How Slow Can You Go?

One of the games during Friday’s "Corvair Fun Day" at Sturbridge was the Slow Drag Races. The Slow Drags joined the Back Seat Driver and the Junior Gymkhana as entertaining participatory diversions during Concours judging.

And "entertaining" certainly described the Slow Drags! Just like any drag race, two cars lined up side-by-side and at the drop of the flag the object was to GO! Except that, in this event, the object was to go as slowly as possible! Each car had to begin moving, no shopping allowed, no use of the brakes, no riding the clutch.  Just how slowly will the car idle along?  Which car will cover the least distance in 30 seconds?

Generally speaking, the manual-transmission vehicles "lost" to the Powerglide cars, although this was not an absolute. Bill Garrison’s air-conditioned Powerglide-equipped convertible was a rocket, while John Nickel kept retarding the timing in his stick-shift Greenbrier until it was a snail.

Brian O’Neill suffered a DQ when his car stalled as he tried to ease it off the line, and for one run Larry Schmul had the "handicap" – it was really a benefit – of full load of people in the back of his Rampside.

There were matchups such as US vs Canada, Young vs Old, Early Model vs Late Model, and more. Doug McIntosh deployed an umbrella to try to slow the car in which he was riding. Two members put their mobility scooters to the test on the course. Doors were opened and shoes were dragged on the ground. Absolutely no prizes were awarded and the decisions of the judges were capricious, arbitrary, and final.

Still, distances were measured and the results are in:

For the slowest Corvair, the car covering the least distance in 30 seconds, Third Place went to Jefferson Alcott of Dayton, Ohio, driving a 1962 Monza sedan. Jefferson went 158 feet 2 inches.

Second place was taken by John Nickel from the North Carolina Mountain Corvairs club, in his 1964 Greenbrier. John crept 157 feet six inches.

But the winner, covering a mere 148 feet 1 inch, was Howard Horne of the New Jersey Association of Corvair Enthusiasts, who borrowed Tim Schwartz’s 1963 Powerglide-equipped Greenbrier camper to claim the minimalist victory.

At the other end of the spectrum, driving the Corvair that blasted to the greatest distance in 30 seconds, was Wisconsin’s Linda Dahl. Linda held on as her car went some 337 feet!

Our thanks to the Pensylvania husband-and-wife team of Joe and Helen Maurella for putting together the Slow Drag Races for us.

A Last-Minute Disappointment

In a prior post, last December, we told you that Mel Francis and his project partner, Dick Reinders, were going to bring their spectacular Monza SS re-creation from Wisconsin to Sturbridge.

Alas, life’s realities have gotten in the way. Mel writes, "It is my sad duty to inform you that our Monza SS cannot be brought to Sturbridge this summer."

The reasons are those with which everyone is familiar – other duties, responsibilities, and priorities must come before a hobby trip.  Mel had been planning to do more than simply bring the car to Sturbridge.  He was going to participate in all the convention events -- autocross, road rally, and show.  A real car guy!

And we have been featuring the original Monza SS show car at the top of our blog for some time now.  So, yes, we're very disappointed, but of course we understand.

Still, the convention will not be without distinctive Corvair-based vehicles to see. In addition to (as of this writing) the nearly 200 individual Corvair cars that have registered to participate in convention events, we are currently arranging to get the one-and-only Fitch Phoenix on site, and the pre-registered vehicle list includes such rarities as the Corvair-powered UltraVan motor home.

By the way, back on April first we referenced car collector Joe Bortz in our April Fool posting about 1969 Corvair #6000, but it is no joke that Mr Bortz is restoring the Lasalle II show car and Mel Francis has been tasked with making up a new windshield for it. Recently the car has been at Larry Claypool’s Vair Shop in Illinois for brake work. Here’s a shot of the windshield job in progress:

So Much to See and Do!

Previously we have mentioned such attractions as the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield and the site of the original "Alice's Restaurant" in Stockbridge.  Here are just a few more things to see and do while in New England:

The Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, the only museum of armor in the western hemisphere, http://www.higgins.org/

The Slater Mill Museum in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, http://www.slatermill.org/

The EcoTarium (a great place to take the kids), a unique indoor-outdoor museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, offering such things as a chance to walk through the treetops, ride a narrow-gauge railroad, and more, http://www.ecotarium.org/

The Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut, arguably the nation's leading aquarium and home of ocean explorer Dr. Robert Ballard and the Institute for Exploration, http://www.mysticaquarium.org/, plus the Mystic Seaport, home of the Charles W. Morgan, the oldest American commercial vessel still in existence, http://www.mysticseaport.org/

The Boston Museum of Science ( http://www.mos.org/ ), the New England Aquarium ( http://www.neaq.org/ ), the Boston Children’s Museum ( http://www.bostonkids.org/ ), all in Boston of course

The museums of the Rhode Island Historical Society, in Providence and in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, http://www.rihs.org/

Plimoth Plantation, the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony (the Pilgrims) established in the 1600s, http://www.plimoth.org/

And of course, Cape Cod, Lexington & Concord, The White Mountains of New Hampshire, Vermont Maple Syrup, Maine Lobstahs, and so much more.

Old Ironsides

Our thanks to CORSA Director and New England resident Jason Cesana for many of the suggestions on this list.

Corvairs to Keep You Warm

The weather may be hot right now, but come wintertime you could curl up by the fire under the warmth of this custom-made Corvair quilt, which will be awarded to one lucky winner in a raffle being conducted at the Sturbridge convention.

