<VV> <Aarrgghh!!> Autoweek ~ "ill-handling Corvair" - Really ?

[Dave Keillor]

Like every Corvair I've driven, mine oversteers at the limit.  Back in the
day when go-fast-in-a-straight-line muscle cars thought they ruled the
roads, I enjoyed putting them in the weeds (literally).  There were a
number of curves when I knew the limits and could put my car on the edge of
a four wheel drift that took a bit of reverse-lock steering to keep it from
going around.  More than one muscle car trying to keep up understeered its
way into the weeds.

Dave Keillor

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:07 AM, Ken Pepke <kenpepke at juno.com> wrote:

>
> OK, first example :-)
>
> Answer to the question … everyone!  Because a Corvair does not oversteer.
>  What it DOES do is understeer LESS than most other stock cars.  Can they
> be spun out?  Yes, but it requires some pretty sloppy driving.  But, so can
> a Falcon be spun out and in the tests back in the day, it produced the
> lowest rate of lateral acceleration of all cars tested.
>
> To quote ole 'Doc Hudson' [the movie, Cars] "You have to turn right to go
> left."  Of course, the racers induce oversteer with the throttle.  No stock
> Corvair ever had the torque to do that.  Honestly now, in the hardest left
> hand turn you have ever made with a Corvair, which way were you turning the
> steering wheel [before you lost it]?  An 'oversteering' vehicle is started
> into a left turn by turning the steering wheel to the left to get the turn
> started, then the wheel will have to be turned to the RIGHT to maintain the
> left hand turn.  The faster one goes the harder to the right the wheel must
> be turned.
>
> Ken P
> Wyandotte, MI
> 65 Monza 110hp 4 speed 2 door
> Worry looks around; Sorry looks back, Faith looks up.
>
> ****************************
>
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