<VV> Corvair Production

[kenpepke at juno.com]

When I read down to your less than respectful closing line I sent your offering to the trash bin so I don't remember much of what you posted.  

Fisher Body was commissioned by Chevrolet to build the Corvair body per request of Ed Cole.   In 1957-8-9 NOBODY at GM had a clue that there would be a large market for such a product.  If they had seen such a market GM, in those before computer days, would have introduced it long before 1960.  The 10,000 or 20,000 unit projection prompted Fisher built the tooling to 'very low production' standards.  When production took off the usable life of those tools were quickly exceeded and they needed replacement ... a factor in the changes as seen in the 1961 model year.  

As far as believing GM would not build cars in such limited production numbers is NOT true.  GM has many times built specialty cars which were expected to sell in very low numbers ... Corvettes of the 50s is a well known example.  Mention of the ten year plan came to me from Frank Winchell.  The original idea was to experiment with the VW method of upgrading vehicle engineering but not changing the styling.  That line of thought went out the window as the dealers became swamped with orders.  When sales started falling off in 1963 a decision was made to build what we now know as the LM to try to bolster sales.  That plan fell far short of their expectations.  The 'ding-a-ling' market was saturated.    

You said something about GM building vehicles in year groups of threes ,,, or something like that. NOT true.   Unless perhaps you were referring to the BOP grouping of the cars.  That was a Fisher Body system only and NOT true of the rest of the corporation.  And there was something about 30,000 units to the break even point.  Also NOT true.  The break even point and cost of producing any vehicle varies greatly with the expected sales volume and is a well guarded secret known only to a hand full of people.  Anything published concerning that information is at best, a guess.

I learned many years ago the perception of history varies greatly with the perspective of the historian.  
Ken P

***************************************
"James P. Rice" <ricebugg at mtco.com> WROTE:

Ken:  Please respond to me about my material.  Tell me where I am way off.
Why?  History needs to be written correctly.  You should, I would think as a
42.7 year veteran of GM, want the history done correctly.  If you have
documentation, I and others would love to see it.

But what I wrote is not guesses.  My most recent note is a very short
summary on a couple topics in response to your specific allegations.

But I have spent many, many hours and some money researching what I have on
occasion summarized on v-v.  My sources include the writings of Richard M.
Langworth, Tony Fiore, Karl Ludvigsen, Chuck Jordan, David E. Davis, Jerry
Thompson, Gary Witzenburg, Michael Lamm, Mike Knepper, Paul Shaka, Don
Eichstaedt and Bob Helt.  At least 3 of those people have actually read my
15 pager, without substantial corrections of facts and summaries.

Who knows, maybe you know something they don't.  Enlighten me, and
eventually "us".  I'll give you credit when I get my 15 pager down to
Communique publication size.  It'll come after the articles I'm working on,
("Early Corvair Racing: 1959-1968" and "V-8 powered Corvair Race 
Cars" ie:
Ian Richardson, Frank Gardner, James Reeve, Mike Levin and maybe one or two
others I'm chasing but don't know for sure.  If John Fitch departs this life
as we know it before these get done, then they will get pushed back as I do
a tribute to one of the Greatest Generation who happens to be at the top of
my very short list of heroes.)

Historically Yours,
			James

PS:  The only question I actually asked was "Or is it April 1st in your time
and space?"  I assume it is not.

-----Original Message-----
From: kenpepke at juno.com [mailto:kenpepke at juno.com]
Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 8:47 AM
To: ricebugg at mtco.com
Subject: Re: <VV> Corvair Production


Or is it April 1st in your time and space?

Historically Yours,
                   James Rice
                   CORSA member since mid-70's
                   Former Chairman of the Competition Committee
                   Member of original CPF Advisorary Committee
                   CORSA/CPF BoD member and CPF Liaison 1999-01
                   Occasional contributor to the Communique


I will put my 42.7 years with GM Engineering up against your guesses any
time.  You are way off base on several points ... I had started to answer
your questions ... but why should I bother?
Ken P
 

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