<VV> XP777-3 at RIR

[James P. Rice]

Jay:  Thanks for posting this info from Dean's Garage.  They have some very
interesting material there.  

I have talked to Jim Musser for various length three times.  The first after
the last Detroit CORSA Convention when I stopped by his shop on my way north
to visit my cousins near Lapeer.  He was doing a Chaparral 2E at the time.
Next time was when I helped Mel Francis get his Monza SS replica at the
Detroit home coming.   We took the car to the GMHC and got some pictures of
it out front.   After wards, at a McD's I asked Mel if he would like to show
the car to Musser.  He said "Yes, but I don't know how to reach him."  So I
casually took out Jim's business card from ay wallet, which I got from my
first visit, and said "His shop is just up the road a few miles, why don't I
call him and see if he is in?"  I did, he was, and we had a very nice visit.
Musser was extremely happy with Mel's car.  Last time I talked to Musser was
a couple years ago when I went to Detroit and spent several hours
interviewing him about his experiences at GM and afterwards.  Guess I'm
going to have to get the tapes transcribed to paper one of these days.  

Jim told me several times he had home movies of the car to Riverside, and
that someday he would find them.  Which he has now done and made them
available.   The time would be in the fall of 1962, after the Monza SS
introduction in the summer of '62.   According to Chevrolet=Racing by Paul
Van Valkenburgh, the car had a 3 liter, fuel injectioned  Corvair producing
180 hp in it.  We can assume it had some additional race preparation.  The
Astro 1, which used the third of the three Corvair powered chassis Chevy R&D
built (via Jim Musser) for Mitchell,  was the most sophisticated.  It was
displayed at the NY Autoshow in 1967.   Also on display was the SOHC engine,
which was never fitted to any chassis.  The Astro I, when I saw it at CFF's
Richmond VA museum just before it closed in 1998/99 appeared to have a 110
hp hooked up to a Corvair automatic.  Everything under the clamshell hood
was painted flat black, so it was hard to pick out much in the way of
details.   At 6'2", sitting in it, I could not close the clamshell cover.
But it was a cheap thrill! 

Historically Yours,
		James 

From: Jay Maechtlen <jaysplace at laserpubs.com>
To: "Virtualvairs at corvair.org" <Virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Subject: <VV> Fwd: [Dean?s Garage] XP777 Monza GT Chassis 3 at RIR
Message-ID: <029cf740-4d22-2c0a-8c36-633ba5f87916 at laserpubs.com>
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-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [Dean's Garage] XP777 Monza GT Chassis 3 at RIR
Date: 	Sun, 16 Oct 2016 19:44:05 +0000
From: 	Dean's Garage <info at deansgarage.com>
Reply-To: 	Deans Garage <info at deansgarage.com>
To: 	info at deansgarage.com

Dean's Garage has posted a new item, 'XP777 Monza GT Chassis 3 at RIR'

Very interesting video of GM's secret Monza GT testing at Riverside
International Raceway.

You may view the latest post at
http://www.deansgarage.com/2016/xp777-monza-gt-chassis-3-at-rir/

You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates
are
posted.
Best regards,
Dean's Garage
info at deansgarage.com

-- 
Jay Maechtlen
SoCal
'61 2-dr modified w/fiberglass skin,
transverse 3.8 Buick V6 TH440T4 trans