| Author | Message | ||
     R100rs |
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/05/23/man-stranded-in -desert-builds-motorcycle-out-of-his-broken-car/ | ||
| Froggy |
I saw this the other day, it reeks of BS but I want it to be true. | ||
| Griffmeister |
Sort of like the movie 'Flight of the Phoenix' | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
I'm sure it's important to build a kick stand for your desert escape bike. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
have the tools to build that, and the time.... he couldnt have been that isolated, starvation and dehydration would have taken over by the time he cut up the Citrogen 'duck' note to self, next time stranded in desert bring 1 tool set 2 gas torch 3 useless french econo car. | ||
| Slaughter |
People, geeez.... get a grip. | ||
| Hybridmomentspass |
griff - how dare you mention such a terrible movie like that. | ||
| 7873jake |
His first act of 'sensibility' was going in to the desert in a deux chevaux. Sadly, one my first acts of 'sensibility' (stupidity) was to want a clean, nicely restored deux chevaux but that's a story for a different day. | ||
| Orman1649 |
I have a 2CV sitting in my shop right now. Just took it for a spin last week. Just b/c a Buell has about 4x more HP than it doesn't mean its not fun to drive...and it turns alot of heads! | ||
| Orman1649 |
It's hiding behind the Corvair...  | ||
| Chauly |
Orman, A follower of St. Jude, perhaps? (Patron Saint of Lost Causes) :-) | ||
| Orman1649 |
The Citroen is in great shape. The Corvair is in better shape than it looks, its just really dirty....and I had to take the headlight out of it to break into the trunk as I lost the lock key  | ||
| Cityxslicker |
mmmm Corvair.. too much fun - I just don't understand the 'unsafe at any speed' bs | ||
| Mtjm2 |
What City said . Maybe Chevy can rebirth the Corvair like VW did with the Beatle . Yea, never mind . | ||
| Griffmeister |
Hybrid, the first one was much better than the remake. Orman, is that a 110 or did you stick a 140 in there? | ||
| Danger_dave |
Meh. I once built a motorcycle from bottle tops and rode it around Tasmania. | ||
| Davegess |
I have to think the guy built it but the story of being trapped in the desert is bogus. This took some time to pull off. Shame to see a poor 2CV die that way however. Truly a remarkable car, I used one as a daily driver for 6 years. Very slow (that is an understatement) of course but quite ingenious. Inboard front brakes, drums until the sixties and then discs. The engine is a classic design; until they went to an alternator there were no belts or gears driving accessories. The generator ran off the nose of the cam, the ignition was fired off the crankshaft, the oil pump drive was the back of the cam. The thing only weighed 1400 pounds but was very solid because the whole body was designed as part of the chassis. The crazy suspension gives an exceptionally soft ride with lots of suspension travel and very good ground clearance. Taking one off road in a desert is no uncommon, they have a long history of use in the Sahara as well as Australia. Tough, durable, and very capable in soft stuff. Always went well in the snow here. Ugly in a cute sort of way. Designed to be owned by farmers and repaired by same, they are very easy to work once you understand that they are very different than other cars. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
My father told me the reason that the Corvairs got a "bad rap" was that it handled very much better than the average car of the time up until the point that the suspension would allow it to roll over. He said the independent suspension would allow both front and rear to be compressed if enough lateral G's were applied and then it would just go over. So drive it like a normal human, and it was fine. Drive it like a moron and it maims you. | ||
| Orman1649 |
Griff, it has the thundering 180hp turbo & 4 speed. | ||
| Davegess |
Early Corvairs and almost all Beetles had pure swing arm rear suspensions that had one U-joint at the diff so the wheel remained at right angles to the drive shaft at all times. These had truly frightful handling characteristics particularly in the wet. It was an OK solution for low power and low speeds. If the shocks, spring and tires where in good shape and tire inflation was spot on they did fine right up to the limit at which point they would spin and could roll pretty readily. Keeping the trunk loaded with stuff would help also. GM went to a full independent suspension but the damage was already done and they did not want to fight. VW stuck to their guns and keep the swing arm for a little longer and just kept promoting the car and ignored Ralph. GM went after him and it blew up in their face. Nader was not really wrong about most of this stuff (just an annoying jerk about it all); read his book a lot of it made sense and most of us wouldn't want are kid driving one of those old cars in today's traffic. The late Corviars were great handling cars and even when mistreated they wouldn't bite. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
According to the French captions in the photo, the right hand drum is blocked to push all the drive through the left side via the diff. Only fly in that ointment is that the lh drum is nowhere near either of the wheels & there appears to be no driveshaft to either wheel. I'd say it's BS. However the bit about being fined for importing a non standard vehicle rings true, lol. | ||
| Midknyte |
1965 saw the redesign of the Corvair suspension... | ||
| Davegess |
One of the drums is actually sitting right on the tire and driving it via friction. Tire would not last long like that however. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Didn't see that pic Dave. Personally I'd have taken the door off & started walking. Then if I got too hot I could open the window.  | ||
| Griffmeister |
First year, 1960, was the one that got Ralph going. No sway bar and factory recommended tire pressures of like 19 psi front and 21 psi rear. After they fixed those two issues, the '61 - '64 were much more drivable in spite of the swingarm rear. Orman, nice ride. Take care of that turbo, I bet they're hard to come by. Assume you've heard of Clark's. | ||
| Etennuly |
Corvair's rear suspension "jacking" in hard corners was not their only problem. A unibody tub, they were truly unsafe in a wreck situation when a couple of years of rust had softened up it's body(Beetles too). I saw first hand how both cars could and would suffer accidents in snowy conditions where-in slush could fill the front wheel wells not allowing the car to steer. Add the factory accessory gasoline heaters pumping exhaust fumes in the cabin and you have a nice place for a nap. My first car was a '68 Beetle. My parents had a new '62 Corvair when I was a youngster. In both cars I recall blowing right by a turn off in the winter because the front wheels would only go straight due to slush build up. Both are cars, that if I had the time and place to put them, I would find one of each to restore. |
