<VV> Corvair at SAE Show

[burkhard at rochester.rr.com]

I'm at the Society of Automotive Engineers annual expo in Detroit at 
the moment...  Corvair content - There is a 64 Spyder convertible set 
up in the exhibition hall right next to a WWI vintage Liberty aircraft 
engine (V-12).  Connection?  The display was promoting a talk that was 
given today on the first half century of turbocharger development.

It was given by Charles A. Amann, a retired boss from General Motors 
Research (google him... he's pretty well known in engine research... 
lots of past work on all kinds of alternate engines... steam, Stirling, 
gas turbine, etc.).  I had read a number of papers from Amann over the 
years, and he always did a great job explaining things.  The talk 
proved very interesting, although most of that "first half century" 
concerned aircraft, so the Corvair didn't come into the talk until the 
very end (along with the Olds F-85).  Amann mentioned that in those 
days, the varied divisions of GM were very secretive about their 
development work and he hypothesized this is why the Corvair turbo 
engine turned out so different from the Oldsmobile:

Olds:  low boost (5psig), high compression ratio (10.25:1), wastegate, 
small AirResearch turbo, liquid (50:50 MeOH & distilled H2O) injection

Corvair: high boost (~10 psig), low compression ratio (7:1), no 
wastegate, large TRW turbo.

One more bit of Corvair content:  I saw Jay Eitel (Mr. Jaguvair ... 
http://www.corvaircorsa.com/V-12-01.html) in the talk, but he scooted 
out before I could say hello and re-introduce myself to him (having met 
him a few years ago).  Eitel was also in attendance at a paper I co-
authored, but I missed him after that as well.  He's fast on his feet!

It was good seeing a Vair on display in the midst of such a load of 
high-tech 21st century stuff. Even nicer though was that everytime I 
passed it, there was a small crowd of people checking it out and 
offering favorable comments.  

Jim Burkhard