Any Corvair Fans Here?

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dibbons

dibbons

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I remember Andy, a kid in High School, circa 1972, had one. I see "air" was incorporated into the air-cooled Corvair name:

 
Cool cars. I cut my teeth driving a 64 4 speed Corvair.
 
Girl I went out with wayyyyy back had a new '68 Monza Spyder 4 speed, don't remember if it had 2 or 4 carbs. Thing was cool to drive. Don't know what Ralph was so hot about. I never pushed it on an open highway, but around town thing would move along. The little redhead that owned it was pretty nice also. This summer at a cruise night there was a Corvair with a 350 small block in it.
 
My mom had a 64 4 door. Shifter on the dash and no PARK.
My friend Andy had a Turbo Spyder convertible with a 4 speed. It mighta been a Yenko since Canonsburg is only 10 miles away.
 
My older brother gave me a 64 Corvair Spyder when I was 15. It was a great looking car, but was the biggest piece of junk I've ever had. I tried to drive it to school 6 times.....and ain't made it there yet! LOL. I sold it, and bought a 70 Duster and haven't looked back.
 
Ever seen a Corvair station wagon?

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The pre65 swing-axle models were pretty spooky. The later models with the 4 joint IRS were a real hoot. Handled like go karts. That 140hp in that light weight hot rod was a lot of fun.
 
Unconventional said:
The pre65 swing-axle models were pretty spooky. The later models with the 4 joint IRS were a real hoot. Handled like go karts. That 140hp in that light weight hot rod was a lot of fun.
Click to expand...
The post ‘65 Corvairs were decent enough, but Chevy got their *** kicked by the Mustang and had to quickly regroup on the Nova platform to keep up. The Mopar A body platform was already keeping up with the Mustang and Chevy fell quickly behind and had a lot of lost ground to make up.
 
I have a '65 Monza convertible with a 4-speed. It's a fun car, but one's enough for me. :)

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Not really a fan but I have a few of them
 
Yes... and NO !
This one was damn near deadly.
Walked away from that crash with only a bruised elbow from hitting it on the spinning water pump pulley bolts.

"unsafe at any speed" ?
Way too unsafe with a Crown Engineering small block motor transplant.

2 years to build, one second to destroy.

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Yep a friend of mine accomplished that build. Kind of odd having the engine pulling air past you.
 
This one is always fun to watch.
It's from the vantage of a vintage (cough cough) bimmer whose driver is trying to get past Ken's 'vair and make it stick.


You'll have to continue to part 2 to see how its ends.
wink-gif.gif


ps. the corvair has drum brakes on all 4 corner since disks were never a factory option.
Rules is rules!
 
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70 Buster 340 said:
Yes... and NO !
This one was damn near deadly.
Walked away from that crash with only a bruised elbow from hitting it on the spinning water pump pulley bolts.

"unsafe at any speed" ?
Way too unsafe with a Crown Engineering small block motor transplant.

2 years to build, one second to destroy.

View attachment 1715434333
Click to expand...

I had a 66 convertable with the Crown "kit". 327 with twin corvair turbos, 4 speed. Also had the Crown 4 spider diff kit, quick steering arms, the rear camber kit, springs and adj shocks. Even had upgraded brakes. Car would go like a raped ape, even around corners, but kept blowing rears.
 
My much older cousin had one in the early 60's, not sure of the car's year. He wanted to show me how quick it was. We were stopped at an intersection, the light turned green and he basically side stepped the clutch. The car jumped into the intersection and about halfway across it felt like we got hit in the rear, the car shot forward. My cousin said "oh ****". I asked what happened. He just pulled over up the road and said the fan belt broke!

Damn, that cooling fan must have taken a serious amount of HP, when it broke the car felt like a booster rocket kicked in.......
 
340demon72 said:
My much older cousin had one in the early 60's, not sure of the car's year. He wanted to show me how quick it was. We were stopped at an intersection, the light turned green and he basically side stepped the clutch. The car jumped into the intersection and about halfway across it felt like we got hit in the rear, the car shot forward. My cousin said "oh ****". I asked what happened. He just pulled over up the road and said the fan belt broke!

Damn, that cooling fan must have taken a serious amount of HP, when it broke the car felt like a booster rocket kicked in.......
Click to expand...
we lost the belt on a 351C 71 Mustang on a freeway connector, long sweeping turn. We really felt it when it happened, like you said, a kick in the butt. My workmate had a corvair with an LT1 'vette motor behind the seat conversion, made it a mid engine car. Could not keep a rear end in it for some reason.
Dad had a 61 and it leaked exhaust into the cab. Did it have forced air heating across an exhaust like the VW did?
 
My wife's high school car was a Corvair 4-door with an under-dash record player.
She likes to bring it up when people start talking about their cars...I just chuckle and smile.
 
Mattax said:
This one is always fun to watch.
It's from the vantage of a vintage (cough cough) bimmer whose driver is trying to get past Ken's 'vair and make it stick.


You'll have to continue to part 2 to see how its ends. View attachment 1715434566

ps. the corvair has drum brakes on all 4 corner since disks were never a factory option.
Rules is rules!
Click to expand...

Heres another video, inside the Yenko Stinger at Road America. Yenko only made about 100 of these, and something like 78? are still around. Three different stages, mild street car to full blown racer.
 
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