<VV> Engine Cooling and Other Musings

[Dave Keillor]

Two very interesting perspectives.  As the owner of three "at risk"
Corvairs (1 - AC, 2 -- 140s), and as a person who likes to drive old cars
aggressively and on long road trips, I guess I should have a vague sense of
unease when driving one of the Corvairs.  And I do -- even though I've
never had a breakdown in one of my Corvairs in the thousands of miles I've
been driving them since 1967.  Maybe I do too much reading of posts in VV,
FastVairs, and the various Corvair forums that discuss the numerous ways
Corvairs can fail.

On the other hand, I don't have the same feeling of unease when
road-tripping in the '73 Nova 350.  Maybe it's because the Nova people
don't discuss failure modes nearly as much as the Corvair folks.  Maybe
that's because the SBC Nova is a more reliable vehicle, or maybe it's an
illusion.  Last year we did a 2K trip in the Nova with no issues except for
its crappy 17 mpg gas mileage (but in fairness, I did do quite of bit of
driving at 75-80).  On the other hand, we did a trip of about the same
distance in the AC Corvair convertible.

Bottom line, I do think the Nova is a more reliable car, but the Corvairs
are more fun.

Dave Keillor

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 12:48 PM, <jvhroberts at aol.com> wrote:

>
>  Turbo, Air Vair, and guys like me who think high performance cars
> shouldn't be driven those who drive like old ladies disagree. A LOT!!
>
>
>
> John Roberts
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Weigel <jwvair65 at yahoo.com>
> To: virtualvairs <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
> Sent: Mon, May 21, 2012 12:28 pm
> Subject: Re: <VV> Engine Cooling and Other Musings
>
>
> At the risk of offending everyone - stop worrying about stuff you don't
> need to
> worry about.  A stock Corvair, repaired and maintained per the shop
> manual, and
> not beaten like a horse to the glue factory, is a well designed, reliable
> and
> safe car that can be driven and enjoyed for many, many thousands of miles.
> Now...step away from the keyboard...read your shop mnauals...drive and
> enjoy
> your Corvairs :)
>
> John Weigel (35+ years and 400,000+ miles in Corvairs)
>
>