I don't think going downhill on a groomed slope is any accomplishment.

[www.youtube.com]

That's great! I shared with the various Corvair owners groups I belong to.

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MacResource User Map: [www.zeemaps.com]#

Saw an old resto-Corvair three blocks from home a couple of weeks ago...

Blast from the past. Hadn't seen one in many years.
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That is the strangest thing I've seen in quite a while, even thinking about the brilliant, old VW Beetle ads.

Bonus points are awarded to the skier for wearing basically street clothes while managing not to get plowed over by a non-ABS, careening car on bias-ply tires that never had any opportunity to slow down, let alone actually stop until the end.

What can I say, the videos about the three Corvairs that attempted the Darien Gap were more interesting.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2022 07:19PM by Speedy.

My seventh birthday party, 1968. My mom's (standing at left) Corvair behind me. That's me in the middle with the girl I was crushing on at the time. (Her name is Kelly; she lives in Georgia now.)





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2022 08:01PM by tronnei.

There were some crazy cool high output versions with superchargers.

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[www.youtube.com]

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tronnei
My seventh birthday party, 1968. My mom's (standing at left) Corvair behind me. That's me in the middle with the girl I was crushing on at the time. (Her name is Kelly; she lives in Georgia now.)

That 2nd Gen is a favorite design, for me among cars of the era.

… so, you still keep tabs on the girl??

Being on a low friction surface prevents the suspension loading up and displaying the supposed emergency maneuver irregularities that Nader warned about.

Properly modified racing examples in the 1960s could give Corvettes very strong competition.

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In tha 360. MRF User Map

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Filliam H. Muffman
Being on a low friction surface prevents the suspension loading up and displaying the supposed emergency maneuver irregularities that Nader warned about.

Properly modified racing examples in the 1960s could give Corvettes very strong competition.

Even though the engine and transmission are lightweight, being in the "trunk" put that weight over the traction tires.

One of the reasons the AC Cobra is so wicked is total weight was under a ton. The original motor was a Ford 260 V-8.

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“A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand.” Seneca the Younger

The police have no duty to respond. See Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 545 U.S. 748 (2005) or Warren v. District of Columbia[1] (444 A.2d. 1, D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1981)

Judge Lee wrote that “we cannot jettison our constitutional rights, even if the goal behind a law is laudable." 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

[www.youtube.com]

I had one thought from the start,
Liability insurance cost.
Then they take it a step further and you realize the mountain is open to the public while the spot is shot.
yeow!

It was a fun car on the road as I remember. Though we had a '65 I think. Don't think I'd being skiing it.

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!#$@@$#!

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No Corvair cars, but I do have a couple of 110 and 140hp Corvair engines laying around.

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Filliam H. Muffman

Properly modified racing examples in the 1960s could give Corvettes very strong competition.

Heh! My folks had a customer that stopped by weekly. Every once in awhile he was on his way to the race track after doing business with the folks. He had a Corvette with a trailer hauling a souped up Corvair. I always thought the tach installed on the hood was super cool.

Hey, I was about 10 at the time.

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Filliam H. Muffman
Being on a low friction surface prevents the suspension loading up and displaying the supposed emergency maneuver irregularities that Nader warned about.

The downside of all "swing axle" suspensions IS suspension jacking under high lateral loads which can lead to sudden loss of traction at the rear. According to period road tests the '61-'63 Pontiac Tempest, which used the same type of rear suspension as the '60-'64 Corvairs, exhibited worse handling in emergency maneuvers than Corvairs did. Early Triumph Spitfires also used swing axles at the rear and were known to be unpredictable near their cornering limits. Early VW Type 1 "Beetles" used swing axles too, but generally weren't powerful enough or driven in an aggressive enough manner to reveal that suspension design's shortcomings.

In Unsafe At Any Speed Ralph Nader does highlight some bad industry practices and make some valid points about car safety in general at the time, but some of the examples he uses are unnecessarily melodramatic, often hilariously so. In one chapter he talks about the danger of Cadillac tail fins, particularly the '60-'64 models, which did indeed come to quite sharp points on their trailing ends. He uses an example of an older lady getting impaled on one when she slipped while walking between two parked cars, though.

1962 Cadillac-
[www.oldcarbrochures.org]

Amid such lurid examples he does point out the need for common-sense things like having dash padding and seatbelts as standard equipment instead of extra cost options, less shiny chrome around the windshield to reflect bright sunlight, and a few other things that are a given now but weren't before Unsafe At Any Speed was published.

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My FIL was a muscle car guy and had a soft spot for Corvairs. His position was that if you knew how to drive, the Corvair wasn't nearly as unsafe as Nader made it out to be. He did, however, make modifications to the suspension to make it handle much better than it came from the factory.

Reminds me of the Chevy trucks with the gas tank outside the rail issue. IIRC, 60 minutes tried to show how dangerous it was and wound up rigging the video as they couldn't get the fire/explosion they wanted. Issue was that they filled the gas tank thinking that more gas increased the risk. They didn't understand that it was the vapor that created the risk.

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deckeda

… so, you still keep tabs on the girl??

Reconnected a few years ago through a mutual classmate, who had reached out to me. She didn't remember being the only girl I invited to my birthday party that year.

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tronnei

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deckeda

… so, you still keep tabs on the girl??

Reconnected a few years ago through a mutual classmate, who had reached out to me. She didn't remember being the only girl I invited to my birthday party that year.

More importantly, your mom (despite the out of focus photo) was hot!

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Thrift Store Scott

The downside of all "swing axle" suspensions IS suspension jacking under high lateral loads which can lead to sudden loss of traction at the rear..

That's been my experience with cars that have a rear Panhard bar. My folks had an '87 Intregra (great car) we took across the country. It came with the original Michelin MXV, a fantastic all-around tire of any era.

Driving through a mountain pass on the highway, the loaded car wanted to a do a little corkscrew behavior on the broad sweepers.

Then again, I probably should have slowed down a little.

The two videos that followed that ad were really interesting.

One was a Jay Leno's Garage episode on his Corvair Corsa Turbo.

My Dad had a Champaign Gold '66 Monza.

I really liked that car.

Watching the Garage episode, I was struck by how well that car's design holds up over time, compared to some of the exotics that are posted here.

As Leno puts it, they're all 'era' cars, where as Corsa and Monza have a very sleek, timeless design.

To think that back then, it was a 164 CID engine powering a 2500lb car, and now that a 2.6L engine powering 3000lbs+ cars.

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davester

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tronnei

Quote
deckeda

… so, you still keep tabs on the girl??

Reconnected a few years ago through a mutual classmate, who had reached out to me. She didn't remember being the only girl I invited to my birthday party that year.

More importantly, your mom (despite the out of focus photo) was hot!

Thanks--I agree! A better pic of her then:


And getting back on topic, here's another pic of the car:



That's actually the second Corvair my mom had. The first one was "borrowed" by a neighbor girl for a joyride--and she totaled it.