Eastern Railroad Discussion > Neat stuff found while chasing Trains

After an all night drive from Western KY we got to Elkhart IN in time to take a little nap before daylight.

1. We were watching the action at the run-through service rack when I got distracted by some activity on the highway.

2. How long has it been since you've seen one of these? (You gotta be my age to even remember these).

3. I ain't no Ford guy but even I have to appreciate this one! This one sounded just as sweet as she looked.

More to follow, later, from our day on the Chicago line.

Old Bob out in Lost Wages

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Hi Bob. Nice pic's. I do agree, that Mustang look's nice and has the cool Pro street stance. Bill

Wow, a Corvair pickup, it even looks like it is a Rampside model. It has a ramp on the right side. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/1962-chevrolet-corvair-truck.htm

That is a neat truck(?), there's one of the Ford versions running round my town. I get a glimpse of it from time to time.

Having owned several Corvair's, love the rampside!
Ed K. cp Laurel Run

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I'm probably giving away my age, but the second car I ever owned was this solid black, two door model, turbocharged Spyder model. Talk about a FUN car to drive!!.
Pete Replinger

rampside

fehorse1 Wrote:
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> I'm probably giving away my age, but the second
> car I ever owned was this solid black, two door
> model, turbocharged Spyder model. Talk about a
> FUN car to drive!!.
> Pete Replinger

Yup! Our 1st car when we got married was a red Monza coupe with chrome wheels and baby moon hubcaps. Base 110HP engine & a 4 speed. A real fun car to drive on curvy roads! Made a 30 mile trip from Middlefork, IN to the hospital in Kokomo at 95 MPH one day.

One of my best buds got his engineering degree at General Motors Institute. While he was in school he got word that Bunky Knudsens (then head of Chevrolet) personal company car was for sale. A Corvette nassau blue 1965 Corvair Spyder convertible with real wire wheels. This car was the test bed for the "66" Corsa 180HP turbo engine ("65" Spyder turbo engine was 150HP). Jim snapped up the chance to pick up this one-of-a-kind classic. He is now the retired manager of the GM Performance Products Division and the Corvair still sits in his garage.

Bob

This 61 Corvair of mine had a Paxton blower, headers with exhausts that could be opened for the drag strip, I ran D modified sports class won some trophy's at the local drag strip. The car was a terror from 0 to 60 blew away my buddies 61 Ford Galaxy with a 390 horse engine one night. Defiantly a fun car.
Ed K.

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I have no problem believing all of this! My first problem after acquiring mine was getting insurance for it. The insurance company that I had at the time wouldn't insure it because they considered it a sports car - with its horsepower rating of the turbo engine. At that time, a couple of railfans I knew also had Corvairs. One of them was the now legionary Jack Holst from Portland, OR..

To answer your question, I haven't seen one of those in 40 years. And as sweet as that Mustang is, I'd rather have the Rampside.

Jim

m1bprr Wrote:
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> Having owned several Corvair's, love the
> rampside!
> Ed K. cp Laurel Run


My dad had one. I don't remember the year but it was definitely his favorite car.

The Corvair, Ralph Nader's Nightmare!!! "Unsafe at any speed"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/12 22:06 by mkostecky.

mkostecky Wrote:
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> The Corvair, Ralph Nader's Nightmare!!! "Unsafe
> at any speed"

Ralph Nader IS a nightmare!!!! The rumor around Detroit, at the time, was that he was "working" for FOMOCO.

SOB

I always heard the Corvairs were "dangerous". What was so dangerous about them?

onthebell Wrote:
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> I always heard the Corvairs were "dangerous". What
> was so dangerous about them?

Word was that the swin axels (single jointed half-shafts) would "tuck under" during extremely aggressive cornering. From 1965 on they had double jointed half-shafts. Remember that the rumor around Detroit was that Ford was behind Ralph Nader. When it comes to sportiness does anyone want to try to compare a pre-1965 Corvair Monza to a pre-1965 Ford Falcon???

Bob