Updated 29-Oct-2007 =--= Copyright (c) 2007 Corvairs of New Mexico EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 7 November 2007 at 7:00 PM Highland Senior Center at 131 Monroe NE THIS MONTH: Dues Due ...................................... Membership Committee October Meeting Minutes ....................... Chuck Vertrees October Board Meeting ......................... Chuck Vertrees Stick to Vairs ................................ President Mike Stickler State Fair Car Show ........................... Vice-President Pat Hall Los Lunas Swap Meet ........................... Pat Hall October Route 66 Cleanup ...................... Oliver Scheflow Calendar of Coming Events ..................... CNM Board of Directors Christmas Donations to Barrett House .......... Emma Rogers & Lee Reider Effective Green Behavior - or the Latest Fad? . Jim Pittman For Sale, Wanted or For Trade ................. Members and Friends Report of the Car Council Meeting ............. Art Gold To The Balloon Fiesta Darkly .................. Robert Gold A Tale of Two 1936 Fords ...................... Walter Huntoon State Fair Car Show ........................... Robert Gold Letters to the Editor ......................... Ultravan Rally Report Seven, 14, 21, 28 Years Ago ................... Club Historian Treasury Graph ................................ Wendell Walker 2008 CNM Calendars ............................ Brenda Stickler Birthdays and Anniversaries ................... Sunshine Committee Factoids ...................................... from our readers 2008 CNM Calendar Order Blank ................. Sylvia Trujillo COVER: A Line of "Old Cars" Going to the Balloon Fiesta. Photo: Robert Gold =[CNM]= PRESIDENT: Mike Stickler 856-6993 sticorsa @ hotmail.com VICE-PRES: Pat Hall 865-5574 patandvickie @ peoplepc.com SECRETARY: Charles Vertrees 299-0744 vertrees @ swcp.com TREASURER: Wendell Walker 892-8471 defarge505 @ aol.com PROPERTIES: Ruth Boydston 821-1506 sg730 @ comcast.net CAR COUNCIL: Art Gold 620-7434 rollerart @ gmail.com MEMBERSHIP: David Huntoon 281-9616 corvair66 @ aol.com NEWSLETTER: Jim Pittman 275-2195 jimp @ unm.edu DUES: CNM: 12 months $15.00 or 26 months $ 30.00 CORSA: 12 months $38.00 or 26 months $ 76.00 BOTH: 12 months $53.00 or 26 months $106.00 CORSA's home page: http://www.corvair.org CNM's newsletters: http://www.unm.edu/~jimp CNM's home page: http://www.corvair.org/chapters/chapter871 =[CNM]= MEMBER LIST & DUES DATE = 27-Oct-2007 2007/10 Debra & Jon Anderson Since_1992.10 2007/11 Marilyn & Richard Foster Since_1999.07 2007/11 Kathy & Doug Gadomski Since_1999.11 2007/11 Kim & Del Patten Since_1980.07 2007/12 Kelly & Art Gold Since_2006.12 2007/12 Susanne & Larry Hickerson Since_2002.08 2007/12 Mark L Morgan Since_1974.04 2007/12 Roger Pape Since_2002.12 2007/12 Wendell Walker Since_1989.01 2008/01 Sharon & Jack Bryan Since_1982.02 2008/01 H. C. "Lube" Lubert Since_1987.10 2008/01 Dan Palmer Since_2006.01 2008/01 Emma & LeRoy Rogers Since_1975.07 2008/01 Anne & John Wiker Since_2001.01 2008/02 Cary Hubbard Since_2006.02 2008/02 Carl Johnson Since_1974.04 2008/02 Vladimir Pavicevic Since_2005.12 2008/02 Heula & Jim Pittman Since_1974.04 2008/02 Frank Stadler Since_1990.02 2008/02 Brenda & Mike Stickler Since_1976.07 2008/03 Geoffrey Johnson Since_2002.03 2008/03 Tracey & John McMahan Since_1983.12 2008/04 Deborah & John Dinsdale Since_2000.02 2008/04 Florence & Bill Hector Since_2006.04 2008/04 Joel Nash Since_1974.12 2008/06 Ruth Boydston Since_1974.04 2008/06 Mary Alice & Oliver Scheflow Since_1992.05 2008/07 Sylvia & Jerry Goffe Since_1977.05 2008/07 Anne Mae & Robert Gold Since_1982.08 2008/07 Brenda & Hurley Wilvert Since_1992.10 2008/08 Barbara & Gordon Johnson Since_2001.06 2008/08 Sylvia & Ray Trujillo Since_2003.08 2008/08 Opal & Sylvan Zuercher Since_1974.12 2008/09 Kay & Tarmo Sutt Since_1976.07 2008/10 Guadalupe Arellanes Since_2006.10 2008/10 Mary & Art Hurley Since_2007.10 2008/11 Linda & Dick Cochran Since_2006.09 2008/11 Wibke & Robert Garrecht Since_2005.09 2008/11 Leslie & Kevin Sullivan Since_2002.07 2008/11 Nancy & Bernard Urbassik Since_2004.08 2008/12 Elizabeth & Mark Domzalski Since_1994.01 2008/12 Gayle & Richard Finch Since_2000.06 2008/12 Vickie & Pat Hall Since_2005.10 2008/12 David Huntoon Since_1994.11 2008/12 Walter Huntoon Since_1992.11 2008/12 Steve Johnson Since_2001.08 2009/01 Rita & Steve Gongora Since_1974.12 2009/02 Lee & Bill Reider Since_1974.09 2009/03 Robert McBreen Since_1989.11 2009/08 Bob Philips Since_2007.06 2009/10 Mary Lou & Mark Martinek Since_1990.08 2009/12 Kathy & Larry Blair Since_1985.11 2009/12 Diane & Robert Galli Since_2007.10 2010/02 Julia & Chuck Vertrees Since_1983.05 INACTIVE: 2006/02 Fred & Brenda Edeskuty Since_1982.12 2006/06 Robert Moore Since_2005.06 2006/09 Lydia & Lee Olsen Since_1999.09 2006/09 Dwight Simmons Since_2003.07 2006/09 Sally Williams Since_2003.09 2006/11 Shirley & Joe Ashton Since_1989.03 2007/02 Clay Keen Since_2006.02 2007/03 Clint Collins Since_2006.03 2007/04 Sandra & Jerry Chapman Since_2006.04 2007/05 Mike Hacker Since_2002.03 2007/06 Terry Price Since_1992.01 If your membership is due or has expired, please send your Dues to: Wendell Walker, CNM Treasurer, 301 Utah Meadow, Rio Rancho, NM 87124 Past due memberships will become inactive after a one-month grace period. The Club will mail in your National Dues when you renew, provided that you send us the renewal form from your CORSA Communique! PHOTOS: Above, John Wiker's award-winning late coupe shows its stuff at Balloon Fiesta. ON THE COVER, Robert Gold snaps a photo of the line of "old cars" headed into the Balloon Fiesta infield on October 7th. Enchanted Corvairs Newsletter is published monthly by Corvairs of New Mexico, a chartered chapter of CORSA, the Corvair Society of America. Contents are copyrighted by the Authors and by Corvairs of New Mexico. Articles may be reprinted in any CORSA publication as a service to CORSA members provided credit to the Author and this Newsletter are clearly stated. All opinions are those of the Author or the Editor and do not necessarily reflect endorsement by Corvairs of New Mexico or by CORSA. Material submitted for publication should reach the Editor by the 15th of each month. If possible, submit material as ASCII TEXT via e-mail to ( jimp @ unm.edu ) or in ASCII TEXT format on computer disk, or submit a readable manuscript. I don't like MS Word documents or RTF files, but no problem, I can read them. Send whatever you have, I'll read it! Good quality photographs, especially digital JPGs, are welcome. Do not photoshop them -- send the originals. This newsletter is produced in a Microsoft-free environment. Hardware includes a 1989 Apple IIgs, a 2003 Macintosh G4 PowerBook and a 2003 iMac. Software includes GS/OS, Addressed For Success, ShadowWrite, Platinum Paint, Pointless, Harmonie, OS-X, Bernie To The Rescue, AppleWorks, Photoshop CS, GraphicConverter, BBEdit and InDesign CS. Printing: HP LaserJet IIp, Apple LaserWriter 630 and HP LaserJet 2600n. Ask for more technical details. Transportation provided by 1965 Corvair Monza, 1990 Honda Civic, 1996 Mazda Miata and 2003 Honda Civic. And when I'm 64, I'll get by with a little help from my friends. =[CNM]= OCTOBER MEETING MINUTES Secretary Chuck Vertrees The meeting was called to order at 19:03 at Highland Senior Center on 10/3/07. Vice-president John Wiker conducted the meeting as President Ray Trujillo was on a Hawaiian cruise. There were 30 in attendance. Member Walter Huntoon, father of David Huntoon, was here visiting from Illinois. The minutes of the September meeting were approved as printed in the newsletter. Treasurer Wendell Walker reported that CNM had $313.11 in the checking account and $2,619.56 in the GMAC account for a total worth of $2,932.67. Sylvan Zuercher introduced