Updated 05-Dec-2021 - Copyright (c) 2021 Corvairs of New Mexico.
MEETING TIME: First Wednesday of each month at 7:30 PM LOCATION: Galles Chevrolet, 1601 Lomas Boulevard NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110 PRESIDENT: Hurley Wilvert 281-1732 hurley.wilvert @ fmglobal.com VICE-PRES: Robert Gold 268-6878 beisbol30 @ hotmail.com SECRETARY: Charles Vertrees 299-0744 vertrees @ swcp.com TREASURER: Wendell Walker 892-8471 defarge505 @ aol.com MEMBERSHIP: Sylvan Zuercher 299-7577 zuerchero @ hubwest.com NEWSLETTER: Jim Pittman 275-2195 casa unm edu DUES: CNM: 12 months $15.00 or 26 months $ 30.00 CORSA: 12 months $35.00 or 26 months $ 70.00 BOTH: 12 months $50.00 or 26 months $100.00 ===== EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday July 5th, 7:30 PM Galles Chevrolet 1601 Lomas NE CONTENTS: THIS MONTH: Dues Due Sylvan Zuercher New Members Sylvan Zuercher June Meeting; Board Chuck Vertrees From the Driver's Seat Hurley Wilvert Coming Events Everybody CNM Ladies, June, July Anne mae Gold Campout 2000 Preview Debbie Deck Cars and Parts For Sale Everybody Seven Years Ago Jim Pittman COVER: Steve's 1966 Corsa at the VLA Radio Telescope. Photo by Bill Reider ===== "Hospitals may make you B-E-T-T-E-R, but there is a lot that goes on between the 'B' and the 'R' and 'ease' is a very small part of it." -- Heula Dues Expired or Due or Approaching Due: Ben Abeyta 06/2000 Gregg Armstrong 06/2000 Fred Edeskuty 06/2000 Mark Morgan 06/2000 Robert Gold 07/2000 Wayne Uhl 07/2000 Wendell Walker 08/2000 Sylvan Zuercher 08/2000 Ron Deck 09/2000 Lube Lubert 09/2000 Lee Olsen 09/2000 If your membership is due or has expired, please send your dues to: Wendell Walker, CNM Treasurer, 301 Utah Meadow, Rio Rancho, NM 87124 Note: the Club will mail in your National dues when you renew, but only if you send us the renewal form from CORSA Communique! While surfing the web, check out the CORSA Home Page: http://www.corvair.org A new site is CNM's home page, thanks to Dennis Pleau: http://corsa.skiblack.com/chapters/chapter871 ===== JUNE MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees The meeting was called to order on 6/7/00 at 19:30 at Galles Chevrolet by Vice-president Bob Gold, pending the arrival of President Hurley Wilvert. Hurley arrived at 19:35. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as published in the newsletter. There were no guests or new members to introduce. Treasurer Wendell Walker was unable to attend but sent his report with Chuck Vertrees, Secretary. He reported that CNM had $103.56 in the checking account and $5,916.83 in the Money Market account for a total net worth of $6,020.39. All bills were paid. The Corvair ladies will meet at the Wilvert's on Saturday, June 10th. Hurley said he would serve appetizers and cocktails. First, though, it would be necessary to get him out of the garage. CAR COUNCIL REPORT: Mark Martinek was unable to attend the meeting, so he sent his report by Sylvan Zuercher. The Car Council meeting was called to order at 19:45 on 5/17/00. The treasurer reported that the Council had $4,275.24 in the checking account, $9,940.46 in CD's and $3,121.48 invested in the Museum Car Show. Mike Gonzales and Paul McLaughlin were paid for the 1999 swap meet. The upcoming car show was discussed and envelopes stuffed for the event. The $5.00 entrance fee will be mandatory next year. THE 2000 SWAP MEET WAS MENTIONED. Volunteers were requested to organize the event; no one volunteered. Further discussion of the swap meet was deferred to the June meeting. (If anyone from CNM is interested in chairing the swap meet, please let Mark know.) The names of those working the 1999 swap meet were turned over to the treasurer for payment. The meeting was adjourned at 20:55. OLD BUSINESS: Debbie Deck has been in contact with the Forest Service Ranger about our August camping trip. It is dry, dry, dry! He would not commit to anything until they get through the July 4th holiday. Everything could be closed without warning. Debbie feels we need to have a Plan "B" to fall back on, possibly a fun day outing somewhere as a day trip. She will bring possible ideas to the next board meeting. There was discussion on the Tri-State Museum Show. First, thanks to Debbie Pleau for chairing the event. Steve Gongora and Mark Domzalski have mailed the out-of-state trophies, and Mark will take Kay and Tarmo's trophy to them. In starting to pack for their move to Colorado Springs, Debbie Pleau has come up with some items. She found "Vairs In The Air" patches and dash plaques. These were given to Sylvan to give to new members. Also, two cases of cookbooks are still on hand. We made our money back on them, so maybe Debbie can give them away next year in Manitou Springs at the next Tri-State. Jim Pittman has re-constructed as best as possible, from our Newsletters, the