<VV> close but no cigar!

[Sandra Sheppard]

I was at a  meeting last night and met a gentleman who told me a Corvair related story that I had to pass along.  He started working as a school teacher here in New Brunswick in 1974 and found a wooden crate/box  in the corner of the shop classroom......., guess what was inside? 

This is no joke, he took a peak  and found a brand new untouched 180HP turbo-charged engine. A little asking around revealed that it was supplied to the school from Oshawa's GM plant for the shop students to 'play with' but nobody knew anything about air-cooled horizontally opposed engines so it laid there until he stumbled across it. (I wonder if this was a common GM practice)

In fact the school GAVE it to him but here's the frustrating part, he had no garage at home so left it at the school until a storage area was available . Needless to say  by this point of the conversation he had my full attention, and I was ready to claim the treasure. However, fate, destiny, call it what you will, intervened. In the late 1980s the school burnt and you guessed it, the engine was crushed beneath the buildings steel framework. 

In a puff of smoke  the treasure was gone. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. AAAHHH! 
I think I need a therapist to get over this one!

Graham Sheppard
Sackville, New Brunswick
69 vert