Date:         Fri, 11 Nov 2011 08:20:11 -0800
Reply-To:     Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Loren Busch <starwagen@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Fwd: Corvair-powered Bay on Virginia CL
Comments: To: Frank Lee <techedteacher@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To:  <CAOiGwgW=8vJm1vUPoPhyoNUvfr=S4QYndpqnY9EQTt3Pa+3zwA@mail.gmail.com>
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*Glad it's Friday so I can rant on this one for a minute.
*
On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 7:10 AM, Frank Lee <techedteacher@gmail.com> wrote:

> Very strange.
>

*Not so strange at all.  The Corvair engine was a popular engine conversion
in the Beetles and Buses of the time. And I have a friend I camp with at
least a couple of times a year that has been driving the same Corvan for
30+ years now.  And owns several Corvairs (and one rare Vanagon Mail Van).
He is also in the process of a down to the metal restoration of an '81
Vanagon that will have a hot Corvair engine in it and be one sweet machine
when he is done. *

>
> The Corvair was Chevy's  failed  attempt to offer a US alternative the
> strange and rapidly  multiplying  VW Beetle.
>

*Wrong.  It was GM's answer to the Ford Falcon and the Mopar Valiant/Dart.
There was a market niche for 'compact cars' at the time. The Beetle and
Datsun and Toyota entries were just barely into the North American market
in the early '60's* .

>
> It was so poorly engineered it flipped and killed lots of people, including
> two I knew in high school.
> It gave Ralph Nader his start as a consumer activist, the subject of his
> book "Unsafe At Any Speed"
>

*Only partly right.  According to the memoirs of others working with Nader
at the time his first target was the Beetle.  Why?  Because, according to
the (at the time not avialable  to the public) Insurance Institute
statistics the Beetle had the highest single car accident rate and highest
single car fatality rate of any car on the road in the US at the time.  It
had the same swing axle setup as the Covair.  Both were subject to digging
in a rim IF the owner/driver ran with under inflated rear tires.  And many
drivers of both the Beetle and Corvair thought they were driving a sports
car but didn't know how to handle a rear engine car. But Nader chose to go
after GM because they were easier to sue in the US and bigger and it was
better PR for Nader, made better headlines. *

>
>