Wm Kennedy wrote
>I had a 64 Corvair, 110hp, 4-speed, that I liked a lot.  This was before
>I discovered changing my own oil and other secrets of the inner circle,
>so I didn't spend much time under the hood.  I do remember the incredible
>difference between the car's handling when I bought it, with 22psi in
>the tires front and rear, and the handling from day 2 on, with 24psi front
>and 36 psi rear.  If Ralph Nader had known how to use a tire pump, he
>would never have gotten his start.

I had this same car in High School back in 1965 and loved it. I put dual
exhaust on it, which made an amazing difference in power, and Pirelli
Cinturatos and found out the same as you about tire pressure. The '64 also
added a transverse leaf spring to stop the swing arms from buckling under and
contributing to the rollover problem that Nader jumped on. The worst thing
about it was the fan belt. The crank pulley was in the front of the
engine(back of vehicle), and the fan was on the top, mounted horizontally. so
it need these extra pulleys to turn the fan belt 90 degrees. You never went
anywhere with a couple extra belts. That was good training for my next 2 cars,
a '61 Kombi followed shortly by a '68 bus(obligatory vw content). I actually
did roll the Corvair, but it wasn't the cars fault. The next car after the 2
buses was a brand new 1972 Honda 600 sedan. the 600 is just what you think.
600 cc aircooled front engine fwd. I drove it across country twice with no
trouble except a broken exhaust manifold that was a breeze to fix once i found
a part in Ohio.
Don Kane
Don_Kane@qmgate.arc.nasa.gov