The one thing you didn't note about the Trophy 4 is that it had vibration issues due to the largish 3.2 liter four. Vibration due to secondary imbalance usually becomes a problem with four cylinders when the displacement reaches about 2.5 liters. This is the reason that Mitsubishi developed balance shafts, which were eventually used by Porsche in the 944, which eventually reached 3 liters in displacement. Pontiac didn't have this technology in the Trophy Four and it shook. Later a Pontiac 326 V8 was dropped into the small Tempest, which made it sort of a precursor to the later GTO.
When Chrysler made the 2.5 to replace the Mitsubishi 2.6, they added balancing shafts. After rebuilding two Mitsubishi 2.6's and seeing the repair manual for the 2.5, it made me wish I was rebuilding 2.5's instead. For a four cylinder, it was a great design.
@@THEScottCampbellThe Chrysler 2.2 and 2.5 were lovely motors to work on. The repair techs must have gotten serious dirt on the engineers and beancounters, then blackmailed them into making such simple and efficient engines.
Mitsubishi didn't invent balance shafts, just refined them. They were invented in the early 1900s. I keep seeing that Mitsubishi bought the patents, which I don't understand , surely they'd have run out 50 years beforehand? Or did they patent the improvements.
01:57 Looks like the Z-platform went to Chevy and Pontiac and the Y-platform went to Olds and Buick, but Olds and Buick never had a 4 banger, torque tube, torque converter behind the rear differential, or IRS...
Great videos, my Father was design engineer at GM Tech Center Michigan ... when I was 4 years old (1965) ...if I saw a car, I could name make, model and car company!
This episode was marvelous. I remember thinking as a kid of eight years in 1964, "Well, there they go. GM's going to make them bigger again." I loved that part at the end about how those four cars led to the mid-size of 64 on. Not to be out done and for a laugh by 1977 when the new full-size GMs came out, they were smaller than the 77 mid-size GMs. Such a great channel. Thank you.
Originally when the 64 Chevelle came out it was basically the same dimensions as the tri-five Chevys (55, 56, and 57) which were still popular in the early 60s. GM upsized the F-85, Tempest, and Special to be the same size and they and the Chevelle shared the same platform. As Ed said the Ford Fairlane intermediate was introduced as a 1962 model and sold reasonably well. The Chrysler brands were already intermediate sized starting in MY 1962 when Chrysler mistakenly believed GM was going to downsize their full size cars.
The "midsizes" were an attempt to rightsize vehicles back to the size of a full size car of the mid 50's- billed as a "Full Size Alternative". At least until the mid 70's when they became obese bloated pigs.
I have a 63 Skylark. Its a very sensible car, gas mileage into the 20s, very comfortable, and it handles good since it weighs 2800lbs. The engine alone is legendary, used in the first Mclaren, a TVR, about a million British cars. Mickey Thompson ran one in the Indy 500 and it even won 2 Formula 1 Championships.
I learned to drive in 1964 with my father's 1961 Corvair Rampside pickup. He (and I) thought that is was a terrific pickup. Our family had a hardware store and the pickup was great for delivering appliances, law mowers and similar large products.
Back when there was basically just one phone company, AT&T, they bought about a zillion Rampsides as utility vans. The ramp was especially useful for loading/unloading big cable spools.
On the Buick engines, the Fireball V6 was developed for the 1962 model year as GM ran into a number of issues with the aluminium 215, such as poor block castings and lack of antifreeze suitable for aluminium engines, leading to high production costs. In response they chose to develop the V6 as a cheaper, more reliable all cast iron alternative. My guess as to why they chose a V6 is probably to offset the greater weight of all iron materials. Nevertheless the cast iron 300 and 340ci Buick Smallblocks were directly based on the 215 architecture, and probably the 1968-1981 Buick 350 as well since it shares a lot of internal dimensions with other Buick V6 and V8 engines. And the Fireball V6 became one of the best selling engines of all time after being sold to Kaiser Jeep and then reacquired by GM in the 1970s. More commonly known as the 3800 it was used in just about every GM product from the 1970s to 2008, and became legendary for its durability, torque and surprise surprise fuel economy. They even raced them in Indycar!
technically, the 3800's Legacy of durability starts in 1988 when the they finally fixed the old Fireball's roughness (by 1975 they bored out the old Fireball to 3.8 Liters where it was Turbocharged in the Grand National and GNX) by redesigning the engine block to allow for on-center bore spacing and adding a balance shaft above the camshaft, as well as Sequential Fuel Injection and the C³I Ignition system. another channel here on youtube named Rivlanta has a GM/Buick Dealership training video that lists every single improvement the 3800 has over the old V6. here is a link to that video: ruclips.net/video/0batugOc0GM/видео.htmlsi=wBWYaxAHGGqwF5r7
Learned to drive in a 62 Buick Special in the early 70s. The iron V6 would shake & backfire like crazy no matter the tinkering! (don't miss carburetors AT ALL). Toledo figured out retarding the timing almost 180 made it a reliable engine.
As I recall, the Corvair handling problems had to do with how the rear suspension would "tuck under" during hard cornering. Beetles will absolutely do that, too, as well as *many other cars of the time.*
Mostly caused by GM cost cutting to keep the production cost down, but partially fixed in 1964 with a standard front anti roll bar and an additional transverse leaf spring at the rear and then largely fixed with thw 2nd generation which adopted the double wishbone IRS of the Corvette.
Also the front and rear tires required different pressure. Odd in most cars except some exotics. Having the wrong pressure in the rear could cause it to buck in hard braking or the rear end to swing out unexpectedly.
The Oldsmobile version of the 215 V8, with the extra head stud for turbocharging , was the engine block chosen by Jack Brabham and Repco in Australia to develop the Repco F1 V8 that helped Jack Brabham win the 1966 F1 championship and was further developed to help Denny Hulme win the 1967 F1 championship in a Repco Brabham. Pretty good for a rejected GM engine basis.
My family had a 62 Buick Special. Dad got it new, and it had the V6 in it. It ran rough as dad would say. Instead of spacing the crankshaft at 120 degree intervals, for firing, they left it V8 style at 90 degree intervals (I think) so it sounded like it was missing a bit, or rumbling which some people enjoyed. When the family size went to 5, it was too small, and the hunt began which led to an AMC Ambassador 990 with a V8 that would smoke the tires. SHHHHH dad would tell me,,,, dont tell Mom.
My grandmother had a Buick Special (1961?) and it ran forever...... It was passed down to my uncle, then my older brother and then me. It was a two door HT, a fun little car--wish I had it back. Thanks to ED for posting.
I hate to say it went from a nickel and dime car to a $20 and $50 car, almost half of the little water pump bolts were busted in the block, it was smoking like the back tires of a Hell Cat. I really wish I could find another one, it was a fun little car.@@giggiddy
Dearest Dutchman, Ed! Please, don't ever apologize (sincerely or not) for going deeper into the weeds of the American automotive golf course! Your in-depth newest video is plenty welcomed by those of us who vaguely remember just some of these details, but who want to rediscover more. Thanks aplenty for your work! Just as a grand "by the way," I bought a one-family owned 1965 Corvair Monza coupe in 1975 for $125 (thank you, Ralph Nader, for that basement bargain price!) and it was a tremendously powerful sports car that only needed new rubber on the wheels and in the engine compartment to perform amazingly again - and that one had the "cute" little automatic transmission lever on the dashboard. Oh how I looked for a 3-on-the-floor Corvair after that one. But alas and alack, I had to settle for selling my Monza (at a $400 profit) to buy a 1956 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Whale Mouth with only 15,000 miles on it - in 1976 - for a whopping $200! Poor little old me, right? Thanks again and again, Ed!
