For you Corvair fans

[ohiorider]

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?   

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. 

[Chuck in Indiana]

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?   

I had a Fiat 124 roadster, and after 2 years in Indiana, it was rusting away..yes, it makes a difference.

[Aaron D.]

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?   

Oh hell yeah it matters! That poor car. First time I went over a snowdrift there was a blizzard-inside!

[rodekyll]

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.

[wymple]

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!

[Rough Edge racing]

 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

[Chuck in Indiana]

.Amazing how much vehicle performance as changed over the years...

True. I had a bad  ride back in the early 60s that turned 17:48 at the drag strip..
It *was* fairly fast for it's day.

[MotoChuck250]

This car was a fixture of MidDiv SCCA races in the '80s and '90s.


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.

[jdgretz]

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    Quite the car to cruise Van Nuys Blvd with back in the mid-60s.



jdg

[Rough Edge racing]

 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

[Chuck in Indiana]

Muntz 4-track stereo with light bars.

 

[Rough Edge racing]

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.

[kirby1923]

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.

:-)

[MotoChuck250]

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.



1974 BMW 3.0 CSi. 

[oldbike54]

My 62 Corvair Spyder.




jdg

 OK , that pretty cool 

 Dusty

[Rough Edge racing]

 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.

       

[Aaron D.]

Always thought the BMW 2002 and this beauty owed more than a little to the styling of the Corvair.



1974 BMW 3.0 CSi. 

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.

[Rusty goose]

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.

[poorBob]

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...

[wymple]

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.

[ITSec]

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!

[cruzziguzzi]

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






Todd.

[redhawk47]

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






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

[cruzziguzzi]

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.