<VV> Fiction or...

[Mel Francis]

Total agreement here. The design of the Corvair valvetrain is the real clue 
to it's origin.

The geometry of the valve train in the head is almost identical to that of 
the 1955 Chevy V8, including the use of
Chevy's own patented one-piece stamped valve rockers, with the same 
hydraulic lifter adjustment routine as the larger V8.
No other company (in the world) had a valvetrain with that design in the 
mid-'50s.

Any talk of Briggs & Stratton's involvement is actually quite silly, since 
B&S had no experience with
overhead valve engine production in the late '50s, only arriving at that 
point in the late '70s. If B&S
had built any engine prototypes for GM in the fifties, they would have been 
flatheads with mechanical lifters!

Mel


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <mhicks130 at cox.net>
To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 1:13 PM
Subject: <VV> Fiction or...


> I'm no expert or anything but everything I've ever read about the subject 
> clearly suggests that GM designed and developed the Corvair engine 
> themselves.  I'm sure they used Porsche and VW engines as "references" but 
> the design was in house - not outsourced to Europe.  Why is it so hard to 
> believe the Chevy engineers could do it?  They weren't idiots you know .
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