I can totally relate to the "JETFIRE" part, Americans have an ability to make a car name sounds exciting... Much better than the codes and numbers (328i, M3, 911, 355, etc)
Oldsmobile Starfire. Dodge Ramcharger. Imperial LeBaron... I think they even called some cars MACHO, probably written in the most flashy colors possible. This is incredible 😂
My dad had a 1963 Oldsmobile cutlass coupe. He went to the factory where he picked it up. When he finally parked the car in the early 1980s he put every one of over 500,000 miles on the car. He had the engine and transmission rebuilt once. That car was his baby.
Thanks for this enjoyable and insightful trip down memory lane, Ed. An uncle bought an Oldsmobile F85 and was unhappy with it. We called it the Blue Goose for some reason (yes, it was blue, metallic blue). My parents had a 1960 Oldsmobile F88 which was a wonderful and very dependable car. A neighbor owned a Corvair (bought used) and tinkered with it every evening and weekends. He may still be messing around with it!!
Would the neighbor with the corvair work on it out in the garage in the evening with the light on and listening to music? Because I think he lives next door to me and he's still tinkering with it. Lol. I remember those guys when I was a kid. Wish I would have paid more attention to them.
My dad drove the exact 1961 Buick Skylark shown at 13:19 - brown with white vinyl roof. It did not suffer the problems many others had with the aluminum V8, and lasted for around 10 years before various electric components went out. It drove well, offered a comfortable ride, and got decent mileage. Except for the Riviera, I don’t think the bigger, heavier Buicks that followed were an improvement.
That was a nice little car, but it shouldn't have been badged as a Buick. Buicks were not supposed to be smaller and/cheaper than any Chevy. Ditto putting a 300 cube engine in the LeSabre. The Chevy offered 283 and 327 V8s. Buick should kept the 401 in the LeSabre, or maybe brought back the 364 version, Olds should never have replaced their 394 with a 330 in the base 88 series, and Pontiac should never have replaced their 389 with a 326. GM in doing that made their base model medium-priced cars clones of the Chevy, just more expensive, whereas the 63 versions of the same offered something that a Chevy DIDN'T offer.
I was still building model cars as these came out, and did not know how each brand modified their line up in the face of VW, Datsun and Toyota. Thank you, Ed.
I was fortunate to work at a SoCal gas station in the early-to-mid Sixties. One afternoon I did brakes, lube, oil and filter on an Olds F85. That car was an eye opener on the test drive. The acceleration was crisp and the handling was agile for an American car not named Corvette. Thanks for reminding me of those days!
My first car was a '63 F-85. Bought it for $350 in the summer of 1970. I was 17 and gas was 26.9 cents a gallon. A lot of great memories were made in that car.
63 Tempest used many common transmission parts with the Corvair. The 195 4-cyl made too much torque for the Corvair differential so the Tempest differential was larger. Also interesting that the 166 HP 4-cyl option provided the same HP as the aluminum V8 option so very few cars were made with the aluminum V8. For 63 they dropped the aluminum V8 and offered a 336 cid V8 based on the iron Pontiac V8 block, advertised as 326 cid.
Why did they call it a 326 if it was actually a 336? Did Chevrolet complain because it was bigger than the 327 and so lobby the 14th Floor to force Pontiac to call it a 326?
Hey Ed, I drive a cherry 1963 Corvair Monza convertible. Love it. (Ralf was wrong) I never knew about the other Corvair based models from BOP. I’m getting old enough where there’s not much about the auto industry that I haven’t already heard before! Here’s one for you. Corvair may be reintroduced as an electric, banking on its reputation for being advanced rather than poor handling.
I don’t see GM reusing the name for a BEV because for the Corvair the “air” part was because it was air cooled. The bad reputation of the Nissan Leaf was partially due to the air cooled battery that degraded quickly. That said I’d love it if modern cars looked like a ‘65 Monza.
@@guylr7390 The '65 Corvair redesign was one of the most beautiful cars to come out of GM and this at a time when nearly everything they were making was beautiful! The Bill Mitchell era was the zenith of American automotive design.
My father bought a new 1962 F-85 when I was little. The 215 cid aluninum V8 made it pretty quick with a 4-on-the-floor transmission. The high compression engine required 100 octane fuel, and he would only use Amoco "white gas" which was supposedly the best. You never see these innovative cars any more, so thank you for presenting them.
The BOP "Senior Compacts" were such a sucess that they were in production a whole 3 model years. Air conditioning meant little, as even most full sized cars didn't have it until the 1970s. The first US mid-size cars were the 1956-1962 Rambler Six.
Great coverage of the smaller GM cars! I saw these in real life and they are awesome. I owned a 1966 F-85 with a Rocket V8 for 20 years and can see the advances from the small F-85. Thanks
My father had a 1962 Buick Skylark and he said it was the best car he ever owned. Please do an in depth review of the Skylark with that amazing aluminium engine.
17:52 He! Thats my old car! Literally this sample TG-LR-90 has been mine from 2005 till 2022. It was my first car and is now in the UK with the guy who bought it from me.
Ed, Good video. I would like you to do a video on the 1962 Chevy II which was designed and produced within 18 months one of the fastest developed cars during that time. When the Corvair was outsold by the Falcon in late 1959 when both were released Chevrolet fast tracked a new compact car along the lines of the Falcon using many components from its larger car and emphasizing cost like the Falcon. In Canada Pontiac released a Tempest version of the Chevy II and for many years the Canadian Pontiac shared frames, engines, transmissions, and interiors with Chevys. The Nova was originally the top trim level of the Chevy II until 1969 When Nova replaced the Chevy II name. Chevy II/Nova was the only GM compact that remained a compact during its run and later versions of the were developed as the Buick Apollo (1973), Pontiac Ventura (1971, and Oldsmobile Omega (1973). GM didn't leave the compact car market for 1964 it just grew the Tempest, F-85, and Special into midsize cars and introduced the Chevelle as Chevrolet's new midsized car while retaining the Corvair and Chevy II.
actually, the Canadian versions of the Chevy II/Nova platform were called the Acadian and Canso, and were sold at Pontiac/Buick dealers across the country until 1968. For some weird reason GM also made a Chevelle clone called the Beaumont, even though Pontiac and Buick already had the same platform - one weird but cool thing about the Beaumont is that some came with the Chevelle performance options, so there was an SS396 equivalent.
The Corvair was a major sales disappointment for GM even before Nader's book hit the shelves. GM admitted, at least to themselves, that the Corvair was a mistake. What's interesting is that the Chevy II platform took a similar development trajectory at GM as the Falcon platform did for Ford. The Falcon begot the Mustang which begot the Granada (North America version) which begot the Lincoln Versailles. The Chevy II led to the Camaro, Firebird, Seville, etc.
@@MrSloika True as early as the Fall of 1959 after the Corvair had been out just a few months with sales trailing the Falcon and that is why in early 1960 Chevrolet put a team together to design the Chevy II a simpler compact car to compete with the Falcon. Corvair was ahead of its time and many during the late 50s and early 60s wanted a inexpensive compact car which is a major reason the 1958 Rambler American was such a success when it came out along with it being the Recession of 1958. The Falcon was McNamara's car in that it was his idea and he pushed it forward for production.
