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Newsletter of Lehigh Valley Corvair Club Inc. (LVCC) Winner of the 2014 CORSA Tony Fiore Newsletter Competition DECEMBER 2016 HTTP://WWW.CORVAIR.ORG/CHAPTERS/LVCC ESTABLISHED 1976 Inside this issue Next LVCC Meeting: 1 Wednesday, Jan 25 Cord 8/10 Sportsman 2 Corvair Power Cord 8/10 Sportsman 3 Photo Gallery 1936-37 Cord 5 The Inspiration Making the Cord 8/10 7 Photos Next LVCC Meeting 8 Elections Misrouted Fuel Lines 8 Can Cause Vapor Lock Tune-Up Tip 8 Rotor Removal NECC Update 8 Planning for 2017 More Macungie Photos, 9 From Kyle Regan Next LVCC Meeting: Wednesday 01/25/2017 Corvair Society News 10 Convention Hotel Time 7:30 PM. Place: Lehigh and Northampton Transpor- tation Authority Headquarters (LANta), 2nd Floor Meeting LVCC Classified Ads Room, 1060 Lehigh Street, Allentown , PA 18103. Lati- 11 Items for Sale tude : 40.587607 | Longitude : -75.474405. Bring a guest! Car Events In and Don’t get locked out. If you arrive late, the main door of the 12 Around Lehigh Valley LANta office building may be locked. This is for security purposes. But the facility is open around the clock, so ask LVCC Officer Contact 12 one of the garage employees to direct you to the second Information floor. The Fifth Wheel is published monthly by Lehigh Valley Corvair Club Inc. (LVCC). We accept articles of interest to Corvair owners for publication. Classified advertising of interest to Corvair owners is available free of charge to all persons. Commer- cial advertising is also available on a fee basis. For details, email our newsletter editor, Allan Lacki, [email protected]. PAGE 2 THEFIFTHWHEEL DECEMBER 2016 Cord 8/10 Sportsman. Corvair Power. This is a short story about the Corvair- headlights added to its sleek appear- dealer from Flint, Michigan, bought powered Cord 8/10 Sportsman replicar, ance. The back of the car was equally some of the remaining assets which announced to the press in September clean, with flush mounted tail lights. included the complete parts inventory 1964 and manufactured by the Cord The aerial for the radio was a grid, of for Auburn, Duesenbergs and Cord Automobile Company through 1966. It mounted on the bottom of the car where automobiles. The price was $85,000 was an 8/10ths scale replica of the im- it couldn't be seen. The fuel cap and plus an additional $25,000 for the Au- mortal coffin-nose Cords produced door hinges were hidden. And instead burn administration building. Thus, the back in the 1930s. of a conventional chrome grill for the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Company radiator, it had horizontal slats wrap- was formed. ACD Co. continued to The Sensational Cord 810 of 1936. ping around its box-shaped hood. It offer parts and service from the Au- became known as the "coffin-nose" burn, Indiana facility throughout the The original Cord 810 created a sensa- Cord. The styling team was led by 1940s and 50s. tion when it first appeared at the New Gordon Buehrig, whose career spanned York Auto Show in November 1935. into the 1960s and who is also credited In 1960, Glenn Pray, a school teacher Unlike earlier classic American cars, for his work on the 1956-57 Lincoln who was a big Cord enthusiast, bought this was not a limousine to be piloted Mark II coupe. the remaining assets of Auburn-Cord- by a haughty chauffeur. That kind of Duesenberg Company from Dallas car went out of fashion with the Great Like most radical designs, the Cord 810 Winslow and moved them to a vacant Depression. No, the Cord 810 was had teething problems that sullied its pickle factory in Broken Arrow, Okla- meant to be driven by the owner; a reputation. It was offered for only two homa. This would continue to be driver's car. years, 1936 and 1937. In its second Pray's base of operations into the fu- year, it was accompanied by a super- ture. The venture was financed in part Like the wildly successful Miller Indy charged version - the Cord 812, but by an associate named Wayne cars, it had front wheel drive. It was sales remained in the tank. The Reces- McKinley. powered by a Lycoming V8 - a sister sion of 1937-38 didn't help. Production company that made aircraft engines. It was suspended and the body dies were Glenn Pray probably could have pros- had an electrically-operated Wilson sold. But the coffin-nose Cord was not pered by simply selling parts for these pre-selector gearbox. The instrument forgotten. It was an instant classic. classic cars, but he had higher ambi- panel was filled with gauges. And it tions. He wanted to begin building rep- was so sleek, so low. Glenn Pray’s Dream. licas of them for paying customers. And to make his dream come true, he Nobody had ever seen a car like this. When the Auburn Automobile Com- picked the boldest, most beautiful of In the front, it had pontoon fenders, pany declared bankruptcy in 1937, a them all. The Cord 810. While retain- much like an airplane. Retractable man named Dallas Winslow, a Buick (Continued on page 4) Left: Distinctive nose of the original Cord 810. Right: Cord’s Lycoming V8 with transaxle. DECEMBER 2016 THEFIFTHWHEEL PAGE 3 Cord 8/10 Photo Gallery Many but not all Cord 8/10’s had side pipes. All Cord 8/10s were two-seaters. 