"Bill McKee" wrote in message
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"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
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"David R.Birch" wrote in message
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In the summer of '68, I was a pump jockey at Wayne's Standard & U-Haul,
right next to Ernie von Schleidorn's Buick & Pontiac dealership in
Menomonee Falls, Wi.

Our mechanic was Louie, a guy renowned locally as a Corvair whiz. We
usually had 2-3 Corvairs or Corvans parked on the lot, usually with an
oil puddle underneath. Louie knew them inside and out, how to make them
run and how to make them run FAST.

He was always careful driving them into the bays because he didn't know
what he'd find when he had them in the air. The only ones he wouldn't
drive were the convertibles. Too flexible and he didn't trust the
suspension to keep the rubber down and the canvas up. THIS WAS IN THE
STATION LOT WHERE WE NEVER GOT OVER 5 MPH.

Damn.

David

g He's right that the convertible was a flexible flyer. That's what I
had. The passenger bay was inherently weak and the coupe did NOT provide
enough stiffness to overcome it. The convertible was much worse -- it had
reinforcement in the rocker area, but it wasn't enough.

That's one reason I drove the car in only one SCCA drivers' school -- it
was flaky as hell. But your friend overstated the case more than a
little. I had my '63 Fitch Corvair up over 100 mph at Old Bridge and
certainly higher at Lime Rock. It was vague, but no flakier than an
out-of-the-box-stock Porsche Speedster.

It was just a different kind of flakiness. With the Corvair, you would
steer and wait for the car to respond. With the Porsche, you would steer
and wait to see where the car really was going to go. d8-)

--
Ed Huntress


An aside. Friend was driving is about 1955-56 Porsche Spyder in a 25 zone
in Lafayette, Calif. Very early one morning. Got it to slide on it's
side. Told the cop was a suspension failure at 25 mph. Cop could not
prove different. I doubt he ever drove the car at 25 mph for more than 5
milliseconds. Or the time it took to pass through 25 acceleration or
decelerating. Actually did not do that much damage to the car. ;)

Hoho! Did he get the cop to help him pick it up and roll it back over? g
I'll bet that car didn't weigh more than 1300 pounds.

I loved those things. There was an original 550 Spyder in Lansing, Mich.
when I was a student there. It used to show up for autocrosses in the area.
I'd go even when I didn't have a ride of my own, just to watch it run.

I wish Pete Albrecht was still here. He's an early-Porsche expert. He was
taught his racing in Europe by Paul Frere, one of the best Porsche racers of
all time. Pete probably could tell you every quirk and man-killing handling
trait of those early racing Porsches.

--
Ed Huntress