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#391
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On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 18:17:48 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote: Think he'll run on 2008? Is there any possibility that we could lure him into wearing a lightning rod between now and then? ....Why not? The living personification of an enema already wears a tinfoil hat by most accounts. OM -- "No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society - General George S. Patton, Jr |
#393
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OM wrote: ...What's interesting is that, almost 35 years after Nader forced America's one true answer to the Volkswagen Bug(*) off the roads, car collectors are only now restoring old Corvairs and are finding that the "danger" caused by the lack of the anti-sway bars on the rear-mounted engine were significantly exaggerated by Nader and his cronies. You might want to tell my late dad that; he had the suspension lock up on our Corvair about a week after Nader came out with the report, and went clean off the road. he never drove the thing on the highway again after that little incident. The gasoline powered heater located in the back of the passenger compartment was a little odd also, as I always thought it was a good idea to keep all the combustion processes on the car on the _far_ side of the fire wall. It also meant that by the time the air had gotten up to the front of the passenger compartment, it had cooled off.* And in addition, having those engine mounts retrofitted would *not* have been as expensive as GM claimed they would have been, and had they not been cheap it would have effectively neutralized the amount of publicity that Nader got out of the deal. The only thing, IMHO, that was wrong with the Corvair, was that it really needed fins on the tail... God, where to begin? The car was cheaply made, and _looked_ cheaply made- particularly the interior. The Volkswagen was cheap in a cute way...the Corvair was just cheap. The air-cooled motor was almost impossible to start in the winter, as its aluminum block would dissipate heat faster than any block heater could add it. The gasoline driven heater was an accident waiting to happen, both from the having combustion occurring with a route into the passenger compartment, and the carbon monoxide aspect. The aluminum block air-cooled motor had all the durability of a wind-up toy- never warming up in winter; overheating in summer- possessing "Wear-O-Matic" bushings, not bearings, and losing compression from pretty much the first moment the key was turned. Our Corvair's motor was trash inside of four years of having purchased it...we literally had to push it down to the used car dealership to trade it in... as it couldn't generate enough compression to even run anymore due to loose fit of the pistons in the cylinders and faulty valves. The used car dealership sent it straight to the junkyard. A big icicle fell onto the car from 200 feet up after we had it for a year or two, and drove itself through the roof of the passenger compartment, like God pinning a giant black beetle into a cigar box. We didn't even care that it had been damaged, as by that point it was fairly apparent that the car was accursed, and such things were to be expected. You can read up on the horror child he http://www.vex.net/~guru/corvair/libry.htm The thought that this little disaster area has become a collectable car is truly disturbing- like keeping the cheap bubblegum and throwing the baseball cards away. (*) A Corvair could be repaired almost as easily as the VW Bug could be. It just used a bit more duct tape & bailing wire, as well as a bobbie pin or two. Actually, the best way to repair one would have been to buy another car...any car other than a Corvair. Ours would make a near monthly trip to the dealership to be worked on, and within a couple of weeks it would screw up again. The car, not to put too fine of a point on it, was a complete piece of ****. * The goofy heater: http://www.corvair.com/user-cgi/cata...AI N&page=101 Pat |
#394
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Rand Simberg ) wrote:
: On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 18:17:48 -0600, in a place far, far away, Pat : Flannery made the phosphor on my monitor glow in : such a way as to indicate that: : Loopy indeed. Did you ever see the videos of Nader's "virtual : debates"? : : http://www.votenader.org/contribute/store2.php?cid=39 : : hijinx ensue... : : : That virtual debate is the very epitome of the concept of "pathetic". : Think he'll run on 2008? Is there any possibility that we could lure him : into wearing a lightning rod between now and then? : Be easier than getting him to drive an old Corvair. We could throw you into the front trunk to counterbalance the vehicle. |
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