The Corvair

[RWebb]

can we hear it for Ed Cole?

[rouxroux]

While I do buy parts from Clarks, my "go to" source is Corvair Underground.
CORVAIR UNDERGROUND Inc
also suggest Rafee for parts as well:
- Rafee ~ Corvair - Online Store

[johnsjmc]

Clarks Corvair Parts has been a source for many years and maybe Otto Parts is still in business

[911pcars]

Other than concours car shows, not sure why anyone would want to preserve a Corvair to the way it was. The engines, even the turbo-Spyder were the most basic of its type. One would only hope GM would have continued developing the car (aka, bring prototypes to reality). GM needed more guts than engineering prowess, and fewer bean counters to bring new models to market.

Sherwood
I had a '62 with concours-disapproved 3º rear neg. camber, but I lived.

[RWebb]

Chevy tried to get buyers to carefully keep the tires inflated to a precise differential to reduce oversteer induced crashes; Sports Car Illustrated noted "it's unlikely that most Corvair owners will ever maintain the pressures recommended."

Chrysler had an engineering report done and found the same thing (they were hot to compete with the nes sleek Corvair).

In its testing, Sports Car Illustrated also found the car had a strong tendency to oversteer and said "one of the first things that should be done" is to put an anti-roll bar on the front - Chevy did not do that for quite a few years, maybe due to cost controls.

Chevy's engineering design had specified a rear end wt. of 148 lbs., but the car wound up at 175 lbs. in production, further exacerbating the oversteer.

The engine was supposed to have lots of Al parts, but wound up with some parts being made of steel, resulting in a wt. increase from the target 288 lbs. to 366 lbs. (a LOT!)

[dafischer]

Randy, the above is pertinent to the 60 - 64 Corvairs with swing axles. An extreme oversteer condition would cause the slide side axle to tuck under, usually due to under inflated tires, and essentially "trip" the car, causing a rollover. One of my friends' older sister was killed in a Corvair ( a 61) rollover resulting from a quick steer to a avoid a deer in the road.

For 65 and up, that problem was eliminated by changing to double jointed half shafts, with trailing arms that kept the rear wheels parallel in their range of up and down movement.

The persistence of reports of bad handling traits in the earlier models is what eventually killed the market for Corvairs, even though the problem had been fixed.

[johnsjmc]

The pressure recommended was something like 18 f 28 r or even more. In the 60s gas stations still had attendants who no doubt "fixed" the soft fronts and set the pressure at 25 all round . I think this more likely than underinflated rears
The low fr pressure induced some understeer. The Spyders had front sway bars from 1962 and they were added across the line from 64 up.
911 in the 60s had equal sized tires and the 911 " fixed "some of it,s driving charactor with staggered tire sizes and soft rear torsion bars.
The Corvairs were also sold to little old lady drivers who would already be spun around before even knowing the car was sliding and 5 turns lock to lock manual steering also didn,t help you catch anything during a spin.

[fastfredracing]

Here is one I was looking at over the weekend. The guy was a real airhead, and talked my head off for about 30 minutes . He also said he had a bug, and a custom bus.

[johnsjmc]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Here is one I was looking at over the weekend. The guy was a real airhead, and talked my head off for about 30 minutes . He also said he had a bug, and a custom bus.

Airhead because he drives an aircooled car? Around here the Porsche dealer refers to all their early car owners as airheads.

[rouxroux]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Here is one I was looking at over the weekend. The guy was a real airhead, and talked my head off for about 30 minutes . He also said he had a bug, and a custom bus.

Nice 140 Corsa. I see he had added some Yenkos Stinger mods as well.

[fastfredracing]

Yep, airhead because he is into air cooled cars. The stinger look is compliments of a 1969 z 28 front lower lip, and deck lid wing. I noticed them right away, and thought they looked perfect on it.

[rouxroux]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Yep, airhead because he is into air cooled cars. The stinger look is compliments of a 1969 z 28 front lower lip, and deck lid wing. I noticed them right away, and thought they looked perfect on it.

the side window sail panels and the color of the headlight bezels gave it away.

Oh, and the Yenko front license plate.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by dafischer

Randy, the above is pertinent to the 60 - 64 Corvairs with swing axles. An extreme oversteer condition would cause the slide side axle to tuck under, usually due to under inflated tires, and essentially "trip" the car, causing a rollover. One of my friends' older sister was killed in a Corvair ( a 61) rollover resulting from a quick steer to a avoid a deer in the road.

For 65 and up, that problem was eliminated by changing to double jointed half shafts, with trailing arms that kept the rear wheels parallel in their range of up and down movement.

The persistence of reports of bad handling traits in the earlier models is what eventually killed the market for Corvairs, even though the problem had been fixed.

yes, good point

I'm sorry to hear about that accident, no matter how long ago.

[nota]

AN OTHER EARLY 64 PRO-CUSTOM [FITCH ] VAIR FOR SALE

NOT MY CAR

1964 Chevrolet Corvair Monza Sprint Fitch

[RWebb]

The Corvair made Ralph Nader famous.

NHTSA later did an investigation and found no real design flaws (but that was the govt. so they must be wrong, eh)

[911pcars]

Originally Posted by RWebb

The Corvair made Ralph Nader famous.

NHTSA later did an investigation and found no real design flaws (but that was the govt. so they must be wrong, eh)

If they didn't find fault with VW bugs, how could they with Corvairs? Same swing axle design. Same basic design in 356s too, but their geometry (roll center, CG, etc.) was different. The problem was that Chevy marketed the car as "sporty", and owners perceived that as "sports car" which it wasn't in stock form.

Sherwood

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by nota

AN OTHER EARLY 64 PRO-CUSTOM [FITCH ] VAIR FOR SALE

NOT MY CAR

1964 Chevrolet Corvair Monza Sprint Fitch

Good thing that car is in Florida. If it was near me, I'd go look...

[70SATMan]

I didn't think those wheels were used on the early Sprints...

Were they really Mag or Alum? They look like McAffees.

[pwd72s]

The question is, what wheels did John Fitch use on his upgraded cars?

And, is the one in Florida really a Fitch? Kevin might know...

[70SATMan]

For sure he used that wheel style on the later cars (65-on) along with the added swept sail. Plus, he went to grills just on the bezels, not the whole front face like the pre-65s.