<VV> Owned a Corvair from new until today.

[Jim]

Since the topic has meandered to general ownership, I thought I'd add
information about mine.  I'm not the original owner of any of them, but I'm
at the 2nd and 3rd degrees on two of them.  However, I am an original member
of CORSA since it was founded in 1969.
 
1969 500:  I'm the 2nd owner, buying it in April, 1972 with 28,000 miles.
It was my first car.  Now it has 51,000+.  It was sold by Reilly
Chevrolet-Cadillac in Steubenville, OH, where I grew up.  I learned to drive
on a '65 500, 110/4 which hooked me for life.  Unfortunately, my father had
an accident with it in 1971 which totaled it [it didn't take much to total a
Corvair then after production stopped].  Fortunately, he wasn't injured.
 
1964 Spyder convertible:  Purchased by me in October, 1974.  Technically,
I'm the third owner, but the second owner didn't do anything with it except
take the engine apart.  It was originally owned by an engineer who worked at
the Tonawanda engine plant.  It still has the parking sticker on the back of
the inside rear-view mirror.
 
1961 Lakewood 700:  I bought it from another local chapter member in June,
1991, who bought it from Clark's.  It was rescued from a salvage yard by Cal
Clark, Sr., who didn't have a chance to work on it.  Originally, it was sold
by Hollingsworth Chevy in Aiken, SC; original owner and other owners are
unknown.
 
I've had a few others over the years which were basket cases ['61 Lakewood
700, '62 Monza wagon]; '68 Monza coupe [children started to arrive so it had
to go for a larger family car]; '65 Corsa coupe, 140/4.  I drove the Corsa
as a 3 season daily driver for 22 years beginning in 1995 when I bought it,
putting 90,000 miles on it.  I had to sell it for parts in 2018 when the
rear suspension body mounting points began to look like Swiss cheese.  I
still miss driving it.
 
Jim Bartasevich
 
It's easier being in each other's presence, or in each other's absence than
in the constant presence of each other's absence. - Gianpiero Petriglieri