clubs who had won the attendance award at the Tri-State meetings. Copies have been sent to the other clubs to see if they can fill in the few gaps. Once this is re-constructed as well as possible, CNM will get a new trophy. Jim was a bit worried, but we do have several months to get this done. The State Fair Car Show will be the end of September. There will be seventeen ribbons to award. More information will follow. Don't forget that the next Highway 66 cleanup is scheduled for Saturday, July 8th. The more members who show up, the less time it takes, and the more fun it is. NEW BUSINESS: CNM received the best club award at the Museum Car Show and the Car Council presented Bill Reider with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Jerry Goffe reported that while in Alaska he saw a Fox News broadcast that mentioned Hanta Virus in New Mexico and that it was spread by deer mice, upon which they broadcast a picture of deer! This brought on a discussion of the times that members had seen totally incorrect or "created" information in the news media. Our sponsor, Joe Trujillo, thanked us for his membership in CORSA. He also announced that he is looking for a Corvair. Steve Gongora has worked out some possible designs for new CNM license plates. They were passed around for comment. Mark Domzalski announced that CORSA had received 788 ballots for the board of directors election. This was a return of 14.3% of the membership. There will be a buy-your-own dinner meeting at Rudy's on Carlisle at 18:30 on Friday, July 28th. This will be in honor of the Pleaus who are moving to Colorado Springs. They will be missed. The meeting was adjourned at 20:19. ===== JUNE BOARD MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees The June board meeting was called to order at House of Covers at 17:20 on the 21st. Present were Vice-president Bob Gold, Sylvan Zuercher, Ron and Debbie Deck, Steve Gongora, Jerry Goffe and Chuck Vertrees. The first item discussed was the August campout. This is planned for Ruth Boydston's place in the Pecos. However, because of the extreme fire danger it was felt that a Plan "B" was needed. Debbie Deck is in charge of this, and several other places were suggested where we might have a day tour or a picnic. These included the BLM camp area, which has a pavilion picnic area, or a tour to Grants with a picnic in the park. Also suggested was Coronado. Debbie will follow up on these. If we have a picnic type event, it could be a pot luck event, with CNM supplying the drinks. If we have to cancel the campout in the Pecos, we could possibly plan on going there in September or October, when they have had some rain and the fire danger is lower. Next on the agenda was the "All Chevy Show" and CNM has volunteered to help with the parking. Jerry Goffe has two good walkie-talkies and three cheaper ones from Radio Shack. Steve Gongora also has two walkie-talkies that will operate on the same frequency as the Radio-Shack ones that Jerry has. These will greatly expedite the parking of the cars for the show. Sylvan went to one of the Chevy club meetings. Their parking plan is chaotic, and it is questionable if they are really aware of what is needed. They do not have and have not applied for a fire marshal permit. This is required if cars are to be parked indoors, and it does take time to obtain. The only parking plan they have is on paper and it will possibly be changed by the fire marshal when they apply to get the permit. Any indoor parking plan will have to have his approval first. Once this in place plans must be made to mark off the parking floor with tape if the actual parking is to be expeditious. They already have more cars entered than they have inside spaces for. How will they be grouped? By year, type, or for the connivance of the judging? This information has still not been decided apparently. If Sylvan is going to be in charge of the parking, he will need a lot more information. He is planning a meeting with the chairman of the event. CNM received a thank you note from Jim and Heula Pittman for our donation to the American Heart Association in honor of Jim's father. The SCCA does not have an opening in their schedule to put on an Autocross for us in June. It was brought up that we could possibly join one of theirs in the future. It was mentioned that there will be a buy-your-own dinner at Rudy's on Carlisle at 18:30 on Friday, July 28th. This is a going away get together for Dennis, Debbie, and the boys. Thanks were expressed for the video that Wendell Walker brought to the last meeting. At the next meeting we will have a presentation on converting from generator to alternator on your early Corvair. Future programs will include Larry Blair on the Corvair gas heater. Another possibility would be for Larry to have someone come and give a presentation on the