<VV> Ludvigsen article

[Bill Elliott]

I think the work done by Tatra and VW put the "ideal" rear weight bias 
over 50%... but I think it was 55% or so... neither Tatra nor VW ever 
achieved that with their rear engine cars (that I'm aware of anyway). I 
think they were all close to 60/40.... similar to the Corvair....

Bill

Kent Sullivan wrote:

>I stopped by a newsstand and read the article. Karl claim that the Corvair
>(EM sedan at least) has 60+% of its weight over the rear axle. I knew it
>didn't hit the ideal but did not think it was this high. Can anyone confirm
>/ deny?
>
>Some of the early work done by Tatra and VW established the ideal max weight
>% over the rear axle... It's around 50% but I can't remember the exact
>figure.
>
>Thanks.
>-----Original Message-----
>From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
>[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Spencer Shepard
>Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 8:38 AM
>To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
>Subject: <VV> Ludvigsen article
>
>My appologies to anyone who tried to reply to me about my post about the
>Ludvigsen article. My email mysteriously started giving the wrong return
>address when someone replied to one of my emails. I was on a chat with an
>Earthlink rep (thanks Steve K) for 2 and a half hours last night to get that
>fixed. Someone snail mailed me and asked that I scan and post the article.
>That may be a tad illegal, but I'm sure Hemmings or Carl won't mind and I'll
>try to do it.
>
>The jist of the thing is that Karl Ludvigsen is a very well respected
>Journalist and was in a position to test the first Corvairs in 1959. He must
>have an Engineering background and is obvliously well schooled in the
>Mechanics of vehicle handling and chassis dynamics. At that time we wrote an
>article that criticaized the Corvairs he tested as being very prone to
>oversteer and at least hinted that were weren't safe for the American public
>that wasn't very well versed in car contol. His was probably one of the only
>articles that wasn't complimentary at the time. The Hemmings article talk's
>about Karl's encounter with Zora Duntov at the '60 Sebring race where Zora
>aproached him about the negative tone of his article.
>
>The article states that GM realized the situation and had plans or at least
>the ability to install a front roll bar and rear leaf sping as early as the
>first models but the bean counters prevailed so that the car could be
>advertised at $1999. The implication is that finances prevailed over safety,
>no surprise there! It also states that GM purposely put a very slow steering
>ratio on the first Corvairs to avoid having drivers over-correct for the
>oversteer and crash as a result.
>
>It talks about the Nader investigations and how GM dedicated lots of money
>and facilities to fighting it. Karl was associated with GM at that time and
>was worried that someone would realize that he had criticized the handling
>in that '59 article. Somehow that never happened. He says that one of the
>good things that came from the investigation was the giagantic skid pad that
>was built and was very helpful in the developement of race cars like the
>Chaparal and future production cars. He mentions that fact that the handling
>problems were finally solved was part of the "tradgedy".
>
>Spence Shepard
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