new member Art Hurley. Art said that he had a 1967 Monza as a kid and wants to get re-acquainted with Corvairs. He is also a member of the Mo-Par Club. It would be interesting to find out how many of the CNM members are also members of different marks clubs. I know of several off hand. Art Gold reported that the Car Council held their meeting. The picnic went well and some money was made which is nice rather than running in the hole. There are lots of car shows coming up. (Your Secretary has a list of them for anyone who is interested.) The Car Council is also looking for someone to take care of their web site. Heula Pittman reported that Lee Reider and Emma Rogers are working on the preparations for the Christmas dinner. This year, as last year, our charity will be the Barrett House. The initial expectation is that they need new books or gently used books for kids who are leaving, and all kinds of books for the library. There will be a more detailed report as we get closer to Christmas. Brenda Stickler and Sylvia Trujillo are working on the club's 2008 Corvair calendar project and will have a final report shortly. October is the annual election of officers. Sylvan Zuercher presented the slate and there were no nominations from the floor. The slate was, Mike Stickler for President, Pat Hall for Vice-president, Wendell Walker for Treasurer and Chuck Vertrees for Secretary. Since there were no nominations from the floor, it was moved to close nominations and the proposed slate was elected by acclamation. Congratulations to our two new officers! Sylvan asked that the outgoing officers be thanked for the job they had done in the past year. There were many activities scheduled for October that were mentioned at the meeting. Upcoming events are the Saturday November 10th Potluck and Auction at House of Covers. This will start at 17:30. If you have not been to one of these, you don't know what you are missing. The auction can get pretty wild and there are some surprising buys. Ask Robert Gold about "eyes" for an auction story! Bring all kinds of things that you would like to get rid of. The profits go to the club. Sunday December 2nd will be our annual Christmas Dinner and Party at the Kirtland AFB Officers' Club at 11:30. Reports on the State Fair Car Show told that there were 11 Corvairs present, three of which were late models. The New Mexico Car Council Swap Meet went very well. There were three or four CNM members working parking and they reported that all of the spaces were sold, so the Car Council is very happy. Wendell Walker announced that CNM had come up with $780.00 to send to Dennis Pleau and sons Michael and Steven to help them in their transition to their new home without Debbie. Wendy is also looking for a rear seat bottom for a 1962 to 1964 convertible. Larry Blair reminded everyone that November 11th is Veterans' Day and that there will be a ceremony at the Veterans' Center on Louisiana SE starting at 13:00. Some of us more mature people also think of that day as Armistice Day, so it does double duty. The meeting was adjourned at 19:51. -- Chuck =[CNM]= OCTOBER BOARD MEETING Chuck Vertrees Board Meeting, October 17th at 17:00 was held at Business Printing Services. Present were Brenda & Mike Stickler, Vickie & Pat Hall, Wendell Walker, Jim & Heula Pittman, Ray Trujillo, Robert Gold, and Chuck & Julia Vertrees. Wendell reported that CNM had $350.11 in the checking account and $2,632.11 in the GMAC account for a total of $2,982.22. Wendell reported that we almost broke even this year, as compared to last year when we lost money. Someone said it would be interesting to see a graph of the up-and-down progress of our treasury. See page 16. Heula reported that Lee Reider and Emma Rogers are organizing our Christmas Dinner present collection for Barrett house. An earlier report on the items needed was somewhat misleading. There will be an article elsewhere in this newsletter covering what we need to collect for them. Robert gave a Car Council report. The Swap Meet was the last official activity for the Car Council for this year. It went very well and some money was made for the Car Council. There were five CNM members assisting with the parking and a couple more there as standbys. Robert also said that he got some response on his article in CORSA Communique about the installation of hand controls in Art Gold's Corvair. He also was contacted by a CORSA member who was interested in installing a Corvair engine in a VW bus, similar to Robert's. Jim said that he and Heula will need to finish up the next newsletter early in November and he will arrange with Bill Reider to get the Newsletter printed and mailed. The newsletter deadline will be Friday, November 9 at 9:00 PM. A copy of the club's 2008 Calendar was passed around. We congratulated Brenda and Sylvia on a very attractive design and it was approved by the board. Members can pick up their copies at a meeting. The minimum order to be mailed out will be for 3 calendars and they will be rolled in a tube for mailing. Brenda will contact CORSA about placing an ad in the Communique, possibly with a small picture of the calendar. A preview of the calendar and an order blank can be found on page 17 of this newsletter and should soon be available on Jim's web site. Upcoming events are the auction and potluck at "House of Covers" at 17:30 on November 10th and the December 2nd Christmas party at the Kirtland AFB Officers' Club at 11:30. Remember to bring your donations for the Barrett House. Other activities for consideration: LeRoy Rogers contacted Pat about doing a garage tour in February at Moriarty on the first Sunday afternoon of the month. We suggested a progressive dinner, a tour of Pat's place in Los Lunas, an Anniversary dinner in March, and a rally or econo-run in April. The Tri-State will be held in Pagosa Springs, Colorado in May. There was discussion of the popular "Photo Rally" that we put on for the CORSA convention and Chuck said it required a lot of planning and many miles of driving to set up, not to mention making contingency plans for possible last-minute road closings. We discussed having the March Anniversary Dinner at a different place than in recent years. A popular suggestion was the County Line near the Tram in the far northeast. We discussed our TUNA sessions at some length. We thought there were two different motivations for going to a TUNA session: to learn how to do certain kinds of work on one's car, or to have a particular item of work done on one's car. In the first case, members would be sharing knowledge and techniques and learning skills, while in the second, skills of club members would be utilized to "fix" something that the owner either couldn't do or didn't want to do. We agreed that in the second case, it would be fair for the owner of the car to be worked on to donate a sum to the club treasury to get the work done in lieu of taking it to a dealer or garage. This was discussed and seemed to be a pretty good idea. We thought we could have a TUNA as often as once a month. Obviously there would need to be planning in advance for either a "training" or a "fix it" type of TUNA. The State Fair Car Show was discussed and also the Balloon Fiesta Car Show. There were five CNM members at the Balloon Fiesta car show, three with Corvairs, the Golds with their Corvair powered VW bus and Cary with a Citroen. The board meeting was adjourned at 18:10. Remember that all CNM members are welcome to attend board meetings. -- Chuck =[CNM]= STICK TO VAIRS President Mike Stickler I want to send a thanks to everyone for extending to me the opportunity to serve as your CNM President for the coming year. Many thanks to Ray Trujillo and John Wiker, who have been an outstanding president and vice-president team for us for the last couple of years. Just a bit