@@dreibel Thanks I wasn't sure what they called the Canadian version of the Chevy II but I did know that the Tempest name lived on in Canada longer than it did in the USA.
@@JeffSproul Ed hinted at what the Corvair's problem really was. By the late 50s and the sales success of the VW, American car companies knew they were missing out on the compact car market niche. The general feeling at GM was that compact car buyers were losers. At the time Ford was managed by McNamara and the 'Whiz Kids', they didn't assume anything and they sent surveys to VW owners offering to pay them $5 to complete and return the survey. When the numbers were tallied the Ford guys were astounded by the results. Buyers of new VWs had the highest education levels and highest level of professional jobs of any new car buyers. Ford decided to build a car that embodied the qualities of the VW while retaining a conventional layout and using as many bits from the company parts bin as possible. The arrogant management at GM set out to make the American Beetle....a Beetle on steroids. Unfortunately since the Corvair had very little in common with other GM models, the cost skyrocketed. GM reacted by cutting a lot of corners. The Corvair didn't just suffer from questionable handling, it had a lot of other problems as well. Then Ralph Nader entered the picture. At that point it was all over except for the stinking.
Family and friends of mine always thought I was weird because of my love of all things automotive. Decades later, I find your channel here on RUclips and I'm drawn in by your personal passion for all things automotive and from my 1st click of 1 of your videos, I've been hooked. I dig your blend of fact-finding, history, documentary, and humor to be in perfect balance, and I like that you opt to personally narrate your videos, verses utilizing an A.I. computer robot voice-over. I appreciate style and dedication and the way you craft your work. I, for 1, am glad you found your way onto RUclips, and I thrilled whenever I get notified that your posting a new video. Thanks for sharing your passion for the automotive industry with us car guys around the globe, my friend. 😎👍
This was quite good Ed. It was informative good footage as well. I liked how you put everything together and explained so much as well. That Buick V6 as you know eventually came the GM 3800 V6 that is quite famous. It is the same engine that became the turbo V6 used in Buick Grand National. It is interesting the midsized cars that grew out of the experiment. Again I applaud this video and say thank you for the effort and all you covered.
Just so you know, Ed, the episode featuring the white Corvair is the episode that got me hooked on your channel. Haven't missed one since, and, of course, I went and watched all the episodes before that one. Your channel is fantastic!!!
7:53 so with the trophy 4, you could use a single header made for a V8, V8 carburetors, and there was a lot of other parts cross-compatibility. This was the era of hot rodding so I think their bet was to make it as painless as possible to hot up a trophy 4 if desired. Also that Fireball V6 became the 3800 and was used until the 2000s in various forms.
Loved the reference to the NSU Prinz, those we’re exciting sightings when I was a kid in the mid-seventies. The similarities to the Corvair aren’t limited to the looks: the Prinz (and the successor NSU 1000) had rear engines too. However, their engine placement predates the styling similarity.
My father had a 61 Pontiac Tempest. I was too young to remember it but have a photo. It must have had problems. He traded for a 63 Dodge Dart and never bought another GM product. You are correct, I see countless Corvairs at auto shows and rarely see the others. One well known Corvair show car dropped a big V8 with tube intakes where the rear seat would be in a convertible. It wins awards.
Used to see a 4 door Buick Special with coarse paint brush yellow paint on it running around town... when I spotted it in a junk yard with smashed up front end, I grabbed the aluminum V8 with manual flywheel and bellhousing, knowing it had just been a runner... for my '75 MG Midget...
Ed, this video is great. I remember this first generation of GM compacts. They weren’t as popular as they should have been. The Tempest was an excellently engineered car. I’m just home from two weeks in Europe and visited two car museums. I would love to see you do some videos on the postwar European cars.
My Dad was a 'car guy' at GM, working at the Tech Center in Warren. We always had awesome cars in our family. I remember riding as a kid in the back seat of my Mom's Pontiac Lemans Tempest. At stop lights, young kids would rev their engines and try to race her!
I had a '62 Buick Special, with the 198 Fireball V-6, and 2 speed auto tranny. Fun little car, but parts were hard to find, and very expensive when you could find them!
Rode in a Jetfire convt, a turbo corvair and a pontiac 4 automatic but cannot remember ever even seeing a Buick special. Corvairs and Pontiacs rode great with their IRS set up. owned two falcons and were so much simpler in design and except for a bad spindle due to teenage driving lasted . Ford with the falcon and fairlane had the right ideas first it seems .
A regular at my local car show brings a lovely black F-85. There are usually a couple of Corvairs and sometimes a custom Buick Special too. Very neat cars!
first car was a 1962 corvair that my dad gave me to drive.was fun to drive and went like hell in the snow. Locally owned repair shop that i use to go to for repairs before i started working on my own vehicles had the trucks, the vans, the regular corvairs and the super charged ones and he had probally about 100 of them in a field for parts.thanks for the video
I find it cool how the Tempest actually "looks like a Pontiac" in the modern sense. Like, you can see the front fascia design that carried all the way through to cars like the Grand Prix in the 90s.
My family had an Olds F85, with the V8, was a real fast car (we had the speeding tickets to prove it), most buyers preferred the V8s and these fast little cars (that really weren’t that little), would see life as a street racer. Finally, DeLorean said let’s put the biggest V8 possible in and the muscle car was born. Still have fond memories of that car.
Stumbled across 62 Skylark convertible with 215 in 1989, still have it. Only car I've kept without ever thinking selling it - it is good to drive, gives good mileage, the lightweight V8 runs smoothly, and it is very easy to park in crowded city. Used it as my daily driver 1989 - 1998 in summertime, done almost 100.000 miles over the years without any major issues.
Rover V8, as a youngster I enjoyed driving these in P5B,P6 and SD1,nice car's and engines. Thanks for a great vid,best wishes to yourself,family,friends and fellow followers.
My grandparents drove some pretty awesome cars in the 1960's, 1970's and into the 1980's. My paternal grandfather drove a 1957 Thunderbird from about 1965 until 1981. When he could no longer get in and out of it, he switched to a 1976 Mercedes 300D which he drove until his death in 1987. My paternal grandmother drove a Hertz Shelby Mustang from about 1975 until her death in 1988. My maternal grandmother drove a 1963 Pontiac Tempest 2 door from new until she stopped driving around 1988. My maternal grandfather and his second wife drove a 1969 Nova and a 1961 Chevy Apache Pickup from new until they stopped driving in the late 1980s. Needless to say, all my grandparents lived in California. I always knew the TBird and the Shelby were awesome cars. It is only recently that I am realizing that the Tempest, Nova, and Apache were just as noteworthy. Heck, even the 300D was interesting (what a dog).
Ed, I always enjoy your videos. Great info with a sense of humor. I'm American so when you were going off about "Jet Fire" and "Turbo Fire" and then showed the TV bar screen, I was LMAO! Yep, that's 'Murica! Anyway, keep up the great work! Looking forward to your next one!
Dude! I am a big fan! Great videos, my Father was design engineer at GM Tech Center Michigan ... when I was 4 years old (1965) ...if I saw a car, I could name make, model and car company!
I’m so ready to start driving my Corvair again. It was vindicated by a study in the 70’s, far too little too late. They’re such good cars. Mine will buzz along happily at 75 and I get about 24-26 MPG.
