On 03/21/2010 09:30 AM, Ross Sauer -> Bob Ackley wrote:
 RS> "Bob Ackley -> Ross Sauer"  wrote in news:20590
 RS> $MATZDOBRE{at}JamNNTPd:

 RS>>>>> Did some research last night, found it again. It was
 RS>>>>> mentioned in Ralph Nader's book, "Unsafe At
Any Speed."

 BA>>>> That book was fiction back when Nader wrote it back in the
 BA>>>> early 1960s - IIRC I was in HS at the time. 'course,
 BA>>>> Nader was able to build a very nice career from it.

 RS>>> The problem is Nader's book wasn't entirely fiction.
 RS>>> Cars in the late 50's and early 60's could be really junk.

 BA>> Nader's book was specifically about the rear engined Chevrolet Corvair.
 BA>> The early Corvair models *did* have a tendency to spin on slick
 BA>> pavements, but that problem was fixed by the time Nader published
 BA>> his book.

 RS> Also the Corvair had different handling, the engine being in the rear.
 RS> But GM didn't market the car as having any different handling, so it was
 RS> sold to people who drove it like they would the family car.
 RS> That was a disaster in the making.

You don't know what you are talking about. The Corvair was not a disaster.
It handled quite well. My dad had two Corvairs, a 1962 Spyder and a 1965
Corsa. The Spyder was turbocharged and would go 120mph and handled the
windy 410 highway on the way to camping. We kept up with my uncles 1959
Impala with a 409 4bbl.

The '65 Corsa was even better in the handling department.

Nader used images from a 1960 Ford propaganda film they made trying to show
how much better their Falcon handled than the Corvair. In that film, if you
look at it frame by frame, the driver in the Corvair had to whip the
steering wheel back and forth to get it to spin out. The Falcon driver had
to do the course at a lower speed to safely complete it.

Ironically, the Falcon was highly unstable and was prone to flip on its top
when cornering aggressively. I was witness to one such crash several years
ago where the driver did not survive. The crash took place just outside a
Denny's where I was having coffee at the time. The geometry of the front
suspension on the Falcon was such that it would fold under the car with
alarming ease.

 RS>>> And GM could have just ignored Nader, thus ending the
 RS>>> problem. Instead they put a private investigator onto Nader
 RS>>> to dig up dirt. Very dumb mistake.

 BA>> GM had already addressed and fixed the problem with Corvairs by the
 BA>> time Nader's book came out. IIRC it was a weight distribution problem -
 BA>> too much weight behind the rear wheels.

 RS> It was the publicity of GM hiring the private investigator on Nader, that
 RS> really was GM's big mistake.

Yes, they should have ignored the idiot. Instead, they helped the moron
gain notoriety.

 RS> The book also took other cars to task as well, and some of those reports
 RS> were true.

Really? Which ones were that?

 RS> Cars from the late 50's and early 60's were sheet-metal montrosities with
 RS> overpowered engines.

You are an idiot.

 RS> They were junk.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!

You haven't a clue about which you speak.

Ed

-- 
"Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the
entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world
disagrees with it." --Jewish philosopher Maimonides (1135-1204)

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