Corvairs Aren't for Sissies

[GasDaddy140]

Corvairs aren't for sissies.

[64powerglide]

[GasDaddy140]

Thanks for asking 64PowerGlide, you should know better than anyone throwing that rear engine air cooled death-trap around a bend with dynamically changing, weird suspension angles under your butt, but I guess I should have clarified "vintage" Corvairs Found all stinky and strange as a project car. Sucking your brain dry with air cooled logic, weird fasteners (many) and gore and blackness like hell all over your garage. It takes a person with hardly any tear ducts just to look at the mess. But when Corvairs were new...I guess sissies could buy them.

[64powerglide]

Well I bought a new 62 Monza 102 4 speed & the first thing I did was put 28 lbs. of air in the front tires. I think GM's thinking was way off on the tire pressure thing. That 62 was the best handling car I owned until I bought a 65 Triumph Spitfire & restored it. I also bought a new 65 Corvair 4 door 3 speed car & I couldn't see any difference in the handling of the two. Now I bought a 64 rust bucket that I put new floors in & had to make a rim to bolt the tunnel pan to. A year later I pulled the drive train & put new axle bearings in & had a trans guy check out the powerglide & it was fine except the vent was plugged up & he adjusted the low band then the bearings in the diffy had rust spots from sitting so he replaced those. Yes it was a learning experience but fun. I don't know how anyone can drive these with 15 to 18 lbs of air in the front. With one or two people in the front seats at 160 to 300 lbs or more, that extra weight in front kind of offsets the rear engine weight. When I go into a sharp turn at high speed I don't want the outside tire to collapse & do a nosedive, hit the gas and power through the turn keeping the front up. Ya the older ones can be a pain in the butt sometimes but that's what a car hobby is for, learn and have fun at the same time. There are two kinds of people out there, ones who drive Corvair's & those who wish they had one! At 18 years of age I guess you could say I was a sissy for buying a Corvair but just before turning 69 I bought a used one & you could say I should have known better but reliving my youth has been a ball. Yes i'm still running 28 lbs. of air up front.

[GasDaddy140]

Funny video clips! You are too awesome 64PowerGlide! No sissy bones in you, from Kalamazoo. I'm just grumpy, and happy, and working on the house, and kids, and the cat and a neighbor is bugging me. It wrecks my Corvair zen.

I too am excited to have my 1965 140 Corvair and have learned a lot. The first one I had was a 1967 Monza 110 power-glide that I bought in 1977. Sold it after a year to buy a 1964 Triumph TR-4, fun stuff. Drove that TR-4 from Syracuse NY to California in the winter; things you do in youth...

I drove the piss out of that Corvair too, in the snow, down to Florida and back with my hot girlfriend. I put a set of JC Whitney dual exhaust with glass-packs, sounded like an airplane at high revs. An old-timer told me to run 20psi in front tires, so I did.

So-what a great, big deal it is to resurrect an exotic, now expensive, sporty Corvair. No dancing around the Maypole here.