These cars just confirm my thoughts about carmakers like GM: are quite capable of making cool cars with innovative ideas that prove they can think outside the box and try new things, but usually choose the boring, generic route, similar to Toyota or Volkswagen
aluminum (n.) 1812, coined by English chemist Sir Humphry Davy, from alumina, alumine, the name given by French chemists late 18c. to aluminum oxide, from Latin alumen "alum" (see alum). Davy originally called it alumium (1808), then amended this to aluminum, which remains the U.S. word. British editors in 1812 further amended it to aluminium, the modern preferred British form, to better harmonize with other metallic element names (sodium, potassium, etc.).
The British spelling really does make more sense as, apart from platinum, the names of pretty much all the other metals end in -ium. Every other element in aluminum’s period (except boron, for the obvious) also ends in -ium. I’ll still refer to the American spelling myself, but only because I’m an American. But now I wonder why Davy added that n to alumium, we could have avoided this argument altogether.
I have an American compact car story. When I got back from Vietnam in 1968 I bought a 65 Buick special convertible. I drove the car along with my wife and daughter from Milwaukee Wisconsin to Andrew's Air Force Base in Virginia. That was my first and only convertible and I just loved it. Although the aluminum block engine had a horrible tendency to clog the radiators if you didn't use antifreeze in them. Anyway I was out at Andrews until I mustered out in 1970 but sometime in 1969 the engine gave up, and I was forced to get another used car and used the Buick as a trade in. I found a little Oldsmobile f85. Well I missed the Buick almost immediately and was not crazy about the Oldsmobile. Every now and then I would drive by the dealership to see if anybody bought the Buick, bad engine at all. Then one day I drove by and saw the dealership had closed, but my little bill is special was sitting for lonely in the back of the lot all by itself. That was when I got a scathingly brilliant idea. I found out who owned the property, arranged to get the Buick back, and towed it back to where we were living in a duplex apartment building with a backyard,... And a tree! Well, since the Oldsmobile f85 and the Buick had the same engine in it, long story short, two of my friends and I pulled an all-nighter under that tree swapping the engines between the Oldsmobile and the Buick. It worked brilliantly. When I mustered out of the Air Force in February of 1970, my wife and I drove back to Wisconsin, with me driving the Buick packed with household goods,... And a cat, and my wife and 3-year-old daughter drove a 58 Plymouth Station Wagon that we purchased for the trip. Now remember, I was driving the convertible,... In February, and the heater was broken. That poor cat and I damn near froze to death on that trip. I made frequent stops at rest stops so that I could run into the bathroom and drape myself over the hand dryers just to get some feeling back in my body. My wife on the other hand had a nice comfortable trip with a friend who had come down to accompany her and she had a marvelous time. I really hated giving up that little Buick because I thought it was just a neatest little car I'd ever owned. Or at least one of the neatest. Okay, that's my American compact car story. I hope somebody enjoyed it.
The aluminium Buick V8 went on to win the F1 Championship in 66 and 67 with Repco Brabham as the Repco V8, Brabham becoming the only man to win the F1 Championship in a car of his own construction , and the constructors championship , with team mate Denny Hulme winning in 67 .
And what came to replace the Corvair, and all the Y-chassis cars? The '62 Nova... with it's traditional-design I-4 and I-6 engines, and later V-8 offerings (SBC AND BBC) along with all it's divisional sisters (Buick Apollo, Pontiac Ventura, Oldsmobile Omega) and it's radical close cousin: The Camaro & Firebird... which shared it's suspension & chassis design, much like the Mustang did with the Falcon & Comet.
I won't lie, I've been waiting for weeks for Ed to release a new video with his fresh Dutch perspective on car culture. The tuxedo and tails dancing around the new compact models is hilarious! Ed's editing is just perfect comedy timing. My mom had a 1965 turquoise Olds F-85 but I remember it well as being a rather large car, loaded with naugahyde plastic upholstery. Yuck! Not pleasant to touch, really. THERE'S a topic for your next video -- SEATING AND UPHOLSTERY. What about comparing DASHBOARDS from different eras from different brands? That could be even more interesting. The evolution of the dashboard! Wow! I submit that the larger the driver's personal need for power and control, the more elaborate the dashboard. You could even say that GM and Ford and Chrysler were stroking the customer's innate need for power and control, whereas the VW bug was just trying to tell the driver how fast they are going.
You left it all out there hanging at the end- IT WAS THE RAMBLER!😂 Nash came out of nowhere with the Rambler and it became a hit (story, story, story).....
I learned to drive on a 1962 F85, which was my parents second car, in 1973. It was pretty fun to drive. The one weird thing was that the gear selector was set up PNDLR.
That's interesting because I had a '63 F-85 and it had PNDSLR. And my '62 Buick Skylark (acquired in 1978) had PNDLR. (Not PRNDL, which was more common.) I know that the Buick had what they called "Dual Path Turbine Drive" which I believe was a derivative of Buick's Dynaflow, and I think the Olds (at least my '63) had that extra "S" range in there like the senior series Oldsmobiles had because they used Hydramatics or some derivative of the Hydramatic. Wasn't it great back in the days when the GM divisions were actually like separate car companies with their own powertrain engineering and chassis development? Different groups of engineers coming up with alternative solutions to problems and more choice for the buyer. Nope, can't have that!! Today it seems all they know how to make are boring gray Chinese SUVs.
Great entertaining Video. It left me wondering the identity ( 15.58) of the fast back, sweeping rear screen Car from the sixties still behind Nadar. Anyone know?
Edd, I confess, I had two Triumph Spitfires MK 2, a GT6 Convertible, yep, built myself. All had the awful Corvair rear suspension. Apart from the GT6, lessons learnt sitting in ditchs😢😂. Great channel.
The Triumph Herald shared the "swing axle" rear suspension and its penchant to "tuck under" at cornering limits. This led one British automotive journalist to pen, upon hearing the twisting metal as the car rolled over, "Hark, the Herald axle swings!"
@@richardmccaughey5928 A confession, as I didn't learn I stupidly brought a Vitesse. I suffered trunnion collapsing related issues while cruising by a bus stop full of females..........the embarrassment haunts me today.😂
USA military 'Jeeps' used in Vietnam and made by Ford in 1960's had swing rear axles (WHY???)... and a sticker saying don't corner above 20 MPH... picture showing tuck under...
@@BuzzLOLOL My god! It was a worrying trend. Perhaps a RUclips channel "your experience s of a swing axle @ other stories". Thanks for letting me know, it's so amazing the lack of technology that we used. Anyone else with experience or info on this positively bad set up?😁🤣 .
When I was 4 my dad bought my mom a rope drive Tempest wagon with the Trophy 4. She liked it okay but had lots of trouble with it so she traded it in on a Chevy Nova in 1968. I remember once the idler arm fell out and my mom had me go and pick it up. She drove it home but she said the steering was scary.
Hey I really like all your videos so much. Now that you kinda drive a Mercedes SLK, can you make a video about German cars in the US, or Benz only. I wouldn‘t be that sad when you leave the others out. 😬
I am so glad they did this, I have a 1987 TVR 350i which has the Rover version of that 215ci buick v8, the V8 noise is a big part of its appeal and 200bhp in a car weighing 2500 lb makes it pretty quick :)
Similar to the 1962 Jetfire: ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html And the Buick aluminum V8 is electric motor smooth... first appeared in 1950 in Buick concept cars...