about myself; I learned how to drive on a Corvair when I was fifteen, and I have been driving them for most of the rest of my sixty years. The handling and sound of the Corvair have always defined what a car is to me. My introduction to CNM was by Francis Boydston, who sold me a 1966 Gold Corsa that I still own. He talked me into showing that car at a display put on by CNM at the Winrock Mall. That must have been the summer of 1976 and shortly after that event I joined the club. Since I was a teenager I have been working on Corvairs and I enjoy learning about them and sharing mechanical tips on how to keep them running. That seems to be one of the main interests of the CNM members these days, and I am looking forward to having new tech sessions during 2008. Of course, it's not all greasy fingers and mechanical work.... we have an outstanding social side to this club. One of our most exciting events of the year is coming up in November and that is the "Auction and Potluck" to be held at House of Covers, thanks to Rita and Steve. Since Corvairs have their engine in the rear (backwards) our club encourages members to do their Spring Cleaning (backwards) in the Fall. So, bring all of those wonderful relics from your closets and garages and some food to share for this great CNM fund raiser. First Lady Brenda says not to forget that there will be CNM 2008 "Year at a Glance" Calendars ready for sale at the November, December and January meetings. We will close out the organized events of the year with our annual Christmas Party on Sunday, December 2 at the Kirtland AFB Officers' Club. I am looking forward to updating the CNM calendar of events for 2008 after my first official board meeting next week, October 17th at Business Printing Service at 4316 Silver SE. Members are welcome to attend our board meetings. I will see you at the November 7th Membership meeting. Many Thanks -- Mike =[CNM]= STATE FAIR CAR SHOW Vice-President Pat Hall I attended the State Fair Car Show and drove my 1964 coupe, a car that I care very much for. I enjoy driving it as I do all of my Corvairs. A lot of people were looking at all eleven Corvairs that were at the State Fair and people asked lots of questions. I had an enjoyable day talking to other club members and passing information back and forth. I am very proud to say that my 1964 coupe took seven ribbons: "Best of Show", 1st place for "Car that I would most like to drive home" and five others. Hope to see everyone at the next membership meeting. =[CNM]= LOS LUNAS SWAP MEET Pat Hall Vickie and I attended two days of the Los Lunas Swap Meet. She drove our 1964 coupe and I drove the 1963 Spyder. We had lots of lookers during the swap meet and nice comments on our cars. What happened to everyone? I signed up to help direct traffic and was there by 7:00 AM but no one else was. So, after a while I went to my space to try and sell "another man's treasures" to anyone who wished to buy. Rain on Saturday, midafternoon, forced a lot of vendors to start packing up early. The overall turn-out for the event was great and I was told that every space was taken. =[CNM]= OCTOBER ROUTE 66 CLEANUP Oliver Scheflow On Saturday October 6th, the club conducted its fourth and last cleanup of 2007. This was our eleventh full year of cleanups. We had an exceptionally nice day and it was great to be out in the fresh air. In fact, it was a Goldilocks' kind of day - not too warm, not too cold and not too still, not too windy. We had a full crew consisting of: Lupe and Jim Arellanes, Pat Hall, Javier and Robert Gold, Geoff Johnson, Don Palmer, Jim Pittman, Bill Reider and Ollie Scheflow. The trash load was about normal. Usually we see a lot of bicyclists but this Saturday we saw more motorcyclists, possibly due to a car accident that killed a bicyclist the previous week. We used our new grabber tools and found they worked well on most items except large plastic bottles -- but then, nail sticks won't get large plastic bottles either. We finished in about an hour and a half. Bill, Pat, Dan and I went to the Owl Cafe and missed the breakfast cut off by two minutes, so we had lunch instead. We discussed Corvair engines in light airplanes and the difficulty of finding crashed airplanes in mountainous areas (i.e. recall the recent long, fruitless search for Steve Fossett who disappeared while flying over the mountains and deserts of Nevada). Special thanks goes to the Sunshine committee for the gifts of the first aid kit and the new grabbers. Thanks to all who participated this year, a total of eighteen, on this worthwhile club project. I hope to see you and many others next year. -- Ollie =[CNM]= ============================================================================ C O R V A I R S o f N E W M E X I C O C O M I N G E V E N T S ============================================================================ | | | | | November | December | January 2008 | | | | | | : : : : 1 2 3 | : : : : : : 1 | : : 1 2 3 4 5 | | 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | | 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | | 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | | 25 26 27 28 29 30 : | 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 | 27 28 29 30 31 : : | | : : : : : : : | 30 31 : : : : : | : : : : : : : | ============================================================================ Wed 7 Nov 7:00 PM Meeting: Highland Senior Center, 131 Monroe NE === Fri 9 Nov 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline === EARLY THIS MONTH! === Sat 10 Nov 5:30 PM Auction and Potluck - House of Covers - 505-256-0551 Wed 21 Nov 5:00 PM Board Meeting: Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE Sun 2 Dec ....... Christmas Party - Kirtland AFB Officers' Club Wed 5 Dec 7:00 PM Meeting: Highland Senior Center, 131 Monroe NE Wed 19 Dec 5:00 PM Board Meeting: Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE Fri 21 Dec 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Wed 2 Jan 7:00 PM Meeting: Highland Senior Center, 131 Monroe NE Wed 16 Jan 5:00 PM Board Meeting: Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE Fri 25 Jan 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sun 3 Feb ....... Garage Tour to Moriarty - LeRoy Rogers - proposed Wed 6 Feb 7:00 PM Meeting: Highland Senior Center, 131 Monroe NE Wed 20 Feb 5:00 PM Board Meeting: Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE Fri 22 Feb 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat x Mar ....... Club Birthday Dinner / IKE MEISSNER AWARD Wed 5 Mar 7:00 PM Meeting: Highland Senior Center, 131 Monroe NE Wed 19 Mar 5:00 PM Board Meeting: Business Printing Service - 4316 Silver SE Fri 21 Mar 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= =[CNM]= CHRISTMAS DONATIONS TO BARRETT HOUSE Emma Rogers & Lee Reider After consulting with the managers of the Barrett House, we have decided to once again make donations to this organization as we did last year. First we will give you an overview of what The Barrett House does. It is transitional, temporary, short-term housing for homeless women and their children, boys to age 12 and any age girls. The Barrett House is a facility that assists women with a place to live while either going to school, finding a job and working, while receiving medical care or finding permanent housing. It is a nonprofit, non-denominational organization and is located at Constitution at Eubank behind Carl's Jr. in Albuquerque. NEW books are needed to give children whenever they leave the facility. Both new and gently used books are needed for the facility's library. This year there is a big need for pajamas for the women. The larger sizes (large and up) are most needed. We are asked to provide toilet items for the women too. Suggestions include: shampoo and conditioner, bath soap and body