zarfnober wrote:
Just having a little fun with you. Didn't say you know nothing about cars but, the reality is basically 100% of the folks that diss the Corvair always bring up Ralphs book, incorrectly assuming it was all about the Corvair. Really don't care if you like em or not. Didn't say that you know nothing about cars. But when ya call it a "girly American VW" and now a Chevette? At least you didn't call it a Vega.
I brought up "Unsafe at any Speed" as a dig towards the absurdity of it. A joke. I didn't mean for this to turn into a debate. I like Corvairs for what they are. My initial comment wasn't a diss at all. But when you got all super defensive, I had to run with it. At least Vegas could fit a small-block and didn't use some underpowered air-cooled italian reject mouse-wheel.
And the Corvair is unique, and not a Tempest/Cutlass/Chevelle. And the Vair wins the multiple carburetor award at 4.
I've driven numerous versions of the same basic car the GTO was based on. None of them handle or stop anywhere near as well as the Vair.
Handling and stopping? Lol. Okay you got me there. The Corvair turns well and goes from slow to slower better than a GM A-body. Well done. My grandma would love it!
Too bad those pesky F-bodies came along and stole all of the Corvairs thunder. Seriously though, the Corvair is a cool little car, relatively rare, and very unique. Their styling is fantastic. I'm not dissing them at all. But come on, no one takes them seriously as any kind of performance car - drag or road course. There are way better vintage road cars, like any F-body, and the Corvair doesn't even register as a grease stain on a dragstrip. That doesn't take anything away from the Corvair because they weren't made for that stuff, but you can't seriously favorably compare the Corvair to any of the serious performance cars of the 60's. Really, come on dude.
But the GTO is still a cool car. Have fun,
Rocco
I will. I'm planning a new engine for it right now. I got mine in 1990 and it was my daily driver for years until I started drag racing it. Since then it's been through a number of (reversible) changes for the strip, but I'm currently putting it back to near-stock to street drive it again. I've got the original 389, two 400's, and three 455's sitting around....but I'm strongly considering modern LS-1/6 conversion now that kits are readily available for A-bodies. 400 hp while maintaining 17-20 mpg in a 64 GTO sounds pretty nice these days. I just don't know. I want a big belching lopey cammed carb'd 455 sucking in small birds and shaking the earth, but on the other hand modern fuel injection and efficiency sounds great too. Argh. Both options are hard on the wallet.