This is just a sample of some of the stories we've heard, and we want to hear yours, too! If you have a memorable moment or time in your life you spent with a Corvair, take a minute to let us know about it! Long or short, share your Corvair Stories here! Simply send us yours by e-mail to: editor@dancingskeleton.com |
CORVAIR Stories One thing we learned while shooting CORVAIR SUMMER -- Many, many people out there have had some strange or memorable experience related to a Corvair. From the distant past, or as recently as last week, you can read them all here... and send us your own! |
"So we're headed to the 'Alien Agenda and Cosmic Conspiracies' conference at the Holiday Inn on 19th Ave. and Peoria. And the car starts smokin', and the oil! It's spitting oil. I had just had that fixed, and just got the car rolling, and had worked on it for like two years and it was all customed out. It was magenta, it was sitting pretty, but anyway, there it was -- it's smoking! I tell my girlfriend to pull over (I had my girlfriend driving my car, I don't know why, it's a long story). Anyway, she doesn't -- she drives it all the way there and it stalls as we're in front of the hotel so my friend Terry and I jump out and start pushing it. And just as she's pulling into the parking lot she tries firing it again! I don't know why! We're there! We're pushing it into the parking lot! What, is she going to drive into the parking space!? It catches fire! Smoke starts billowing out the back. I am running back and forth to the docks inside the hotel, grabbing every fire extinguisher in sight! I grab like three or four fire extinguishers, spraying away. We've got the fire department on the way. My friend Terry has every moment of me freaking out on tape ('My car! My car!'). The fire department gets there and takes a crowbar to the back deck lid, 'CRUNCH!' and then they go to the side where had I tacked on a border panel, and it was so smooth, and the lines were just so sharp: CRUNCH! and then it DOESN'T OPEN -- so they go to the other side: CRUNCH! Then a couple of years later I was going to work on it, it was 1999 I was going to fix it up and give it a millenium paint job -- but the brakes were out, and we went to move it So we parked it in front of the house, and some drunk teenagers came and slammed into it. Made an already difficult project damn near impossible!" -- Tim Coomer, Phoenix |
"You were right, brought back many memories... not all of them good... Seeing Nissen spin out on his first race run reminded me how unstable the Corvair was on an icy turn. Xmas 1963 going down a fairly steep hill, made a right hand curve and the damn thing kept spinning by impetus and the rear end ended resting on the right hand curb. Scared the hell out of my Ex, and didn't help my digestion either. The first time I changed the oil was a winner. The rear end is so close to the ground (and I didn't have a full body raiser) and found what I thought was the oil plug, drained it, wondered why I did not have much draining, put the clean oil in and went to work the next day. The car froze up half way there and had it towed home. It seems that I drained the crankcase instead of the oil. Had to replace the whole cog/gear assembly. Fortunately, I had a customer who got the parts wholesale. Worked like a charm forever. Dumb luck against good sense. Also, with the battery under the fender on the left side, most Corvairs had the fender rust out with the acid fumes from the battery. Yuk. Also, with the heat gauge in the lower part of the engine, the earlier Corvairs always had an oil slick on the small grill. GM came out later advising moving the gauge on the upper/right of the engine and putting the dead plug in the bottom position. Changing shocks was a real thrill, too. Always liked the bucket seats, but most younger men found sex a little difficult! I had a 1963, and yours was a '66, which was my second, and a convertible to boot. No guts like the '63, which was the 5-speed. Great on dry roads and in the snow. Lowered the tire pressure, and never got stuck!" -- Glenn Forbes, Naples, Florida |
"Charles, I wish I still had my Corvair! I really do... Sixteen years old, I'm a sophomore in high school... Bright banana yellow! With black leather interior! It was sweet, it was sweet! I wish I still had it -- I was bitchin'! Oil leaks galore, but nonetheless, it was a nice machine! And my friend Jerry Myers, he would say, 'I can get into your car without the keys!' and I'd go, 'Yeah, right, whatever, Jerry -- So I'd be inside, watching whatever band was playing, and then I'd come outside -- and there's my Corvair, and it's not where I parked it! This happened several times. Finally once I said, 'Why is my Corvair not where I parked it?' and there would be Jerry, totally laughing at me. And I said, 'You can NOT get into my car without the keys!' and he said, 'Yes I can, I totally moved it!' To this day, I don't know how he got into my car, I don't know how he started it, I don't know how he moved it -- it's all still a mystery to me. Then I moved to California, to 'do better in my life,' and I came back home and my Dad had sold it! My Dad sold my Corvair!" -- Laurie Calvagno, Phoenix ___________________________ "Let's go kick his ass!" -- Charles Nissen, CORVAIR SUMMER |
This is just a sample of some of the stories we've heard, and we want to hear yours, too! If you have a memorable moment or time in your life you spent with a Corvair, take a minute to let us know about it! Long or short, share your Corvair Stories here! Simply send us yours by e-mail to: editor@dancingskeleton.com |
I gotta see that movie! My Corvair history goes back to several cars. The first was a '65 Monza 140 hp. Great car, never let me down. I put a set of headers and very short glasspacks from IECO on it and it sounded like a Ferrari when it was "up on the pipe". I think the headers were intended for Dune Buggy applications but I sure liked 'em. Anyway, once, I got busted for pipes by a police car that was following close enough for the flames that came out of my exhaust tips on deceleration to melt his plastic grille. Anyway, after that I put two "turbo" mufflers on it. My one other memory was of the process of "checking out the secondaries" after de-gumming them. I launched from a westbound freeway on-ramp and the pipes were really singin' a song at about 95 in 3rd when I passed an eastbound cop. He made a u-turn in the median and I took the next offramp and made several evasive maneuvers in order to avoid prosecution. I made it! Oh, my callow youth... More on the other cars later. J. Fleming, Bakersfield, CA |
The movie was cool! I have a small connection to Corvairs. When my brother and I were eleven-ish, a neighborhood teenager was our sitter. We heard about his older brother re-building a Corvair convertible. I thought they were dorky cars, until I saw the finished product. It was super sweet inside and out! A maroon convertible with a lot of cool chrome. Anyway, the movie was fun and brought back a lot of memories. My wife commented on how the Wolfman's delivery of the narration reminded her of the Dukes of Hazzard's narrator (Waylon). She was forced to watch that show every day for as long as she can remember, so it's a good memory. R. Schenke |