Big-I, or a presentation from the Highway 66 group or someone from the Wheels Museum group. The meeting was adjourned at 18:25. ===== FOR SALE, TRADE OR WANTED FOR SALE: 1965 Monza 4-door $ 500.00 1964 Monza convertible $1500.00 Dennis Pleau 345-0351 WANTED: Early antenna - any condition - Carl Johnson 344-3178 CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS ===== SEVEN YEARS AGO IN C.N.M. July 1993 Volume 19 Number 7 The cover showed Billiken (a rare glimpse of his real appearance) as the pit boss of a CNM Indy racing team. President Del ran the meeting; treasurer Will said there was $1433 in the kitty after subtraction of BMW expenses. Our committee to plan the national convention had met twice so far and things were going swell. We planned a Corvair convoy (or was that a "coravan") to the Alamosa Tri-State. Bill Reider gave a talk on the 200 different places oil can leak from your Corvair. The president's letter said thanks to all who participated in the Museum car show, and said he and Kim had a great time at the Tri-State. We planned a campout at Villanueva this year. Club jackets were in. Francis formally reported on the Tri-State and especially enjoyed the Ultravans and their owners. Mark Morgan provided an article on his years of cartooning and told how "Billiken" got started - it was in the Navy, of course. Technical stuff included: tips on installing a convertible top, effects of front tire pressure on steering, trouble-shooting your Powerglide, using heavy-duty bearings in alternators, the right way to install hose clamps and the value of oil changes. A table from Car and Driver compared the 1963 Spyder with the 1965 turbo Corsa; very interesting! Finally, there was an essay on the dangers of governments making your license plate data easy for anyone to obtain. In today's internet environment such privacy fears are considerably greater... FOURTEEN YEARS AGO The July 1986 cover was a drawing of a nice late coupe borrowed from the San Diego club. Clayborne ran the meeting; LeRoy said we had $757 to spend. Bill said the NMCCC was happy with the car show but hoped to make it better next year. A picnic and a swap meet were future events. We planned a caravan to the Montrose Tri-State. LeRoy needed more items for the flea market. A trip to Los Alamos to pick up car parts was planned. Bill Reider gave a talk on how to photograph your car. Clayborne said we had a terrific trip to Montrose; thanks to all who helped. LeRoy had a detailed report with plenty of statistics. Karen Jackson reported on the "My first car" contest, providing more stories from our members about the good old days. Bill Reider, not content with just a talk, gave us a page of notes on successful car photography. TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO The July 1979 cover showed Francis with his 1964 convertible at Ed Black's, waiting for our meeting to start. Sharp eyes revealed a Ford Fiesta in the used car lot; on a recent trip Francis drove one of these all over Ireland. Doug Morgan reported on the NMCCC car show; there was rain. A trip to Moriarty to participate in their July Fourth parade preempted our July meeting. We planned to have the meeting at a Bella Vista dinner. A recent Shriners' parade featured a large number of red Corvair convertibles with white tops; they came down from Colorado Springs. For some reason, it was reported that last month's newsletter (8 pages printed on 4 sheets of paper) cost $24 for 100 copies. We were looking for a volunteer to take over the secretary job. George Morin displayed several idler pulleys and described an inexpensive bearing replacement. Tech stuff: George wrote up his bearing replacement tips; fiberglass resin catalyst was said to be an eye hazard and Joe Caruso listed items for a Corvair emergency kit. Finally, Jim wrote about the importance of CORSA insurance to CNM and other affiliated clubs when we put on events; this is a major reason for the rule that all club members must be CORSA members. ===== ============================================================================ 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 ============================================================================ | J u l y | A u g u s t | S e p t e m b e r | | : : : : : : 1 | : : 1 2 3 4 5 | : : : : : 1 2 | | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | | 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | | 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 | 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 | 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 | | 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 | 27 28 29 30 31 : : | 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 | | 30 31 : : : : : | : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | ============================================================================ Tue 4th Jul early! Fourth of July on the Plaza - Santa Fe Wed 5th Jul 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 8th Jul 1:00 PM CNM Ladies - Rita Gongora's, 8419 Palo Duro NE Wed 19th Jul 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Wed - Sat July 19-22 CORSA Convention - Daytona Beach, Florida Fri 28th Jul 6:30 PM Rudy's on Carlisle - Farewell to the Pleaus Fri 21st Jul 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Wed 2nd Aug 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Fri-Sat-Sun Aug 4-5-6 Camping trip in the Pecos - Ruth Boydston's .. or .. Wed 16th Aug 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 25th Aug 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Wed 6th Sep 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Wed 20th Sep 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 22nd Sep 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= CNM LADIES FOR JULY Anne Mae Gold "Warm" greetings to all! The June CNM Ladies' reunion took place June 8th at Brenda Wilvert's home. There were only four of us, but the conversation was good and the company was excellent. The drive up into the mountains was refreshing and the scenery was beautiful. Thank you Brenda! The next meeting will be held at Rita Gongora's home on Saturday, July 8 from 1:00 to 4:00. The address is 8419 Palo Duro NE. That's off of Wyoming (on the east side), north of Menaul. Rita's number is 292-5570 and she says to come with an appetite... don't eat lunch! Hope all is well with all of you. May you find time in your busy schedules to rest, refresh and join us at the next CNM Ladies! See ya there... Anne Mae CAMPOUT 2000 Debbie K Deck As all of our Corvair families know, it has been a long, hot, and very dry summer. We have been patiently waiting for the monsoon season, but still no relief in sight, or at least not enough to help out our dry desert and mostly our very dry trees. I have been in charge of this year's Corvair campout, and I hate to give you bad news, but because of the extremely dry conditions, this year's campout will probably have to be canceled. But we have a plan B. At the Board meeting, we all agreed that camping would probably not work for these reasons: no rain, extremely high fire danger to forests and people, no campfires, and no grilling of any kind. Well, that usually takes care of most of the fun of a huge family campout. Well, we all decided to go to plan B, which could be a day trip to a location within an hour or so from Albuquerque. The locations, the Board selected were the BLM land around Cochiti Lake, Coronado State Park, or possibly a trip to Grant's. I will be in contact with the State and National Forestry Divisions, and will get us a location for the weekend of August 4-6. We will still have a great day of events, but unfortunately, probably no camping, unless the Forestry Division will allow us. We have many cool events for the day planned, and you will get more information on what, when and where, at the general meeting in July. We can still have a great time as a group outing, and being with our Corvair family. We still will need volunteers to gather articles for the campout-day trip, so if anyone is interested in helping, please contact Ron and Debbie Deck at 836-4845 or e-mail at Albdeck @ juno.com. ===== FROM THE DRIVER'S SEAT Hurley Wilvert Well summer is here and it's time to put the top down for all you convertible owners. That is if you can keep the sparks from the burning forest out of the car. It seems that our dry conditions here in New Mexico may put a damper on our August camping trip, at least from the standpoint of roasting hot dogs and S'mores. We can still camp out but we may not be able to have a campfire, if there is insufficient rain between now and then. We will play it by ear till the end of July. Keep an eye on next month's newsletter for the latest, and pray for rain. Anyway, the Fourth of July will be the day to be at the Santa Fe Car Show for all you folks with the nice looking cars. I have finally got my '68 Monza running and may drive it there to watch the show. It still needs some bodywork before I would consider entering it in a show. Keep in mind the Route 66 highway cleanup scheduled for July 8th. Come get some sun and help keep New Mexico beautiful! See you at the July meeting. - Hurley Wilvert - President ===== WE NEED TRI-STATE DATA! Jim Pittman We don't have a definitive list of which club took the traveling trophy for each Tri-State since the trophy was started at Red River in 1989. I have been going over past issues of our newsletter attempting to get this information. The table below is what I have so far. I'd appreciate it if anyone can help fill in the gaps or correct any errors. This may turn out to be a matter of opinion or hazy memory rather