<VV> Corvair Story

[Doug Mackintosh]

When I was 17 (around 1969) I bought my first Corvair with money I earned at my summer job at the local auto repair shop. It was $225, a bright orange-yellow (Ford truck chrome yellow - the color of the orange stripe in the middle of the road) 4-speed coupe with red interior. It was a 1960 1/2 - made from two wrecked cars, a 1960 from the front bumper to the windshield, and a 1961 from there back. The bondo was about 3/4" thick in some places. 
   
  The gas heater was a little out of tune. When I would turn the heater on in the winter it did nothing for a few seconds then BOOM! and a big cloud of black smoke would roll out from under the car. Lots of fun! It also had some water leaks with the result that after a rain storm water would collect on the floor, sometimes an inch deep. On rainy days I would exit our driveway and take the first curve very fast. The water would roll across the floor just like a wave in the ocean and disappear out the heat duct. I never really thought about where it went from there but I suppose it must have exited through the rocker drains. 

  As a high school student without much spending cash, I generally kept it shod in the best used tires I could scrounge. I had a set of old studded snow tires on the rear that I ran year-round. It had chrome reverse wheels on the rear, and it was a real hoot at night when you hit a bump as the tires would contact the fender and throw great showers of sparks out the back.  An alltogether perfect automobile for a teenage boy as you can see. My pals had various hot cars, including hot-rodded 55 Chevy, an SS 396 Chevelle, a 56 Chevy, a '32 Ford roadster hotrod. They could out accelerate me (even though I had painted my engine red and put glasspacks on it) but I made it up in the curves on the back roads. 

  One day I driving to school on a rainy day via interstate 40 near Winston-Salem, going East. Since my tires had reached the second layer of cord, I had decided it was time for some new tires and I had planned to go get some after school that afternoon. Just as I let off the gas to take my exit I hit a puddle. I immediately swapped ends and found myself going backward in the left hand lane. I remember watching in the rearview mirror as I drifted toward the median. I don't remember everything, but I do remember hearing a crash. I then went over the median (this was one of those 2-step medians probably a foot and a half tall) and did another 180 across the two Westbound lanes, ending up facing East at the bottom of the Westbound entrance ramp. Miraculously I had found a gap in the traffic and did not hit anyone during this excursion during morning rush hour. As I came to my senses I observed that the car was still running, so I figured I would just drive up the entrance ramp
 and get out of there before any pesky cops noticed me. I put it in gear, let out the clutch and moved about 1 foot before the left front wheel fell off (ball joint broke). One of my buddies drove a wrecker and somehow found me before anyone else and towed me away without my having to deal with any authorities.

  I fixed the broken parts but it never drove quite right after that!


-- Doug Mackintosh
  Corsa member since 1996
  Corsa/NC member since 1996,  Virtual Vairs member
  Corvair owner 1969-1971 and 1996-on
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