<VV> Fisher Body input WAS GM Wankles

[postmaster]

The 1975 cars are pretty different from 1976+ cars... and the differences 
are attributed to the aborted rotary as they were not necessary for the V8. 
Much more extensive than the hood inner (which I don't think changed at all) 
and had more to do with the cradle, firewall, and trans hump.

The rotary (had it reached full production in the last known iteration) 
would have had more peak hp than any V8 they ever installed...

If the Monza was "designed" for the V8, I hope they fired the engineer that 
decided that having the ability to change 6 of the 8 plugs was sufficient. 
;-)
Bill

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <kenpepke at juno.com>
To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2010 07:33
Subject: Re: <VV> Fisher Body input WAS GM Wankles


>
> Fisher Body produced almost all the car bodies for GM and. like the 
> Corvair, the Vega was no exception.  The Mazda rotary engine was the talk 
> of all the engineering departments as had been the Corvair flat six.  The 
> Corvair engine was a WOW but there were big questions with the rotary as 
> it had failed to meet GM testing standards miserably in all categories so 
> the prospects did not look good.  GM has never been known for sitting 
> around waiting for answers so FB Body Engineering designed and released 
> parts specific for rotary engine application and FB Processing sent tool 
> design orders to FB Die Design ... but, most, if not all, were 'Design but 
> do not build' status.  There were not many parts and the differences, with 
> the exception of the hood inner, were minor.  Body testing was done using 
> parts built with 'soft tooling' in those days so it is not likely any 
> actual rotary engine body parts were ever released into production.  The 
> 'Monza' cars were design specific to allow th
> e use of a small V8 so the rotary engine would have fit in the engine 
> compartment like a pea fits in a box car :-)
> Ken P
>
> ******************************
> "Bill Elliott" <corvair at fnader.com> wrote:
>
> If you look at the engine compartment on the first H-bodies (Monzas,
> Starfires, etc )you can clearly see that they were designed for the 
> rotary.
>
> I understand the primary issues were the poor fuel economy (just after the
> first major fuel crisis) and the new 1975 emissions (which required most
> cars to fit cats)... between the two issues they apparently pulled the 
> plug
> at the very last second...
>
> Bill
>
>