than record, but we need the best information we can get! YEAR PLACE SPONSOR WINNER HOW MANY REFERENCE ==== ================= ======= ====== CNM RMC PPCC OTHER ================ 1976 Montrose CO RMC (?) - - - - CNM 1976 Jul p2 1986 Montrose CO CNM 25 16 9 12 CNM 1986 Jul p67 1987 Ouray CO RMC (?) - - - - CNM 1987 Jul p65 1988 Canon City CO PPCC - - - - CNM 1988 Jul p57 1989 Red River NM CNM CNM - - - - CNM 1989 Jul p72 1990 Durango CO RMC RMC ? - - - - CNM 1990 Jun p65 1991 Gunnison CO PPCC RMC 21 41 14 11 CNM 1991 Jun p66 1992 Las Vegas NM CNM CNM 56 35 12 - CNM 1992 Jul p77 1993 Alamosa CO RMC RMC ? - - - - CNM 1993 Aug p86 1994 Pagosa Springs CO PPCC RMC 24 27 19 - CNM 1994 Jul p81 1995 Red River NM CNM CNM ? - - - - CNM 1995 Jun p66 1996 Montrose CO RMC RMC ? - - - - ? 1997 Gunnison CO PPCC ? - - - - CNM 1997 Jun p4 1998 Lake City CO CNM CNM 39 36 12 24 CNM 1998 Jul p9 1999 Salida CO RMC RMC ? - - - - ? 2000 Albuquerque NM CNM CNM 116 55 42 11 CNM 2000 Jun px ===== MORE ROAD APPLES ABOUT RALPHIE Dennis Pleau I was reading the Albuquerque Journal today and found a column by Sandy Grady. The title is "Nader Could Play Spoiler for Gore". Now, I don't usually read Grady, but I though I would read today's column and see how long it would take to mention Corvairs. I wasn't disappointed (yes, I guess I really was) as it was in the first sentence. I'm going to quote the first five paragraphs which contain a lot of fiction. "Remember the Corvair? In the mid-1960's, this was General Motors' idea of progress--a rear-engine car as unstable as pig dancing on ice. My dad owned one, a red coupe whose engine sounded like a wheat thresher. Over 50 on a rainy highway, you were on the edge of a whipsaw 180-degree spinout. Tow truck companies loved them. Ralph Nader took care of that. Through his harangues and a book, "Unsafe At Any Speed," Nader became a semifamous '60's icon for dumping the Corvair. Now, 35 years later, Nader might do for Al Gore what he did for the Corvair: ship him to the junkyard." I don't have an email address for this columnist but this is what I would reply paragraph by paragraph. Corvairs are only unstable when the air pressures in the tires, which is spelled out in the owners manual and on a sticker in the glove box are disregarded and the tire pressure are equalized. Because of the weight balance due to the engine in the rear, the air pressure is significant different than every other American car of its era. With the proper air pressure the Corvair is one of the best handling cars ever made. With 32 psi in all four tires, your description is pretty accurate. Opposed engines are inherently balanced. To sound like a threshing machine leads me to believe some of the maintenance may have been missed along the way. As for the 50 on the highway, I would bet the air pressure was equalized. In hundreds of thousands on miles I have driven in a Corvair, I've never been able to do a whipsaw 180-degree spinout, although I did one once in the rain in a 70 Ford Maverick (front engine rear wheel drive). I still don't know why I left the Vair home that night and took the Maverick. I drove a tow truck in the late 60's and early 70's, I don't recall ever towing in a Corvair. I could have just don't remember it. I towed in a bunch of midsize Chrysler products, because of a bad resistor in ignition primary. They were my favorites because they made me a lot of money. Most people in the automotive industry and hobby give the Ford Mustang the credit for killing off the Corvair. Only part of the first chapter of "Unsafe At Any Speed" is about the Corvair. Pick up a copy at any used book store web site and educate yourself about the book. I won't even comment about Al Gore going to the junkyard as there are some people of the other political persuasion on this list. Dennis Pleau Owner of 10 Corvairs Member of the Corvair Society of America Corvair of New Mexico Pikes Peak Corvair Club ===== Subject: DEMISE OF CORVAIR... GMS' FAULT??? LONG STORY (VV) From: NicolCS @ aol.com Dear VV readers: Imagine this meeting taking place between Chevrolet executives about 3 months after the introduction of the Mustang i.e. Fall 1964. Executive: I'd like to welcome you all to this afternoons' meeting about our strategy in the Compact market. We have a challenge here and I'd like to develop a competitive response to changes in the market. First, we will hear from Sales. Sales: Our combined sales of our compact models, Chevy II and Corvair are falling short of Fords' Mustang and Falcon. In fact, it looks like they are going to have DOUBLE the sales of the Mustang vs the Corvair alone. I'm embarrassed to say that it looks like the Mustang will set an ALL TIME production record for a new model. Advertising: And, if you look at the popular press, Ford is getting about 50 times the ink in terms of pages, not