Pelican Parts
Parts Catalog Accessories Catalog How To Articles Tech Forums
Call Pelican Parts at 888-280-7799
Shopping Cart Cart | Project List | Order Status | Help



Go Back   Pelican Parts Forums > Miscellaneous and Off Topic Forums > Off Topic Discussions


Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Rate Thread
Author
Thread Post New Thread    Reply
Registered
 
kach22i's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Michigan
Posts: 53,989
Garage
Didn’t Porsche Design the Corvair?

From Excellence Magazine in 2015.

December 10, 2015
Story by Karl Ludvigsen
Didn’t Porsche Design the Corvair?
https://www.excellence-mag.com/issues/234/articles/didn-t-porsche-design-the-corvair
Quote:
As the Corvair took shape under its “Holden 25” code name, its engine was ready for road testing before the first prototype cars. Waiting to accept it was none other than the same 1957 Porsche 356 whose engine was used for cooling experiments. At Chevy’s freshly minted Engineering Center at Warren, Michigan, the first Corvair drivetrain was installed in the Porsche. Complete with Chevy’s manual transmission, effectively creating the first flat-six-powered Porsche ever. The Corvair six fitted it surprisingly well. Eager as a kid, Ed Cole hopped in and belted away....................

Ferry Porsche was, of course, interested in the Corvair. Through Huschke von Hanstein, his director of PR and motorsports, he arranged to buy one of the first ones made. It would be invidious to suggest that Chevrolet’s effort influenced Porsche, but it cannot be overlooked that Leonard Jäntschke’s first prototype engine for the future 911, the Type 745 of 1961, had a four-bearing crankshaft just like the Corvair’s. For its final design, though, Porsche adopted seven main bearings instead. It was a decision that secured the long life of Porsche’s flat six.

Ferry Porsche’s Corvair wasn’t the only one running around the streets of Stuttgart. Dan Gurney, one of Porsche’s Formula One drivers in 1961-1962, brought one over to show what the New World could accomplish in car design. Porsche later used some Corvair Lakewoods to test its first flat sixes.
Five years later, do the historians dispute any of this?

I though Porsche was hired to work on the Corvair engine, didn't you?

__________________
1977 911S Targa 2.7L (CIS) Silver/Black
2012 Infiniti G37X Coupe (AWD) 3.7L Black on Black
1989 modified Scat II HP Hovercraft
George, Architect
Old 01-15-2021, 01:43 PM
  Pelican Parts Catalog | Tech Articles | Promos & Specials    Reply With Quote #1 (permalink)
Registered
 
Jeff Hail's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Somewhere in North L.A. County
Posts: 2,107
I never knew!

Americans sub-contracting to a German company? Probably an outsourcing program born out of operation paperclip.

But I did know Porsche designed cylinders on various Aerrimachi aircraft motors as well as 2 stroke Aermacchi motors used in Harley Davidson Golf Carts in the 1960's. Then later Harley Davidson bike engines when we Americans could not figure out more cooling fins actually have a function of moving heat when its not in the air stream.

__________________
Jeff Hail
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it is vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible"
Old 01-15-2021, 10:13 PM
  Pelican Parts Catalog | Tech Articles | Promos & Specials    Reply With Quote #2 (permalink)
Reply


 


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 09:31 AM.


 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2025 Pelican Parts, LLC - Posts may be archived for display on the Pelican Parts Website -    DMCA Registered Agent Contact Page
 

DTO Garage Plus vBulletin Plugins by Drive Thru Online, Inc.