How To Hot Rod Corvair Engines Bill Fisher Book

[California Racer]

Our copy is on the way.Hopefully!

Appears to be the older or first version of 'Performance Corvairs'.

Older articles about Corvair work for us.Big time!

Notes

The smart set, road racers and hot rodders really jumped on the Corvair when it came out.

The general public not so much so.Wikipedia says it was slow seller compared to Falcon and other compacts.

So GM came out with the Chevy II(later renamed Nova) to meet the compact challenge from Ford and Chrysler Corp. cars.

Bottom line.Interesting car for the 'thinking man' today.

[triumphcorvair]

I know it's been beat to death but from what I've read and actually saw in the 60's (I'm 65), the introduction of the Mustang, Camero and muscle cars in general was literally the handwriting on the wall.

[66vairguy]

I know it's been beat to death but from what I've read and actually saw in the 60's (I'm 65), the introduction of the Mustang, Camero and muscle cars in general was literally the handwriting on the wall.

Yes the Mustang really did the Corvair in. GM sold about 1.8 million Corvairs so it was not a sales "failure", the big problem was that the Falcon costs less to build and was more profitable for FORD than the Corvair was for GM. The Chevy II was the answer to making more profit, but by 62 the 1958 recession was over and the high end Monza turned the Corvair into a money maker as a "sporty car" and GM invested in the second generation 1965 model Corvair. It should be noted that both the Falcon and Chevy II sales declined as the economy improved and muscle cars came about. Once Mustang production reached consumer demand, Corvair sales dried up. Chevy brought out the Camaro to compete with the Mustang. Basically the Falcon killed of the Corvair economy car version and the Mustang killed off Corvair the sporty car.

[California Racer]

This is where the thinking part comes in.

GM put the brakes on development when they saw those slow sales.Quick fis.Bring out the Chevy II.

Car makers are not going to put out 'Dream Cars'.At least for the most part.

We went and looked at two 'Stainless Steel' Cadillac El Dorado's.The 4 door hard top and the coupe('Elvis Presley' car).

Then went home and 'thought about it'.Ouch! Price was right on both of them.Double ouch!

A further developed engine in front of transaxle 8 or 12 cylinder large cubic inch Corvair would be quite a mobile!

That kind of Corvair would have not taken a back seat to any car!

You just have to think small with the Corvair to be practical about it.

It is not Ford 460, Chrysler 440 or Chevrolet 454 kind of car building.

Have to get the weight down like in a tube chassis for it to run decent.

That is our plan.

[66vairguy]

Actually GM was putting money into Corvair development when the the Chevy II was introduced or there would have been NO 1965 model. They wisely put the money into making the Corvair a sporty car vs. an inexpensive economy car. Go look at the numbers and prices of a Monza or Corsa - not cheap cars. When the Mustang became a sales success (instantly upon introduction), that's when development on a third generation Corvair came to a halt. To make matters worse, GM deliberately cancelled the Corsa model for 1967 so it WOULD NOT compete with the new Camaro for sales.

[California Racer]

Thanks.

Innovation and ingenuity is our game.Looking at tube chassis builds.

We are looking at these ideas:

Engine up front and transaxle in the back ala Pontiac Tempest.

Engine up front.Direct drive to conventional rear end flipped over.Simple build.Been told could use 5/1 ring and pinion.

4.88 is a common gear ratio.

Front Drive.Sliding drivetrain up to the front.Land Rover and a couple others used u joints up front in place of CV joints.

We could do that in first version of car.Glenn Pray Cord was Front Drive Corvair but it was lugging around too much weight.

Twin engines mounted ahead of transaxle.Heard one guy ran two Corvairs coupled with one 90 degrees off and it ran okay.

Anyhow.Looking for some excitement with this Corvair.

[triumphcorvair]

You also might want to consider Seth Emerson's book, "Performance Corvairs". It's available on Amazon Prime. There's alot of good, updated relevant information in this book. I have both and I find myself referring to Seth's book quite often.

[California Racer]

Thank you.

Okay.I said this is early version of that book but apparently not.

This one is written by Bill Fisher.You say Performance Corvairs is by another author.

Okay.We will keep an eye out for one of those too.

This one looks real good from the shot of table of contents.

Covers each part of engine in their own chapters probably with lots of tips about it.

Looking forward to getting up to speed on Corvairs.

[California Racer]

'consider Seth Emerson's book, "Performance Corvairs" '

Performance Corvairs is a redo of How To Hot Rod Corvair Engines.

WE WANT the early book and we grabbed one.It should be on the way to us.

How Seth Emerson got his name first on Bill Fisher's book is a mystery.

Guess he was helping out the new writer.

I think Bill Fisher might have had some hot rod parts made for Corvair.

Anyhow like the road racer guy it seems like he was really into Corvairs.

Will report on how good book really is.Table of contents looked good.

[triumphcorvair]

They're both good. I found "Performance Corvairs" provided me with a little more of the details and answers I was looking for.

[California Racer]

Good.Glad it worked out for you.

Hot Rod has a '69 date on it.

That should include articles from early 60's up until then.

That's just our speed.

Looking forward to reading it.

[California Racer]

This book is way worth the money!

Only opened package and looked at cover.

Says years they were made.1960-1969

It lists 3 engines sizes.140 145 164

Lists the models.Monza Corsa Spyder 600 700

Clear thinking City here we come! We like it!