[Leica] Re: Corvair

[rhc3vt at hotmail.com (Richard Coutant)]

I put a full John Fitch Sprint suspension and steering kit on my '63, which 
transformed the car completely, but as I remember it also required larger 
rear tires and very careful attention to the tire pressures, to make the 
thing handle.  As modified it was a real pleasure to drive.  The short 
steering arms made it possible to keep up with the oversteer without winding 
your elbows together, but I do remember a few 360's on wet roads in my 
reckless college days.  I still have copies of some old correspondence with 
John Fitch, who as far as I know is still alive and one of the last of the
Americans who raced in Europe in the '50s.
And I am completely in agreement with Marc about Nader.
Somewhere I must have a few photos of the Corvair, probably taken with a 
Yashica rangefinder camera I had then.  It (the Corvair, not the camera) was 
totalled in a headon collision with a lost tourist on a one-lane dirt road 
while I was racing a friend of mine in a SAAB.  Ah, the days of immortality!

Richard


>From: Photo Phreak <leicam4pro@yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
>To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
>Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Corvair
>Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:21:44 -0700 (PDT)
>
>All it took to fix the problem was an EMPI camber compensator, a set of 
>Koni shocks and Pirelli Cinturato tires.  I know 'cause I did it.
>
>   And GM finally did put the camber compensator on for the '64 model year.
>
>   But without them the car could be dangerous.  Not very many americans 
>really know how to drive a car like this.
>
>Marc James Small <marcsmall@comcast.net> wrote:
>   At 05:21 PM 3/28/2007, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:
> >
> >On Mar 28, 2007, at 4:06 PM, Jim wrote:
> >
> >>> Love those first generation Corvairs! Air cooled, rear engine, but
> >>> large
> >>> enough for the yankee posterior.
> >
> >Ah yes - but "unsafe at any speed."
> >
> >I remember it well.
>
>That is BS and you know it better, probably, than
>do I. Rear-engined cars handle differently in
>tight turns than do front-engined cars. I damned
>near flipped out my 1960 VW in 1970 due to
>"trailing throttle overstreer". Take it to the
>bank, lad,. GM's only problem was in not advising
>its customers of the situation. It is not a
>problem: it is just a situation. That little
>cheap +_)(*&& jerk, Nader, tried to make a case
>against VW and Porsche which was bouced rapidly
>out of Court as these companies HAD advised their
>customers of "trailing throttle oversteer".
>
>Nader was a shit. He has always been a shit. He
>is a shit today. Contact me off-List if you
>really want to know how I feel abut this
>obnoxious bit of detergent chaff. He is, in
>short, a great example of, well, a shit.
>
>Marc
>
>
>msmall@aya.yale.edu
>Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
>
>
>
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