<VV> Sacrificing a Corvair for a Corvette

[peter koehler]

Well, not exactly... All this talk about what you can and 
can't do with your car parts or your parts car is sort of 
silly. As my buddy Clark Hartzel sez: "As long as there is 
one of 'em in a museum - cut the rest of 'em up!". Of 
course he is also of the school of thought: "Anyone can 
restore a car - it takes a real man to cut one up!"

So now that I have your attention I just wanted to say 
that when the opportunity came for me to buy a low mileage 
one-owner semi-rare 1976 Corvette, I sold off my 1974 
Camaro rather than sacrificing one of my beloved Corvairs 
just to buy the plastic fantastic. I can hear some of you 
now. 1976 Corvettes are _____________(fill in the blank). 
The reason why I was drawn to this particular one was the 
fact that it had only 51k one-owner driven miles on it and 
it was a 4 speed. Seems that back in 1976 folks were not 
buying Corvettes with a manual transmission. The ratio of 
auto to stick was 20 to 1! This car had the "high output" 
L82 V8 engine. Even at that it only had 210 net HP. Not 
much by today's technology. But it is fun to drive. The 
350 has enough torque to get on down the road. Driving the 
car is certainly different than any of my Corvairs. But 
different is good sometimes. Right? - Caveman/Corvette 
Pete