@@BuzzLOLOL Just watched the video, sounds so similar to my TVR. Theres a guy here in the uk with a turbo 5L version of this engine in his newer model TVR, does a 10sec quarter :)
The one thing you didn't note about the Trophy 4 is that it had vibration issues due to the largish 3.2 liter four. Vibration due to secondary imbalance usually becomes a problem with four cylinders when the displacement reaches about 2.5 liters. This is the reason that Mitsubishi developed balance shafts, which were eventually used by Porsche in the 944, which eventually reached 3 liters in displacement. Pontiac didn't have this technology in the Trophy Four and it shook. Later a Pontiac 326 V8 was dropped into the small Tempest, which made it sort of a precursor to the later GTO.
When Chrysler made the 2.5 to replace the Mitsubishi 2.6, they added balancing shafts. After rebuilding two Mitsubishi 2.6's and seeing the repair manual for the 2.5, it made me wish I was rebuilding 2.5's instead. For a four cylinder, it was a great design.
@@THEScottCampbellThe Chrysler 2.2 and 2.5 were lovely motors to work on. The repair techs must have gotten serious dirt on the engineers and beancounters, then blackmailed them into making such simple and efficient engines.
Mitsubishi didn't invent balance shafts, just refined them. They were invented in the early 1900s.
I keep seeing that Mitsubishi bought the patents, which I don't understand , surely they'd have run out 50 years beforehand? Or did they patent the improvements.
01:57 Looks like the Z-platform went to Chevy and Pontiac and the Y-platform went to Olds and Buick, but Olds and Buick never had a 4 banger, torque tube, torque converter behind the rear differential, or IRS...
Great videos, my Father was design engineer at GM Tech Center Michigan ... when I was 4 years old (1965) ...if I saw a car, I could name make, model and car company!
I'm a simple guy. I see a new EAR video, I watch it.
My thoughts exactly
no other action you could possibly take. he kills it. every time! 🎉
And enjoy each episode
Amen
I instantly become happy. Love his videos
Not gonna lie, I find this video on GM's advanced compact cars very fascinating indeed!
I really enjoyed it so much. Keep up the awesome work, Ed!
Indeed. Have seen many videos from various sources that each gave a few details but not a comprehensive history like this one did.
Both of these two comments sounds like they came straight out of fucking ChatGPT.
This episode was marvelous. I remember thinking as a kid of eight years in 1964, "Well, there they go. GM's going to make them bigger again." I loved that part at the end about how those four cars led to the mid-size of 64 on. Not to be out done and for a laugh by 1977 when the new full-size GMs came out, they were smaller than the 77 mid-size GMs. Such a great channel. Thank you.
Originally when the 64 Chevelle came out it was basically the same dimensions as the tri-five Chevys (55, 56, and 57) which were still popular in the early 60s. GM upsized the F-85, Tempest, and Special to be the same size and they and the Chevelle shared the same platform. As Ed said the Ford Fairlane intermediate was introduced as a 1962 model and sold reasonably well. The Chrysler brands were already intermediate sized starting in MY 1962 when Chrysler mistakenly believed GM was going to downsize their full size cars.
As a kid born in '62, I loved these cars when I was old enough to notice. Neighbors had them and my cousin had the Special Skylark.
Actually, '77 full size GMs had same wheelbase as '77 4 door midsize, bigger than 2 door midsize...
The "midsizes" were an attempt to rightsize vehicles back to the size of a full size car of the mid 50's- billed as a "Full Size Alternative". At least until the mid 70's when they became obese bloated pigs.
I have a 63 Skylark. Its a very sensible car, gas mileage into the 20s, very comfortable, and it handles good since it weighs 2800lbs. The engine alone is legendary, used in the first Mclaren, a TVR, about a million British cars. Mickey Thompson ran one in the Indy 500 and it even won 2 Formula 1 Championships.
Had a 65 Skylark that was my daily driver through the 1990s. Just a dirt simple, tough as nails car. Yeah, they are great cars!
'62 Jetfire was my daily driver in early-mid 1960s:
ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
as someone who prevers the size of european cars and loves 1960's american cars, i think these cars look so good!
I learned to drive in 1964 with my father's 1961 Corvair Rampside pickup. He (and I) thought that is was a terrific pickup. Our family had a hardware store and the pickup was great for delivering appliances, law mowers and similar large products.
Back when there was basically just one phone company, AT&T, they bought about a zillion Rampsides as utility vans. The ramp was especially useful for loading/unloading big cable spools.
Take a peek at my avatar!
On the Buick engines, the Fireball V6 was developed for the 1962 model year as GM ran into a number of issues with the aluminium 215, such as poor block castings and lack of antifreeze suitable for aluminium engines, leading to high production costs. In response they chose to develop the V6 as a cheaper, more reliable all cast iron alternative. My guess as to why they chose a V6 is probably to offset the greater weight of all iron materials. Nevertheless the cast iron 300 and 340ci Buick Smallblocks were directly based on the 215 architecture, and probably the 1968-1981 Buick 350 as well since it shares a lot of internal dimensions with other Buick V6 and V8 engines.
And the Fireball V6 became one of the best selling engines of all time after being sold to Kaiser Jeep and then reacquired by GM in the 1970s. More commonly known as the 3800 it was used in just about every GM product from the 1970s to 2008, and became legendary for its durability, torque and surprise surprise fuel economy. They even raced them in Indycar!
Crazy that a early 2000s Range Rover discovery and and early 2000s Pontiac Grand Prix can trace their engines to the same place
technically, the 3800's Legacy of durability starts in 1988 when the they finally fixed the old Fireball's roughness (by 1975 they bored out the old Fireball to 3.8 Liters where it was Turbocharged in the Grand National and GNX) by redesigning the engine block to allow for on-center bore spacing and adding a balance shaft above the camshaft, as well as Sequential Fuel Injection and the C³I Ignition system. another channel here on youtube named Rivlanta has a GM/Buick Dealership training video that lists every single improvement the 3800 has over the old V6. here is a link to that video: ruclips.net/video/0batugOc0GM/видео.htmlsi=wBWYaxAHGGqwF5r7
Very interesting! @@digitalrailroader
The 3.8/3800 is my favourite GM engine. I'd take one over an LS anyday.
Learned to drive in a 62 Buick Special in the early 70s. The iron V6 would shake & backfire like crazy no matter the tinkering! (don't miss carburetors AT ALL). Toledo figured out retarding the timing almost 180 made it a reliable engine.
As I recall, the Corvair handling problems had to do with how the rear suspension would "tuck under" during hard cornering. Beetles will absolutely do that, too, as well as *many other cars of the time.*
They changed the Corvair's rear suspension in '65 to a Corvette style that greatly improved handling, but it was too late, the damage had been done.
Mostly caused by GM cost cutting to keep the production cost down, but partially fixed in 1964 with a standard front anti roll bar and an additional transverse leaf spring at the rear and then largely fixed with thw 2nd generation which adopted the double wishbone IRS of the Corvette.
Also the front and rear tires required different pressure. Odd in most cars except some exotics.
Having the wrong pressure in the rear could cause it to buck in hard braking or the rear end to swing out unexpectedly.
My '65 Renault Caravelle certainly knew how to tuck a wheel under and get goofy. Not fun in a convertible!
my 62 700 drives great...but all my 6 corvairs have radial tires,,,they dont fold ,,,bias ply would
The Oldsmobile version of the 215 V8, with the extra head stud for turbocharging , was the engine block chosen by Jack Brabham and Repco in Australia to develop the Repco F1 V8 that helped Jack Brabham win the 1966 F1 championship and was further developed to help Denny Hulme win the 1967 F1 championship in a Repco Brabham.
