<VV> Jay Leno's video greeting from the Corsa convention (Now, 3 Point Belts)

[RoboMan91324 at aol.com]

Mel,
 
You touched on the answer to your own question.  Feeble  comedy or not, 
Leno is a comedian first and foremost.  I believe he said  what he said the way 
he said it for that reason alone.  His mugging and  then chuckling attests 
to that.  He observed a potentially dangerous design  feature and presented 
it in a humorous way.  I am sure he did not intend to  hurt the Corvair 
community or the vehicles we love.  I don't know if it was  part of his thought 
process before making the statement but he knew that only  "Corvair People" 
would be watching his video.  Besides, he did not tell us  anything we do 
not or should not know.  I have heard fellow FC owners make  similar 
reality/humorous comments about the dangers of FCs.  .... Knees  being the back-up 
bumpers, first on the scene, etc.  Perhaps Leno was  repeating something he 
heard from other FC owners; maybe the previous owner of  his Rampside.
 
I have never seen Leno talking about VW buses, Isettas,  Econolines, etc.  
Perhaps that is why we have never seen similar comments  made about those 
vehicles.  However, I have seen Leno in numerous guest  shots on auto related 
TV shows where he shows and even drives some of his very  rare cars.  He 
does comment on their attributes both good and bad  (including dangerous) so we 
shouldn't feel he has singled the Corvair  out.
 
As I hinted above, Leno does point out a real danger of our  FCs.  You are 
sitting forward (FC = Forward Control) and the front  structure may have 
been legally acceptable in its day but it will not hold up in  even a 
moderately severe front end accident.  The only vehicle I own that I  fear more in an 
accident compared to my FCs is my Harley.  .... and yes,  over the years I 
have been in several MC accidents.  Fortunately, I have  not had any 
accidents in any classic vehicle.  Before any of you make  offers to reluctantly 
accept donations of my FCs, I will be keeping them.   :-)
 
On the subject of FC safety, I recall that several people on  VV have added 
3 point belts to their FCs.  Is there some consensus on  mounting point 
positioning, mounting hardware and sources for belts whether  re-purposed from 
another vehicle or good aftermarket sources?  I have 3 FCs  that I would 
like to drive without the fear of my passengers or me doing a  face-plant on 
the steering wheel, dash board or windshield.  I would love  to do this to my 
Corsa as well but it is a very early vehicle; perhaps the first  1966 Corsa 
off the Canadian production line.  It is my understanding that  the 3rd belt 
reinforcement point was not added to Corvairs until late in 1966  
production.  True?  
 
Thanks in advance,
 
Doc
 
1960 Corvette, 1961 Rampside, 1962 Rampside, 1964 Spyder  coupe, 1965 
Greenbrier, 1966 Canadian Corsa turbo coupe, 1967 Nova SS, 1968  Camaro ragtop, 
1993 Harley Heritage Softail Classic

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
In a message dated 8/30/2012 9:00:40 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
virtualvairs-request at corvair.org writes:

Message:  5
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:48:18 -0500
From: "Mel Francis"  <mfrancis at wi.rr.com>
Subject: Re: <VV> Jay Leno's video  greeting from the Corsa convention
To: <wrsssatty at aol.com>
Cc:  virtualvairs at corvair.org
Message-ID:  <E69C2816EDFA46E3BD01232F6A90146E at DGRPB8F1>
Content-Type: text/plain;  format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original

Jay has a passion for everything that's out there  and just to show that 
he's 'unbiased', he owns Corvairs, too.

The part  of his address that sorta rubs me the wrong way, is where he 
poses beside the  Rampside, with his knee just behind the light bezel, 
indicating where you'd be  in an accident, arriving at the scene before the rest of 
the truck. Why  include that? I've never seen him do that sort of a routine 
beside a VW bus or  an Isetta. Leave the feeble attempts at comedy, for your 
evening show,  Jay.

Mel Francis