<VV> Astro 1 Engine

[Bill Chellis]

Pete:

For us newbies:

Do you (or anyone else) know what happened to that Corvair OHC engine? 

> Message: 6
> Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 18:53:45 -0400
> From: "peter koehler" <>
> Subject: <VV> The "Real" Astro I Powertrain
> To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
> Message-ID: <web-3374603 at be1.cluster1.echolabs.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; format="flowed"
> 
> Hate to burst your collective bubble - but the Astro I 
> show car was just that: A show car. The men that worked 
> the Chevrolet Shows and Displays called them 
> "PushMobiles". Meaning you had to push them anywhere you 
> wanted them to go. When we picked up the Astro I from it's 
> warehouse stall in the Detroit Inner City area back in the 
> late '80's it was equipped with a 1964 164 cid powerglide 
> powertrain. It didn't run. It couldn't run. It was never 
> designed to run. The only thing that worked was the 
> steering and the raising roof/seat mechanism. I think the 
> engine and transaxle were brand new. Never used. The 
> "shifter" for the PG was a mocked up lever that was merely 
> glued to a panel in the interior of the show car. No 
> cables. No connection. Never intended to do anything but 
> look like a shifter. While GM did print up fliers that 
> touted the new overhead engine with all the bells and 
> whistles the show car got a plain old 110 and a 'glide. 
> Another interesting facet of the Astro I: the chassis 
> started out life as a Porsche 356. The Astro I iteration 
> was the 3rd use of that platform. This can be drawn from 
> the designation of XP---"C". The first two versions were 
> torn down and the final version is what we see today. - 
> Pete Koehler
> 
> 
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