Technical Unsafe At Any Speed....

And still beat em on two wheels!

 

My neighbor has one with a very warmed up 350 in it.... engine in front.... pretty cool car....

LynnW

 

This is the person I was thinking about. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/409-powered-1960-corvair.614530/

 

My brother was killed in one in 1967. Wasn't the car's fault, an old lady in a Caddy did a left turn right into the side of the Corvair. The only injury to his body was a bruise on his temple where the hood of the big car hit.

The car does have a severe defect i design though. My sister-in-law was driving it when the steering wheel pulled out of the column. The factory used a 2-bolt serrated split clamp to attach the column to the steering box. the bolts would loosen and the serrations wear off disconnecting the wheel from the box. That happened to me on my Willys. Solution is replace the defective clamp with a Borgeson joint.

Factory coupling

 

Cool!
Love the MERCRUISER valve covers!

Flame arrestors would be cool...(Looks like no space)?
Probably a hand full to drive?

 

Back in the day I ran Corvair Turbo mufflers on my cars.
(the real mufflers not the “turbo” **** the aftermarket sold) 2 1/2” in and out, and “that rich motorboat” sound.

 

Kind of ironic this showed up again. I have been re engineering some of the rear suspension. I am changing the way the control arms ( camber adjustable ) mounts. This picture shows how it all fits together. Looking at the back of the car, you can see the bare steel brackets mount up directly to the final drive. Because the final drive is so far to the drivers side, you get one short stubby bracket and one very long bracket. I’ve added a couple of pieces to the p***enger side after I took the picture. Turned out solid as a rock.

 

Actually, Nader was right. I had a '61 Monza coupe in the late sixties, and it it did have the tendency he describers. I lost it once in the car and wiped out the right side of the car by hitting a tree on the left side of the road. To the car's credit, I was seriously violating the laws of physics at the time.

 

“Unsafe at any speed” I don’t think so…. Unsafe in the hands of a foolish driver - definitely.
Our Corvair, with modern tires with 10 lbs more pressure in the rear, drives just fine. Even with some spirited driving on our winding roads. It’s a great, reliable, fun car that never fails to get comments and thumbs up whenever we take it out. Probably why we still have it when a half dozen other “fun cars” have long since been sold.

 

Swing axles on the pre 64 corvairs were the issue IE understeer goes to snap oversteer if you let off the gas at the wrong time on a curve. Same as as a swing axle Porshe or VW. Rear weight bias is the problem IE letting off the gas on a curve unloads the rear wheels

 

Or an M151 Jeep.

 

In 1971 when I was in AIT at Fort Gordon a fellow MP rolled one during an exercise. How he and the p***enger weren't hurt I don't know. Supposedly M151's were never supposed to be sold to the public due to stability issues on the highway. There however was a street legal on in town years ago. The guy bought it from a local JC that got it surplus from the Army. The college sold it at auction when they were done with it.

 

Nader totally trashed the very best shivrola ever made by gm.

 

Just sayin' I've had the luxury of driving both types of Corvairs.
Those that were bought new, and maintained on a regular scheduled basis of care.
Those that were bought used and run on the cheap, neglected, and abused.
The first kind driven hard, thrown into a turn at excess speed did a fine job, tracking, handling.
The second would scare the **** out of anyone who tried to change speed while taking a curve.
Bad shocks, mal-adjusted brakes, slick tires, etc and yep they are a hazard.
Too bad Nader turned out to be a worse danger.

 

I was on my way to pickup up Brenda for breakfast one bright Sunday morning driving my mom's 1965 Corvair and I stopped at the 4 way and didn't see anything coming and about half way through the intersection everything went to HELL, a man driving a brand new '68 Caddalic hit me in the p***anger side rear and spun me around, I hit a telephone pole and flipped, fortunatly I was just skinned up and brused, the man in the caddy was from Georgia, was speeding and had been drinking all night.

When the police arrived on the scene he was p***ed out and they determined he was driving in excess of 80 when he hit me in a 35 MPH zone and never touched the brakes, his car was in the ditch more than 200 yards down the road.

Needless to say the impact distroyed the corvair, the only thing salvageable was the factory wooden steering wheel.

My Mom ended up with another Corvair and always enjoyed the car. HRP

 

I bought my first Corvair a few months ago and I love it. This one is a bit of project but it's still an absolute hoot to drive.

It's mind boggling how inexpensive these cars are presently. I don't know if there is a better vehicle to get into the old car hobby on a budget than the Corvair. Reliable, fun, practical, attractive looking.... what more could you want?

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/another-car-i-dont-need-1964-corvair.1341904/

 

The control rod brackets are ready to be installed. See post 38 above . The bracing really tightened up the long piece

 

I remember seeing one in the St Louis area with a V8 in it. For some reason I was thinking he had a Nailhead in it, but I can't remember. I was just a little guy, around 6 or 7 at the the time. Maybe @D.Conrad will remember and correct my memory.

 

So, I called my dad to ask him if he remembered it. He said he didn't really remember it, but said he believed it was built by a friend's husband who had p***ed away several years ago.

I called and talked to her. YES...it was a Corvair, Yes, it was a Nailhead, but instead of putting it in the engine compartment, he had put it where the back seat used to live, and it had a blower and dual quads.

Sorry for the "not quite on topic" diversion, but seeing a W motor in a corvair caused stirred up a memory that I apparently felt the need to share.