<VV> Vega and Corvair
Vairtec Corporation
Vairtec at optonline.net
Thu Dec 9 11:28:00 EST 2010
My father gave me his 1966 Monza coupe and bought a new 1972 Vega Kammback.
While our family owned many Corvairs through the years, this was our
only Vega.
It was nicely styled and it handled light-years better than the
competing and ultimately more successful Pinto.
I was always amused by the fact that the Kammback body had ventilation
louvers in the tops of the rear quarters, reminiscent of a Corvair wagon.
Generally, it was an acceptable car, in that it gave us only a small
amount of trouble.
It threw something out of its alternator once, punching a hole in the
side of the alternator, but it ran sufficiently to get home and to the
dealer.
It was stolen out of the driveway one night, and found by the police
sitting in a puddle of oil, abandoned in an intersection. The thieves
had crossed a railroad grade crossing at a high rate of speed, and since
a Vega would belly-flop itself if its suspension was sufficiently
compressed, the landing had torn out the oil drain plug. Vegas had a
low-oil ignition cut-off, and when the car shut down the thieves bailed
out. A new oil pan was the only repair required.
A fellow in a full-size Pontiac sedan crossed an intersection in front
of my father one summer evening, and the Vega center-punched the
Poncho. The Vega was badly crumpled but not totaled, and was repaired.
By the time Dad traded it for something else, around '75 or so, the
engine sounded like it never had any oil in it -- always a "scraping"
sound when running. We never looked back, and we bought more Corvairs.
In fact, the last car Dad drove was a Corvair.
--Bob Marlow
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