<VV> Worth of Sagan Spyder

[dennis dorogi]

Seth Emerson wrote:   So Kids - Can anyone guess how many dollars it would cost to restore Carl  Sagan's old Corvair? 



    Your answer here<    Well, I spent over $16,000 on my 98 point concours Rampside (and I did every bit of the work) so I know what things cost.  To restore the Sagan                      car would be close to $20,000 again if I did all the work.  To have it done would be 3 times as much at least.  Spyders are expensive to 
     restore and this car needs everything.  I had a long talk with my son on the phone and he still wants to keep the car even if I can't do the work.  He was a grad student at Cornell and remembers passing Sagan in the hall.  He could never get to talk with him as Sagan was a busy man, a star so to speak, and well protected by secretaries and aides.  Mark still has hopes for driving the car someday, and maybe able to pay to have someone do it.  So for the time being, he wants to keep the car, but we have decided to kick the rampside out of the shop and at least get the Sagan car under proper cover.  And if my body holds out I will do as much as can.  I have some NOS panels for the car that I have collected and lot of parts were done that I could fit in my blasting cabinet.  This car has lots of memories for my family, buying it, hauling it back from Ithaca, NY., finding personal papers of Sagan in the glove compartment, getting that turbo motor to come to life again (it purred). And writing about it on VV,  As I wrote in 2004 "Perhaps the historical importance would be greater.  I agree with others that it is significant that one of the most creative and important scientists of the 20th century chose one of the most innovative and creatively engineered vehicles of that era to drive."  So to Darrin and others that would like to take on the task of restoring the car, I guess we are going to keep it for now, but as we all know - life does have a way of changing things.       Dennis Dorogi