This quilt has been made for this convention by Connie Sorensen from Nebraska, and it incorporates images of twenty Corvairs, covering virtually every body style and most model years. Here’s a close-up of just one of the images:

You can’t win this quilt by any method other than attending the convention and buying a raffle ticket, so whether you are in Sturbridge for the whole week or just a few hours, make sure that you purchase tickets for this and the several other raffles that will be available.

Another Dead Lion *

Recently we reminded our blog readers of the deadline for the advance registration discount (read that post here.)

The new deadline is for advance registration, period.

If you are submitting your convention registration in advance, it must reach the CORSA office by the close of business on Thursday, July 19. Whether you submit your registration online, by mail, by fax, or by carrier pigeon, if it arrives in the CORSA office after July 19 it will just sit there – the staff is coming to Sturbridge.

Of course, this does not mean that you must register before July 19. It only means that after that date you should register on-site, in Sturbridge. Still, advance registration is greatly appreciated by the convention committee because it helps us prepare for the number of people who will be there.

Don’t delay! Register now!

* There is a connection to be made between the Corvair and the use of "Dead Lion" as a pun on deadline. Do you know what that connection is? If you do, send us an email here. First correct answer gets credited here on the blog!

Update 7/13/12:  We have a Winner!

In our post above we asked you to tell us the connection to be made between the Corvair and the use of "Dead Lion" as a pun on deadline.

John Gephart, from Mission Viejo, California, was first with the correct answer. Dead Lion for Breakfast was Ernie Kovacs’ nickname for his 1950 Philadelphia TV show Deadline for Dinner.

John wrote to us, While enjoying the convention blog I saw your reference to Ernie Kovacs’ old Philly TV cooking show Deadline for Dinner which he nicknamed Dead Lion for Breakfast. The connection being Ernie Kovacs and his untimely death in a Corvair.

I have yet to attend a CORSA convention. Shortly after I bought my ’65 Monza ‘vert in Connecticut the convention was a few miles from where I grew up in California. Now that the convention is in Sturbridge, I have recently moved back to Southern California. One of these years I may be on the correct coast.

Decades after Kovacs’ death, muckracking journalists would attempt to blame the Corvair for Kovacs’ crash, but his widow, Edie Adams, would hear nothing of it. She correctly pointed out that at the time of the crash Kovacs was burning the candle at both ends, was sleep-deprived, hung over, was trying to light a cigar, was speeding, and it was raining.

Nonetheless, his was the highest-profile Corvair crash, and it was nothing less than a tragedy.

Kovacs had chosen to drive the Corvair, a 1961 Lakewood wagon, that night, so that Edie would have use of the couple’s other car, a Rolls Royce.

If you don't know who Ernie Kovacs is, Google and Youtube are ready to educate you. You can search for Ernie Kovacs, or Percy Dovetonsils, or the Nairobi trio...

If You've Got It, Flaunt It!

Among the many traditions at CORSA conventions is the display of local club banners in the banquet hall. But often it is somewhat of a nuisance to get the banners hung and then to retrieve them following the banquet.

This year, the Sturbridge Host Hotel has offered to hang our CORSA chapter banners around the atrium of the hotel. As was noted in a prior issue of the CORSA Communique, club reps will need to drop off their banners in the convention registration room – not at the hotel front desk. This needs to be done by Wednesday afternoon, at which time we'll hand over all the banners to the hotel staff so they can hang them all at once.

Please note, neither the NECC convention committee nor CORSA cannot take responsibility for loss or damage to the banners while in the hotel hands.

So, chapter reps, please arrange to have your club’s banner taken to the convention registration room by Wednesday afternoon (July 25) so that your club’s banner can be among those displayed in the hotel’s atrium!

Memo from Iowa, Part 2

My earlier post told the story of how I acquired my 1966 Monza convertible, the car that I am driving from my home in Iowa to the Convention in Sturbridge. I also let you know there was a mystery surrounding the car. It’s a mystery that no one knows the answer to.

Last winter I decided to freshen up the engine. It ran just fine but it burned a little more oil than I felt comfortable with, so I thought I would install some new piston rings, reseal everything and inspect the rest. What I found when I pulled off the oil pan changed that plan drastically. The oil pan contained three pea sized chunks of aluminum, a couple small pieces of top cover gasket, and lots of pieces of the original valve stem seals.

I would expect the valve stem seal pieces but not the rest. Upon complete disassembly and inspection it appears that the three oil drain back holes under the camshaft were plugged with casting flash, and someone drove the flash up into the crankcase with a punch from the oil pan side. It also appears that one piston may have been changed at one time and the edge of one lifter had been damaged enough that I could not get it out until I had the cases split.

My question is, if this work had been done at a shop why didn’t they take the oil pan off and clean out the pieces?

What makes it even stranger is that I asked all the previous owners if they had ever had any major work done to the engine. They all had the same answer, "The car always ran perfectly and there was never any major work done." Couple this with the fact that my dad worked at the local dealer and did the new vehicle service. He would have been the one who would have worked on the car, but he didn’t.

The only logical explanation is that this happened at the factory. Could this have happened there? Or is someone lying? We will never know.

Come on over to the 2012 convention and have some fun and see what CORSA has to offer! The car and I will be there and I have pictures so you can see and discuss the mystery!

Jamie Reinhart
CORSA President