<VV> Modern Corvair vs. mundane FWDs

[Bill Elliott]

The Mini was a "holy terror" in more than just autocrossing... look at the 
outright rally wins. Though I agree with you that rwd is preferable for 
performance (and I have never mastered the Mini's handling on the track), 
the e-brake is absolutely unnecessary to get the car to rotate.. most 
competition Minis are set up with drop throttle oversteer (so they act like 
a Corvair) and if anything rotate a little too easily (as I discovered with 
mine at Summit Point with slightly unbalanced brake bias).

On slick surfaces (and maybe track for more experienced drivers), the method 
is hold the throttle down and left foot braking... and my Fiesta handles 
similarly to the Mini... though those are the only two FWD cars I'd car to 
take to the track.

On slick surfaces, there actually are advantages of front engine, FWD over 
rear engine, RWD is terms of straight traction. That was one of the primary 
reasons for the rally wins. (Great early 70's Car and Driver test of all the 
combos...interestingly the best on the track in dry conditions... mid 
engine... scored dead last in slick conditions).

And hustling a '66 Toro around is a blast... dramatically superior handling 
to say a '66 Riv which shares the same basic characteristics save for drive 
wheels.

And I agree with you that the ultimate limits are lower.. but that's part of 
the reason it works better for the average driver... they are going slower 
when they start getting loss of traction feedback and the terminal 
understeer is generally easier for the uninitiated to handle.

So I'm glad that FWD is available for the masses... but like you I'll take a 
Corvair over about any of them in the dry or in slick conditions...

Bill

>
> On the flip side, in autocrossing the Mini was the holy terror of its
> class. My brother ran a BMW 2002 and hated seeing one show up. The Mini
> drivers would put the pedal to the metal and simply steer and pull up on
> the handbrake, walking the inner front tire around the edge of the cones.
> This was especially true on a dirt/gravel track, as the year I won the
> club's year-end award in autocrossing for campaigning my '67 Monza 4door
> (required Corvair content) I saw a Mini do just that. It was enjoyable
> seeing my older brother get a shellacking. LOL
>
>