<VV> Corvair Fuel Mileage

[Ramon Rodriguez III]

Harry,

     Others with more knowledge will surely chime in but in my experience
20-22 highway is about what you will likely actually see.  I'm not sure I
ever checked with a lot of local running, but my feeling is that the Corvair
doesn't suffer drastically reduced mileage under those conditions.

     I wouldn't expect much difference between early and late, but there is
a lot of difference in fuel economy between engines in the form of what
grade you can run!  The highest output engine I've found likes to drink
regular is the early model 102hp engine.  If it is a late try to find a 95hp
because the 110 will NOT run on regular, I tried like crazy a few years
back... you can retard it till it doesn't ping but your mileage goes WAY
down....

     I don't know if you do most of your own work on your Corvairs, but I've
found that between the lack of depreciation and being able to do all of my
own work driving Corvairs saves me a lot of money =).  I used to drive
~5,000 used cars for the most part, the mechanics bills just kept coming and
coming.  Now I have ONLY Corvairs and I'm the mechanic =).  Also I've never
taken a big loss when I sold any of my Vairs, and sometimes I made a profit.
(not counting hours of labor of course!).  I bought my first Vair' for $900
in 2001 as a daily driver.  I put almost 50k miles on it in a year and a
half then sold it for $500 more than I paid.  The only things I had done
were cheap wheels, tires, and a harmonic balancer.  I was sold.  Fortunately
I don't put on anywhere near that kind of mileage these days and I spread it
across a couple cars.  My third Vair' I drove for one year and made a $1,200
profit on and that was after deducting the tires and parts I bought for it.
 I bought it not running and had it purring in a couple hours.... clogged
fuel pickup and dirty tank.

Ray "Grymm" Rodriguez III
Lake Ariel, PA
now up to FOUR Corvairs, and the new one is a turbo!!!



On Fri, Apr 15, 2011 at 9:10 PM, Harry Smith <harrysmith1957 at gmail.com>wrote:

> I need to replace my daily driver as it is killing me with fuel prices. I
> was thinking about picking up a cheap economy car but figure I should stick
> with Corvairs. What kind of mileage can one expect from a Corvair? My
> Rampside is not going to be driveable anytime soon and I am not sure I want
> to use it daily. Since I live in South Florida a convertible would be
> appropriate. Since I have a bad left knee a clutch is not a good idea in
> traffic so an automatic would be good. A convertible automatic, early or
> late? Which has better mileage?
> Harry Smith
> 1963 Rampside
> Coral Springs, FL
>
>
> "THERE IS NO TRY,
> THERE IS ONLY DO
> OR DO NOT"
>  _______________________________________________
> This message was sent by the VirtualVairs mailing list, all copyrights are
> the property
> of the writer, please attribute properly. For help, mailto:
> vv-help at corvair.org
> This list sponsored by the Corvair Society of America,
> http://www.corvair.org/
> Post messages to: VirtualVairs at corvair.org
> Change your options:
> http://www.vv.corvair.org/mailman/options/virtualvairs
>  _______________________________________________
>



-- 
Ray "Grymm" Rodriguez
Lake Ariel, PA