<VV> PG discussion (was "A good day in my little Vair' shop")

[Charles Lee]

Yes, automatics perform better in drag races, but the Corvair's success
among its contemporary straight-line muscle car competition was its
performance in corners, not in the straight races, if memory serves me ?

I remember being surrounded be the noisy behemoths after classes at the
college, and waiting for them to slow down through the "cloverleaf" that I
knew would stop them dead in the tracks, while I wove between them, to watch
their headlights lumbering around and into the straights where it would take
them a mile and a half to catch me !

The Corvair gained a little respect at that point, just for its prowess in
those corners!

My favorite memory for a "straight line race" was my 69 Monza 140 that went
from a standing start, gear-for-gear with a 68 Charger to about 65 (in a 40
zone, so we both backed down, but he demanded to know what I was "hiding"!
I had to open the "hood" to prove I was not hiding a V8 up there!)

Corvairs may do well in drag races for their balance, but road racing is
their forte, and a 4-speed gives the best "balance of power" over the RPM
range, IMHO.

~Cz


-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Karl Haakonsen
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 7:56 PM
To: Virtual Vairs
Subject: <VV> PG discusion (was "A good day in my little Vair' shop")

This was copied and pasted (and edited) from a post I made last year. My old
contribution was a "necro post" on an old discussion topic so it went
ignored. I re-purposed it to this ongoing discussion (disclaimer: I have
always preferred manual transmissions for the control they afford me over
gear selection; yet, as a city dweller, I appreciate the convenience of an
automatic and am generally more flexible about the subject).
- - - 
For those who complain about the lameness of having only 2 gears, remember
that the theory behind the PG was that there were two mechanical speeds and
a theoretically infinite number of speeds handled by the torque converter
which had a maximum reduction of 2.6:1. (there's a great tech topic on this
in the "Transmissions" section of the Corsa Tech Guides titled "Praise the
Powerglide" or something like that). 

My guess is that modern transmissions with more mechanical gears perform
better because the additional mechanical gears give better precision in
terms of keeping the transmission in the ideal torque band of the engine
than afforded by the two-speed PG-style. So the modern automatic doesn't
really utilize the torque converter for gear reduction, but as just a clutch
of sorts. The PG wasn't really as bad as some of its detractors think ...
remember that it did somewhat better in 0-60 acceleration than the 3-speed
manual Corvair. 

Karl in Boston 
66 Monza Convertible 110/PG 
www.chezhawk.com/VairBlog
Sent from my BlackBerryR smartphone with SprintSpeed
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