<VV> Length of LM Corvairs

[Alan and Clare Wesson]

> The overall length is the same (shop manuals).

Talking of lengths, I have always wondered why American car lengths are 
always given in inches, rather than feet and inches, in the shop manuals 
(Vairs included), and also in books like the Standard Catalog of American 
Cars.

What happened to feet? Y'all still use those, doncha? Ever since I have 
owned American cars I have got used to having to do feet and inches 
conversions in my head if I want to know how long my cars really are. And 
the only one I can ever do off the top of my head is 180 ins, which is 15 
feet (120 + 60, of course).

But a lot of the full-size 50s cars I used to own were a few inches either 
side of 200 inches, and that always used to take me ages to work out in 
feet. Finally I got used to the fact that 192 ins is 16 feet, and so 16 feet 
6 ins (a relatively popular length) is 198 ins, or 200 ins near as dammit.

But why not just tell us in feet to begin with? Vair content is that I am 
pretty sure without checking exactly that Vairs were nice easy 15-footers, 
or 180 ins (or thereabouts). Haven't checked for about 10 years though - am 
I right?

Cheers

Alan