Pretty good for a rejected GM engine basis.
My first car was a 62 Buick Special V8 and I loved it. It was pretty peppy and handled well.
My family had a 62 Buick Special. Dad got it new, and it had the V6 in it. It ran rough as dad would say. Instead of spacing the crankshaft at 120 degree intervals, for firing, they left it V8 style at 90 degree intervals (I think) so it sounded like it was missing a bit, or rumbling which some people enjoyed. When the family size went to 5, it was too small, and the hunt began which led to an AMC Ambassador 990 with a V8 that would smoke the tires. SHHHHH dad would tell me,,,, dont tell Mom.
Nice taste in cars.
Good Video. When you are a car guy and 76 years old you remember these cars.
My grandmother had a Buick Special (1961?) and it ran forever...... It was passed down to my uncle, then my older brother and then me. It was a two door HT, a fun little car--wish I had it back. Thanks to ED for posting.
what happened to it?
Why did you get rid of it after all that history😢?
I hate to say it went from a nickel and dime car to a $20 and $50 car, almost half of the little water pump bolts were busted in the block, it was smoking like the back tires of a Hell Cat. I really wish I could find another one, it was a fun little car.@@giggiddy
My first car was a 61 Buick Special wagon.
Old wagons are still popular around here, carrying surfboards and BBQ stuff......... @walterweddle7644 @@walterweddle7644
Dearest Dutchman, Ed! Please, don't ever apologize (sincerely or not) for going deeper into the weeds of the American automotive golf course! Your in-depth newest video is plenty welcomed by those of us who vaguely remember just some of these details, but who want to rediscover more. Thanks aplenty for your work! Just as a grand "by the way," I bought a one-family owned 1965 Corvair Monza coupe in 1975 for $125 (thank you, Ralph Nader, for that basement bargain price!) and it was a tremendously powerful sports car that only needed new rubber on the wheels and in the engine compartment to perform amazingly again - and that one had the "cute" little automatic transmission lever on the dashboard. Oh how I looked for a 3-on-the-floor Corvair after that one. But alas and alack, I had to settle for selling my Monza (at a $400 profit) to buy a 1956 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Whale Mouth with only 15,000 miles on it - in 1976 - for a whopping $200! Poor little old me, right? Thanks again and again, Ed!
Bet you wish you still had that Monz!
I can totally relate to the "JETFIRE" part, Americans have an ability to make a car name sounds exciting... Much better than the codes and numbers (328i, M3, 911, 355, etc)
'62 Jetfire also performs exciting if boost restriction is bypassed:
ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
Oldsmobile Starfire. Dodge Ramcharger. Imperial LeBaron... I think they even called some cars MACHO, probably written in the most flashy colors possible. This is incredible 😂
My dad had a 1963 Oldsmobile cutlass coupe. He went to the factory where he picked it up. When he finally parked the car in the early 1980s he put every one of over 500,000 miles on the car. He had the engine and transmission rebuilt once. That car was his baby.
Thanks for this enjoyable and insightful trip down memory lane, Ed. An uncle bought an Oldsmobile F85 and was unhappy with it. We called it the Blue Goose for some reason (yes, it was blue, metallic blue). My parents had a 1960 Oldsmobile F88 which was a wonderful and very dependable car. A neighbor owned a Corvair (bought used) and tinkered with it every evening and weekends. He may still be messing around with it!!
Would the neighbor with the corvair work on it out in the garage in the evening with the light on and listening to music? Because I think he lives next door to me and he's still tinkering with it. Lol. I remember those guys when I was a kid. Wish I would have paid more attention to them.
1960 Oldsmobile F88???
THere was a 1954 Olds F88, a show car
search on conceptcarz Oldsmobile F-88 concept
My dad drove the exact 1961 Buick Skylark shown at 13:19 - brown with white vinyl roof. It did not suffer the problems many others had with the aluminum V8, and lasted for around 10 years before various electric components went out. It drove well, offered a comfortable ride, and got decent mileage. Except for the Riviera, I don’t think the bigger, heavier Buicks that followed were an improvement.
That was a nice little car, but it shouldn't have been badged as a Buick. Buicks were not supposed to be smaller and/cheaper than any Chevy. Ditto putting a 300 cube engine in the LeSabre. The Chevy offered 283 and 327 V8s. Buick should kept the 401 in the LeSabre, or maybe brought back the 364 version, Olds should never have replaced their 394 with a 330 in the base 88 series, and Pontiac should never have replaced their 389 with a 326. GM in doing that made their base model medium-priced cars clones of the Chevy, just more expensive, whereas the 63 versions of the same offered something that a Chevy DIDN'T offer.
I was still building model cars as these came out, and did not know how each brand modified their line up in the face of VW, Datsun and Toyota. Thank you, Ed.
I was fortunate to work at a SoCal gas station in the early-to-mid Sixties. One afternoon I did brakes, lube, oil and filter on an Olds F85. That car was an eye opener on the test drive. The acceleration was crisp and the handling was agile for an American car not named Corvette. Thanks for reminding me of those days!
My first car was a '63 F-85. Bought it for $350 in the summer of 1970. I was 17 and gas was 26.9 cents a gallon. A lot of great memories were made in that car.
63 Tempest used many common transmission parts with the Corvair. The 195 4-cyl made too much torque for the Corvair differential so the Tempest differential was larger. Also interesting that the 166 HP 4-cyl option provided the same HP as the aluminum V8 option so very few cars were made with the aluminum V8. For 63 they dropped the aluminum V8 and offered a 336 cid V8 based on the iron Pontiac V8 block, advertised as 326 cid.
Why did they call it a 326 if it was actually a 336? Did Chevrolet complain because it was bigger than the 327 and so lobby the 14th Floor to force Pontiac to call it a 326?
Hey Ed, I drive a cherry 1963 Corvair Monza convertible. Love it. (Ralf was wrong) I never knew about the other Corvair based models from BOP. I’m getting old enough where there’s not much about the auto industry that I haven’t already heard before! Here’s one for you. Corvair may be reintroduced as an electric, banking on its reputation for being advanced rather than poor handling.
I don’t see GM reusing the name for a BEV because for the Corvair the “air” part was because it was air cooled. The bad reputation of the Nissan Leaf was partially due to the air cooled battery that degraded quickly. That said I’d love it if modern cars looked like a ‘65 Monza.
I expected to hear that the Corvair's success as a sports car lead directly to Ford developing the Mustang to compete.
@@guylr7390 The '65 Corvair redesign was one of the most beautiful cars to come out of GM and this at a time when nearly everything they were making was beautiful! The Bill Mitchell era was the zenith of American automotive design.
My father bought a new 1962 F-85 when I was little. The 215 cid aluninum V8 made it pretty quick with a 4-on-the-floor transmission. The high compression engine required 100 octane fuel, and he would only use Amoco "white gas" which was supposedly the best. You never see these innovative cars any more, so thank you for presenting them.
Because of the aluminum heads, 91 octane is fine... although the turbo Jetfire needs water injection:
ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
There's been a few videos on these models lately - good timing and well done as always.
The BOP "Senior Compacts" were such a sucess that they were in production a whole 3 model years. Air conditioning meant little, as even most full sized cars didn't have it until the 1970s. The first US mid-size cars were the 1956-1962 Rambler Six.
