Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Automotif XXIII...

Broad Ripple has its share of eccentric daily drivers. Seen in the same place as the last Corvair, this first generation one probably belongs to the same person. I'm yet again disappointed by a Corvair not sporting the vanity plate "F NADER".

Lack of a grille gives the rear-engined Corvair a blank and inscrutable visage that was hard for chrome-besotted motorists to trust.

The lip of roofline overhanging the rear window is a bizarre styling cue. This is an earlier car than the other one.

15 comments:

  1. My dad had a '63 Corvair Monza that
    he had to dig out of a snowbank to
    buy. I learned to drive a stick
    with the four on the floor in it.

    The thing kept trying to kill us (wonky steering, donuts in the snow without warning) but I liked it despite that.

    Used to cut my last college class
    hithchike home, fire up the
    Corvair and go grouse hunting.
    Better education in the woods than at the local EDU anyhow, I figured.

    See any Corvair vans there?
    Someone here has a restored one
    that I saw a couple times in the
    summer of 2012.
    "What is that? Oh!"

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  2. Corvair Pick Ups are the rare model. That and rag tops. The flying roof ledge was a common design think in the early 60's. Mostly GM but I had a bel air with a similar ledge.

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  3. Gotta love the irony of the "green" Nader killing one of the USA's best "economy" cars

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  4. Tam, do you think they extensive performance testing of the Corvair on the Nurburgring?

    Gerry

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  5. My family had one in '66 when we lived in El Paso, TX. My Dad put 3 sandbags in the front trunk to help keep the front end from lifting in the desert wind.

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  6. Roomie has a '62 Vair Station Wagon! Unfortunately, she needs engine, tranny, bodywork and glass.

    She refuses to sell her, hoping one day to get her up and running, again.

    She would be cool...

    gfa

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  7. There was a guy here in Iowa that had a F NADER plate. Someone complained and the state took it away from him. I did see a Corvair pickup a while back. It looked showroom new.

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  8. My dad's first car was a Corvair. He was unsafe at any speed. My mother used to drive it too. Ralph Nader would no doubt be shocked at my existence.

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  9. I always thought that were were futuristic looking. Of course that was about 1965, when anything out of the ordinary looked futuristic, Plus I was about 7 years old and I dreamed of living in the Future. Well here I am and the Future Sucks. I would like to go back to 1965 and pummel all of the Futurists for being TOO OPTIMISTIC. Yeah, that should be the new Catchphrase of BHO and his sycophants, "We were Just Too Optimistic for our own Good."

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  10. "The lip of roofline overhanging the rear window is a bizarre styling cue."

    Not a styling cue. Roof overhang provides some needed shade for back seat passengers when sun comes in the back window. Keeps passengers from getting (too)cooked. Not elegant, but it works.

    Also better aerodynamics - straightens the flow off the roof line.

    BSR

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  11. If it makes you feel better, I had a '65 Corvair Corsa Convertible with the plate "NadrHtr"

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  12. Scott: With the exception of no flying cars, I'm fairly pleased with this future I live in. I walk around with a communicator. I have a PADD. I can almost talk to computers. I have a world of information at my fingertips!

    But no flying cars is a big deal. Paul Moller can suck it. We almost have self-driving cars though, which would almost make up for it.

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  13. And I'm not living in one of these yet:

    http://www.space.com/22179-nasa-space-colony-vision-photos.html

    I have to say that's also a great disappointment. I also kind of figured we'd have visited Mars by now, but I guess it turns out without the risk of the Russkies getting there first, the motivation just isn't there.

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  14. Sebastian, I wholeheartedly agree with you.

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  15. My old Dad had one of the first Corvairs. Ordered it before they were even in the showrooms. Only new car he ever owned. I inherited it after 165,000 miles and one engine rebuild due to oil leaks, (he did it himself - nothing internal was worn beyond OEM specs.) I never thought it handled badly, although without 100lbs ballast in the nose it did tend to understeer in snow. I tried to get the F-Nader plate but it was already taken. Sadly I loaned it one day to a heavy-handed brute who snapped the transaxle input shaft on it, and I being more than usually poor at the time I had to scrap it.

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