New in the Garage

[Nicad]

The E9 went to a better place today. No Bikes to bang into it, heat, much more civilized. Might even put a potted plant beside it <G>. Anyway, the transfer went pretty smooth. I finally got the fuel pump in and working and the new plug wires made a big improvement in manners. It is now completely legal to drive. Phew.
I had this car towed back to my house, where I hope to do some work in the evenings. It is the equivalent to being in a crock pot slow cooker. I have owned this car for 30 years. It was my pride and Joy when I was in my Twenties. Many people I know ask me why I keep it, why I have spent oodles more than it's worth storing it and shuffling it around. It has been neglected since I got into BMW's about 25 years ago, but I always hoped I would re-restore it one day. I must say, this car is special to me. If and when it is finished it will be quite a Beauty. I am very impressed with the build of this car. It is simple, but a lot of thought went into figuring out how to mfg' it. It was ground breaking Mfg design at the time in term of materials. etc.. The body is very robust, as is the electrical.

WHen done, it will be more or less like you see it. The 67 Vette rims will have centre caps (These are worth as much as the car). The colour will remain Mist Blue, the front end will be lowered slightly. All bushings will be new. Other than a Quick steering box and sportier seats, it will be stock. The steering wheel and seat are just temps. Egads, that is an awful colour combo!

It is a 1966 Corvair, 500 with the mechanicals from a 65 Corsa (!40 Hp 4 carb). It was built 30 miles from where I live in Oshawa, Ont.

 

[decoupe]

Two cars and a four engine bomber?

Where do you get the time? The Corvair looks in very good shape body wise which is 90% of the battle in the e9 world. Do you have the full interior to work with?

What's the order of battle on the CS refresh?

Men's World Cup at Lake Louise November is a go - I'll wave hello. Looks like winter has been cancelled in Europe.

Doug

 

[Nicad]

Where do you get the time? The Corvair looks in very good shape body wise which is 90% of the battle in the e9 world. Do you have the full interior to work with?

What's the order of battle on the CS refresh?

Men's World Cup at Lake Louise November is a go - I'll wave hello. Looks like winter has been cancelled in Europe.

Doug

Doug, for some reason I always have the time to start a project. Finishing...the list keeps growing. About finding time, I often get a second wind in the evening, so I am hoping I get some mechanical issues sorted out this winter from 9-12pm. . Getting the E9 sorted is my automotive priority though. Driving it around today it felt a little antique. The suspension is creaky and stiff with play in the steering. I hope to get this redone over the winter. I bought a Powder coater from Eastwood's to deal with any small parts I'd like to paint. (Might make a hot plate/stove pipe oven) and would like to refinish the bottom of the car, as well as underhood componentry. I have ordered a whole pile of parts for all the cars in the family from US suppliers. It all ought to be in Buffalo in about a week at which point I will get my wife some new winter tires from Tire Rack in one big shopping spree. My parts are coming from Tisher (trim, hoses, brake rebuild kits) Mesa Performance (Water pump, viscous FAn) Ireland engineening (Strut brace, brake hoses) Pearce Manifolds (Webers rebuild kits, fittings) AMazon (POR -15) Jegs (fuel Pump ..already installed) Plug wires came from Kingsdale. La Jolla is sending Cap , Rotor, Pertronix, camber plates.


Once I get the suspension apart, a second order will go in for the underside. Hopefully the shocks and springs are still good.

We will be watching the downhill with interest . I skied the Woman's course last time we were there. Our season starts in Mid December at Tremblant , where my Daughter and I are enrolled in race camp. What Colour is your Tuque?

 

[decoupe]

Brrrrr

Toque? Just look for the guy in the bright orange MEC down jacket (-40c model). Going to be a cold race. This is the last year for water injection apparently. GS skis are moving to 40m radius over the next two years. All of this to try to reduce injuries and slow down the speeds. Did it ever occur to them to change the course set or reduce the required rise/run?

Have fun under the car. I'm almost done with the inertia reel seatbelt install in the rear quarters. Turned out to be pretty straight forward. I'll post elsewhere.

This is the Off Topic forum.

Doug

 

[Nicad]

Water injection? Is this so the course is icier? If yes, the reason Ontario skiers do pretty well with their 350 feet of vertical. 40M turning radius for GS must be like driving a ferry. Will look for the orange coat. How far down the course will the MEC jacket and it's contents be?

Oh yes, as for the interior of the Corvair, I have the dash pad,instrument panel, new carpet, door panels, new headliner, original steering wheel. Somehow the seats got lost or thrown out in a couple of moves. Not sure what I will do to replace these, but they are readily available from some Corvair Hoarder. For some reason almost every jurisdiction has someone who stockpiled a lot of Corvairs when they were free. I'll know where to look for survivalist rations and weapons if ever I need those too. The Corvair will be the last car running on earth. (Yes, Off topic)

 

[decoupe]

Water Injection

The whole point to water injection was to provide a more consistent (fair) course by reducing the wear/ruts on the raceline so the last racer had the same chance as the first. To a degree this worked but given the length of the downhills and the areas involved the injection ended up being at the turning points which meant there were transitions (first problem). The injected areas develop chatter groves which the late start racers (less experienced) were getting hammered on, tripped up catching edges and having some horrific crashes - in some cases life ending.

So they will eliminate injection in the hopes of reducing the speeds but like rule changes in formula 1 that may not be the result. More likely it will just be a different set of problems with the corners deteriorating and providing a different injury profile.

I would encourage any members with an interest in car racing to watch a world cup downhill live or on the tube. It has all of the same elements of line, braking, apex, lateral acceleration etc and when Nicad skiied the women's course it was the closest he will ever get to driving a formula 1 car. As a gravity sport, your engine is how close you can stay on the fall line and carry speed through the corners without blowing up.

Our we back on topic?

Doug

 

[74EuroE9]

Undeniable Corvair DNA in E9s

I''m happy someone posted pics of a second generation Corvair on a site dedicated to E9s. In my opinion this was always a beautiful body style that I believe premiered in '65, back when the E9 was on the drawing board to displace her homely 2000CS sister. The design still looks fresh to me.

The similarity between this body style and the E9 is obvious and while the Corvair lacks the refinement of the E9, both cars have great charisma and are under-appreciated classics today.

This is not the first German manufacturer to elaborate on interesting ideas from Detroit. When the original Corvair debuted, it featured a rear-mounted, air-cooled, flat-six engine in a unibody. A 150HP Turbo version was offered. The same year Porsche's best was a 4 cylinder car struggling to make 60 BHP.