<VV> Was Corvairette now Vette/Vair Suspension

[kenpepke at juno.com]

Somewhere back in the day I collected a long winded report generated by a court order.  Compliant with this order more than 110 production vehicles manufactured throughout the world were tested for lateral acceleration.  This series of tests designed to determine the 1963 Corvair's capability to turn relative to other contemporary vehicles.

The numbers are from memory; .71G for the Corvair ... .70G for the 1963 Corvette.  These tests were performed with the tires of the day and are not relevant to the numbers either vehicle would generate if tested today.  Interestingly enough the Falcon, which was touted during the trial, to be the 'standard' at which vehicles should be, came in at something less than .5G.  There was only one car that outperformed that 1963 Corvair ... a 1965 Corvair. [.74G?]

Frank Winchell, in the film 'Car on Trial' demonstrated the EM's ability on the skid pad.  They were able to generate that .71G mark and it would have been possible to go higher but they just plain ran out of horsepower!  Years ago I convinced Frank to release that film and there a copies around.  I strongly recommend every Corvair enthusiast see 'Car On Trial' and see it more than once :-)

While similar, the Corvair and Corvette have remarkably different weight bias.  The rear suspensions specifications are quite different varying in such things as instant roll center height, roll axis, and working travel with the Corvair having sufficiently longer travel; enough that it would be expected to well outperform the Corvette on uneven surfaces.    
Ken P

*************************************

RoboMan91324 at aol.com wrote:

Rodney,

The suspensions of the LM Corvairs and the post 1962 (1963 on ...) 
Corvettes are basically the same design.  Perhaps the Corvair's lighter weight and 
lower center of gravity has something to do with it.  Of course, this assumes 
that the 1/10th of a G figure is correct.  No doubt the Corvairs in general 
and especially the LMs are as good or better than most at handling.

Doc
1960 Corvette; 1961 Rampside; 1962 Rampside; 1964 Spyder coupe; 1965 
Greenbrier; 1966 Corsa turbo coupe; 1967 Nova SS; 1968 Camaro ragtop
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a message dated 3/1/2010 10:18:50 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
virtualvairs-request at corvair.org writes:

> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:20:43 -0800
> From: "Rodney Spooner" <rodneyspooner at corvairgarage.com>
> Subject: <VV> Corvairette
> To: "'Chris & Bill Strickland'" <lechevrier at earthlink.net>,
>     <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
> Message-ID: <000e01cab90f$b4ec1820$1ec44860$@com>
> Content-Type: text/plain;   charset="us-ascii"
> 
> Bill Strickland wrote: " Now, if you could just put a C5 'Vette transaxle
> under a '53~55 'Vette body......."
> 
> 
> Didn't I read somewhere that the 1965 "Poor Man's Porsche" out cornered 
> the
> 1965 Corvette by 1/10th of a G? So, in addition to the telecolumns,
> shouldn't they also be throwing 1965 Corvair suspension under their 1965
> Corvettes to make them as good as the Corvair?
> 
> Uh-oh...did I just open a new can of worms?
> 
> Celebrating the Chevrolet Corvair's Golden 50th Anniversary with pride and
> trapezium.
> 
> Vairy truly yours,
> RodneySpooner at CorvairGarage.com
> (951) 313-8774
 

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