepped 356 , and I think a Mini was just a hair behind .
Dusty
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The 850s had trailing arms, and a serious rust problem! On mine, if I lowered the top the doors wouldn't open!
My long time buddy Jim had a Fiat 124 roadster and never had rust issues for years in soCal. So maybe it mattered where you drove your Fiat? :undecided:
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I learned to drive in a 62 Monza 4spd convertible. Fun car to drive. A friend had one too. We were out and about in it one night. Came to a stop at a stop sign out in the country. The thing would not go. We finally got out and opened the engine compartment to find the motor had dropped down. after that we learned that the Corvair engine was held in place by its attachment to the transmission, and ONE bolt at the rear of the motor. ONE bolt! I couldn't believe it, but true. The serpentine belt was a PIA, but the one attachment bolt totally turned me off to the car after that. Loved the gas mileage but the engineering was barf worthy.
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My long time buddy Jim had a Fiat 124 roadster and never had rust issues for years in soCal. So maybe it mattered where you drove your Fiat? :undecided:
There's probably something to that. In the early/mid 1960s, a college buddy of mine drove a Fiat 600 sedan. While driving through slow downtown traffic, the car snapped in the middle. No doubt rust was the culprit. Lots of salt used in the wintertime in Charleston WV.
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My long time buddy Jim had a Fiat 124 roadster and never had rust issues for years in soCal. So maybe it mattered where you drove your Fiat? :undecided:
I had a Fiat 124 roadster, and after 2 years in Indiana, it was rusting away..yes, it makes a difference.
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My long time buddy Jim had a Fiat 124 roadster and never had rust issues for years in soCal. So maybe it mattered where you drove your Fiat? :undecided:
Oh hell yeah it matters! That poor car. First time I went over a snowdrift there was a blizzard-inside!
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The Fiat 850 and 124 were entirely different cars, made to different price points and of course quality. In the 70s I worked for an independent foreign car repair shop on the Washington coast. It was on the coast highway, a region that is constantly damp, with the salt in the air itself. We had a yard full of Fiat 850s, all rusted around the pedals and throughout the floor and frame. You could literally Flintstone them to a stop if you wanted to try. Having one front corner suspension come untethered from the frame was not unusual. We didn't see nearly as much of that with the 124s. They were just better built with better materials and care.
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Rusty Goose, I have to disagree with your statement about Corvairs not doing gymkhanas.
Back in the day I was an avid SCCA autocrosser in my 66 Monza, winning 5 regional championships, 3 divisional championships, and 1 National championship.
My Monza was classified in H Stock, the lowest stock class, yet the year I won Nationals out of the approximately 200+ Stock class cars, only 6 A stock 911/914/6 Porsches, 1 B Stock Corvette and 1C Stock RX7 had quicker times. Autoweek was impressed enough with this, that in their coverage of that year's Nationals, they highlighted the fact these times were faster than the supposedly quicker classes.
Nothing like a great endorsement!
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Here's a 65 Corvair turbo road test.Or is it a 140 HP engine?...Check the acceleration times, A Prius would give one a good run.But the article mentioned the turbo can be tuned to be much faster with some tuning....Amazing how much vehicle performance as changed over the years...
http://www.corvairforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=551 (http://www.corvairforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=551)
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.Amazing how much vehicle performance as changed over the years...
True. I had a bad :rolleyes: ride back in the early 60s that turned 17:48 at the drag strip..
It *was* fairly fast for it's day.
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This car was a fixture of MidDiv SCCA races in the '80s and '90s.
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/bf/b1/b6/bfb1b63a3bbf3e4b6696715ded62efba.jpg)
The car is a Yenko Stinger but it has also had many modifications since it was new. In it's early days there were a lot of issues with oil consumption and the corner workers would call in when Charlie's car quit smoking because that meant that the car was about out of oil and would soon be giving up. After some years the bugs got ironed out and it was actually reasonable competitive in it's class (GT3) except when one of the big guns showed up with a cubic dollars special.
The big green machine has now pretty much been retired and the owner races a Mazda RX7.
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My 62 Corvair Spyder.
After I spun a main (we'd already had problems with the turbo), the engine went through a complete rebuild by a mechanic who ran a AA Gas Dragster. By the time we got finished the engine had been balanced by Ed Edelbrock, Exhaust Engineering built a special set of headers for it, Valley Head service cc'd the heads, chambered them for flame pattern, ported and polished and then added bi-metal, sodium filled valves that were held in place with Corvette valve springs and titanium retainers. Internally, the motor was stroked with new rods (shot peened), Clevite 77 bearings, custom high compression, low dome pistons, and a custom cam shaft that had one heck of an overlap and 505 lift. Carburetion was a WCFB on a custom manifold. Really lopped at idle and was Dyno'd at 225 delivered to the wheels. I built a special clutch for it using sintered iron in the clutch disk (similar to the one we ran in the dragster) and a light weight (aluminium?) fly wheel. 2.5* negative camber on the rear end, special Helwig camber compensaters, short throw kit on the shifter, and quick steering arms. The rear end was beefed up a bit and ran 180 wt. gear grease (made for really tough 1st to 2nd shifts when cold).
A lot of the engineering was assisted by Tom Kassabobian (sp?) who at that time held the Class K land speed record with a Corvair that his wife drove on a daily basis (169.5 MPH IIRC).