to mention they're getting TV news coverage on all 3 networks due to the mania surrounding this car. Styling: Our design is cutting edge, but the platform has pushed us into a corner. All of our current models have equal front/rear proportions, while the market is moving to the long hood/short deck concept. We can't move the greenhouse back or shorten the rear overhang on the Corvair platform. Mitchell loves this design theme but we can't meet the market trend on the current platform. Engineering: Correct, The platform from the greenhouse back is at a limit. The Corvair's oil filter is only 1/2 inch from the rear rail now and the air intake and transmission prevent us from pushing the greenhouse any further back. The platform just can't accommodate the long/short look the sporty/youth market demands. Also, in our teardown of the Mustang, their front subframe looks like it has the potential of handling any motor from their smallest six to possibly even the 429, believe it or not! Product Planning: Right! And where our concept provides an economy compact through a sporty European concept, by the way sirs, that will be our ad strategy, theirs moves into super performance configurations and ... T-Bird style "Personal Luxury" configurations! That's a first in the market. Four different segments in one basic car. That with their stand-alone options can provide nearly unique cars what with their molding by molding, piece by piece option strategy. Customers are eating that up. We can't really do that as we don't have the hardware and our costs are sunk in our exclusive engine and platform. Executive: Are there any plans to use the new Corvair platform in our sister divisions? Engineering: No, no, Pontiac doesn't have any motors that fit and the rope-drive was something of an embarrassment. B.O.P. now have all gone to our intermediate "A" body and reports are that they will stay there. Executive: Right... Engineering??? Engineering: The upward potential of the Corvair engine could go to maybe 190 or 200 cubic inches, the Ford small block can go to 350+ without too much imagination. We would have to go back to square one to be in that range. Finance: The real crunch is the cost of our platform and powertrain. They are using the Falcon platform in three models now vs our one use. Their powertrain is shared with ALL Ford models... ALL! How can we touch that? No matter what we do, we suffer that burden. Oh, and did I mention that our engine is the most expensive of any GM model, and we have it in our cheapest car of the "value" division of GM! Customer satisfaction rep: Excuse me sirs, but I'd like to mention that our complaint line has been kind-of tough lately too, what with the heater oil smell issue, heater exhaust smell thing, the belt thing, the oil leaks and so on. There has been an upward trend in the last 18 month as well. I thought you would like to know, Thank You. Legal: AHEM... As you all know, there are many claims pending regarding some of those issues, but the highest exposure we have is regarding those '60-'63 models' rear suspension. Anything without rebound straps is subject to incredible PL exposure (ed. note: PL=Product Liability). We are facing million dollar damages on each and every one of those cars. We have made roughly 1 million cars with that configuration, people... Advertising: Yeah, while Ford is getting positive press, our coverage is more on the accident stuff. Our new car isn't getting much press at all. Executive: This doesn't sound good at all... They're eating our lunch in sales. Our unique platform has us boxed in from a design standpoint. The other divisions have dropped the platform. The powertrain is at a point where we would have to develop a new concept to compete and we all know it takes 5 to 10 years for a new engine design. We have the most expensive little engine in GM. Legal is on our tail and I hear that "Clown's" auto safety book features the Corvair in chapter one! You think our press is bad now, you haven't seen anything yet! We need to try and stop the "Clown" in his tracks immediately. Where should we try to position ourselves considering the trends? Product Planning: I've been talking with engineering and styling. We think we can do the job with the Chevy II platform. The cowl is a little high, but styling says they can work with it. The subframe will take any GM engine, even next years' 396! We would share components with everybody. Delorian even has signed for a Pontiac version! Engineering: We would have quite an advantage as our small block is so well liked and the Chevy II front suspension has it all over the Falcon design. They have a cooling system limitation that we can address too. We might have a little problem with the exhaust system, but nothing we can't handle. Product Planning: Yes! and our market research is