Show me a nice old car

Thanks, Larry - Unlike turbocharger setups these days, the Corvair had no waste-gate, so was sized to produce positive manifold pressure above ~3000rpm and then be limited at redline by exhaust backpressure in the special muffler. With the boost up there was a lot of pull! The V8 conversion was very different in the power delivery, as you might imagine, and noisy with no engine cover. The torque broke a pinion gear once... But hard to say which is ultimately the faster. Records show the most recent pics in 1977, no scans.
 
Doug said:
Thanks, Larry - Unlike turbocharger setups these days, the Corvair had no waste-gate, so was sized to produce positive manifold pressure above ~3000rpm and then be limited at redline by exhaust backpressure in the special muffler. With the boost up there was a lot of pull! The V8 conversion was very different in the power delivery, as you might imagine, and noisy with no engine cover. The torque broke a pinion gear once... But hard to say which is ultimately the faster. Records show the most recent pics in 1977, no scans.
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Thanks, Doug. I’ve driven the 140 HP turbo Corsa, back in the day. Seemed quick enough:)
But the mid engine small block sounds fun. Always nicer to have more engine than the chassis can handle.
 
Hi Doug and Larry -

I thought the boosted Corvair Corsa had 180 bhp and that the unboosted performance model had 140.

- Murray
 
Indeed, and as an extra benefit, the V8 got very good gas mileage, mid-20's as I recall, with its Quadrajet carb. But the 140hp Corsa was a 4-carb setup, and the turbo was 180hp. Mine had a single large SU carb, as I was familiar tuning those.


(Edit: You're right, Murray! And the standard 2-carb model was 110hp if I'm remembering correctly)
 
Doug said:
Indeed, and as an extra benefit, the V8 got very good gas mileage, mid-20's as I recall, with its Quadrajet carb. But the 140hp Corsa was a 4-carb setup, and the turbo was 180hp. Mine had a single large SU carb, as I was familiar tuning those.


(Edit: You're right, Murray! And the standard 2-carb model was 110hp if I'm remembering correctly)
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110 hp sounds right to me, too, Doug.

Larry Cloetta said:
Maybe that's why I thought 140 HP was enough, it was 180 HP..;)
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Larry, a friend of mine had one of these and I was really impressed with the power and the handling. The second generation Corvair really had the suspension sorted out. I believe some of it was borrowed from the Corvette.

- Murray
 
Yes, they got away from the swing-axles that prompted Ralph Nader's book "Unsafe At Any Speed" which I daresay applied more to the VW Beetle and its ilk than the early 'vair. So from 1965 onward it was a fine fully articulated axle setup with inboard and outboard u-joints to control the camber. I've heard possibly the same story, Murray, that the u-joints were Corvette parts.
 
Wolseley said:
I'm not saying it is but, to me, it looks like a Jewel, a car made in small numbers from a premises at 4 Bowland Street, Bradford in the 1920s and early 1930s. According to Culshaw and Horrobin's Complete Catalogue of British Cars "The Bradford built Jewel light car was listed for practically two decades, but very small numbers were produced. Most cars were effectively one-offs, as the maker, John E Wood, nearly always built cars to a customer's individual requirements".

There is virtually nothing I can find on the internet about Jewel cars (the similarly named Jewell was an unrelated American make) and the only illustration I can find on the internet is a scan of the one in Culshaw and Horrobin's book, which is on Wikipedia, which unfortunately contains little else of use. It is of a 1935 Jewel.

The wheels and mudguards in your photo are different, and the boot is also slightly different, as are the door hinges, but the similarities are quite striking. As most Jewel cars were effectively one-offs, a few differences from one car to the next would not be unusual. The photo is reproduced below:

MHV_Jewel_1935.jpg
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I think this is a Jowett not a Jewel
 
Doug said:
Yes, they got away from the swing-axles that prompted Ralph Nader's book "Unsafe At Any Speed" which I daresay applied more to the VW Beetle and its ilk than the early 'vair. So from 1965 onward it was a fine fully articulated axle setup with inboard and outboard u-joints to control the camber. I've heard possibly the same story, Murray, that the u-joints were Corvette parts.
Click to expand...


I can attest to the propensity of the early Corvair to spin out - it happened to me three times in a 1963 model. The last wrecked it.
It gave no warning at all. I never had problems with the two Beetles, two Karmann-Ghias or two busses that I drove for years.
 
besk said:
I can attest to the propensity of the early Corvair to spin out - it happened to me three times in a 1963 model. The last wrecked it.
It gave no warning at all. I never had problems with the two Beetles, two Karmann-Ghias or two busses that I drove for years.
Click to expand...
Interesting, ouch! I hadn't heard stories like that... I just mentioned Beetles as I remember seeing a few upside down in the ditch, e.g. a couple seen on the road up to Mt Rushmore. And I watched it happen once on 12th Ave in Seattle, as a VW van came down the hill from the Marine Hospital and jogged right onto the bridge/overpass over Dearborn Ave, lifted the right-rear wheel and went over on its side against the southbound railing. He kicked out the windshield and climbed out. Good thing the railing held or he'd have fallen down on Dearborn below!
 
Pretty classy, Larry! A selfie? :)


Here's a local VW Van...
U77I1596084461.SEQ.3.jpg

Leica M-D 262, 2.0/35mm Zeiss Biogon-ZM
 
Ford Model T by Berang Berang, on Flickr


Ford Model T by Berang Berang, on Flickr


On the corvair tangent above, I've seen it hypothesized that the reason corvairs were more tail happy than VWs was that the beetle's taller 15" wheels were less likely to tuck under than the corvair's small 13" wheels. Fiat, which used even smaller 12" wheels used a trailing arm arrangement from the get go instead of swing axles, and generally were regarded to handle better than the corvair, beetle, dauphine, et al.
 
Here's another Mustang where I can't identify the model year. Looks like a 1st generation body type, and the passenger-side dashboard has a "Mach 1" emblem on it, but according to Wikipedia, Ford didn't make Mach 1 convertible. Possible resto-mod?

Leica M5, Canon 35mm f/2 LTM, ORWO N74+, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 6.5 minutes.


2019.05.28 Roll #204-03572-positive.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr
 
Surely an aftermarket steering wheel in that Mustang convert. Nardi comes to mind but it seems that brand uses slots in the spokes rather than round holes... I think we would nowadays consider that wheel hazardous.
 
A little Lotus in Yokohama. I didn't realize how small these cars were until I stood next to it. I'm 6'1" and I seriously doubt that I could fit behind the wheel.

DSCF0798.JPG


DSCF0800.JPG


Fujifilm X-Pro3 - Fujinon XF 35mm f1.4 lens
Astia film simulation
Yokohama, Japan

All the best,
Mike
 
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