Thursday, December 31, 2009

Monza GT Sparks the Imagination — AC Sparks the Action



1 comment:

  1. Heh. What the originating Chevy engineers wanted and expected the Corvair project to be...gullwing doors and all...a Euro sports car alongside the all-American Corvette, "inspired" by Porsche under the skin and the Ferrari Daytona externally.

    The tacit conspiracy to forget to inform the bean counters and the Board ran out of gas right about that point, and the word came down from the top that the Corvair project was to be reworked as a VW Bug competitor, with minimum cost and...a feature directly dictated by the accountants...a much softer "American-style" ride than the VW. Unfortunately, the mechanical design of the rear suspension was already committed to swing arms. Swing arms are only safe with stiff progressive springing and damping; soft springing permits the possibility of excessive body roll, which causes the rear tires to lose grip in chatter fashion, resulting in an uncontrollable fishtail or spinout.

    It was this characteristic of the original Corvair under excessive cornering speed that Ralph Nader pounced on.

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