By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Ever since this year’s New England Concours d’Elegance, I’ve had a jonesing for a Corvan, and this 1963 for sale on Hemmings.com isn’t helping much to alleviate that jonesing. Thing is, other than drive it around during the summer, I’m not sure what I’d end up doing with it. Put the stock wheels back on it? Build an AGL-4 clone out of it? Go autocrossing with it? Build Elvair II? From the seller’s description:

144 cid flat six dual carbs, 4-speed manual, custom chrome wheels with spinners, AM/FM stereo, lined cargo compartment, Spyder dash cluster – Super Nice Driver – Runs & Drives Great – Soild & Original Body – Clean Older Paint & Interior

Continue reading at Hemmings.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Hey, why not take a rear-engined, four-wheel independent suspension car and throw on a couple of straight axles and a  blown 350 up front? It’s cool to pick something totally different for a radical project, and if you’re going for a drag-strip-scorching gasser, a Corvair is about the unlikeliest candidate you can get. It’s on eBay now, and the seller claims only 100 miles on the build. So I guess it’s up to the buyer to break it in. Check out the auction! Via VWVortex.

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

While we have a special class for Corvairs at this year’s New England Concours d’Elegance, I don’t think this one will get an invite.

Barry Wolk, he of the shorty Corvair experiment, recently sent along this photo of an El Corvairo that he thought was kinda neat. Looks well-done, too. Except for the Garfield.

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Talk about bizarro world! This 1961 Chevrolet Corvair was put through the full kustom treatment in the late 1960s or early 1970s and then stored. It’s a time capsule to a world we’re not sure we wanted to be taken back to. Just about every inch of this Corvair was modified somehow, including the nose which looks oddly Mustang-ish to us.

The car is being sold sans-engine, but it does have the four-speed transmission intact. According to the seller the car had some type of hydraulic suspension, and several other features of the car operate via hydraulic controls, like the trunk and hood. None of that hydraulic stuff works, but it’s there to be repaired.

The rear of the car is pretty cool with its smoothed sides and the strange louvers on the trunk. The crazy lacquer paint is totally perfect for the time period and frankly, there aren’t many shops that could replicate that look today. The targa roof is creepy and we’re thinking that unless the rest of the car was braced up, it’ll be flexy.

We’re putting this one in the, “We dig it so long as someone else owns it,” category. Would you buy it?

Source — eBay Motors — 1961 Chevrolet Corvair

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Welcome to the year end wrap-up of the Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot. If you recall, this series was all about uncovering obscure makes, and redefining what a Muscle Car could be. We have discovered that Muscle originated during the 1950s, blossomed during the 1960s, and continued on through the 70s and 80s in a somewhat de-tuned state only to find a re-birth we are enjoying today. My focus was not to highlight the already established Muscle Cars like the Chevelle SS, the Pontiac GTO, or the Hemi Chryslers, but to find hidden gems that you may not have known about.

So during this week, it is now up to you, the Car Domain reader, to vote on your favorites. There will be specific categories, like today’s example, the 1960′s Unknowns. In the end, sometime after the New Years Holiday, there will be one car crowned as your favorite Obscure Muscle Car, and park it in the Parking Lot, with a few CarDomain Members rides highlighted.

So, what is your favorite little known Muscle Car from the period dominated by muscle cars?
- The 1962-1963 Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire, Americas first Turbocharged V8!
- The 1963 Studebaker R2 Super Lark, and the R2 Super Hawk, both with Supercharged V8s!
- The AMC Rambler Marlin, predecessor to the great Javelin and AMX models.
- The 1968 – 70 Oldsmobile Toronado W-34, the first Front Wheel Drive Muscle Car!
- The Ford Galaxie 500 7 Litre, from 1966 – 67, Big Power in a full sized car!
- The 1963 to 1965 Buick Riviera. Classically proportioned Muscle, that was also luxurious!
- The 1968 Dodge Dart GTS 440; a very rare compact Muscle Car.
- The 1965 Chrysler 300-L; The Bankers Hot Rod!
- The Turbocharged Corvair, an unusual choice, and the second Turbocharged American Car.
- The Beaumont SD, and mix of Chevrolet and Pontiac for our Canadian Neighbors.
- The 1968 Mercury Cougar XR7-G; A tribute model for Dan Gurney.
- The 1969 AMC Hurst S/CRambler, an outrageous Rambler, in an eye searing color scheme.
- The 1968 Pontiac Grand Prix; Different Body, the year before the Mid Sized Grand Prix debuted.
- The Studebaker Avanti – Ahead of its time, too little to save Studebaker.

By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

It might seem that since I bought my 1965 Corvair Corsa back in August that there’s been a lot Corvair content on Automotive Traveler and you would be right. But this listing for our “Not Found on eBay” segment was brought to my attention by a reader in the Phoenix area who saw this car listed on Craigslist. It is one of just 6000 cars produced in the Corvair’s final year of production. The two-door 500 Sport Coupe was the most popular model outselling by 55 units the up-market Monza model (2,717) in addition to the 521 Monza convertibles. There’s an interesting back story to this Corvair. It seems that this 1969 Chevrolet Corvair 500 Series Coupe was purchased new from General Motors by Pellini Chevrolet of Sebastopol, California. It was never registered and it remained part of the dealership’s private collection until it was sold in December 2008. Read more about this fascinating Corvair at Automotive Traveler.

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

I though I would do a final wrap up this series with how we placed in the top third of all the competitors, with the slowest car on the track. So if you’re interested, continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "LeMons New England Wrap Up" »

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Well, it was an adventure, entering the oldest car yet to compete in any 24 Hours of LeMons event. What was even more amazing was the fact that this 46 year old car, which was sitting in a Vermont Field for over a decade, was one of the most reliable machines on the track. When the race ended on Sunday, our team circled that Stafford Motor Speedway 813 times, placing 23rd overall, with the best lap time of 36.602 seconds, compared to the overall winner (The Kielbasa Kids Honda Civic) who’s best lap time was 31.011 seconds.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "LeMons New England: Spinning Our Way to a 22nd Place First Day Finish!" »

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

While Katherine has been busy posting all about our exploits in the 24 Hours of LeMons New England, I was steadily recovering from the event. Well, now that I’m back (with more Obscure Muscle Car Postings, I promise) let me tell you how this whole episode came together.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Lemons New England: TTTOS: All About the Team, the Car, and the Challenge" »

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

Driving the Corvair for Team Trailing Throttle Oversteer was quite possibly the most hilarious driving experience I’ve ever had. I had precious little (none) RWD track time going in, and was a bit nervous about getting behind the wheel of Ralph Nader’s death bomb. Ten laps in, I spun it out, endured a rather funny penalty (I had to apologize to a cone), and went back out with a vengeance. The entire trick to driving the car was to hold your line on the track. This caused no end of terror in the rest of the pack at the chicane entrance, because not even I knew where the brakes were going to send the car. Sorry to all you guys stuck behind me. The steering input required was minimal and the braking was a bit iffy, but it worked if you got on it early enough. And if you got on it early enough, only the driver knew where the car was going to go. Again, sorry to everyone stuck back there. They say that there aren’t any bad cars, only bad drivers. I think it’s true. I really enjoyed driving the Corvair, and after my hour-plus session was up, I can see why even an old swing axle RWD car is so much more fun at speed than a FWD one. Too bad “at speed” in this one was a whopping 60mph!