Saw one with I believe a SBC installed. Was running backwards with a boat cam to allow it to be mated to the corvair transaxle.
Hello, Well, that would certainly be interesting to drive. our next door neighbor bought one of the first 4 door Corvairs when they first came out. He liked the styling and it was in his pocket book range. In 1963, my wife bought a 62 Corvair two door coupe for her first car. Those both had nice shiny rear bumpers within two years. the ever present oil blowback prevalent in those early Corvair motors was the cause. But, they ran great, got great gas mileage and did not require any major repairs. A couple of worn our belts, but not much else. Gas it up, and step on the pedal… it would go, slowly and try to keep up with the traffic. The later models had more horsepower and looked streamlined. But, these early models were small and interesting. We did have our share of mechanical problems as it got to be 6 years old. Jnaki But, since my teenage hot rod sedan had a 348 modified motor and never leaked oil, the 348 shaped motor would have a nice clean bumper, just because of no oil blow back out of the rear. Note: When my wife and I were in a grocery shopping center and we had to take the Corvair, folks would comment on how shiny the rear bumper was. That was after I wiped off all of the oil that covered the bumper all of the time. YRMV… Despite the light blue color, it was easy to spot in the college parking lot. It was one of the only two Corvairs in the lot. One had a nice shiny rear bumper on a red coupe and the other light blue one was covered with oil and road grime… Ha!
Nader= total *** H,only looking to make a name for his super over blown ego. Hope he rots in hell. I'll skip telling how much that AH fool cost USA car design n sales. As For Corvair,when new ,My Dad got my Sister one,lowest $ that was sold. Rubber floormats ,no extras at all;but pretty cool anyway. Was used car,but very low miles. I had to show her how to drive standard shift {But never could,get her to take her foot off the clutch pedal for more then a sec. or so. So I had too replace the clutch each year of collage for her. I had my hotrod,after my Custom was grabed in the nite! But now an then she let me use her Corvair. At the time,there were a fair number of rear engine makes/brands cars ,most engine behind rear axle from overseas= *** heavy/but not really any more odd,then nose front drive,with engines mostly ahead of front axle=need def. driver styles. We had a local sports car club "ACALAM" later be came "FARA".with a guy who made a mid engine* Corvair with SBC in it. Pretty cool roadracer for home made.
There was a Crown conversion locally a while back, BBC in the back seat. Most were SBC but this one was pretty insane. "Traction?" "Not great, probably saves me." he said, being pretty light-hearted about it all.
Buddy had a Crown conversion Corsa with a wicked 327. No interior except the cheapest JC Whitney plastic buckets. He was a fearless bat **** crazy driver, and I felt Gs in that car that would destroy me now. Slot car handling, always wondering when the buckets would shear off of the ****ty little bolts holding them to the floor, and I would end up sailing sideways out of the car. Of course, no belts. EDIT. Crown's kit was mid engine. Cool to have a SBC inches away from my head turning super high RPMs
I've seen mid engine Corvairs and front engine Corvairs, not many rear engine V8's but they look cool. HRP
Wish I had pics, a guy in Baltimore had one with a 425 Olds Toronado engine and transaxle in the back seat.
When I decided to change my Corvair to a V8, I looked into the Crown Conversion. For me, I just didn’t want the pulley on the water pump to be about 6 inches from my elbow on 2nd and 4th gear shifts. The entire engine is inside the p***enger compartment so I went with the Toro style conversion except with a 355 SBC. On mine, the bolt that holds the air cleaner in place is directly under the edge of the back window. looking in through the window area of the drivers side . Top and front of the engine compartment is Lexan …..no hiding anything
I like the irony of the 409 Corvair. The cheapest economy car available in the era paired with the most powerful high performance engine in the family. Very cool.
Naider wrote his book because his buddy got killed in one driving way over his head from what reports on it said. Trying to make it do sports car things that it wasn't designed to do. My Ex Brother in law had one when he and my sister got married in 1970 and they were going to school at Washington State University in Pullman Wa and I remember her saying that the best thing about it was that they left it sit covered with snow in the apartment parking lot and never worried about it freezing up. They drove it to Georgia after they graduated and he got a commission in the Army and traded it for a Pontiac Ventura.
Unsafe at any speed, I actually had to chuckle when I saw this photo. This has got to be my favorite early Corvair.
of course, the best solution would have been to put the engine behind the front seat. another "dumb" one i've seen was the vw beetle with the old odd-fire cast iron buick V-6 hanging out the back, or the porsche with a 455 olds. (peterson's engine swaps #2).
Kind of related. "Hey mister, do you know your trunk lid is open". Why yes, yes I do! From Here: https://flatsixes.com/cars/porsche-...he-powered-studebaker-you-never-knew-existed/
Used to have a friend that owned a '62 turbo 'vert in the late '60s. Very fast for what it was. But it had the disconcerting habit of getting too light in the front once he hit around 90 mph. After the second time he spun it off the road (by a miracle with no damage either time) he said it had to go...
I don't remember their screen name but someone one the board here posted photos of their 409 powered Corvair a few years back.
The Jalopy Journal