indicating a shift from the post-war fascination with British sports cars to a combination of muscle and sleek styling in a stretched package. Though there is a limited and shrinking market for our "European" design, we have quite a huge "power" trend indicated and we have to be in position to take advantage of that. Delorian has mentioned a European style OHC six concept that might do to keep the European-sports guys happy. Executive: Right, now we are onto something... We can get our costs in line, share a platform, align with the market, and put a legal issue in check all in one fell swoop. Executive to sales: What are the Corvair sales trends? Sales: Sir, Though there has been a positive blip with the new model, sales have been slipping for several years. Even the Monza and Spyders. Executive to finance: Have we made any money on the Corvair program? Finance: No, Sir. Executive: Well.. thanks to you all, I think we have a plan here. (Note: This story is "made-up", however the author of this piece was an automotive product planner and can vouch for the likelihood of the dialog. In real life, this would have taken more than one meeting!) Craig (Drove a '69 convert while employed as a Product Planner) Nicol 1966 Monza 140/4 efi ****************************** This message was sent by the Corvair list, all copyrights are the property of the writer, please attribute properly. To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo @ skiblack.com with "unsubscribe virtualvairs" (without the quotes) as the first line of the message. To post, mailto:virtualvairs @ skiblack.com. For help, mailto:vv-help @ skiblack.com. ****************************** Subject: EARLY FC & CAR REAR WHEEL BEARING IDENTIFICATION (VV) From: Stan Light ( scl @ sclqa.com ) Organization: SCL Engineering & Inspection To: virtualvairs @ skiblack.com For those of you who may be interested, we have now included, on our web site, a detailed bearing Identification Chart (photos and descriptions) of all early car and FC rear wheel bearings. This includes all manufacturers of NOS, NORS, and rebuilt car and FC bearings. Included are GM/Delco-Hyatt, Bower/BCA, L&S Bearings, and Green Manufacturing. To view this chart go to www.sclqa.com/corvair and click on "Bearing ID Chart". Thanks Stan Light Corvair Heaven ****************************** This message was sent by the Corvair list, all copyrights are the property of the writer, please attribute properly. To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo @ skiblack.com with "unsubscribe virtualvairs" (without the quotes) as the first line of the message. To post, mailto:virtualvairs @ skiblack.com. For help, mailto:vv-help @ skiblack.com. ****************************** Subject: POSSIBLE GROUP PURCHASE; CO DETECTOR (VV) From: "Ray Sedman" ( rsedman @ earthlink.net ) (This may be too commercial for the newsletter. I ordered one. - Dennis) Just in time for winter. :-) We have negotiated a (possible) group purchase for an interesting and unique item that may be of interest to members of this list. The product is a small solid state, portable carbon monoxide detector. You may visit the link below for details of the product and for information regarding the group purchase. http://www.american-pi.com/co_group.html Cheers! - Ray ****************************** This message was sent by the Corvair list, all copyrights are the property of the writer, please attribute properly. To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo @ skiblack.com with "unsubscribe virtualvairs" (without the quotes) as the first line of the message. To post, mailto:virtualvairs @ skiblack.com. For help, mailto:vv-help @ skiblack.com. ****************************** Subject: IDIOSYNCRATIC TURBO?? (VV) X-Sender: hljensen @ pop.ce.mediaone.net At 05:52 PM 6/1/00 -0400, JVHRoberts @ aol.com wrote: ) In a message dated 6/1/00 12:47:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ) FrankCB @ aol.com writes: ) ) How many Corvair turbo engines were made? '62 Spyder coupes 6,894 '62 Spyder convts 2,574 '63 Spyder coupes 11,627 '63 Spyder convts 7.472 '64 Spyder coupes 6,480 '64 Spyder convts 4,761 '65 Corsa turbos 7,206 '66 Corsa turbos 1,951 From official production figures, compiled by West Michigan Corvair Club. --Harry ****************************** This message was sent by the Corvair list, all copyrights are the property of the writer, please attribute properly. To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo @ skiblack.com with "unsubscribe virtualvairs" (without the quotes) as the first line of the message. To post, mailto:virtualvairs @ skiblack.com. For help, mailto:vv-help @ skiblack.com. ****************************** ===== Subject: IT'S TIRES AGAIN, BUT HAVE AT IT. TEAR THIS APART! (VV) From: BobHelt @ aol.com Hi everyone, this is long. But why not read it and tear it