Great coverage of the smaller GM cars! I saw these in real life and they are awesome. I owned a 1966 F-85 with a Rocket V8 for 20 years and can see the advances from the small F-85. Thanks
Yes, they are great!
My father had a 1962 Buick Skylark and he said it was the best car he ever owned. Please do an in depth review of the Skylark with that amazing aluminium engine.
17:52 He! Thats my old car! Literally this sample TG-LR-90 has been mine from 2005 till 2022. It was my first car and is now in the UK with the guy who bought it from me.
Ed, Good video. I would like you to do a video on the 1962 Chevy II which was designed and produced within 18 months one of the fastest developed cars during that time. When the Corvair was outsold by the Falcon in late 1959 when both were released Chevrolet fast tracked a new compact car along the lines of the Falcon using many components from its larger car and emphasizing cost like the Falcon. In Canada Pontiac released a Tempest version of the Chevy II and for many years the Canadian Pontiac shared frames, engines, transmissions, and interiors with Chevys. The Nova was originally the top trim level of the Chevy II until 1969 When Nova replaced the Chevy II name. Chevy II/Nova was the only GM compact that remained a compact during its run and later versions of the were developed as the Buick Apollo (1973), Pontiac Ventura (1971, and Oldsmobile Omega (1973). GM didn't leave the compact car market for 1964 it just grew the Tempest, F-85, and Special into midsize cars and introduced the Chevelle as Chevrolet's new midsized car while retaining the Corvair and Chevy II.
actually, the Canadian versions of the Chevy II/Nova platform were called the Acadian and Canso, and were sold at Pontiac/Buick dealers across the country until 1968. For some weird reason GM also made a Chevelle clone called the Beaumont, even though Pontiac and Buick already had the same platform - one weird but cool thing about the Beaumont is that some came with the Chevelle performance options, so there was an SS396 equivalent.
The Corvair was a major sales disappointment for GM even before Nader's book hit the shelves. GM admitted, at least to themselves, that the Corvair was a mistake. What's interesting is that the Chevy II platform took a similar development trajectory at GM as the Falcon platform did for Ford. The Falcon begot the Mustang which begot the Granada (North America version) which begot the Lincoln Versailles. The Chevy II led to the Camaro, Firebird, Seville, etc.
@@MrSloika True as early as the Fall of 1959 after the Corvair had been out just a few months with sales trailing the Falcon and that is why in early 1960 Chevrolet put a team together to design the Chevy II a simpler compact car to compete with the Falcon. Corvair was ahead of its time and many during the late 50s and early 60s wanted a inexpensive compact car which is a major reason the 1958 Rambler American was such a success when it came out along with it being the Recession of 1958. The Falcon was McNamara's car in that it was his idea and he pushed it forward for production.
@@dreibel Thanks I wasn't sure what they called the Canadian version of the Chevy II but I did know that the Tempest name lived on in Canada longer than it did in the USA.
@@JeffSproul Ed hinted at what the Corvair's problem really was. By the late 50s and the sales success of the VW, American car companies knew they were missing out on the compact car market niche. The general feeling at GM was that compact car buyers were losers. At the time Ford was managed by McNamara and the 'Whiz Kids', they didn't assume anything and they sent surveys to VW owners offering to pay them $5 to complete and return the survey. When the numbers were tallied the Ford guys were astounded by the results. Buyers of new VWs had the highest education levels and highest level of professional jobs of any new car buyers. Ford decided to build a car that embodied the qualities of the VW while retaining a conventional layout and using as many bits from the company parts bin as possible. The arrogant management at GM set out to make the American Beetle....a Beetle on steroids. Unfortunately since the Corvair had very little in common with other GM models, the cost skyrocketed. GM reacted by cutting a lot of corners. The Corvair didn't just suffer from questionable handling, it had a lot of other problems as well. Then Ralph Nader entered the picture. At that point it was all over except for the stinking.
Family and friends of mine always thought I was weird because of my love of all things automotive. Decades later, I find your channel here on RUclips and I'm drawn in by your personal passion for all things automotive and from my 1st click of 1 of your videos, I've been hooked. I dig your blend of fact-finding, history, documentary, and humor to be in perfect balance, and I like that you opt to personally narrate your videos, verses utilizing an A.I. computer robot voice-over. I appreciate style and dedication and the way you craft your work. I, for 1, am glad you found your way onto RUclips, and I thrilled whenever I get notified that your posting a new video. Thanks for sharing your passion for the automotive industry with us car guys around the globe, my friend.
😎👍
This was quite good Ed. It was informative good footage as well. I liked how you put everything together and explained so much as well. That Buick V6 as you know eventually came the GM 3800 V6 that is quite famous. It is the same engine that became the turbo V6 used in Buick Grand National. It is interesting the midsized cars that grew out of the experiment. Again I applaud this video and say thank you for the effort and all you covered.
Great engine. Have a look at my comment above about how that engine took a 6 year detour through Jeeps.
Thanks, Ed. Another great episode, perhaps among the best for sheer info density.
Just so you know, Ed, the episode featuring the white Corvair is the episode that got me hooked on your channel. Haven't missed one since, and, of course, I went and watched all the episodes before that one. Your channel is fantastic!!!
A great video, Art! Of the three (four), I'm most partial to the Tempest. It has the most interesting engineering of the bunch.
7:53 so with the trophy 4, you could use a single header made for a V8, V8 carburetors, and there was a lot of other parts cross-compatibility. This was the era of hot rodding so I think their bet was to make it as painless as possible to hot up a trophy 4 if desired.
Also that Fireball V6 became the 3800 and was used until the 2000s in various forms.
Loved the reference to the NSU Prinz, those we’re exciting sightings when I was a kid in the mid-seventies. The similarities to the Corvair aren’t limited to the looks: the Prinz (and the successor NSU 1000) had rear engines too. However, their engine placement predates the styling similarity.
the intro and editing at 1:17 is phenomenal. seriously this is my favourite series on youtube
I was never a big fan of compact cars, but you make any topic worth watching :)
Great job, Ed!
My father had a 61 Pontiac Tempest. I was too young to remember it but have a photo. It must have had problems. He traded for a 63 Dodge Dart and never bought another GM product. You are correct, I see countless Corvairs at auto shows and rarely see the others. One well known Corvair show car dropped a big V8 with tube intakes where the rear seat would be in a convertible. It wins awards.
I just picked up a 62 F85 4 door with auto and seeing this video only 2 weeks later is perfect timing.
Used to see a 4 door Buick Special with coarse paint brush yellow paint on it running around town... when I spotted it in a junk yard with smashed up front end, I grabbed the aluminum V8 with manual flywheel and bellhousing, knowing it had just been a runner... for my '75 MG Midget...
@@BuzzLOLOL Ironically enough, that 3.5 L aluminum V8 found its way under the hood of a factory British sports car: the Triumph TR8.
@@therealniksongs - And many other sports cars: MG 8, Morgan Plus 8, TVR, etc...
*Notification: New EAR* Say no more.
Such excellent footage that you find, man! Graphics are done well, too.
Ed, this video is great. I remember this first generation of GM compacts. They weren’t as popular as they should have been. The Tempest was an excellently engineered car. I’m just home from two weeks in Europe and visited two car museums. I would love to see you do some videos on the postwar European cars.
THANK YOU for actually and ACCURATELY explaining ralph nader. i love the corvair and i truly appreciate what ralph nader has done for safety
Ed: You can indeed recycle an old episode and still come out with something worth watching and fun. Bravo sir, bravo.