wash, deodorant, tooth brushes, tooth paste, hair brushes and combs. Toys for both boys (up to age 12) and for girls (any age) are needed as well. Gifts for girls of any age would be appreciated too. Suggestions are: costume jewelry, make up and cases, hair accessories,etc. We urge everyone to start collecting any of these items; anything you can contribute will be appreciated. Take them with you to our annual Christmas brunch at Kirtland Air Force Base on Sunday, December 2nd at 11:30 AM. =[CNM]= EFFECTIVE GREEN BEHAVIOR - OR THE LATEST FAD? Jim Pittman AT OUR SEPTEMBER MEETING we got into a discussion of the tendency of politicians to push through laws that do not necessarily do what they say they will do! My hot button right now is the current excitement in the news about solving our energy crisis by using ethanol for fuel, thus saving petroleum. Any number of authorities have questioned the wisdom of this move. Hurley Wilvert told us he had happened on an article about ethanol in, of all places, Rolling Stone magazine. I looked for the article on the web and it is available here: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/ 15635751/the_ethanol_scam_one_of_americas_ biggest_political_boondoggles An interesting article! The lead paragraph suggests that the real danger of our energy crisis is not that we will just sit around doing nothing until it is too late, but that we will enthusiastically start up solutions that will actually make our problems worse. And Exhibit "A" is the ethanol fad. Here's a quick summary of arguments against using ethanol for automobile fuel in the USA: * Since ethanol absorbs water, it is not feasible to transport it via pipelines as gasoline is transported. * Ethanol has less chemical energy than gasoline, so your fuel mileage is automatically lower. * There is not enough agricultural land in North America to grow enough corn to make enough ethanol to reduce our dependence on foreign petroleum. * The food industry in this country has developed corn products into an indispensable part of our food supply. Driving up the price of corn will drastically increase the price of many other foods. This is already happening! * Far from helping the beleaguered small farmers of America by giving them a better price for their corn, the primary beneficiaries of increased ethanol production will be large agricultural giants, companies which are already heavily subsidized by the government. * Fuel made with 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline will not work for any current automobiles unless specifically engineered for E85 fuel. Our classic cars are out of luck. * The more corn we grow, the greater the problem of environmental pollution from run-off of fertilizer and insecticides into streams and rivers. * Converting more American farming to corn production will even further increase the imports of foods from foreign countries where safety regulations are not adequate. If we can't buy lead-free toys from Asia, will we be able to buy contamination-free food? Despite all the negatives about ethanol, it may be possible for it to be a truly useful "green fuel" by reducing its environmental costs. Brazil supposedly does well with ethanol made from sugar cane. Switch-grass and other plants that can be grown in marginal soil without high production costs and high fertilizer requirements may be used to produce "greener" ethanol. We already know that we have a tendency to jump on the bandwagon when a new fad becomes popular, particularly if it is a matter of enhancing our image. Why does the Prius Hybrid far outsell the Civic Hybrid? It's because the Civic looks just like any other Civic, while the Prius, with its radical styling, has by far the greater "green" image. Many people are buying and showing off the image -- at least, while the fad lasts. The report about pending legislation to kill classic car clubs reminds us that politicians are perfectly capable of pushing through legislation that purports to do good, while ignoring or even covering up the side effects. In the long run the cure may be worse than the disease! It behooves all of us to keep up with laws that may affect not just our classic cars, but our very way of life. =[CNM]= = = = = = = = = = = = = FOR SALE, TO TRADE, OR WANTED = = = = = = = = = = = = = NOTE: Please tell me if any of these are obsolete and should be removed! - Jim = = = = = = = CNM ADS ARE FREE TO MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-MEMBERS = = = = = = = WANTED: Working Powerglide Transmission - Geoffrey Johnson - 505-730-6601 FOR SALE: 1964 Monza coupe - 4-speed - runs and drives great. Silver with a white interior. $9,000.00 1965 Corsa - runs good - needs paint and _T_L_C_. $4,000.00 Rebuilt differentials for sale starting at $250.00 Lots of parts available for cars and vans. Pat Hall - Los Lunas, New Mexico 505-865-5574 or cell 505-620-5574 WANTED: Headers for 1966 Corvair [ for 95? for 110? for 140? for 180 turbo? who wants them? ] FOR SALE: I have to sell one of my Corvairs! 1961 Monza Coupe, red, 110-HP, Powerglide -- $1,000.00 1968 Monza coupe, green, 110-HP, powerglide - $1,000.00 Both run well. Your choice. Hurley Wilvert = 505-238-6286 FOR SALE: 1 FC rear end, 4-speed .................................... $40 1 4-speed tranny .......................................... $15 1 Set of 2 drive-up ramps off lift -- heavy -- you haul it Call my cell phone ......... 505-385-3333 ......... Jerry Goffe WANTED: 1964 Monza ext trim - what have you? Nice to NOS condition. Early front shaded windshield. Inner right and left front floor pans or sections. Robert Philips ........... rp96rp@aol.com ............ 898-1255 WANTED: Where is my old 1966 Corsa turbo (gold) that Fred Edeskuty of Jemez Springs sold years ago? Robert Philips ........... rp96rp@aol.com ............ 898-1255 WANTED: Late model front bumper ....... Hurley Wilvert ....... 281-1732 =[CNM]= REPORT OF THE CAR COUNCIL MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 26TH, 2007 Again another eventful report from the New Mexico Car Council, composed by Art Gold. THIS MONTH'S CAR COUNCIL MEETING was well received by the club's representatives of Cary Hubbard and yours truly Art Gold. The meeting started out with the usual "hellos" and was quickly transitioned to Sharon, the Ronald McDonald House representative. Sharon came to thank the council for the donation from the club picnic. She then went on to give a speech on the history and mission of the Ronald McDonald House. A Ronald McDonald House is a place where the parents of children that are in a nearby hospital can stay at night for reduced or no cost. The first Ronald McDonald House opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1974. Sharon went on to inform the council of the fact that the charity has been in Albuquerque for about 20 years. Here are some more interesting facts about the Ronald McDonald House Charities taken from Wikipedia. As of 2005: * Present in 48 countries, with one or more Ronald McDonald House programs in 27 countries. * Provides more than 6,000 bedrooms each night for families of ill children through its network of 250 Ronald McDonald House programs. * Provided more than 10 million families with temporary residences near medical facilities where their children are being treated for serious illnesses. * Supported by more than 30,000 volunteers who help in the Ronald McDonald House Charity programs worldwide. * Ronald McDonald House Charities has provided more than $400 million in grants and program services to causes worldwide that benefit children. * The cost per night varies at each House ($10 or $15 are common). The Ronald McDonald Houses are financially supported by donations from the public and corporate donors who form cause marketing partnerships with the organization. In many