<VV> Corvair crash worthiness

[Michael Kovacs]

 Back in '67 I was T boned in the right door by a Chevy wagon while trying to clear an intersection in the pouring rain. My '65 coupe spun through the intersection and I did not know what hit me. My wife was in the passenger seat.
   
   The right door was caved in and the window glass was strewn inside the car. We were not hurt at all, perhaps due to the slippery road, and the fact that we were strapped in. The wagon looked all right. He was rushing his pregant wife to the hospital and jumped the light! He got a quick warning by the NYPD.
   
   I went to the junk yard the next day and simply replaced the right door with no alignment problem. No damage to the front fender or the rear quarter.
   
   
   
   Another incident with the same '65 coupe about 3 years later. I was returning home from an early evening dinner with the same wife. As I turning right into my driveway, a '65-'66 mustang decided to give me a push.His right front fender caught my left rear corner and spun me 90 degrees onto my driveway apron.
   
   The young man driving it managed to stop in the next driveway. As I walked down to see if he was all right, he said "my father is going to kill me....my father is going to kill me".
   
   Seems like he just got the freshly restored Mustang that night and he was on the way to his girlfriends house to study (yes ,his books were in the floor, the radio was turned up and he still had his seat belt on.) I had to call his father who was ready to blow a fuse, but when he got to my house, between the CT state trooper and I, we just suggested the Mustang be sold as punishment as there was no one hurt. 
   
   My Corvair had a wrinkle in the left rear fender. The mustang? ... front fender ripped back, grill damaged, bumper twisted, the right door was jammed. The head light had popped out and went bouncing down the now quiet road.
   
   These unit bodies do take a beating. When they get hit, the impact is shouldered by the whole car.


MIKE KOVACS