Wednesday, August 13, 2008
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| Flint Population Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1860 | 2,950 | | |
| 1870 | 5,386 | 82.6% | |
| 1880 | 8,409 | 56.1% | |
| 1890 | 9,803 | 16.6% | |
| 1900 | 13,103 | 33.7% | |
| 1910 | 38,550 | 194.2% | |
| 1920 | 91,599 | 137.6% | |
| 1930 | 156,492 | 70.8% | |
| 1940 | 151,543 | −3.2% | |
| 1950 | 163,413 | 7.8% | |
| 1960 | 196,940 | 20.5% | |
| 1970 | 193,317 | −1.8% | |
| 1980 | 159,611 | −17.4% | |
| 1990 | 140,761 | −11.8% | |
| 2000 | 124,943 | −11.2% | |
| Est. 2007 | 114,662 | −8.2% | |
5 comments:
We loved our Corvairs while we had 'em. Dad bought two, the last one was a Monza. and they never did split in half with all the doors open. I thought they were better than the skanky old opel that filled the driveway.
I loved mine. It was my first car and at least 10 of my friends had them too. The one thing they all had in common was a hazy fog in them when you drove them and an exhaust smell, but it was sooooo good on gas.
My husband was driving a Corvair when we met. Cute car, I wish it was still around. I think there's a Corvair dealer up on Clio Road, we passed it a couple years ago on the way to pick blueberries at Azure Acres on Lake Road.
The loss of the Corvair brand was the first reason I had to "dislike" Ralph Nader.
Love the poster. I have two Corvairs now in California, a '61 Monza sedan and a '65 Monza coupe.
Both four speed sticks. They're way fun in west side traffic.
I recall the sports car magazines' comments when the Corvair project was in its formative days. The Chevrolet engineers thought they were developing an Americanized Porsche clone. That was the conceptual origin of the air-cooled rear engine and the swing-axle rear suspension... both "inspired" by the Porsche 356. The early sketches even had gullwing doors, another sports car touch.
Then the bean counters weighed in, and the project became an Americanized VW Bug.
If the eventual car had had the original engineers' expected tight spring rates and damping, the swing axle suspension probably would have been fine. Instead, the bean counters wanted it to ride like an American sedan, which meant soft, which meant instability in high speed cornering. That was Ralph Nader's cue.
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