The Fifth Wheel Winner of the 2014 CORSA Tony Fiore Newsletter Competition
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Newsletter of the Lehigh Valley Corvair Club (LVCC) the fifth wheel Winner of the 2014 CORSA Tony Fiore Newsletter Competition AUGUST 2015 HTTP://WWW.CORVAIR.ORG/CHAPTERS/LVCC ESTABLISHED 1976 Inside this issue 1964 Corvair Spyder 1 Dick Weidner Collection Next LVCC Meeting 1 Wednesday, Sept. 23 Kool Korvair Kit Kars 2 by Al Lacki Photos of Corvair Kit Car 3 Frames Drag Racing Update 4 by Rich Greene Letters from the Editor 4 Corvair Events Tech Report Switches 6 by Bob Weideman Local Car Events 7 Around Lehigh Valley LVCC Club Officer 9 Contact Information LVCC Classified 10 Ads Next LVCC Meeting: Weds. Sept 23, 2015 Time 7:30 PM. Place: Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority Headquar- ters (LANta), 2nd Floor Meeting Room, 1060 Lehigh Street, Allentown , PA 18103. Latitude : 40.587607 | Longitude : -75.474405. Feel free to bring a guest. Don’t get locked out! If you arrive late, the main door of the LANta office building may be locked. This is for security purposes. But the facility is open around the clock, so ask one of the garage employees to direct you to the second floor. The Fifth Wheel is published monthly by the Lehigh Valley Corvair Club (LVCC), Inc. 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, at [email protected]. LVCC is one of the many regional chapters of the Corvair Society of America (CORSA), a non-profit organization that was in- corporated to satisfy the common needs of individuals interested in the preservation, restoration, and operation of the Chevrolet Corvair. LVCC caters to Corvair people who live in and around the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. This is a very special car club! LVCC dues are $10 a year for CORSA members or $15 a year for non-CORSA members. PAGE 2 THEFIFTHWHEEL AUGUST 2015 lowed by the Avenger GT-12, which featured improved styling but still made Kool Korvair Kit Kars! use of Volkswagen running gear. In 1967 came the Valkyrie, which in- The Volkswagen Beetle pan chassis ning gear - Corvair engine, Corvair cluded a tube frame for mid-engine V8 served as the platform for most dune front suspension, and Corvair rear sus- applications. The body was stretched buggies and kit cars during the 1960s. pension. mid-ship to accommodate the mid- Grab an old Beetle, unbolt the heavy engine configuration. Last but not least steel body, and replace it with a light It may be hard to believe, but back in came the Avenger GT-15, which also weight fiberglass body. All of a sud- the 1960s, J.C. Whitney offered an all- featured a tube frame, but the GT-15 den, you had a car that could accelerate Corvair dune buggy frame. You could used Corvair running gear throughout. fast and look cool, too. order one from the J.C. Whitney cata- log. We don't know who manufactured The following is from the original With the little 40 horsepower Volks- them for J.C. Whitney. Maybe it was Avenger GT-15 sales brochure: wagen engine, this setup worked fine. Bedford Machinery Company of Erie, But many builders wanted more power, Michigan. Another possibility is Con- The Avenger GT-15 is Fiberfab's latest so they began to replace the little Ferr Inc. of Burbank, California, which addition to the famous Avenger line of Volkswagen engines with Corvair en- made the frames for Meyers Manx-Vair fiberglass bodies. The GT-15 utilizes gines. A number of parts houses, in- buggies. J.C. Whitney and Con-Ferr the GT-12 (three-piece) outside body cluding Kennedy Engineered Products, offered frames for early and late Cor- shell molded over a special one-piece Crown Manufacturing, Offenhauser, vair running gear. And both were de- floor pan. This special floor pan is de- and Weiand, offered adapters for bolt- signed to fix the classic Meyers Manx- signed to lock in place on the GT-15 ing Corvair engines to Volkswagen style buggy bodies of the day. frame - a "ladder" frame constructed of transaxles. large (5" x 2") rectangular steel tubing; Around the same time, Fiberfab was heliarc-welded together in a stabilizing But with the added horsepower, some offering its Aztec, Avenger, and Val- jig. builders found the Volkswagen pan kyrie kit cars. These were enclosed chassis to be too flexible. And the old- two-seater sports cars styled to resem- The GT-15 frame and body combina- fashioned trailing arm front suspension ble the famous LeMans-winning Ford tion is engineered to accept all Corvair and swing axle