<VV> Corvair Intro and Gas Mileage
Jeffrey B. Aronson
jrh at foxislands.net
Sun Feb 8 08:02:58 EST 2009
Sadly for your purposes, the Corvair did not have the best gas mileage
of the Big 3's offerings. That honor at least in the Mobilgas Economy
Run, went to the Falcon. The Valiant and the Lark had more horsepower
and American Motors built the first US compact of that era with its Rambler.
But the Corvair won Motor Trend's Car of the Year for 1960 and one of
the cars that made 27 mpg in the Mobilgas Run then drove off to Pike's
Peak from Minneapolis for the first winter climb of the Pike's Peak Road.
Ed Cole and his Corvair were on the cover of /Time/ as well all the auto
enthusiast magazines. The Corvair had the first IRS in a sedan and the
first successful air cooled engines in a US built car, and was GM's
first unibody car. The dies from the Corvair formed the innards of the
Buick-Oldsmobilie-Pontiac intermediate cars that followed [Buick
Special, Olds F-85, Pontiac Tempest] in 1961. The Monza's success
spawned the entire species of "sporty cars" in the US; it's success put
Ford to work on the Mustang and its competition.
The real problem you will confront with the dealer is that the Corvair
looks so much better than anything else on a Chevy dealer's lot these days.
Jeff Aronson
Vinallhaven, ME 04863
www.landroverwriter.com <http://www.landroverwriter.com>
'66 Land Rover Series II-A [2]
'80 Triumph TR-7 Spider
'66 Corvair Monza Coupe 110/4
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