<VV> GM had every reason to discontinue the Corvair

[jvhroberts at aol.com]

 Well, the PG didn't have any safety issues, but clearly more gears would be needed. The Beetle went on here until 1979, but the Porsche 911 air cooled cars continued into the late 90s. But they had one hell of a time with running hot, etc., during the early emissions years. 

 

John Roberts
 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: David O'Neal <dnoneal at bellsouth.net>
To: jvhroberts at aol.com; patiomatt at aol.com; virtualvairs at corvair.org
Sent: Thu, Dec 9, 2010 3:10 pm
Subject: RE: <VV> GM had every reason to discontinue the Corvair


Didn't the safety code basically eliminate the 2-speed PG type trans?  And

the smog laws eliminated air-cooled engines? So the Vair power train was

doomed or needed a major re-design - and GM always wanted the PT designs to

last more than 10 model years.



VW was in the process of replacing the Beetle with the water-cooled FWD

Rabbit (1973?).  The Beetle didn't actually live much longer than the Vair

in this country at least (that is in "car years" I guess).



David O'Neal





-----Original Message-----

From: jvhroberts at aol.com [mailto:jvhroberts at aol.com] 

Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 7:44 PM

To: patiomatt at aol.com; virtualvairs at corvair.org

Subject: Re: <VV> GM had every reason to discontinue the Corvair





If GM wasn't so damn cheap, I see the REAL 1969 Corvair still being 

pushrod, but it would have a very different crankcase, displacement in 

the mid 3 liter range, far better cooling, and probably looking more 

like a 911 engine in a lot of ways. Remember, the 1969 Corvair, or more 

to the point, the 1966 180 turbo, really didn't deviate very far from 

its 1960 80HP roots. And it REALLY needed to! Between too much 

crankcase flex, really stinky cooling, etc., a purpose designed engine 

would have been different in a lot of ways. Alas, in the 60s, GM was 

looking at cutting fraction cent costs in too many places. They went 

cheap on O rings, why would they do something like a better fan, higher 

quality head castings, etc? The corporate culture had gone awry for our 

favorite car to survive.



The tranny may have still used the Sag and Powerglide transmissions, 

but the final drive really needed a larger ring gear and a bit more 

space between the U joint yokes. Again, what they had was a throwback 

to the 1960 design. But hey, maybe a TH350 would've been used!



Actually, the rest of the car was the reverse of a lot of GM designs. 

Most GM cars had great engines looking for a better car, such as the 

GNX, theCosworth Vega, the original ZR1 Corvette, etc. Here, we have a 

great car looking for a better drivetrain!!



John Roberts



-----Original Message-----

From: Matt Nall <patiomatt at aol.com>

To: virtualvairs at corvair.org

Sent: Wed, Dec 8, 2010 6:40 pm

Subject: Re: <VV> GM had every reason to discontinue the Corvair











Well, to give the Corvair a future, it would've needed an entirely new

engine and transaxle, and those are big ticket engineering items.

Furthermore, with emissions controls on the horizon, it was clear air

cooling was going to make this more challenging than its water cooled

stablemates.  JVR





=============================================





AHH... just to dream of the 19-FIFTY  Corvair......  What then would 

the 1969

Corvair have been?





Matt Nall

Charleston, Oregon

http://mysite.ncnetwork.net/reswr0kp/



















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