- 15,460
- Orange County, NY
- GTP_GT916
- Nii916
Chevrolet Corvair 900 Monza Spyder 1962
- Thread starter GranTurismo916
- 3 comments
- 1,384 views
- 5,284
- Sick_Cylinder
I think there needs to be more information about this car, because some of the youngsters probably have never heard of it and hence wont click like when in my view they should.
Things started well for the Corvair - it was the 1960 car of the year, but ended badly with a series of accidents - which were highlighted in Ralph Naders book "Unsafe at any speed". The Corvair had a RR configuration and despite an alloy flat 6 had a pronounced rear weight bias and was very sensitive to correct tyre pressures (fronts needed to be kept at much lower pressure than the rears). This combined with the swing axle rear suspension and the fact that it was targeted at young inexperienced drivers sometimes resulted in accidents, particularly when subjected to sudden U turns.
The swing axle rear suspension was eventually replaced with a Corvette style IRS, but this together with the alloy engine would have made the Corvair a less profitable car to build than the then current large and simple American cars.
The Corvair was also (as far as I know) the first standard production car to be available with a turbocharged engine although it suffered from horrendous turbo lag.
Not much to see in the above shot as the air cooled engine was covered with shrouds to keep air supplied by the fan directed at the cooling fins. It was however one of the best sounding engines of all time when worked hard and would make a great addition to the game - in GT5 the RR cars were terrible, but in GT6 the Renault 8 Gordini and Alpine are stunning cars to drive - try them if you haven't yet!
Stripped of the cooling shrouds the true beauty of this very advanced (for the time) alloy flat 6 engine is revealed together with a great soundtrack - enjoy this clip of a Corvair powered Harley motorcycle!
Lots more information on the Corvair available from this Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair
Things started well for the Corvair - it was the 1960 car of the year, but ended badly with a series of accidents - which were highlighted in Ralph Naders book "Unsafe at any speed". The Corvair had a RR configuration and despite an alloy flat 6 had a pronounced rear weight bias and was very sensitive to correct tyre pressures (fronts needed to be kept at much lower pressure than the rears). This combined with the swing axle rear suspension and the fact that it was targeted at young inexperienced drivers sometimes resulted in accidents, particularly when subjected to sudden U turns.
The swing axle rear suspension was eventually replaced with a Corvette style IRS, but this together with the alloy engine would have made the Corvair a less profitable car to build than the then current large and simple American cars.
The Corvair was also (as far as I know) the first standard production car to be available with a turbocharged engine although it suffered from horrendous turbo lag.
Not much to see in the above shot as the air cooled engine was covered with shrouds to keep air supplied by the fan directed at the cooling fins. It was however one of the best sounding engines of all time when worked hard and would make a great addition to the game - in GT5 the RR cars were terrible, but in GT6 the Renault 8 Gordini and Alpine are stunning cars to drive - try them if you haven't yet!
Stripped of the cooling shrouds the true beauty of this very advanced (for the time) alloy flat 6 engine is revealed together with a great soundtrack - enjoy this clip of a Corvair powered Harley motorcycle!
Lots more information on the Corvair available from this Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair
- 135
- Kent
- Dr-P-Grunfelde
Check out this excellent and informative short film on the Corvair:
