<VV> Brand New Corsa -- Minimal Corvair

[Rick Norris]

At Steven's request, I have forwarded this post as he is out of the country 
and has trouble posting things to VV.
Rick

 Hello Everyone:

 I haven't posted in a while, but I felt like writing something this
 morning.  Skip this if you're busy because it's a little long and
 there's not too much Corvair content.

 Through a combination of circumstances, I have been living and working
 in Madrid, Spain since March of this year.  I will be here until
 November/December.  On the upside, my teenage daughters and girlfriend
 had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live here with me for the
 whole summer (while school was out).  We traveled all over Spain and
 Europe on long weekends.

 On the downside, I will miss an entire Corvair season.....

 I was home briefly around July 4th and I was able to drive my Monza
 convertible precisely two times.  I wasn't so lucky with the Corsa
 coupe.  I backed it out of the garage and, at that very moment, the
 passenger-side muffler hanger/bolt rusted through and the muffler
 sagged.  When it happened, I thought I heard something that sounded
 like a hole in an exhaust donut.  The car hadn't been driven for 6
 months ... so I was sort of prepared for all those little tics that
 can appear after a period of inactivity ... so I kept backing up,
 unaware that my pipes were sagging dangerously low.  Naturally, the
 muffler caught on the street where the road meets the driveway and the
 muffler, exhaust, etc. bent down considerably.  I got out, looked at
 the situation, snorted, got back in, and drove it slowly with the
 muffler dragging, metal-on-cement, back into the garage.  I had to
 catch a plane the following day, so the sentences in this paragraph
 will likely constitute the entire 2011 Serenska Corvair experience.

 I have certainly not seen any Corvairs while in Madrid, nor in any of
 the other cities/countries we've visited on weekends this summer.  One
 thing I like to do over here, however, is see what some of the car
 manufacturers are releasing in Europe that they don't market in the
 states.  There are some BMWs and Jaguars available over here that we
 don't see in the US that make me salivate.  On the other side of the
 spectrum, based on what I've seen, I'm dreading what Fiat might push
 into Chrysler's U.S. showrooms anytime soon.

 Unfortunately, I'm not really impressed with GM's offerings over
 here.  The smaller Chevies that we have in the US (Cruze, Aveo) are
 well represented.  The Cruze is kind of nice, but the rest of the Opel
 line (that's GM's principal brand here) is somewhat unimpressive.  The
 Opel "Astra" reminds me of the jellyfish that wash up on the beach in
 August ... after they get swollen in the sun and just before they
 die.  We rented a god-awful small minivan called an Opel "Zafira" to
 drive to Barcelona.  In a nutshell, it was small and god-awful.  Oh,
 and underpowered.  The Opel "Insignia" is kind of nice...particularly
 glossy black with big cast aluminum wheels.  But, somehow, when you
 put "Buick Regal" on the same car in the US, it fails to turn my head...

 I had seen several Opel Corsas while walking around Madrid -- and I
 thought of VV every time -- but I never had my camera in hand.  We
 visited a friend in Lisbon, Portugal one weekend earlier this summer
 and I was able to take a picture of a relatively new Corsa parked on a
 Lisbon street.  I have included links to the snapshots below.  The
 Opel Corsa is GM's entry-level vehicle over here and it's kind of sad
 and uninspiring to see what has become of our top-of-the-line marque.
 I've never done attachments on VV and I hope they come through.

 So, I'm sitting here this weekend missing listening to baseball games
 on the radio and driving my Monza convertible.  When the full NFL
 schedule starts tomorrow, I'll likely be climbing the walls.  My
 daughter mailed me my Corsa Communique's and I read them all this
 week.  The article on the guy who spent 12 years restoring the '66
 Corsa Turbo Convertible made my day because I considered buying that
 same car shortly before I bought my convertible.  It was nice to see
 what had become of it.

 Please everyone, go out and take a pleasure drive in your coupe,
 ragtop, or Rampside this weekend and cherish all the nice moments your
 Corvairs give you.  Believe me, there is no substitute for the smile
 it puts on your face.

 Steven J. Serenska

 1965 Monza Convertible, 110/4
 1966 Corsa Coupe, 140/4, slightly loud on one side

 http:/www.serenska.com/IdealGarage