The interior was pretty stock with the addition of 5-point harnesses in both front seats and a Muntz 4-track stereo with light bars.
Really enjoyed that car. Sold it to the brother of a girl I was dating when I got drafted. He managed to wrap it around a phone poll :thewife: Quite the car to cruise Van Nuys Blvd with back in the mid-60s.
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7391/9244640852_acc1a55d57_h.jpg)
jdg (https://flic.kr/p/f5VcDw)
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That's an impressive Corvair above !
Here's a Hot Rod magazine article about supercharging the early Corvair, Falcon and Valiant...
http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/members/AardvarkPublisherAttachments/9990496884992/1960-07_HR_Supercharging_the_Corvair_Falcon_Valiant_1-9.pdf (http://wildaboutcarsonline.com/members/AardvarkPublisherAttachments/9990496884992/1960-07_HR_Supercharging_the_Corvair_Falcon_Valiant_1-9.pdf)
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Muntz 4-track stereo with light bars.
:grin: :thumb:
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Yeah, but a Prius is but ugly!
All cars these days seem to have had the same mama.
I have a hard time telling a Toyota from a Kia. Every manufacturer seem to be using the same software for design.
Yes quite ugly....Most vintage vehicles look dated ...The Corvair second series styling has a timeless look that still look sharp today.
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Yes quite ugly....Most vintage vehicles look dated ...The Corvair second series styling has a timeless look that still look sharp today.
Couldn't agree with you more!
There just might be another Corsa in my future.
:-)
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Yes quite ugly....Most vintage vehicles look dated ...The Corvair second series styling has a timeless look that still look sharp today.
Always thought the BMW 2002 and this beauty owed more than a little to the styling of the Corvair.
(https://www.classicdriver.com/sites/default/files/styles/two_third_slider/public/import/cars/12225/1871391/bigb.jpg?itok=Mc10D8S-)
1974 BMW 3.0 CSi. :grin:
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My 62 Corvair Spyder.
(https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7391/9244640852_acc1a55d57_h.jpg)
jdg
(https://flic.kr/p/f5VcDw)
OK , that pretty cool :bow:
Dusty
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In my opinion, GM, more than any other manufacturer, built a few timeless styled cars and trucks..
The original Toronado would fit right in today.
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ab/66/e9/ab66e9222342d73b49624568a97d7c54.jpg)
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Always thought the BMW 2002 and this beauty owed more than a little to the styling of the Corvair.
(https://www.classicdriver.com/sites/default/files/styles/two_third_slider/public/import/cars/12225/1871391/bigb.jpg?itok=Mc10D8S-)
1974 BMW 3.0 CSi. :grin:
The Corvair was a big influence on European stylists-besides the BMWs see the NSU Prinz, Lancia Fulvia Coupe..
Actually US styling was a big influence overall.
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Sorry to the former racers, I stand corrected! My quip about the gymkhana thing was more tongue-in-cheek about trying to slide the rear end around in a parking lot. Corvairs are still very competitive in auto-cross and vintage rallies. I would love have another late model coupe just for that reason. The last rally I attended I was driving a '67 BMW 2000cs, also a very fun car.
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There was a turbo model produced which was a pretty hot little car. I have an old friend who has one.
A friend of mine had one with forced induction - what a car! Just a hoot to drive and since he was suffering a driving ban, I spent the better part of three months driving him around.
Always wanted one...
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Our last one was a 66 Corsa, made with the 140 HP setup, was switched over to a 110 HP engine at some point. It had white accents along the bottom sides and the rear panel was white. Car was base maroon. It was really a sharp looking car.
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I've been sort of hanging back from this a bit, but back when I lived in Edmonton and was involved in sports car (and other car) racing, there was an old geezer with a beaten-up turbocharged Corvair (I think a '66) that regularly embarrassed us young'uns. He was a skilled and smooth driver, and his car was better than we would give it credit for.
My '76 Honda Civic CVCC with its transplanted Japanese spec 1751 big valve engine was enough to win me rookie of the year in ice racing, but that Corvair kept me from the overall title. Another example of what writer and curmudgeon P. J. O'Rourke said - "Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut".
And for the record, I was never all that innocent and I got rid of the bad haircut some years earlier!
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Being a huge fan of them having owned 3 - I LOVE the story of the Pan American Corvairs and the Darién Gap in 1961.
https://thecitypaperbogota.com/travel/pacific-travel-guide/the-lost-corvair/1429
(http://bestride.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Screen-Shot-2014-10-15-at-11.10.04-AM.png)
Todd.
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Being a huge fan of them having owned 3 - I LOVE the story of the Pan American Corvairs and the Darién Gap in 1961.
https://thecitypaperbogota.com/travel/pacific-travel-guide/the-lost-corvair/1429
(http://bestride.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Screen-Shot-2014-10-15-at-11.10.04-AM.png)
Todd.
Todd, you beat me to it.
Dual sporting/adventure touring in a Corvair:
Do a search in YouTube for "corvair darien gap"
You will be amazed
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Todd, you beat me to it.
Dual sporting/adventure touring in a Corvair:
Do a search in YouTube for "corvair darien gap"
You will be amazed
There's a pretty cool story out there too about a Range Rover or Land Rover promotional expedition , a few years back, coming across one of the left behind Corvairs.
Todd.