Newsletter of Lehigh Valley Corvair Club Inc. (LVCC) the fifth wheel JULY 2019 HTTP://WWW.CORVAIR.ORG/CHAPTERS/LVCC ESTABLISHED 1976 Inside this issue Next LVCC Meeting: 1 Sunday, August 4, 2019 Rambler American. 2 The Un-Corvair. Rambler American 3 Photo Gallery IKA Torino. Upscale 4 Argentinean American Clark’s Fall Classic 5 Event LVCC Meeting Notes 6 June 26, 2019 Corvair Greenbrier Ad 7 Courtesy Rich Greened Local Car Shows & 8 Events Wire Wheel Cover Next Meeting! Sunday, August 4, 2019 10 Trivia NOT at the LANTA Bus Center! Keep reading below! Pilot Bushing Tricks. 10 LVCC Meeting Information: Our next meeting will occur at Das Awkscht Fescht Play-Doh? in Corvair Row under the LVCC EZ-Up. Billed as the nation’s largest antique and classic car show, Das Awkscht Fescht is held at Macungie Memorial Park, LVCC Officer 50 Poplar Street, Macungie, PA 18062. 10 Contact Information The Fifth Wheel is published monthly by Lehigh Valley Corvair Club Inc. (LVCC), a chartered chapter for the Cor- vair Society of America. 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. Commercial advertising is also available on a fee basis. For details, email our newsletter editor, Allan Lacki, [email protected]. PAGE 2 THEFIFTHWHEEL JULY 2019 Rambler American. The Un-Corvair. At the beginning of the 1960s, four There were redeeming features. Tom air conditioning. American cars competed for the com- McCahill, the famous road test journal- pact market: Studebaker Lark, Chevy ist, wrote "There isn't a better buy in The wheezy 90-bhp flathead engine Corvair, Ford Falcon, Valiant and the the world today." He continued, "The remained standard on the 220 and 330 Rambler American. Production of the Rambler American ... is an ideal-size series, but a 125 hp overhead valve six Corvair ended in May 1969. The Ram- small family car... It will give up to 30 was also available. The top choice was bler American survived one more miles on a gallon of gas (and more, a 138-horsepower version of the over- month, until June. Let’s take a look. with overdrive) and will outperform head valve engine with a two-barrel any imported sedan selling for under carburetor. This more-powerful en- Luck or Foresight? The Rambler $2,000 except in the cornering depart- gine came on the 440H and was op- American was introduced in 1958 right ment... It is by far the most rattle-and- tional on all other Americans. A total before the recession hit. Because it squeak-free 1958 Detroit product I've of six transmissions were available but was inexpensive and economical, it driven-and I've driven them all!" no 4-speed was offered. American quickly became a big seller. And it Motors had yet to join the sporty car didn’t take much to develop because, Sales Success. Shortly after the Ram- craze ignited by the Corvair Monza. for all practical purposes, it was just a bler American was introduced, Ameri- refreshed version of the Nash Rambler can Motors went on a roll. In both Not Made for GT Drivers. The fact that was on the market between 1950 1960 and 1961, Rambler ranked third that the new Rambler American was and 1955. in domestic car sales - behind Chevro- no sports car was evidenced by the let and Ford but ahead of Plymouth. April 1964 issue of Car & Driver That original Nash Rambler, with its magazine. It’s writers praised the styl- 100 inch wheelbase, was replaced in The Ugly American. It was in 1961 ing both inside and out. They also 1956 by a new larger Rambler built on that American Motors decided to re- liked the car’s practical features. But a 106 inch wheelbase. But the com- style the Rambler American. Aestheti- they criticized its steering and han- pany kept the tooling for the smaller cally, the result was debatable and me- dling. Here is what they wrote: car in storage. Concurrently, Nash chanically, the underpinnings remained combined with Hudson to become the same. Frankly, some people liked “Rather than beat around the bush with American Motors Corporation (AMC). the old version better, but the restyled a lot of defensive justifications for our version remained one of the more views on the matter, let’s simply say It’s hard to imagine that American Mo- popular economy cars. that the Rambler American suffers tors could foresee the impending reces- from poor brakes, poor acceleration, sion of 1958. Why it re-introduced this The Pretty American. It is to AMC’s too much wind noise, low resistance to little car is hard to say. But when the credit that the boxy 1961-63 version crosswinds, and an absolute lack of recession hit, the revival of the old was replaced by a truly all-new