<VV> Towing - a Life story

[Sethracer at aol.com]

I have towed with Corvairs - though not nearly as much as Smitty - and I  
have towed Corvairs, I have owned trailers, but never towed them with a  
Corvair.
 
The natural progression of towing and life with cars. I started  
autocrossing in 1967. At first I drove to events and ran on the tires I drove in  on. 
Then I noticed that I was getting beaten by guys with stickier tires. So I  
bought stickier tires and noted that they wore out really fast when driven  
on the street. So I bought another set of wheels/tires to race on, and I 
carried  them in the back and changed them at the events. Then I built a faster 
car which  was no longer street legal - to drive. About this time I 
acquired Richard  Finches tow bar - shown in "How to Keep Your Corvair alive." It  
came with the Stinger. I flat towed the Stinger home from Southern 
California  behind my parents-in-law's Chrysler.  So I flat-towed the Stinger to 
events  with another Corvair and the tow bar. But I needed to carry more crap 
with  me than I could fit in the Corvair, so I bought a Chevelle wagon.Then I 
went  Road Racing and even more crap was needed. So I borrowed a trailer to 
carry the  Corvair behind the Chevelle - I even borrowed the coil off the 
Chevelle to  finish a race weekend once.  They I stopped Road Racing and 
limited my  autocrossing to Street Prepared cars, which rolled on the street, and 
went back  to the tow bar. A few years later I bought the Lola, converted 
it to  Corvair power and bought a small trailer - it would fit down the 
driveway. I  towed the Lola with about everything except a Corvair, I towed it 
behind my 86  Corvette, and a couple of Celebrity Wagons. I realized that a 
dedicated tow  vehicle would be needed, so I bought a Tahoe, then I sold the 
Lola. Hmmm. Then I  built another Street Prepared Corvair/Stinger - That was 
the BFG Common Car. It  was flat towed across the country and back with no 
problems. I flat towed  it behind the Tahoe - Which barely knew it was there. 
I sent that car back  east and built a Prepared class late Camaro. Which, 
because of it's vintage  (1994) had to be trailered. (California smog laws.) 
So I bought a nice open car  hauler, and in 2001 bought a Chevy Avalanche 
(1/2 ton) to tow. The car was  trailered to Topeka, KS in 2002 for the 
Nationals. But the trailer was too big  to fit down the driveway, so, to run the 
car, I had to drive over and pick up  the trailer from storage, bring it home 
and load the car, go race (unload/load),  bring it home and unload the car, 
take the trailer back to storage, then come  home. That got old really 
quick. So I sold the open trailer and bought an  enclosed trailer - and I can 
store the race car in the trailer. But it  is way too big for the driveway so 
it is in storage, with the race car inside.  Out-of-site, out-of-mind. That 
Camaro has been in that trailer, in that spot  since 2004. Now I flat tow my 
current Stinger Corvair, usually behind the  Avalanche. It went to Portland 
in 2005, Ventura in 2008 - and I was all ready to  go to Denver this past 
summer. I have also flat-towed that Corvair behind a V6  Camaro and more 
recently, my C6 Corvette. Both of these cars had  the excellent brakes needed. I 
really recommend flat-towing, and I intend  to keep doing it. The only 
change I mad to Richard's tow bar was to modify a  Corvair front bumper to better 
attach to the bar, and add strength to it.  Pictures available if you want. 
 
Seth Emerson 
(Maybe towing to Western Michigan in 2013?)
 
C's the Day! - Corvair, Camaro, Corvette
San Jose,  CA