RE: swing axles, etc.

["RC Hiatt" <rchiatt@xxxxxxxxx>]

As one who miraculously survived corners on back country roads marked as 20
mph at 70-90 in the back seat of a Corvair in the 60's (the driver did
better in Corvairs than he did in Vietnam hueys), as well as my own Corvair
later on, I can say Ralph was only slightly misguided. Corvairs were
extremely poor handling in comparison to my Spider, they were not completely
unsafe for grocery shopping or even for diaper boys, and in fact were fairly
reasonable cheapie machines, though I would not suggest collecting them. I
did turn my 65 Corvair around unexpectedly now and then, under the same
conditions that a Spider handles with ease! If one compares a Corvette IRS
with a Corvair, I think that may be a bit of a stretch in practice, no
matter how close they may resemble one another. Power? Not really, the
quarter mile was dead even between a 55 chev 265 v8 2bbl auto and Corvairs
of the early 60's. Tested many times and it was a good time. The handling
was actually better on the RWD heavy car to the best of my recollection. Hey
it was the 60's!

Richard



Original Message-----
From: owner-alfa@domain.elided [mailto:owner-alfa@domain.elided] On Behalf Of Jim
Steck
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2003 11:07 PM
To: alfa-digest@domain.elided
Subject: Re: swing axles, etc.


I can't believe this urban legend continues!  Nader and his team of lawyers
was unable to demonstrate to the courts the supposed tendency for the
Corvair to roll over.  All but one of the comparison vehicles, including VW,
Renault, Valiant, others, did roll over.  The case involved an overloaded
swing axle Corvair, with furniture tied to the roof, that rolled down the
side of a mountain.  The roll-over could not be repeated on flat pavement.

FWIW, the fiberglass spring in the Corvette adds no roll stiffness. Each end
acts as an independent cantilever spring.  On the other hand, the '64
Corvair had a transverse leaf spring in addition to very soft coil springs.
This spring pivoted in the middle and provided vertical stiffness, but no
roll stiffness . . . reducing the rear roll stiffness of the swing axle
Corvair and eliminating the oversteer.

>From '65 on, the rear suspension was a copy of the Corvette IRS
with coil springs instead of the transverse leaf.

Jim Steck


> ---------------------- snip -----------------------
> It is somewhat ironic
> that the superior power of the Corvair was what got ordinary folks
> into trouble.

> Finally, another interesting characteristic of the transverse leaf
> spring is built in anti roll stiffness. The Corvette used a single
> leaf
transverse
> spring in their irs, and I even think it was fiberglass. The Corvette,
> of course, has essentially the same rear suspension as Jaguars of the
> same era, except for the leaf instead of coilovers.


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