and good handling. In its favor, it has a Nash Rambler turned out to be a wise handsome Rambler American in ’64. handsome body, decent responsiveness decision. Under the direction of Richard Teague, in traffic, and optional aluminum six- AMC’s new styling chief, the lines of cylinder engine, great fuel economy, Using What You’ve Got! Although the ‘64 were much more attractive, es- and a good looking – if cramped – in- AMC updated the styling slightly, the pecially on the 2-door version. Me- terior…. The remarkably clean front fundamental design of the Rambler chanically, the ‘64 Rambler American end is the nicest part of all in a well- American was already ten years old was based on the same platform as the integrated overall design. The car is as when the Corvair was introduced in larger Rambler Classic, which was nice-looking in the flesh as it is in the October 1959. It’s only concession to completely redesigned the year before, photographs, and if American Motors modernity was its unit body construc- so it had the best that American Motors ever comes up with any underpinnings tion which Nash had pioneered. could offer. to match the gorgeous sheet metal, they’ll have themselves a real winner.” The Rambler American was only avail- Wheelbase was increased to 106 able with a 199 cubic inch flathead six inches. Several levels of trim were Car & Driver, of course, catered to the engine. The front suspension made use available, from the base 220 series to sporty-car crowd back in those days. of old-fashioned trunnions rather than the top-of-the line 440H. Body styles Nevertheless, a well-optioned 1964 ball joints. And the rear suspension included coupes, sedans, a wagon and Rambler American had showroom ap- was a simple leaf-spring design. a convertible. Options included bucket peal and it was popular with buyers. seats, floor console, power steering and Production reached 160,321 units. JULY 2019 THEFIFTHWHEEL PAGE 3 Rambler American. The Un-Corvair. Simple, conventional, practical. Trunnions? Grand Daddy. 1950 Nash Rambler Landau. 1958. Introductory year. 1961. The “breadbox”. 1964. The pretty American. 1969. Yours for $1,998. 1969. SC/Rambler. 390 CID factory hot rod. PAGE 4 THEFIFTHWHEEL JULY 2019 This compared to 105,296 of the 1963 lowest price car manufactured in the variant of all. models. The ’64 would prove to be the USA that year. best year that the American would ever “The IKA Torino, later Renault have. In 1970, the Rambler American was Torino, is a mid-sized automobile replaced by the AMC Hornet, a slightly made by Industrias Kaiser Argentina New 6-Cylinder Engines. The 1964 larger compact car. Aside from en- (IKA) under an agreement with Ameri- model remained the basis for the Ram- gines and a few drive train compo- can Motors Corporation (AMC) in bler American until it was superseded nents, the Hornet was a completely 1966. The Torino was built on the by the AMC Hornet in 1970. In 1965, new car and served as the basis for sev- same hybrid AMC platform all the way AMC introduced its all-new new seven eral other models, including the Grem- through 1981 in both two-door hardtop main bearing six-cylinder engine, avail- lin, Spirit, and Eagle for a remarkable and four-door sedan variants. It has able in available in 199 and 232 cubic eighteen years. been called Argentina's national car. inch displacements. IKA Torino The Torino was developed by IKA as V8 Power Arrives. In 1966, AMC in- an Argentine hybrid of AMC's 1964- Excerpts from Wikipedia troduced a completely new 290 cubic '65 Rambler American and Classic inch V8 engine. Optional in all AMC with exclusively designed front and Editor’s Note. We have to apologize. cars, it was made available in the rear body panels, bumpers and interior. “Rogue”, which replaced the 440H as Almost all of this article consists of text clipped from Wikipedia. We couldn’t the top series in the Rambler American The central body section is from the resist. Who could believe the lowly lineup. Classic, and the engine and trunk com- Rambler American could serve as the partments are derived from the Ameri- basis for a high performance luxury Available in a 200 hp two-barrel carbu- can. retor version or producing 225 hp with car? It did. a 4-barrel carburetor and high compres- Rooflines came from the American as Variations of the Rambler American sion, the new engine utilized "thin- well, and some later Torino sedans fea- were built in several countries includ- wall" casting technology and weighed tured the attractive "C" pillar that was ing Australia, Mexico, South Africa, only 540 pounds.