<VV> Bad Karma Award

[vairtec at optonline.net]

My '64 500 coupe track car was formerly owned by a guy who was known to, um, screw up otherwise perfectly good Corvairs.  After I bought it, it quickly became considered to have "the curse of [former owner's name]."  Its unmolested factory-original 95-hp engine, which I left in the car to be a "mule" powerplant while I developed the rest of the car, blowed up real good at moderate speeds the first time I drove it.  The replacement engine I installed, borrowed from a friend, promptly dropped a valve seat once in the car.

On and on this sort of thing went, until I finally accomplished the task of replacing or restoring every single facet of the car.  Once the car was thoroughly "mine," the curse appeared to be fully exorcized.

(Of course, the car is slated to run at Pocono on May 12, so I'm now going to knock on wood...)

--Bob