apart? Regards, Bob Helt STOCK TIRE SIZES There is some controversy over the sizes of the tires that came on Corvair cars from the factory, and how to relate these sizes to tires currently available. Yes, everybody knows that all the 1960-1965 cars (not Station Wagons or FC's) came with 6.50 X 13 tires and the 1966-1969 cars all had 7.00 X 13 tires. But what size were these tires? And how can you relate these sizes to currently available radial tires? Well, first we must consider how these tires were made, the different types of tire construction, and how all these factors affect the tire sizes. Also we must consider that there are three generally used ways to measure the actual tire size, or diameter. (If you know the diameter-D, then the circumference is D X pi.) These three ways are; Free diameter (Let's call this D1), Loaded rolling radius (made at zero speed) (Let's call this R1), and Loaded rolling diameter at some speed (often 50 mph) (Let's call this D2). These will be further discussed below. All the tires that came stock on the Corvair cars were known as bias ply tires. This form of construction was based on the fact that the construction cords crossed the tire axis at an angle to a plane through the diameter of the tire. Bias ply tires tend to grow in circumference as the tire speed increases. Thus, D2 will be larger than 2 times R2. In addition, D1 measurements are essentially meaningless, except to compare one bias ply tire to another. Comparing D1 measurements for bias ply tires to those of radial tires will not be productive in choosing a current tire size. This problem of D2 being larger than 2 times R1 was further complicated by the switch from 4 ply tires to 2 ply tires in about mid 1961. The 2 ply tires are somewhat softer and will tend to grow even more at highway speeds. During the 1970's, replacement tires were often available with a type of construction known as Belted Bias, where the bias cords were covered with a steel (or other type material) belt between the cords and the tread. Thus there was a steel mesh belt between the rubber tread and the cords. These tires contained some of the features of both bias ply and radial tire construction. One important feature for our interest is that D2 and 2 X R1 were very nearly the same. Since then, radial construction tires have essentially taken over the replacement tire market. This type of tire construction has the cords running from one side of the tire to the other side, so that they are perpendicular to a plane thru the tire diameter. In addition they also have a steel mesh belt between the cords and the rubber tire tread. Radial tires have a more uniform consistency in measurements compared to bias ply tires. As a result D1, D2 and 2 X R1 all tend to be fairly close. OK, so what does this all mean? Well in selecting a new tire size, there are basically only two important things to consider. The first is, will they (and their rims) fit within my wheel wells? But also important is the consideration of having a speedometer that is accurate. It is the speedometer accuracy question we are concerned with here. So in converting from bias ply tire sizes to radial tire sizes, the most important factor to base your choice on is D2, the Loaded rolling diameter at highway speed. All the other dimensions become unimportant. Again, note that all three, D1, D2 and 2 X R1 are about the same for radial tires, but tend to be significantly different for bias ply tires. Therefore you must compare D2 to D2 to get an accurate comparison. The table below shows the Loaded rolling diameter (D2) of the stock Corvair car tires, based on the revs/mile Chevrolet specs at highway speeds. Use this data to compare to the Free diameter (D1) of prospective radial tires for a fairly good comparison. It's interesting to note that the speedometers for the 1965-1969 cars were calibrated to 825 revs/mile so as to give a speedometer that would read "fast" since the actual revs/mile were spec'd at 840. Stock Tire Sizes Original Loaded | Current Loaded Sizes Rolling | Replacements Rolling Free Rev/Mi Diam.In. | Rev/Mi Diam.In. Diam.In. 6.50X13 (1) 853 23.7 | 185/80R13 844 23.9 24.7 6.50X13 (2) 864 23.4 | 175/80R13 863 23.4 24.0 7.00X13 (3) 840 24.0 | 185/80R13 844 23.9 24.7 | 185/70R13 886 22.8 23.2 | 195/70R13 865 23.3 23.8 Notes: 1) 1960-61, 4 ply 2) 1962-65, 2 ply 3) Standard on all cars 1966-69, and Station Wagons 1961-62 ****************************** This message was sent by the Corvair list, all copyrights are the property of the writer, please attribute properly. To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo @ skiblack.com with "unsubscribe virtualvairs" (without the quotes) as the first line of the message. To post, mailto:virtualvairs @ skiblack.com. For help, mailto:vv-help @ skiblack.com. ****************************** =end=