<VV> Doug Roe

[Bruce Schug]

On Dec 12, 2010, at 10:06 AM, James P. Rice wrote:

> Frank:  The late Doug Roe was employed by GM's subsidiary Rochester  
> in the
> early '60's.  He physically worked in Detroit, maybe at the Tech  
> Center.  He
> rallied a EM Corvair in Michigan.  Sometime in the mid-60's he was
> transferred to Phoenix to work at the GM proving ground.  He drove the
> pickup and his wife the Corvair with their 2 or 3 kids cross country.
>
> When Bill Thomas put his drag/roadracing Corvair up for sale, Doug  
> bought it
> and continued development. Warren LeVeque now has the car.  The  
> original EM
> was used by a fellow GMPG employee whose name I do not remember.  It  
> may
> have been entered in one of the Baja races, with a 5 wheel located  
> via a
> jack screw in the center of the car so it could be moved if/when it  
> got high
> centered.  Which it did.   I have a Competition Press/Autoweek which
> mentions this in an event coverage article.  I do not know what  
> happened to
> that car.
>
> So far as I know, Roe retired from GM and continued to live in  
> Phoenix.
> Maybe Bob Helt or somebody from the SW can added to the  
> information.  Roe
> spoke at the Denver Convention in the early 80's, but I do not  
> remember
> anything about what he said.
>
> I am not aware of Roe ever doing anything commercially with either the
> Corvair or the Vega.  If you have some period documentation, I'm  
> sure we all
> would like to know more.
>

*SNIP*


> Message: 1
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Frank F Parker" <fparker at umich.edu>
> To: "virtual vairs" <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
> Sent: Thursday, December 9, 2010 9:54:18 PM
> Subject: Re: <VV> OT: Vegas
>
> Bought a Vega GT new in 1971. Added a turbo to it shortly later. Had  
> trouble
> with cyl walls so sleeved it (still have some spares somewhere) and  
> added a
> Doug Roe cylinder head (famous GM engineer who quit GM, moved to  
> Arizona,
> made parts and wrote good books by HP like his Rochester Carbs book).

*SNIP*


James,

As would be expected, Frank is correct. Doug did sell a highly- 
modified cylinder head for the Vega.  He did extensive welding to  
reshape the combustion chamber into something more like a small block  
Chevy wedge head.  I think it had better flame travel, much like  
milling the step out of a Corvair head produces.  It was pretty  
pricey, but probably worth the investment for those wanting more  
performance out of the Vega engine, without swapping another engine.   
It could be used with or without a turbo. I have information on this  
head, but it's somewhere among the thousands of old magazines I have  
and not readily accessible.

The other modification that resulted in a good increase for the Vega  
engine was simply to mill the head. A magazine article suggested  
milling quite a bit, perhaps .120", I'm not sure.  This was the course  
I took although I didn't mill as much as they suggested.  It gave a  
very nice boost in performance even though it required premium fuel.



Bruce

Bruce W. Schug
CORSA South Carolina
CORSA member since 1980
Performance Corvair Group
Stock Corvair Group
VirtualVairs
FastVairs
'67 Monza, "67AC140"
bwschug at att.net