Hello, It was a great time to be able to travel down the coastline in something that had some extra power. The time came for some of our friends to go to the next level of transportation for traveling surfers. We drove almost every weekend of the year for our wandering surf trips, north and south. The limiting factor was speed with what horsepower or lack there of in our loaded up sedan deliveries or old 4 cylinder vans. The ones that had the inclination of more power that cost “more money” were the envy of others in our caravans to various South of the border surf trips. But, as we all eventually got to the long coastal destinations, there were those in the newer Econoline Vans and now the Greenbrier Wagons were there faster than the majority of old, plodding 4 cylinder vans. The best build of a Corvair Greenbrier Window Van seen in recent times… A nice looking blonde surfy type girl/woman was looking at it with determination and asked if I thought it was a good purchase. I said if it runs like it looks, then you are lucky to buy such a nice old van. It was one good looking van. Then, she asked if I was going to buy it. What? Us buying a Corvair van after owning a 1962 Corvair coupe? Ha, that was a good one. The lady’s shadow + “we all like a nice rear end…” The Greenbrier van was very tempting as the price was very good for the condition or restoration done to the stock appearing old Corvair. Besides the main advantage of more horsepower and larger usable space, they arrived earlier than us, if we all left at the same time. So, our new thing was to leave several hours ahead of the pack and arrive, be in the water surfing around the time those more powerful vans started arriving at the more popular spots. Or, we just went to a more desolate surf spot away, “Far From The Maddening Crowd…” Jnaki But, like hot rodding, if money was a deciding factor, then, yes, those newer vans had the advantage. So, we continued to still use our reliable flathead sedan deliveries and old 4 cylinder powered vans at our usual slow motion road trip speeds. YRMV In our case, slow and steady, wins the race. the rewards were there at our Baja surf spots. we just left earlier than the others to get there in the dark to early morning sun rise, to ride the first waves coming in for the morning. We may have been slow, but we were usually the first at the surf spots... YES!
The Jalopy Journal