McDonald's restaurants, a pocket change piggy bank is placed as a fundraiser, donations to which are forwarded to the Ronald McDonald Houses. The houses are not owned or operated by the McDonald company, but the company provides the houses with free equipment and services to reduce the cost of operation, and to increase public awareness through fundraising events. Also, $3000 was raised by the Rickshaws through the pop/pull tab program (in which a tab from a soda can is used to donate to the charity). The meeting then moved on to the treasurer's report. As of the assembly, there was $6336.07. The success of the swap meet, held on September 29th, really aided in this robust figure. The council then moved on to New Business. One interesting development that occurred at the end of September was that in the Sawmill neighborhood there was a need for convertibles as an escort of some local dignitaries, a session of the ole smooching with the big wigs. However, this smooch-fest was thwarted by the fact that the exact same weekend was the Los Lunas Swap Meet. Oh well, and like the standard Cubbie fan would say, wait till next century. The council then made reference to a Martin Luther King Day parade to be held next year. Not many details on that event. One fellow made another reference to the fact that in Arizona there has been a day declared "Automobile Day." During this interesting and enlightening day, a parade is held in which classic autos are actually celebrated by state officials. What a concept! The meeting began to wind down at this point, with the delegating of duties for the swap meet. The Corvair Club was the only club who prearranged for duties for the meet, thanks to my father, Robert Gold. Way to go! Well, that is that. See ya next time. Art Gold reporting =[CNM]= TO THE BALLOON FIESTA DARKLY - OCTOBER 7, 2007 Robert Gold AS I APPROACH 30 YEARS IN Albuquerque (I'm very close to being a native!) I think many times about what is special about being here. There's the special feeling of looking up and seeing the Sandias every day. That is quite a contrast to what I saw growing up in St. Louis. There are the multi-cultural aspects of daily life. I enjoyed the Hispanic culture so much I wound up marrying into it. There's also the vast expansiveness of the surrounding landscapes. I love that feeling of not being hemmed in. And there is the special quality brought to this city by the annual International Balloon Fiesta. When I moved here in 1981 one of the first things I did was go to the Balloon Fiesta and take a thousand or more pictures. If you want I can show them to you. I suppose you already have a bunch of them yourselves. Actually, nothing is really like simply going out and seeing the balloons in person. My wife, Anne Mae, and I also crewed for a local balloon for a couple of years to get a more intimate feel of the balloon experience. The problem occurred when as the years went by we found that it was harder and harder to get up really early in the morning to see the balloons go up. Since balloons perform better in cold air it is important to get an early start. Our love for ballooning remained, but our enthusiasm to be there began to wane. The result was that before very long we stopped going altogether. Luckily, all was not lost. The Roadrunner Car Club presented us with the opportunity to see the balloons, but not lose too much sleep. These folks organized a car display at the Balloon Fiesta that allowed anyone with an interesting car to enter the fiesta grounds for free and at a reasonable time of the morning. My family has attended this car show three of the last four years. For you who haven't had a chance to be there, you are really missing something special. In order to attend the event you have to be on Edith at the Alameda overpass by 7:00. Shortly after that the first wave of balloons takes off and we make a triumphant entrance onto the field. It is a parade of cars that almost rivals the balloons that are inflating and taking off. We then get to park our cars on the field and take a short walk to purchase a breakfast burrito and mingle with the fiesta goers. I mentioned my family has done this for several years. In the past the procedure was pretty routine. You arrive in the area of the overpass and pull onto the shoulder. Other cars do the same thing and in a matter of minutes you have 200 plus cars ready for the show. This year however, things were quite different. At the time I thought something had gone horribly wrong. It was sort of the feeling when you watch those movies when unsuspecting innocents enter a house for the weekend only to find that ghosts of the past are going to do terrible things to them. I can relate what I saw that morning, but I can't really understand it all. We caravanned to the meeting site with a friend of mine, Scott Waltemeyer, who was driving his "smokey and the bandit" style Trans Am. My family and I were riding in my Corvair-powered VW bus. By chance we arrived at the same time as John Wiker in his beautiful late model yellow Monza. There was no one else at the meeting site. Aside from a few house lights the area was pitch black. A few minutes later Geoff Johnson drove up in his '61 Lakewood called Radio Flyer. It was beginning to look like an all-Corvair get together. However, that was about to change. In an instant after Geoff showed up a line of cars sped past us. It was truly surreal in the darkness to see cars of all descriptions powering by us at what looked like top speed. Each car was illuminated only briefly before it disappeared into the darkness. Where they came from I didn't know and where they were going at such a speed I couldn't guess. All I knew was that I didn't want to chance trying to pull out. We all stood there and marveled at the sight. The line of cars continued for quite a while and then started to slow down. Eventually, as the sun started to rise the cars lined up in preparation to enter the fiesta grounds. Things were now back to normal, but I'll never forget that rolling herd of cars coming out of the darkness. I never did find out why they were driving so fast. The car display on the field lasted until about 11:30. By my count we had about three CNM member cars in addition to one beautiful early sedan not part of our group. In addition to Geoff Johnson, John Wiker and me, Lupe Arellanes was there with her beautiful '64 white convertible and Cary Hubbard had the Atomic Corvair as well as his Citroen. I hope the Roadrunner Car Club will have another car Balloon Fiesta car display next year. If they do, all you CNM members should be sure not to miss it. Just make sure you miss those speeding cars coming out of the darkness! See you there. -- Robert Gold =[CNM]= A TALE OF TWO 1936 FORDS Walter Huntoon Way back in 1940, having just graduated from high school, I needed some wheels to get around. At a local Ford dealer I found a 1936 Ford Washington Blue four-door humpback sedan listed for $325. With some of my savings (by now I was working at the Postal Telegraph Co. for 30 cents an hour, delivering telegrams on a bicycle) and borrowing money from my parents, I took the car home. Surviving gas rationing during the war and waiting for months with my name on a list at Montgomery Wards for two new tires, I drove that car until 1949 when I finally got something a little newer - a 1939 Ford! Now fast forward in time to the middle 70's when things were a little better. In the back of my mind, I always liked that '36. One day, my oldest son and I were out for a ride and what did we see parked in a driveway but a '36 Ford Washington Blue four-door humpback sedan with a "For Sale" sign in the window. It looked pretty solid, the engine ran and it was driveable so we made a deal for $800. It needed interior work and some other things, but we still liked