<VV> VirtualVairs Digest, Vol 138, Issue 31

[James P. Rice]

Joe and All:  Sometime during the week of the Convention or at the Stinger
Reunion at Road America in Wisconsin, I had a conversation with some one of
an effort being made to identify the Porsche 356 GM used while testing the
early Corvair engine.  Seems Porsche has made available, maybe on line, the
VIN number of all of the cars imported to the States and who got them.
Don't know if that means the dealer or the individual.   It would be
interesting to know, but then the task becomes finding it today.  Assuming
GM didn't crush it when they were done with it.     

If any of you know of this effort, I'd like to know more.   The question
comes to my mind, did GM buy the car here or in Europe and ship it over on
their own?  Who knows.  Maybe we will find out.

Now I have to go 20 miles to the "local" Barnes & Nobel to get the Classic
Porsche Mag. 

Historically Yours,
		James Rice

Because I have a 66 Porsche 912 with a Corvair engine (built by Rear Engine
Steve in Golden) I read a magazine called "Classic Porsche," which focuses
on Porsches from the 50s through 70s. In the latest edition, number 37, is
an article about the 356 Porsches that were used by Chevrolet to evaluate
the Corvair engines. The article is fairly positive and has some very good
pictures of the interior of the Porsches with all of the gauges used to
monitor engine operation. The article states that "there was no obvious
direct or indirect cooperation between GM and Porsche" concerning the
development of the Corvair engine. The article does mention that "some early
development work on Porsche's own flat-six was reputedly carried out in a
couple of Corvair Lakewoods." In addition, it seems that Ferry Porsche
acquired an early Corviar for his own use through Husche von Hanstein who
worked for Porsche. Hanstein also drove a late model Corvair for some time.


All in all, a nice article with excellent pictures. The magazine should be
on the newsstands soon (I subscribe so I have a copy a now), but it is a
little expensive, about $12.00 an issue. Oh, the rest to the magazine is
very good too, with excellent pictures and stories from all over the world,
including a story about the 9th annual Steve McQueen car and motorcycle
show.


Regards,
Joe White (62 sedan, 64 Spyder project, 66 Porvair)>