Corvair Ultra Van

frankdamp wrote:
When I was testing for Norton Motorcycles at the Industry Association test track, Rover were doing tests on the first 3500 sedan

Completely off topic but that wasn't their first use of the GM V8 - they produced the P5 Saloon and Coupe with the V8, replacing the old straight six. Lovely old cars, Dad had a Coupe for a while until the gas mileage nearly bankrupted him :)

I have also been to MIRA for an AMG driver ed day, the same time as they were starting the testing of the Bugatti Veyron!! That was a heck of a day :)

I am moving to Cottage Grove, OR. What part of Oregon are you taking the UltraVan to as I would like to come visit at some point in the future.

Jaygryph, Congrats on finding and purchasing UV307.
May it give you many years of enjoyment.
BTW I sent you a PM.

Tony

Any of you attending the 2013 CORSA International Convention in Kalamazoo and at the Gilmore Car Museum? July 16-20, 2013



http://www.vairiation2013.com/
http://www.gilmorecarmuseum.org/

The current Rover development of the old GM engine has grown to 4.5 liters, I think. I was still living in the UK when Rover bought the design from GM and a neighbor was the head of Rover's R&D organisation.

They has a standard dynamometer endurance test for an engine design, full power at the design peak rpm for 48 hours without ill effects. Six motors came from GM, the best one lasted 45 minutes! They all broke the crankshaft.

Rover redesigned the block to be sand-cast instead of die-cast, and substantially stiffened the main bearing structure. Their second redesign survived the 48-hour test.

When I was testing for Norton Motorcycles at the Industry Association test track, Rover were doing tests on the first 3500 sedan (with the same body as their "2000" sedan). They were doing full-throttle standing starts at 3/4 mile intervals 24 hours a day for a week. I was surprised that Borg-Warner automatic transmission could take it!

I think my parents signed up for it again after I picked up 307. I'll check on that when I get it back to oregon in a week or so.

Thanks for letting me know about it.

jaygryph wrote:
I just bought #307 from down in Longbeach California and wanted to share the write up of my trip up north to Oregon with ya. Figured you folks would get a kick out of it (click the next button in the top rightish of the screen to move through the pictures and descriptions)

My parents owned #307 20 years ago so it's good to have it back in the family.

Click Here For The Ultravan #307 Storyhttp://imgur.com/a/L6JkB#0

Happy motoring!

If the HTML link fails it can be seen here:

http://imgur.com/a/L6JkB#0

Have you joined the UltraVan Motor Coach Club (UVMCC)?

Info at the club website. Link below in my signature.

I just bought #307 from down in Longbeach California and wanted to share the write up of my trip up north to Oregon with ya. Figured you folks would get a kick out of it (click the next button in the top rightish of the screen to move through the pictures and descriptions)

My parents owned #307 20 years ago so it's good to have it back in the family.

Click Here For The Ultravan #307 Storyhttp://imgur.com/a/L6JkB#0

Happy motoring!

If the HTML link fails it can be seen here:

http://imgur.com/a/L6JkB#0

Daveinet wrote:
I think if I were looking for a V8 power plant, I would look at using the aluminum Buick/Rover 215 V8, just to keep the weight down.

That would be the ideal power plant in my estimation. I had one in a Buick Special and it is a very solid, smooth running engine with good torque for it's size.

I think if I were looking for a V8 power plant, I would look at using the aluminum Buick/Rover 215 V8, just to keep the weight down.