100 inch wheelbase. Profile shot reveals the compact size of the 8/10. Sitting pretty in red! Early 8/10s had moon hubcaps. Glenn Pray used NOS Cord parts for his 8/10 replicas. Rock-n-roll promoter Dick Clark owned a Cord 8/10! PAGE 4 THEFIFTHWHEEL DECEMBER 2016 ing his interests in ACD, Glenn Pray by upper and lower control arms. Pon- suspension, and pads for the body. The and several inventors established a new toon fenders don't leave much space for frame weighed about 400 pounds. entity to design, manufacture and sell springs, so Pray's engineers specified Nevertheless, the entire car was rather the replicas. longitudinal torsion bars, just like those light in weight at 2,100 pounds. on Chrysler products of that time. At What's Inside? the rear, there was a beam axle located Plastic Body Beauty. by trailing arms and a Panhard rod. It was important to Glenn Pray that his It would have been more authentic if replica be a front-wheel drive car, just Like its predecessor, the 8/10 had a the 8/10's body was made of steel, like like the original. But during the plan- conventional steel frame consisting of the original. But there was no way this ning stages, no front wheel drive cars long box sections running front to rear, would be financially feasible for a were being built in America. The cross-members, mounting points for the small upstart like Glenn Pray. He had Oldsmobile Toronado had not yet ar- rived. Mr. Pray had to get creative. Luckily, Chevrolet was still producing Corvairs at that time. The original Cord 810 had a unitary power train, meaning that the engine, transmission and differential were all bolted together as a single assembly, with the transmission in the front, dif- ferential in the middle and engine at the rear, just like the Corvair Uni-Pack power train. So, it was natural that Glenn Pray would select the Corvair power train as the basis for his replica of the original car. It was simply a mat- ter of positioning the Corvair power train up-front instead of at the rear. The next challenge was to design the suspension. The original Cord 810 had independent front suspension with half shaft axles. To enable the front wheels to steer as well as transmit power to the road, the axles were equipped with Car- dan joints instead of simple universal joints. Aside from that, the suspension was simple: Nothing but one trailing arm on each side. Springing was pro- vided by a transverse leaf secured to the chassis in the middle and connected to the outboard ends of the right and left trailing arms. It could be argued that a DeDion setup as found on the earlier L- 29 Cord may have been a sturdier ar- rangement. In the rear, the original Cord 810 had a simple beam axle sus- pended on semi-elliptic leaf springs, like a Dodge minivan. Glenn Pray's replica was more modern in the suspension department. Like the original, it had independent front sus- pension with half shafts, but instead of trailing arms, each wheel was located John Fitch drove this Royalite-bodied Cord 8/10 through a wall! DECEMBER 2016 THEFIFTHWHEEL PAGE 5 1936-37 Cord. The Inspiration. 1937 Cord 810 Sportsman convertible. Cord Lycoming V8. Supercharged & side pipes for ‘37. 1936 Cord 810 Westchester sedan. 1936 Cord 810 Beverly “humpback” sedan. All Cords came with full instrumentation. Cord 810 / 812 interior . PAGE 6 THEFIFTHWHEEL DECEMBER 2016 to think outside the box. they were fixed to rolling chassis units name of the new company was Sports that were assembled by Pray's staff. Automobile Manufacturing Company. Around the same time, U.S. Rubber The rest of the work was performed SAMCO produced 13 more Cord 8/10 Company was promoting a product there, at Pray's workshop. Sportsman cars, probably to use up ex- named "Expanded Royalite" as a suit- isting supplies, and then introduced two able material for boat hulls and heavy Glenn Pray and his people did their best new Cord replicars. Known as the duty truck cabs.