By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

Did you hear about it yet? We won!!!!!! Yup, UDMan’s Corvair held up for 14 hours of hard racing, and we won the Ugly class (slowest cars) on laps. What an awesome way to close our first LeMons venture. But there’s more: we also pulled down the Index of Effluency, an award given to the car and team most in the spirit of the event. With the oldest car ever run in a LeMons event, we knew we had a good chance at this award coming in. We just had to keep the car on the track. We did, right up to the bitter end, when I had the audacity to ask the track staff to drop the checkered flag on us. Mr Angry took the flag and a victory lap in style. I think we’re all hooked….

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Well, it looks like the New England edition of the 24 Hours of LeMons is on this weekend, so why not follow along with Mike Musto, Katherine Helmetag, and Jim Brennan while they attempt race glory in a vintage, 1963 Corvair Sedan.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Follow the CarDomain Gang on the 24 Hours of LeMons New England This Weekend" »

By Mike Musto

RideLust.com

The 1963 Chevrolet Covair: a rare beast that was bred to strike fear into the hearts of motorists around the world. Its mid-engine design and aerodynamics package was supposedly designed by a group of Swedish physicists in a meat locker in South Jersey to ensure secrecy. With such features as 13″ wheels, drum brakes and a non-collapsible steering column, the Corvair was at first thought to be dangerous. But documents have surfaced recently which suggest that those features where purposely put in place to bring out the macho in every man, women and child.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "1963 Chevrolet Corvair: the Legend Continues…" »

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

I was trying to find “Corvair wheels” for my 24 Hours of LeMons entry when I came across Larry Boardman’s website Classic Wheels, LLC. Along with promoting his business as a certified classic car appraiser and listing his credentials, he also showcases his current crop of collectible iron. One car in particular, the Torvair, has to be the mother of all mongrels.

This particular car piqued my interest as it was basically a Corvair coupe with an Oldsmobile Toronado drivetrain tucked under the stylish body in a mid-engined format. There were many Corvair V-8 conversions, but marrying the two most innovative GM creations of the sixties was a stroke of genius. So, after looking at this wonderful beast on his site, I contacted Larry to find out what the Torvair is all about.

And what do you know, it’s up for sale! Read more at Automotive Traveler.

Continue reading "A Toronado-powered Corvair: Introducting the Torvair" »

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Welcome to the CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot, a regular feature which aims to expand the notion of what a muscle car is, and to throw all conventional wisdom out the window. The compact Corvair, which Chevrolet introduced in 1960, had an aluminum, horizontally opposed (flat), air-cooled engine in the rear, and four-wheel independent suspension. Could this be the basis for a muscle car? Lets find out together with the Turbocharged Corvair Spyder and Corsa.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot: the Turbocharged Corvair" »

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

I’ve wanted to participate in the 24 Hours of LeMons since the series started. But I wanted to do it with an early 60s car, something that you would never expect in a race dominated by BMW E30s, Mazda Miatas and Honda Civics. So what’s my car of choice? A $400 ’63 Corvair 700 four door with only 43,000 miles. It didn’t run (but it does now), it’s equipped with a powerglide, and, well, let’s just say it has a rusty patina (remarkably, only on the surface).

Now for the real news. Coming along for the ride will be CarDomain regulars Mike Musto (Mr. Angry) and Katherine Helmetag (Atomicalex). And we will document the entire full saga in CarDomain Blog, from the roll cage install through the team meetings, and on to race weekend—July 11th and 12th. So stay tuned for all the mayhem.

Continue reading "Racing the New England 24 Hours of LeMons in a Vintage Corvair!" »

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Chris Tutor, Autoblog correspondent and friend of Hemmings, has been satisfying our occasional jones for pictures of abandoned cars in the woods lately over at the Engine Block blog, which he runs for the Birmingham (Alabama) News. Some typical rust-in-piece stuff until today, when his coworker Jody Potter spotted this custom Corvair.

Fortunately, nobody’s trying to pass it off as a factory concept car. Unfortunately, nobody knows anything about it. Who built it? Why? When? And how did it come to rest in the woods in Cullman County, Alabama? About all that Jody could discern from it was that it once ran around Alabama as a Corvair. Continue reading at Hemmings

I went to the Pull A Part up in Arlington, and while I didn’t find anything for my cars, I got to check out some pretty interesting rides. This poor little Corvair, the junkyard staff told me, was a drug seizure—it came in with syringes and baggies under the seat and a trunk full of Snap On tools. One of the perks of working at this yard is that whoever processes the car gets to keep anything they find in it, so some guy walked off with a whole load of Snap On. No word on who got to keep all the smack, though. See more junkyard pics after the jump.

How about you? What did you do this weekend?

Continue reading "What Did You Do This Weekend?" »

The CORSA Annual Convention was last week in So Cal, and Aircooled over at Grassroots Motorsports snapped a bunch of pics of Corvairs on the track at Willow Springs, on the autocross course and during concourse judging at Ventura County Fairgrounds. More pics after the jump.

Continue reading "CORSA Annual Convention" »

Last week I dropped by my buddy’s auto shop class at West Seattle High. I did a feature article on Jonathan and his class last year, but this year I mostly wanted to talk about his awesome ’66 Corvair, which is nearing completion. I snapped a bunch of pics (they didn’t turn out so hot–sorry) and got Jonathan to build a ride page. The car is being built with autocross in mind, and a lot of time and energy has gone into this one-of-a-kind build. My description couldn’t possibly do the car justice, so go to page 1 of his ride page to see my pics, and then be sure to read the full stats on page 2. And there are a bunch of other pics from around the shop on page 3–three of the kids were in the middle of engine swaps. Jonathan was especially proud of his new $35,000 Hunter drive-on lift with the alignment system. Definitely a pretty sweet setup.