<VV> Early/Late

[Bill Hubbell]

Considering I was five years old when the first Corvair rolled off the 
assembly line, I suspect Mr. Smith may be exaggerating a little bit.  It is 
true that I am somewhat younger than Smitty (20 years, I think), but I owned 
my first Corvair (an early, of course) at the tender age of 16 (1970).  I 
suspect Smitty was not involved with Corvairs much earlier, so I guess we 
about equals in that regard.

Early Corvairs deserve our respect and admiration no matter how you cut it. 
They were the original Corvairs - Ed Cole's baby - the ones that started it 
all.  However much you like Late models, they can never claim the same 
success as the Earlies; so many "Firsts" (Unibody, turbocharging, power-pack 
design, etc.), "Car of the Year", complete model line (wagons, coupes, 
sedans, vans, trucks), the "Spyder", the Economy car that created a new car 
genre - the small affordable sports car ("poor man's Porsche").  They 
popularized "Four on the Floor", "Bucket Seats", and even (to their own 
detriment) inspired the Mustang which in turn started the Muscle car age.

I could go on, but why bother.  You either know this stuff and are inspired 
by it, or you're too young or too ignorant to appreciate it.

Nothing against Late models, its just that they were, well, Too Late.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hubert A Smith" <vairologist at juno.com>
To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 5:11 PM
Subject: <VV> Early/Late


> Mike Wrote
> Everyone knows that the EM's are funny looking.
> -------------------------------
> Smitty says;  I was aware of the superioity of the Earlies when Hubbell
> was still in three cornered pants so don't be picking on him for starting
> this.  Fact is it was started for me at the 1st or second meeting I
> attended in 76 or 77.  I was minding my own business when a few of the
> members started badmouthing Earlies.  As for you Mikey you best be
> careful.  One of these days you will ask me something and I will misslead
> you with a straight face and cause you no end of grief as well as the
> spending a whole lot of money.  Not much of anything dumber than poking
> the bear with a broom stick.