<VV> Corvairs in Winter

[Gary Swiatowy]

Every once in awhile, this topic arises.
Corvairs as winter cars is how I became interested in Corvairs to begin 
with.
I had come from a Ford family, actually was driving a 64 Thunderbird in 
73-74.
But then became the odd man out by picking up a Dodge Coronet 500 
convertible, with a 383 and a 4-speed(still got it). As a 17 year old kid I 
actually owned 3 cars including my first car a 1953 Pontiac, now torn apart.
Then along came the opportunity to pick up a 66 Corvair 500, on its way to 
the scrapyard. I had visions of cutting the body off and making a dune buggy 
out of it like I had seen done to all these VW's.
One thing led to another and I discovered when I had to move the Corvair 
while it was buried in snow, that it moved through the snow much better than 
my 64 T-bird, even though the T-bird had a trunk full of concrete blocks.

Started driving the Corvair as a winter car, both to preserve the T-bird and 
the Dodge, and for the fact it went through the snow so much better.
One thing led to another, and yet two more Corvairs came along all 
sacrificed to the salt gods and western NY winters.
Carried kegs of beer in the trunk, did the old "crack the whip". Where you 
would be going down main street Akron or Batavia, and cut the wheel and yank 
on the emergency brake.
The back end would come around and finally grab, then the front end would 
come around real quick, causing the passengers to scream in terror thinking 
they were about to die.
This was back in the day I was young and dumb, and pretty much invincible.

Got through snowstorms including the infamous blizzard of 77 with Corvairs, 
going where no sane, (or at least sober) person would go.

Then around 1978, had a chance to pick up a Corvair, that was too nice to 
ruin in the snow, and salty winters.
Never drove one as a winter car again.....................

Currently, I wish I had a vair winter car, as my Prius sucks in the snow.

Yeah, I drove Corvairs with minimal heat and defrosters, but never failed me 
in that 16 mile trip to college. Or never failed to get me home from several 
late night parties when the plow drivers had not gotten up yet.

Gary Swiatowy