<VV> GM Wankles - no Corvair

Dale Dewald dkdewald at pasty.net
Sat Apr 17 16:21:10 EDT 2010


At 12:00 4/17/2010 -0400, Lonzo wrote:

>Yup, Bill is right... I had a 1974 Popular Mechanix mag years ago that 
>showed the Wankle in the "new" 75 Monza, which is why that car had the 
>huge floor hump, giving it that "cockpit" feel... turns out it was going 
>to need 2 or three catylitic convertors (and just one was quite expensive, 
>let alone multiples) and the extra costs were rather prohibitive on a 
>"small car"... according to a later issue of PM, I believe the same year.

I understand that the last minute cancellation of the Wankel program also 
badly hurt AMC.  The Pacer was designed around a to-be-supplied-by GM 
Wankel.  They were left with trying to shoehorn the 258 cu in six into a 
too short engine bay.  This was too bad as I think the Pacer had the most 
innovative styling of all the designs that come out of the '70's.  As far 
as function is concerned, the 1979 4WD Eagle was ahead of its time.

Dale Dewald
Hancock, MI



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