[1969] A LOSS IN THE FAMILY

[Bill H.]

                                                B"H

Mark:  I can relate to what you're saying.  While I am mostly into factory stock without all the crazy modifications some people do to their cars (dub wheels, cut out fenders, modified interiors, etc.) I am also very much into the "WHAT IF?" of the hobby.

We have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, but we sort of dream what Chevy could have done to save the Corvair to keep it going into the 1970s.  While the public was clearly tiring of muscle cars, the Corvair had the potential to blaze the trail for a small performance car that substituted technical sophistication for cubic inches.  Unfortunately, we all know what happened, but perhaps had Chevy continued with the Corsa throughout production, it could have saved the little car from extinction.

That's exactly why I added Super Sport emblems and identification to my '69 Monza.  Chevy never made a Corvair SS, but look how popular those Super Sport Novas, Impalas, and Chevelles became!  So my "what if" is a real live Monza with red and chrome SS emblems, and matching SS emblems on the wheel covers and interior.  It could very well have been a "factory stock" car had Chevy the foresight to add the pizazz they lost when they axed the Corsa.  And besides, it looks cool.

So bravo to you my friend, and keep that imagination alive...it keeps you alive as a person.

Regards...Bill Hershkowitz #5056

--- On Wed, 4/1/09, airvair at earthlink.net <airvair at earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: airvair at earthlink.net <airvair at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [1969] A LOSS IN THE FAMILY
> To: "1969 Group" <1969 at corvair.org>
> Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2009, 2:01 PM
> I have been sitting here for the
> longest time pondering on how, or more
> appropriately, whether to share this story with the rest of
> the Corvair
> world. It’s because I know that while it is grievous to
> me, it will no
> doubt please the purists to no end. That is because this is
> about my
> beloved ’69 Corsa (#3485), a car who’s very existence
> those same purists
> found intolerable.
> 
> The car was conceived due to a particularly disparaging
> comment I heard at
> the first CORSA convention in ’71. While proudly
> displaying my ’67
> convertible, the derogatory statement was made to me that
> “the ‘67-9
> Corvairs were no good, because they didn’t make the
> Corsa.” I knew that
> statement to be total rubbish, for two reasons. First the
> ‘67-9 cars
> incorporate a number of improvements, from the (arguably
> better) astro
> buckets to the energy-absorbing steering column. Some of
> these improvements
> can be easily retrofitted into earlier cars, some are very
> difficult if at
> all, and some are a matter of personal preference. Second,
> the differences
> between the Corsa model and the Monza are solely limited to
> the dash panel
> and a few cosmetic bits of trim and paint, and certainly
> nothing major nor
> anything that isn’t easily swapped. What makes that
> put-down statement even
> more offensive is that it was made by someone who would
> probably have
> thought nothing about swapping a Corsa dash panel into a
> Monza. It was then
> that I decided to show everyone that there really wasn’t
> anything terribly
> special about a Corsa. And certainly that the improvements
> in the ‘67-9
> cars far outweighed the “value” of the Corsa model’s
> existence, especially
> since everything in the Corsa package was so easily
> transplanted. Thus the
> “infamous ’69 Corsa” was born.
> 
> As a Corvair, it displayed the best of everything the
> Corvair ever offered.
> It was assembled from all stock parts, per CORSA’s
> written concours
> definition of street stock. And everything was done
> correctly, right down
> to the last fastener. Even the additional Corsa-only wiring
> was wrapped
> into the wiring harnesses, just like the factory would have
> done. So to
> those who could truly appreciate the finest of all things
> Corvair, it was a
> work of art. One of the highest complements I ever received
> was when a
> friend told me “Mark, you’re the only one I know
> who’d make a ‘custom’ car
> out of all stock parts.” The car looked pure stock
> because it WAS pure
> stock.
> 
> But it was also a car that the purists hated. In fact, so
> much so that it
> was barred from competition in its proper CORSA concours
> class, Street
> Stock. For fourteen years after its pavement-up resto,
> concours chairman
> after concours chairman refused to follow the letter of the
> CORSA rules. It
> was just a few years ago that one of them finally admitted
> that while there
> was nothing about it in the rules, the decision to confine
> this car
> (constructed totally of stock parts) to a custom class was
> strictly an
> ARBITRARY verbal decree. Thus it was never shown in a CORSA
> concours. After
> all, why Stock cars are separated from Custom cars is
> because stock parts
> cannot compete fairly with custom parts – one of the most
> basic of concours
> principles.
> 
> Finally last year the new Concours chairman agreed to
> follow the letter of
> the rules, and to not go by any (unwritten) arbitrary
> decision.
> Unfortunately a horrible “train wreck” has robbed me
> forever of this unique
> and wonderful automobile. It has been said that to some,
> you don’t own a
> car so much as you adopt it. It becomes a member of the
> family. Such as it
> is with me, so this loss is personal, grievous, and
> heartfelt. But the
> truly sad part is that so few appreciated the car, yet the
> entire Corvair
> world will be poorer for its loss.
> 
> -Mark Corbi
> 
> 
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
> 
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