I want to build the most EVIL plane EVER !!!

VW?
Harold
KD5SAK


"Morgans" wrote in message
...

"john smith" wrote

I'll take a guess...
"UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED", by Ralph Nader

I knew that was coming.

What people do not widely know, is that he printed a retraction, saying
that the problems were fixed, '63 and later. It had to do with the fact
that the rear axles only had one U-joint, at the transaxle. After they
put in two per side, and made the wheels travel straight up and down, they
were fine.

Bonus points. What rear engine air cooled engine car never put the two
extra U-joints per side in, and in some parts of the world, are still
produced that way?
--
Jim in NC

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

What people do not widely know, is that he printed a retraction, saying
that the problems were fixed, '63 and later. It had to do with the fact
that the rear axles only had one U-joint, at the transaxle. After they
put in two per side, and made the wheels travel straight up and down, they
were fine.

Jim..........

Actually, the rear suspension change was made in 1965. See
http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/page...corvairhistory

Rich S.
1965 Corvair Monza Convertible
140 hp 4-carb PG transmission
Black with whorehouse red velvet upholstery and wyare weels.

"Alan Baker" wrote

The situation is more complicated than you make it sound.

Not much. Yes, I could have talked about parallelagram suspension, and
mentioned sway bars, but the basic idea got across with the "straight up and
down" comment, I think.

Or are you talking about the fact that the owner had to be smart enough to
look at the inflation chart on the inside of the glove compartment lid, if
big print, and follow the differential air pressure for front vs. rear.

Or the fact that the pushrod tube O-rings had to be replaced once in a
while, to keep oil from leaking on the cooling fins and making carbon
monoxide. Duh? If your heater smells like burned oil, does anyone think it
would be a good idea to fix it?

There were many other cars of the period, and since then, that were far
worse machines than the Corvair. How about the rolling over Ford SUV's, or
exploding Pinto's? Nader got the consumer movement going, by abusing a
target, and sensationalizing it. Period.

Then there has been the Chevy truck gas tanks that they had to rig to catch
fire for the sake of filmed TV crash tests. Don't tell me that the consumer
movement and the media are always correct, and just. Nader was the first.

I gotta let this go. I feel my blood pressure going up, far too high! g
--
Jim in NC

"kd5sak" wrote in message
. com...
VW?

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner!!!

It wasn't a very hard question, but you got it! How come Nader didn't write
a book about them. The Corvair was three times as crashworthy as a VW Bug,
too.
--
Jim in NC

"Richard RIley" wrote

Probably the VW Beetle - but the last one came off the assembly line
in Mexico about 2 years ago.

I missed that. How about Brazil, or Argentina? They were produced there,
weren't they? Not anymore?
--
Jim in NC

"Richard RIley" wrote

Nader is scum. No, Nader aspires to be scum
http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight...es/007140.html

Wow, everyone needs to read this link. The only med that helps a big group
of people is being withdrawn, due to Nader. Thanks for nothing, Nader.
--
Jim in NC

In article ,
"Morgans" wrote:

"anon" wrote in

He installed a modified Corvair engine in his old warbird.

Ahh, that part was left out, eh?
From the sounds of it, the engine had no fault in the crash; just a stupid
pilot trick. :-(

I was thinking that.
The Corvair engine is seeing a lot of popularity in homebuilts these
days.

"john smith" wrote

I was thinking that.
The Corvair engine is seeing a lot of popularity in homebuilts these
days.

That is a damn tough, and smooth running engine. I wonder how hard it was
to modify it for vertical operations?
--
Jim in NC

On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 14:10:45 -0800, Richard Riley
wrote:

Ralph Nader did go after VW - he got them to stop selling The Thing in
the US after 2 years.

I don't think Nader went after the Thing...that was about ten years after his
heyday. The Thing tanked because it was a piece of crap. It had all the
drawbacks of the standard Beetle (low power, poor heater, floorboard rust-out,
fairly poor mileage) and none of the good aspects, and zero quality. And
next-to-no occupant protection.

I owned one for ~20 years, I should know....

Ron Wanttaja

In article ,
Richard Riley wrote:

German Beetle production petered out in Germany in 1978 and
production shifted to Brazil and Mexico. The last Beetle was built in
Puebla, Mexico, in mid-2003. Production in Brazil ended in 1988,
restarted in 1993 and went until 1996. I don't think it was ever
made in Argentina - VW has a plant there, but I think it was built in
the early 80's for later models.

Aern't they still driving Ford Falcon's in Argentina? :-))