The original design had a hook under the control arm that prevented
it dropping too far. This is vastly better than a sway bar, as a
sway bar won't do diddly for rear end lift due to braking. VWs tend
to flip over, too, but in those had a better geometry and much less
hp (astonishingly less on the old ones). The management (notably Ed
Cole) removed the hook because it was "too expensive". Cost every
upper level manager with a teenager a serious accident -- some were
killed.
The Corvair disaster cost GM a pile of engineers -- they quit in
disgust (and fear of being sued) and went to work for Ford and
Chrysler, some even to AMC. I think one of them was Lee Iococa, who
then ended up working on the Mustang and going to Chrysler.
Peter
On Feb 8, 2009, at 4:14 PM, barry Stark wrote:
Peter -
True, the first three years of the Corvair with the "swing" axles
were roll
over cars as were the early VW bugs. In fact one of my high school
teachers
had a '61 Corvair that his wife was driving when it rolled over.
The usual
cause, go over a whoop de do and then turn into a tight curve.
Caused the
rear wheel track to shrink and the wheels to have a highly positive
camber.
Perfect formula for a roll over. She came out all right though,
largely
attributed to the fact that she was wearing a bunch of curlers in
her hair
and they said that they acted like a helmet to some extent and
saved her
from getting a concussion. If you remember the '60s bouffant
hairdos you
will understand why. GMC did substantially reduce the roll over
effect in
late '63 with a beefy anti-sway bar much like the ones in our MBs,
and in
'85 they went to a double jointed rear axle, again very much like
our MBs,
well no, actually just like the Corvettes of that vintage. With decent
shocks and wider tires the later 'Vairs handled pretty well. A
friend and I
built a '65 'Vair that would outrun 911's on the open road. Of
course on a
track I'm sure it would have been a very different story. It was
basically a
stock chassis with stock brakes and it had a rather unnerving
tendency to
get very light on the front wheels if you stood on it very hard. (:O
Needless to say we had a lot of fun with the car but it was so
overpowered
it had some issues. I think it got about 2 miles to the gallon of
premium
fuel. The L60-14 tires didn't last long either as I recall. Had to
keep off
the foot feed in second gear or they would just spin a lot. We had to
replace the main bearings about every 200 miles. We felt that the
crankcase
halves just weren't up to the task, and then there was the problem
of the
cam timing gear wanting to walk off the end of the cam. The cam
gear was
pressed onto the end of the cam and that just wasn't good enough
for the
loads imposed by the heavier springs and the extreme lift. The
addition of a
couple of set screws seems to minimize the effect. I know this seems a
little "mickey" but after all we were just "weekend racers" working
out of
his welding shop with very limited funds.
Barry
-----Original Message-----
From: mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com [mailto:mercedes-
boun...@okiebenz.com]
On Behalf Of Peter Frederick
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 12:46 PM
To: Mercedes Discussion List
Subject: Re: [MBZ] [OT]Was Airbus Comments, now Unsage at Any Speed
Actually, it was worse than a design error. It was the deliberate
removal of a designed safety device (the camber limiter on the rear
axles to prevent "jacking" the rear end up) by upper management to
save $1.50 per car that made the Corvair a death trap. Besides the
fact, that like all GM products as the time, all there was to the
body as a single layer sheet metal box. Squashed flat if you jumped
on the top of the car, let alone hit anything.
Peter
On Feb 8, 2009, at 9:34 AM, Tom Hargrave wrote:
I remember "Unsafe at any speed?". The author bashed the Chevy
Corvair for
design issues that affected all cars of the 60s.
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