<VV> Corvair v. Falcon

[Russ Moorhouse]

Having had both vehicles, I must say that in 1966 when I pulled the head off 
my 62 Falcon to replace the valve guides it was a much simpler task than 
pulling the heads on my Corvair.  In less than 4 hours we had the head off, 
taken to a local machine shop and repaired and then re-installed.  On my 
Corvair, I wasted a month dealing with a shop more than 60 miles away, who 
said they could fix my heads and then decided they felt they couldn't do it. 
This was a shop that built up racing engines for Porsche and Lotus.  I ended 
up having to ship them half way across the country to get them fixed, and I 
live within a major metro area. It's not that there aren't any machine shops 
around, there are plenty of them I could have gone to if I had any other 
60's era American car.

Maybe that's why people prefer a normal type car, compared to the more 
exotic Corvair, when it comes to restoring cars.  That and the bad rap 
Corvairs got when they first came out.  I'm not talking Nader, he didn't 
help though.  I'm talking the poor support from their local dealers, the 
oily rear ends of most of the early Corvairs, fan belt problems, etc.  Our 
local dealer had only one mechanic who would work on Corvairs and their lot 
was always full of Corvairs with oily covered rear-ends waiting to be 
repaired.

I bought my Corvair for three reasons; I needed a small car to fit in my 
small garage; I wanted a car that there weren't a dozen of already at a 
cruise-in, and I really liked the style of the Corsa Coupe.  But if I had it 
to do over, knowing now what I didn't then, the Corvair wouldn't be my first 
choice again.  Maybe it's just me, but I find it too difficult to work on, 
compared to what I've been used to working on.  Even after 3 years I don't 
feel it's as easy to work on as a front engine/rear drive car.  If I had 
bought something like that Falcon convertible, I could take the engine and 
transmission to any auto machine shop in my area and have it 
repaired/rebuilt, not so with a Corvair.

Don't get me wrong, I like my Corsa, but if the owner of that Falcon 
Convertible were to approach me and offer me an even trade for my Corvair or 
even if I had to toss in a couple of thousand , my Corvair would be history. 
I like the Corvair, but I'm not in love with it, but at least I can get 
local people to work on the Falcon, not to mention parts for it from the 
local auto store.

Russ Moorhouse
'65 Corsa coupe 140 HP
Group Corvair Member
Corsa Member
Kent Island, MD