In a May 1963 road test article, Car and Driver dubbed the new Corvair Monza Spyder the “poor man’s Porsche.” And why not? This pair begged for comparison.
In a sea of huge and heavy front-engined iron, these sporty little cars stood apart. Each one boasted unibody construction plus rear-mounted, air-cooled flat engines and swing axle rear suspensions.
Porsche’s 356 …
I raced against both (was usually hip deeep in bathtubs). The Porsche had inherently better handling although the Corvair had several things that could substantially improve their inept stock handling. Weight favoured the Porsche of course.
The Corvair had a larger engine with potential higher output (if it could keep the fan belt were it belonged ( so there was potential . I ran against a Yenko Stinger that was pretty darned good.
The do make an interesting comparison, but I think a proper comparison would be between the Corvair and the six cylinder 2.0 engined 901/911s. The Corvair wasn't going to win that one!
Here's what a Stinger could do, with a good driver, back in the day. Note #27 D-Prod. This was Mt. Ascutney, in 1972. :-)
YenkoYS100 said:Here's what a Stinger could do, with a good driver, back in the day. Note #27 D-Prod. This was Mt. Ascutney, in 1972. :-)
Wow!! What a roster of cars!
Chevrolet may have contested or denied Porsche involvement in devloping the Corvair, but stopped short of the engine.
In May 1956; "Sports Cars Illustrated" magazine visited Porschewerk and noticed an air cooled engine running in a test rig, but was not allowed to photograph it or disclose any detail on it, except to be able to say it was for a Detroit manufacturer. Check that issue.
This may have been an early GM air cooled engine test.
FJC
Air Cooled road racers! We also run against the Yenkos, Yenko copies, 356's and such.
Our Ghia at Daytona, HSR member. -- Frank Camper
In reply to wspohn :What if the comparison was between two cars of the same model year? This looks to be sandbagged with a '65 used.
In reply to fjcamper :
Prove it. Porsche did take a Corvair engine to test for their own development which of course preceded their own flat 6 offering. I beg to differ on reliability. My 64 is still on original mechanicals.
What is interesting is that anyone would race a Mercedes 230 SL in D Prod.........or any other competition.
Is this a fair comparision? Porsche cost more when new and still much more today. Unforetunately neither was rustproofed enough for the northeast winters back then.
THE GENUINE & FAIR COMPARISSION would have been between a '67 911 & a '67 Covair Corsa 140.
Both cars in your comparission still had design & performance flaws which would be fixed by 1967.
I loved my '67 911 but tune-ups & maintanence were far too expensive, my '67 Corsa 140 was a bit heavier but the Dollar to smile ratio was much greater.
We bought our 1st Corvair in 1976, I have owned more than 50 of them since & presently I drive a 1965 4-door "Top Hat" (built for a Chevie Exc.) which has less than 80k ORIGINAL miles on it.
I have owned & driven nothing but Corvais since 1976 & I have never regretted my decision to do so! I always have to allow an extra 15 mins for the enevitable person witing for me in the parking lot to tell me their Corvair story.... I am not as much a Corvair fan as I am a Detroit built Air-Cooled engine fan & that list is very narrow. Coast to coast & border to border for almost 50 years my Corvairs have delivered hundreds of thousands of happy & adventureous miles & hours at half the cost of my old 911.
Presently I am building a 1962 Corvair no window service van, 4 spd & 140 Hp engine bored .030 over, 9.5to 1 comp. ratio with a Sig Erson mild cam & a 3.27 differential ratio, my 2nd one.
It's the last vehicle for this old coot & his dog to circumnavigate North America in & a perfect way to write the final chapter of my life in. When I blow past you on the concrete ribbon called the Interstate you'll know it's me by the mile wide smile affixed to my mug!
I bought a '65 Corvair new and put 275,000 miles on it. But it was hardly stock by the time I sold it after 22 years: 15" wheels, 4-wheel disc brakes, quick steering, 3-liter engine and on and on. Selling price? What I paid for it new. Also had a '55 Speedster with a 1600 SC engine. All it needed for the U.S was an extra 100 bhp and disc brakes. Wish I had both back today.
In reply to fjcamper :
It was a Studebaker. https://macsmotorcitygarage.com/the-secret-studebaker-porsche-connection/
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