it. Since we didn't have a garage to keep it in and work on it, we ended up renting a garage from a neighbor that lived about a block away. The problem with that was, every time we wanted to work on the car, we had to go get it and then take it back. After a year or two, we realized that was not a good situation so we sold it for $1000. Fast forward again some twenty years. My wife's cousin collects old vehicles (Packards, Lincolns, fire engines etc.) and three or four years ago this cousin invited my second son and me to see his cars and there it was! Our '36, looking pretty good. Apparently, the guy we sold it to did some work on the car and then traded it to the cousin. He put the Ford into his heated and dry storage garage and there it sat. We asked him if he wanted to sell it and he said $2000 and we said we'd have to think about it. Two more years pass. The cousin began downsizing his car collection and offered the '36 to us for $200. This time we said yes and we have room for it in our garage. So far we've put in a rebuilt flat-head V8, had the radiator and gas tank cleaned and repaired, added an electric fuel pump, new tires and wheels and have an upholstery kit that has yet to be installed. The car is now licensed, titled and insured -- pretty much ready to go again, just like the first '36 Washington Blue four-door humpback sedan! -- Walter Huntoon =[CNM]= STATE FAIR CAR SHOW -- SEPTEMBER 23, 2007 Robert Gold It's hard for me to believe that I've been show chairman for ten State Fair Car Shows. Bill Reider pointed out that there were a number of Corvair shows at the State Fair before I took over, and he is right. So when I tell you this was the tenth annual show I'm only talking about those shows that have taken place under the sponsorship of Corvairs of New Mexico. I think we've been under a "lucky star" for those ten years. First we've had great weather and we've had wonderful cars on display. As a bit of trivia, I've given out over 700 ribbons in those ten years. With this in mind let me move on to a description of this year's show. While driving to the meeting place at Furr's cafeteria the morning of the show I had no great expectations about the number of cars that would meet there. I knew the Gold family was going to have four cars on display. In addition to my son Art, my wife Anne Mae and me, we had a friend of the family, Javier Ortiz, driving a car. However, I knew that a show with four cars would be pretty weak. I set a goal of ten cars as the minimum for a good turnout and the club came through. By the time all the cars rolled in we had 11 cars for the show. I am truly grateful to all you CNM'ers for your support. Again this year we entered the fairgrounds without having to pay admission. Based on an average admission fee of about $5.00 our car show has saved hundreds of dollars for our club members. Pretty cool! Oh yes, I didn't mention that we have the best free parking you could ever find. In some ways this show wasn't much different than the ones in the past. We set up the cars in our private spot next to the Manual Lujan Building without much excitement. The weather was exceptional. It was partly cloudy most of the day, with only a dusting of rain in the afternoon. By the time we left at around 3:00 I'm confident when I say that a good time was had by all. Before I go on to document the participants in this year's show I want to mention another neat thing about being on display at the fair. It hadn't occurred to me before, but we have a parade when we leave the fairgrounds. The Corvairs pull out one by one and then the Classic Chevys follow. Javier, my youngest son, said that the parade of cars was shown on the evening news. This procession gets a pretty strong reaction by the fairgoers. You can hear them making comments as you drive by. Everyone has smiles on their faces. All this for no cost of admission and no parking fee! Here is a listing of the show participants. As in past years we awarded 48 ribbons for all sorts of things good and not so good. Sally, I want you to know, I still like the "farthest from 100 point car" award. A little known fact is that my old white Rampside was the first car to win that award. In addition to the awards there were participation ribbons given out for just being at the show. Here is a listing of the best-of-show winners along with everyone who showed a car: 1. Best car - early (60-64) 1st Pat Hall 1964 Monza 2. Best car - late (65-69) 1st John Wiker 1966 Monza 3. Best Forward Control 1st Robert Gold 1961 Rampside 4. Best Gold Family Car 1st Art Gold 1965 Monza Car Show entries: 1. Robert Gold 1961 Rampside 2. Dave Huntoon 1961 Corvan 95 (A unique FC.) 3. Anne Mae Gold 1961 Greenbrier (At the show thanks to the Ortiz family.) 4. Pat Hall 1964 Monza (This car actually glowed!) 5. Sally Williams 1963 Monza (Nice to see you with a car that has a tag!) 6. Geoff Johnson 1963 Monza Convertible (A car with the wit of Alan Alda.) 7. Cary Hubbard 1964 Monza (A really "cool" car.) 8. The Gold Family 1961 Lakewood (A "Eoyre" Corvair.) 9. Tarmo Sutt 1965 Corsa (Drove all the way from Santa Fe to attend!) 10. John Wiker 1966 Monza (A car worthy of its award.) 11. Art Gold 1965 Monza (A car with celebrity heritage.) I guess that's it for this year. Remember to circle your 2008 calendar for the last Sunday of the State Fair. That's when we'll have the next best Fair Car Show ever! -- Robert Gold =[CNM]= LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (letters may be edited for clarity) Subject: Newsletter article From: Diane Galli Date: 9/28/2007 8:27:35 AM To: Richard Finch Cc: jimp @ unm.edu Hi Richard and Gayle. Got the Corvairs of New Mexico newsletter a few days ago, and read your very well written article about the UV Rally. Glad you enjoyed your stay with us all. Just have a few things I thought were inaccurate, #1 being the 5 non-members attending, I only know of 2, you and Gayle, who the other 3 were I would be interested in knowing, as I am the keeper of the membership, know of no one else there who were non members. #2 is the fact that Ultra Vans came off the line with V-8s from # 510 to # 558 I believe, those are the ones that are like ours, the reason being, Chevrolet having ceased to make Corvairs and the engines were unobtainable, but GM did provide them with the V-8s. That does include the 600 series. CORSA also recognizes Corvairs with V-8s. #3 the UV from Idaho was in fact from South Dakota and is Jane and Ed Harrison's coach, they have been members of long standing, and their daughter Cindy Nelson who is also a dues paying member. Hope this clarifies some of your issues I felt were inaccurate, and you and Gayle are enjoying relatively good health. Subject: Finch report on UltraVan Rally in Ruidoso From: Cindy Nelson Date: 2007-Oct-05 12:25:25 MDT To: jimp @ unm.edu First of all, out of all the attendees at the 2007 National Ultra Van Rally in Ruidoso, only Richard and Gayle Finch were non-members. We are a CORSA chapter, and it is not Mr. Finch's place to determine what is an Ultra Van. An Ultra Van is an Ultra Van if it was designed and/or built by Dave Peterson. Period. UVMCC has complete records of the units manufactured during production years, which includes the 600 series. -- Cindy Nelson -- UV #324 ====== Subject: Response to the emails from Diane and Cindy. From: finchbooks @ tularosa.net Date: 2007-Oct-11 11:36:43 MDT Gayle and I have known Diane Galli and Bob Galli since August of 1998 when we purchased our Corvair powered Ultra Van. We have visited in their house and with them at numerous CORSA events during that 9+ year period and have enjoyed their friendship. However, I was only reporting the expected attendance at the Ultra Van National Rally in Ruidoso, NM when I reported that there were only about 14 active members in the