rear suspension from GT-40 endurance racing cars. Brought ('65 or later) running gear -- engine, the Volkswagen wasn't necessarily the to market in 1964, the Aztec was the front and rear suspension, transaxle, best. And so, kit car manufacturers be- first of the series and was the most steering, pedals, gear shift, etc. with a gan to offer stronger tube frames for primitive of the kits. minimum of component modification. buggies and kit cars. The most interest- Because the Corvair engine/transaxle ing ones, from a Corvair enthusiast's Underneath, the Aztec was much like a configuration in the GT-15 duplicates point of view, were the ones that were contemporary dune buggy, with Volks- that of a stock Corvair, no special specifically designed for Corvair run- wagen Beetle running gear. It was fol- adapter plates or shafts are required. Left: All-Corvair dune buggy frame sold by J.C. Whitney. Right: Here it is installed under a buggy body! AUGUST 2015 THEFIFTHWHEEL PAGE 3 An unmolested Fiberfab Avenger GT-15. The blue and white This Avenger GT-15 has a very busy engine com- paint scheme is reminiscent of the original Ford GT-40s. partment! Photos of Fiberfab Avenger GT-15 frames are hard to come by. This grainy one is from Fiberfab’s original sales brochure. If you look closely, you’ll see the late-series Cor- vair rear suspension and front cross-member. Bottom row: Two more Corvair buggy frames. The one on the left is a Turchan. The one on the right is a Con-Ferr. PAGE 4 THEFIFTHWHEEL AUGUST 2015 The GT-15 kit includes safety glass ings. You can find Fiberfab US online tend. Corvair Day is a good example. windshield, safety glass rear window, at http://www.fiberfab.us/. It's ques- You don't need to be a member of GT bucket seats, special dashboard/ tionable whether this is a going con- CPCC to participate. And often, our console, 3-piece Avenger body with cern. The Fiberfab US website hasn't neighboring clubs add public events to GT-15 inner panels/floor pan, and GT- been updated since 2012. their calendars, just like we do. 15 ladder frame. Valkyrie disc brakes - - front and/or rear are available as ex- In its hey day, Fiberfab produced hun- Several members of the New Jersey tra cost options as are complete uphol- dreds if not thousands of kit cars, in- Association of Corvair Enthusiasts stery kits and instrument sets. cluding the Avenger GT-15. They show their Corvairs every year at the trade hands now and then. Like many All Air Cooled Gathering Car Show GT-15 Kit.............$1295.00 kit cars, they are often unfinished and hosted by the Central Jersey Volks- need a lot of work. It's a sad fact that wagen Society. This show attracts The story of the Fiberfab company is many of the early kit cars were beyond more than 300 cars, mostly Volks- colorful. Warren "Bud" Goodwin the skills and resources of their owners. wagens of course. Volkswagen people founded Fiberfab-Velocidad, Inc. in But when completed, they are a sight to are fun people and many are curious 1964 and started building street rod behold and truly unique. about Corvairs. parts and body panels for Mustangs in Los Angeles before moving on to kit In a future issue of the Fifth Wheel, Yes, there is a Corvair class at this cars. By 1966, Fiberfab was grossing we'll discuss the greatest of the Cor- show and prizes are awarded to Corvair over $1 million in sales. vair-based kit cars, the Autodynamics owners. In fact, two years ago, the Deserter GS - a tube frame, mid mount crowd voted Allen Bristow's Corvair But in September 1967, Goodwin shot racing machine. Stay tuned Greenbrier camper best in show over- and killed his wife, Jamaica, when he all. Word has spread and now the found her with another man in their liv- Drag Racing Update, Philadelphia Corvair Association has ing room. Goodwin claimed he in- included the All Air Cooled Gathering tended to simply scare the lovers by by Rich Greene Show in its list of activities. It's com- shooting a hole in the ceiling, but the ing up on Sunday, September 20th. gun discharged accidentally. Realizing L & R Racing went to the Drag Races Why not give it a go? what he had done, he quickly called the on Friday night, August 21st. We police, but he still had to go to jail. He needed to fine tune the Holley four bar- The Philadelphia Corvair Association was charged with voluntary manslaugh- rel carburetor. We did improve our (PCA) has another event on its calendar ter and sentenced to 12 months impris- times from the first run to the last but it that looks like fun.