The most unsafe car ever?

[N8N]

That's pretty impressive rust; I'm sure the reason the tank was rigged like that is there couldn't have been much structure left to strap a tank in the conventional location. But I'm not surprised that car is from Minnesnowta, I'm more surprised that it's got enough metal left to move down the road and not disintegrate after so many years.

I think my personal "WTF" moment was the guy I saw pulled over on the Ohio turnpike years ago driving some older GM boxy RWD sedan thing - I couldn't identify it because I was driving the opposite direction, and the entire front clip was missing - the only things forward of the cowl were the frame, suspension, engine, and the radiator support (it did have headlights...) I assume that there was wiring there as well... can't imagine anyone thinking that it was a good idea to try to drive that on the turnpike, but I guess my standards are higher than some.

nate

[clare]

Viton was not available in 1961.

[Ashton Crusher]

The corvair's were fantastic cars, one of the best ever. Their minor handling problem could be easily fixed.

[Ashton Crusher]

The first one I had was a 60. It was unstoppable in mud and water.

[Ashton Crusher]

My 60 had the optional gas heater. No oil fumes. Hot air 30 seconds after you turned the key no mater how cold it was.

[Dan Espen]

I won't concede that it had a handling problem. But in 65 it was "fixed". Pretty much the best handling of any car on the road.

I still despise Ralph Nader for the hatchet job he did on the Corvair.

I had a '66 with the 4 single barrels. Bought an aftermarket kit to mount a Holly 4 barrel on the car. The Holly normally fed gas through two of the barrels, but when you pressed the gas pedal down the other 2 would kick in. Turned the car into a rocket ship.

Wish I had the money back then to keep those cars running.

[DD_BobK]

Ralph-

Thanks for pointing out the relative cost..... I didn't start driving my 61 corvair until 1970. I bought it from my brother for $25.

I was in high school and only making $2.50 an hour so $15 would have been nearly a day's pay. Plus I only worked ~20 hrs per week.

cheers Bob

[DD_BobK]

Yes, the optional gas heater was great but not very common. But I lived in SoCal so even when it was "cold", I could drive with the window down.

[Steve Barker]

many times we spend many hours worth of pay to fix the ride.. Or we can breathe the smoke.

[DerbyDad03]

That wasn't my point. cl used the phrase "in about 1969 they cost all of $15"

When phrased like that, "all of $X" implies "a inexpensive item" - pocket change. At least that's how I interpret "all of $X".

$15 in 2012 dollars sounds pretty cheap (~2.5 hours minimum wage work) but when referring to 1969 dollars, I wouldn't use the phrase "all of" which, to me, makes the item sound inexpensive.

Working for 14 hours to earn enough for the repair may absolutely make sense, but making an item that requires 14 hours worth of work sound inexpensive doesn't.

[clare]

Actually they must have been well under $15 at that time. Autozone has them for $10.95 today.

[clare]

My memory of prices isn't real good. They are 10.99 today at autozone. I bought 2 sets a couple of years ago -not including shipping I paid $15 for the 2 sets. They were likely closer to $5 or $7 back "in the day".

Looking a little farther, CPD has the viton set on for $7.35, and Clarks had them listed at $1.65 EACH in 2002

The original factory seal set was about $3.

[DerbyDad03]

Now the numbers match a little better. :-)

To earn the cost of a set, it would take a couple of hours of minimum wage work, both now and then - roughly.

[Doug]

Right but I did after I posted above.

[Ashton Crusher]

Besides the 60 I had a 62 briefly as well as a 65, also briefly. The

65 had the 4 1-barrels on it. It was pretty fast and could make an Olds 442 work hard at keeping up.

[clare]

Just throw in a few tight turns and all the 442 sees is tail-lights

[Atila Iskander]

Decades ago, when I did my 2 month cross-continent motorcycle trip on a Canadian issue Honda Cx650ed,

I ran onto an idiot driving a Corvette, who seeing my bike loaded with gear front and back figured he could outrun me on SR 35 going into Cupertino. Somehow he just couldn't keep his speed up going in and out of the turns.

[Harold W.]

HeyBub scrit:

Corvair. At any speed.

[clare]

Nope - the last 5 years of the corvair were as safe as a corvette - same basic rear suspension geometry. Mabee go for a Yugo or some other little crap-box that couldn't get out of it's OWN way, muchless anyone elses.

[Roy]

I owned a Pinto...it was a well built car and I had very little trouble with it. The motor was excellent. ==