group now. I got my info from an email that was sent to all those who planned to attend the rally. I think that Diane thinks that all 110 paid members are active. I disagree, based on the actual count of those who showed up at the rally. Diane also says that all those at the rally were completely friendly to us. Not so. The chairman of the rally told us that we were not welcome to participate in the door prize drawing "because we were not paid members now". And during the weeks since the rally and since my report on the rally, the chairman of the rally and his wife have sent us an average of an email each day, telling us how little they think of us. I never did meet Cindy, but I believe that she was the woman who drove her aged parents from the Dakotas and arrived at the Ruidoso rally in a Corvair powered Ultra Van that was running on 5 cylinders, because a valve rocker arm had come loose. Cindy says that I am not qualified to say what is an Ultra Van. Jim Pittman and I followed a 140 hp Corvair Ultra into Phoenix in 1968 and had trouble staying up with it in Jim's 1966 Corsa Turbo! In 1976, Christy Barden had his Corvair powered Ultra Van towed to my house in Santa Maria, California because his Powerglide differential had spun its pinion shaft. It stayed at my house for about a week until Christy was able to buy another differential from Van Nuys, CA and install it with the help of my brother and my sons. And of course my brother and I both own Ultra Vans and have driven them all over the USA. By now I am sure that she, Cindy, has been informed that not everything designed by Mr. Dave Peterson is an Ultra. Mr. Peterson designed several airplanes for Beechcraft Aviation and also designed the Olds Toronado powered, front wheel drive Tiara and the Corvair powered Travelon RV. "Corvair" was never in the by-laws of the Ultra club. (The current president stated this morning, by email, that if CORSA wanted to include us/them in the organization, that is CORSA's problem.) At the Ruidoso Ultra Van Rally, the outgoing president arrived in a Buick sedan, the incoming president arrived in an Olds sedan and Diane Galli and Bob Galli also arrived in a Buick sedan, because Diane was on chemo for a cancer problem. At previous events, Diane and Bob always arrived in a Corvair Ultra Van or their Greenbrier. Our best wishes to Diane for healing. To sum this all up, I will say that Gayle and I have been mis-led about the reason for Ultra Vans being included in CORSA events. If we had known that Corvairs were never mentioned in the by-laws, we would still own one, but would never have gotten mixed up in the Ultra Van club and in arguments about the reason for the Ultra Van Club. We did not renew our membership in the Club for 2007, because it became apparent that the club was declining in attendance and because of the Brand-X units that were seen more and more at Ultra Van events. The club really needs to affiliate itself with the Good Sams Club (and not CORSA), which accepts any camper vehicle, even tents. And it needs to make it clear that Corvairs are not the reason for the club's existence. Thanks from Richard and Gayle Finch =[CNM]= SEVEN YEARS AGO Jim Pittman Seven Years Ago - November 2000 - Volume 26 - Number 11 - Issue 302 On the cover Mark Domzalski was at the State Fair Car Show and was obviously proud of his excellent Rampside. (This was the first issue, incidentally, in which we moved the cover photo from the top to the bottom of the page, in the belief that if we folded the newsletter with the fold at the bottom, not at the top, it would reduce the probability that the postal machinery would tear up the newsletter.) On page 2 the editor asked everyone to go out and vote and the choices were Dubya, Big Al and Ralph. I doubt that anyone reading our newsletter voted for Ralph. At our October meeting we had guests Jim & Marlene Craig from Joshua Tree, California, driving east in their Ultravan. Treasurer Wendell said we had $5,746 in the bank. Our Galles sponsor Joe asked us to all leave at the same time to help out the security crew. Mark said he would be going to Flagstaff to check on how our club would be able to help with the 2002 CORSA convention. Robert said we had twelve Corvairs at the State Fair show and everyone had a great time. Brenda reported that the CNM Ladies met at the Stickler cabin in the Jemez and the next meeting would be at the Pleaus' unless they sold their house first -- they were preparing to move to Colorado Springs. As Dennis had been maintaining CNM's web page we'd need someone to take over that job. Our election happened and all officers were railroaded, err, elected for another term. President Wilvert thanked everyone for the vote of confidence, thanked Ollie and the rest of the Old Route 66 cleanup crew, thanked Tarmo & Kay for organizing the Frostbite Tour to the Jemez, and predicted that the web site would be updated sooner rather than later. Via the "VV" group, we had a long article by Bill Hubbell on large and small differences between "early-earlies" and "late-earlies" which he compiled by comparing his 1961 and 1964 Monza sedans. Via "VV" a tech tip by Rusty Rose told us how to absolutely seal a back window -- from the context, it must have been addressed to owners of early models, not late models. Richard Finch told us about de-burring and lubricating spark plugs before installing them in aircraft engines, a lesson that applies to Corvairs. More "VV" lore: Diane Galli addressed vapor lock problems solved by a return gas line. Corey Homer told us who actually manufactures Craftsman tools. Joel Rushworth told us to replace your battered late convertible seat bottom with one from a 1989 Chevy Cavalier. Kenneth Schifftner relayed interesting details about the NTIS test of the early Corvair in which it proved no more unsafe that its contemporaries. Take that, Ralph! Finally, Mark Martinek told us that the reason the country was running out of oil and nobody noticed was simple: most of the oil was in Oklahoma and Texas but all the dipsticks were in Washington. Oh for the days when we could joke about politics. Fourteen Years Ago - Nov. 1993 - Volume 19 - Number 11 - Issue 218 A 1961 station wagon adorned the cover. President Del ran the meeting. Treasurer Will reported $1,285 in the bank. Our State Fair report said there were seventeen Corvairs in a very nice show. Dennis planned an article for the Communique to get more national attention for CNM as we work on the 1996 convention. Francis said the CNM constitution called for the treasurer to be bonded; this has never been done. We voted for the board to look into this. Election night! President, secretary and treasurer agreed to run for re-election; Dennis agreed to run for vice president. We sold twelve copies of Bill's Care & Feeding booklet to Lon Wall's Corvair Underground. Larry said he was getting a valve train geometry kit to determine optimum pushrod lengths. Kay Sutt FAXed her report on the trip to Embudo: a good Aspencade despite the dreary weather. Quiz: Why was Otto Mechanic's uncle known as the "Wicked Winch of the West" and why wasn't the 1916 Gillette one sharp car? All who remember, say "Aye!" Twenty-one Years Ago - Nov. 1986 - Volume 12 - Number 10 - Issue 134 The cover featured a Mark Morgan drawing of a race-prepared Corvair. We had $853 to spend. LeRoy reported progress on the Library Van project. New officers were Clayborne Souza, Tarmo Sutt, LeRoy Rogers and Chuck Vertrees. LeRoy provided a summary of expenses and income for 1985: we took in a little more than we spent. Good! Our next meeting was to be in Santa Fe and our Aspencade was to be a trip to Bandelier National Monument. Years ago we used to do such things. Bill's technical column addressed winterizing. Other tech tips told what's in those heavy black cylinders in