'65 Corvair Corsa coupe.

So you want to know more about the car pictured here? Here's a short history:

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The Car.

It's a 1965 Corsa coupe 140/4. Rebuilt 140 10:1cr, forged pistons, ported heads, ported and rotated carbs (stock) jetted 52/57, headers w/2" extractors, MSD ignition, stacks w/ K&N filters, 63 amp alt. '66 3.55:1 ratio posi transaxle w/4spider gear pak, '66 hubs. Cut down HD springs and Koni's, aftermarket quick steering arms and factory quick box, ADDCO rear sway bar.

Yenko style rear seat area, custom stereo, Corbeau GT seats, quick shifter, fresh carpeting, Grant wood steering wheel, added oil press and temp gauges. Battery relocated to trunk, electric fuel pump. Tires are BFG R-1's, size 225/50-15 on SenDel 15x6.5" wheels with 5" of backspacing. The exterior has GM dual sport style mirrors, a custom 7" rear spoiler, and the body is painted Regal Red with a white cove area.

How it got this way.

I bought the car when I was 18, in 1980. Turned out that at least 2 gallons of bondo were used "restoring" it, and the paint had not been removed prior to bondoing, which rusted out the body, but the floorpan was still solid :-( It got parked in '86. I rebuilt the car with a body from Texas (which was originally going to be an ultra-trick car, but that's another story), with the various hipo stuff I had acquired over the years, starting in late '88.

In May '90, I pulled the car into a friend's garage to begin restoring the body. Doors, hood, deck, and all trim was removed, next all the paint (factory paint :-) was removed chemically, then the body was treated to remove various surface rust. Only two holes were found, under the battery and in one of the door pillars, which were fixed by MIG welding. We then shot it in Regal Red, using a clear/color system. Due to a few little life changes (marriage, two children, and two job changes :-), it took a bit longer than the original 6 week estimate. To be exact, it was ready in time for the Fairfax City 4th of July parade. 1993.

Anyway, it made it to the Williamsburg Corsa International Convention in '94, where my lovely wife Ellie took home a trophy in Street Mod. I didn't, so one of these days I have a score to settle :-) The photo above was captured from a video that George Anderson took of my runs.

In 1995, we ran the car in 7 of the local autocross series events, sorting out the car and getting some real driving experience. Since then a number of things have kept the car off the course, but there are a few mods in store for the old girl:

• New springs. After a fair amount of study, I firmly believe that most competition Corvairs do not have enough spring rate. I had Bob Coffin set me up with some springs that should work a good bit better, they are ~25% stiffer than the cut HD springs I and most others are using. If you take a look at this photo, you'll see a fair amount of body roll. While really big sway bars could resolve this, it's generally better to have the springs do most of the work. Yes, I am a member of the "stiff bar/soft spring" school of thought, but remember that these a relative terms - if you've increased the sway bar rate by 50% you should be at least considering stiffer springs.

  

• Stiffer sway bar mounts. Also from Bob, these should increase the effective rate of the swaybars. They are quite similar to the Crown parts.
• Ignition. I also have some new ignition parts, a kit from DALE to convert the points to a Chrysler magnetic trigger, which will feed an MSD 6A amplifier (I currently have an MSD 5).

Update, 2004.

It took quite a bit longer to get to this point, in part because I found the #5 cylinder had low compression and I just wasn't up to tearing that down as well. But, the car is now up on jackstands in our carport for some TLC:

Step one is installing the new and used replacement front suspension parts.

Other cars.

We have a few other vehicles, here they are in cronological order, along with a few links:

• Corvair Wagon.

  I'll have to get a copy of this ad, here's what Chevy was thinking in '61:
  

  First Wagon.

  '61 Corvair Lakewood Station Wagon. We bought this from the Corvair Museum in the summer of '96. Sadly, it was too rusty to fix, but the 80HP engine in it runs quite well, so we thought about finding a better body and building a wagon.

  
  

  Number 2 Wagon.

  I've read many times the best way to get underway on a project is to buy one that somebody else is getting rid of, Dave Ziegler had started on a wagon but decided to build a Rampside instead. We ended up with a body, rotisserie, and a small mountain of parts. Here are a couple of photos:

  
  

  Wagon 3.0

  Sometimes things get in the way, and the body shell above never got completed. That's ok because a club member had an even better wagon that he decided to sell. Trevor and I spent a year installing front seats, completely rebuilding the brakes, and getting it running. Now to just get the title squared away and tags on it, we should drive it to the November 2009 club meeting.

  This wagon is a 700 with a 102/PG powertrain. The other notable option is tinted windows. In the photo it's getting its first bath after being on jackstands. Note the awesome racing seats!

  
  

• '64 Greenbrier. We've done a lot with and to our Greenbrier, so I made a separate page for it.

• '66 Jaguar E-type Roadster. This car was a basket case when I got it way back in '82. Life being what it is, it's still in a basket, but someday we hope to make a Street/Vintage racer out of it. In case you don't know what one looks like, take a look at the E-type section of the Jag Lovers web site.
• '66 Corsa coupe. Just too good to pass up. See more details here.
• '99 Dodge Neon. Bryan's daily driver, it's an R/T sedan with the 150HP engine, 5 speed, and most of the comfort options. Interestingly, the power to weight ratio is about the same as the Corvair autocrosser and it has the same suspension as the ACR model, so it makes for a fun ride :-) Basically, it's the closest thing we could find new to a late model Corvair sedan with a 140/4 speed. You can find more Neon stuff at the Neons.org website. Here's a photo:
  

• 2009 F-150. Ellie really liked her 97 F-150, so when it reached about 180k miles we traded it in on a new one. It also has 4WD, air, cruise, and a tow package, so it's great for doing truck stuff and still being comfy.