the trunks and engine compartments of late convertibles and why it was a bad idea to remove them, and warned of the electromagnetic effects of CB radios, neon signs, radar and cosmic rays on electronic ignition, fuel injection and anti-lock brake systems. Finally, according to Ride Pool, depreciation is the biggest expense in owning a car. Of course, their 1984 data was based on buying a new car. If you go out and buy a Corvair today, will it depreciate? Twenty-eight Years Ago - Nov. 1979 - Volume 5 - Number 11 - Issue 50 The cover previewed our first CNM crossword puzzle; with 84 across and 79 down there were 163 words to guess, most of them Corvair-related. The board reported efforts to get our dues up-to-date and to achieve 100% CORSA membership. We needed to construct barriers (stanchions?) for future car shows. The board voted to reimburse the editor $15 for photocopying and photography. New officers were Norm Brand, Bill Reider, Francis Boydston and Sylvan Zuercher. We had a report on our Aspencade to Valle Grande and an article on an "articulated" experimental ATV with Corvair drive train. Tech tips included a comparison of bolting vs welding to fix loose flywheels and how to repair rear cooling door hinge pins. =[CNM]= TREASURY GRAPH Wendell Walker At the board meeting someone suggested we show a graph of the change in CNM finances every month. Here it is. The dots represent our total worth for every month starting with January 1996. We don't have data before that. Recall that in December 1996 our finances went way up when all the expenses and income from the CORSA National Convention were finally settled up. Then there was a pretty steady decline until May 2004 when there was a big drop, partly because we paid all the bills for our lavish 30th Anniversary Party. Since that time we have been gradually climbing back up and we are now hovering around the $3000 mark. =[CNM]= HAPPY BIRTHDAY The Sunshine Committee Happy Birthday wishes go to four CNMers born in November: Anne Wiker November 6 Jim Pittman November 13 Sylvan Zuercher November 16 Opal Zuercher November 22 Happy Anniversary wishes go to: Brenda & Mike Stickler who celebrate on November 21 =[CNM]= 2008 CNM CALENDARS Brenda Stickler Your CNM Board got the privilege of viewing the rough draft of our 2008 CNM calendars. Wow, we were so impressed! Special thanks to Ray and Sylvia for their dedication in this fund raiser for our club. Start thinking who would enjoy having one of these authentic CNM Classic Calendars at their office or home, knowing your love for Corvairs. Each calendar is $3.00 each. We know the "Word" will get out to other clubs and we are willing to ship them out in three-packs for $13.00. If someone needs more than three shipped to one address just add $3.00 and $1.33 for each calendar. (Example: a 10 Pack of mailed calendars with postage and handling equals $43.30.) We will not ship out orders under three. Calendars will be sold at the November, December and January club meetings. (No shipping and handling fees or minimum order if you pick yours up at the meetings.) All requested mail orders should be mailed to: Mrs Brenda Stickler / CNM Calendar Chair 300 Chimaja Rd. Corrales, NM 87048 Please make sure your address is clearly written on your return envelope and on a sheet of paper inside with your check. If you are more comfortable with an order form, see Page 7 of this newsletter, or a form can be downloaded with a preview glimpse of the calendar layout at CNM's newsletter web page: http://www.unm.edu/~jimp Payment can be accepted in the form of cash, money order or check. Make checks out to CNM with a note of the number of calendars ordered. (You will have to talk to Wendell if you want to trade a Corvair for a box of calendars... not sure what his stand is on that!!!) Note, we are sending an ad in to CORSA for calendars so we will see if we get any outside orders as well. It should first appear in the December CORSA Communique. Save a special place on your wall; we think these will be a unique and fun way to help CNM's club kitty. Many Thanks -- Brenda Stickler =[CNM]= FACTOIDS from our readers..... 1) In the October 2007 issue of AUTOMOBILE, Jamie Kitman writes about "the most embarrassing car" ever made and names several candidates, including Pontiac Aztec, Subaru 360, Austin Marina, Bricklin, Yugo, Ford Pinto, Ford Edsel, and the Chevrolet -- no not the Corvair -- the Chevrolet "Copper Cooled" of 1923. After describing this first Detroit air-cooled car and the disaster it turned into, he then excuses himself for NOT including the Corvair on his list, telling about its many virtues and claiming only that the Corvair engine would have been a very poor choice for powering commuter aircraft! Not so, says CNM's Dan Palmer who wrote to Mr Kitman to point out that 40 years ago aircraft were built and flown with Corvair engines and at present some 300 Corvair-powered aircraft exist, many of which have flown in excess of 500 hours and at least one for 1400 hours (about 200,000 miles) at speeds up to 170 miles per hour. Submitted by Dan Palmer 2) At the Big Bend Open Road Race a Corvair from Alamogordo finished 1st Place with 165 mph. The car owner was Charlie Friend and the car was a 1965 Corvair. Unfortunately we have no useful information on the engine, axle ratio or any modifications, but if you google "Big Bend Open Road Race" you may find this URL: http://www.bborr.com/2007/2007results.html which has details about the race and the winning cars. Submitted by Steve Gongora 3) Speaking of "google" - if you google Ralph Nader and look at some of the results, you will be easily convinced that the main thing most people know about Corvairs is that Ralph Nader wrote a book about how bad they are. But, if you look at: http://consumerist.com/consumer/readers/ralph- nader-doesnt-read-the-consumerist-310540.php you may find, in addition to much political commentary from both left and right, such comments as: "Let's not forget all of the great things Nader has done for this country, and for the consumer movement. The EPA, OSHA, seatbelts, no smoking on planes, and the list goes on and on." "He's a bureaucrat of a different stripe. Seat belts: great idea. Air bags: waste of money required because some idiots won't wear their seat belts and other idiots can't be bothered to drive with common courtesy. His automobile safety mantra was taken up by the auto companies to sell SUVs to frightened suburban housewives." "Yeah, and the Corvair was a cool car too. I don't give a (darn) what anybody says!" "It's well documented many of his attacks on capitalism are in response to not being able to go after what he really wants to (like the Corvair -- his original target was the VW Beetle -- had been fixed by the time Nader decided to set his sights on it)." "Not only was the Corvair cool, it was quite safe by the standards of the day. 'Unsafe at any speed' was just more hot air." . . . and on and on and on and on, maybe forever . . . =[CNM]= ============================================================================= CNM "2008 Year at a Glance" Color Calendar 11 x 17 ============================================================================= ORDER FORM * Minimum order is a 3-pack (Three CNM calendars shipped in a tube) = $13.00 For orders over the minimum (Four or More): * Qty ______ of Calendars @ 4.33 ea. Total: = _____________ (Example: 10 Calendars would cost $43.30) S&H included!!! Checks to :CNM Calendar, C/O Mrs. B. Stickler 300 Chimaja Rd, Corrales, NM 87048 Please Print: Your Name _________________________________________________ Street/or PO Box _________________________________________________ City, State, Zip Code _______________________________,______,__________ =============================================================================