Great video Ed, I learned to drive on a 1961 Pontiac Tempest. Great family second car, basically trouble free.
Great show Ed!
Awesome! E.A.R. is the nest auto channel on RUclips!!!!
Thoroughly informative and entertaining!!!
My Dad was a 'car guy' at GM, working at the Tech Center in Warren. We always had awesome cars in our family. I remember riding as a kid in the back seat of my Mom's Pontiac Lemans Tempest. At stop lights, young kids would rev their engines and try to race her!
Excellent video as always, Ed.
Hello Ed, thanks for sharing another interesting & informative video!!! 👍👍🙂
I had a '62 Buick Special, with the 198 Fireball V-6, and 2 speed auto tranny. Fun little car, but parts were hard to find, and very expensive when you could find them!
Ed - You really knocked it out of the park with this video. Congratulations!
Rode in a Jetfire convt, a turbo corvair and a pontiac 4 automatic but cannot remember ever even seeing a Buick special. Corvairs and Pontiacs rode great with their IRS set up. owned two falcons and were so much simpler in design and except for a bad spindle due to teenage driving lasted . Ford with the falcon and fairlane had the right ideas first it seems .
A regular at my local car show brings a lovely black F-85. There are usually a couple of Corvairs and sometimes a custom Buick Special too. Very neat cars!
first car was a 1962 corvair that my dad gave me to drive.was fun to drive and went like hell in the snow. Locally owned repair shop that i use to go to for repairs before i started working on my own vehicles had the trucks, the vans, the regular corvairs and the super charged ones and he had probally about 100 of them in a field for parts.thanks for the video
I find it cool how the Tempest actually "looks like a Pontiac" in the modern sense. Like, you can see the front fascia design that carried all the way through to cars like the Grand Prix in the 90s.
Another great job, Ed.
My family had an Olds F85, with the V8, was a real fast car (we had the speeding tickets to prove it), most buyers preferred the V8s and these fast little cars (that really weren’t that little), would see life as a street racer. Finally, DeLorean said let’s put the biggest V8 possible in and the muscle car was born. Still have fond memories of that car.
Yes, I like them .And even more when you stuff a 455 under the hood!
Stumbled across 62 Skylark convertible with 215 in 1989, still have it. Only car I've kept without ever thinking selling it - it is good to drive, gives good mileage, the lightweight V8 runs smoothly, and it is very easy to park in crowded city. Used it as my daily driver 1989 - 1998 in summertime, done almost 100.000 miles over the years without any major issues.
Rover V8, as a youngster I enjoyed driving these in P5B,P6 and SD1,nice car's and engines. Thanks for a great vid,best wishes to yourself,family,friends and fellow followers.
My grandparents drove some pretty awesome cars in the 1960's, 1970's and into the 1980's. My paternal grandfather drove a 1957 Thunderbird from about 1965 until 1981. When he could no longer get in and out of it, he switched to a 1976 Mercedes 300D which he drove until his death in 1987. My paternal grandmother drove a Hertz Shelby Mustang from about 1975 until her death in 1988. My maternal grandmother drove a 1963 Pontiac Tempest 2 door from new until she stopped driving around 1988. My maternal grandfather and his second wife drove a 1969 Nova and a 1961 Chevy Apache Pickup from new until they stopped driving in the late 1980s. Needless to say, all my grandparents lived in California.
I always knew the TBird and the Shelby were awesome cars. It is only recently that I am realizing that the Tempest, Nova, and Apache were just as noteworthy. Heck, even the 300D was interesting (what a dog).
Another awesome episode, thanks!!
Ed, I always enjoy your videos. Great info with a sense of humor. I'm American so when you were going off about "Jet Fire" and "Turbo Fire" and then showed the TV bar screen, I was LMAO! Yep, that's 'Murica! Anyway, keep up the great work! Looking forward to your next one!
Oh, please do a full review of your friend's Buick Special!!! I want to every inch, i mean millimeter of that car!
Darn good video Ed, as always....keep the good stuff coming.
Great episode as always. My sister still has her 64 Corvair Spyder with a Turbo. Fun car.
Well done ED.
Dude! I am a big fan! Great videos, my Father was design engineer at GM Tech Center Michigan ... when I was 4 years old (1965) ...if I saw a car, I could name make, model and car company!
I’m so ready to start driving my Corvair again. It was vindicated by a study in the 70’s, far too little too late. They’re such good cars. Mine will buzz along happily at 75 and I get about 24-26 MPG.
Nice informative as usual, i really enjoyed it 👍👍
En opnieuw, aan het begin denk ik, wauw bijna 20 minuten, en aan het eind, waar zijn die 20 minuten gebleven, .... top!!! blijf zo door gaan!!!!
These cars just confirm my thoughts about carmakers like GM: are quite capable of making cool cars with innovative ideas that prove they can think outside the box and try new things, but usually choose the boring, generic route, similar to Toyota or Volkswagen
As a Corvair enthusiast, glad to see some representation!
Another great vid!!!! 👍👍
Still my favorite RUclips channel of all time!
aluminum (n.)
1812, coined by English chemist Sir Humphry Davy, from alumina, alumine, the name given by French chemists late 18c. to aluminum oxide, from Latin alumen "alum" (see alum). Davy originally called it alumium (1808), then amended this to aluminum, which remains the U.S. word. British editors in 1812 further amended it to aluminium, the modern preferred British form, to better harmonize with other metallic element names (sodium, potassium, etc.).
The British spelling really does make more sense as, apart from platinum, the names of pretty much all the other metals end in -ium. Every other element in aluminum’s period (except boron, for the obvious) also ends in -ium. I’ll still refer to the American spelling myself, but only because I’m an American. But now I wonder why Davy added that n to alumium, we could have avoided this argument altogether.
@@RobCamp-rmc_0 Alumium and Borium forever!
Regardless of the history, the IUPAC standard for English-language material is Alumin*i*um and Sul*f*ur.
I have an American compact car story. When I got back from Vietnam in 1968 I bought a 65 Buick special convertible. I drove the car along with my wife and daughter from Milwaukee Wisconsin to Andrew's Air Force Base in Virginia. That was my first and only convertible and I just loved it. Although the aluminum block engine had a horrible tendency to clog the radiators if you didn't use antifreeze in them. Anyway I was out at Andrews until I mustered out in 1970 but sometime in 1969 the engine gave up, and I was forced to get another used car and used the Buick as a trade in. I found a little Oldsmobile f85. Well I missed the Buick almost immediately and was not crazy about the Oldsmobile. Every now and then I would drive by the dealership to see if anybody bought the Buick, bad engine at all. Then one day I drove by and saw the dealership had closed, but my little bill is special was sitting for lonely in the back of the lot all by itself. That was when I got a scathingly brilliant idea. I found out who owned the property, arranged to get the Buick back, and towed it back to where we were living in a duplex apartment building with a backyard,... And a tree! Well, since the Oldsmobile f85 and the Buick had the same engine in it, long story short, two of my friends and I pulled an all-nighter under that tree swapping the engines between the Oldsmobile and the Buick. It worked brilliantly. When I mustered out of the Air Force in February of 1970, my wife and I drove back to Wisconsin, with me driving the Buick packed with household goods,... And a cat, and my wife and 3-year-old daughter drove a 58 Plymouth Station Wagon that we purchased for the trip. Now remember, I was driving the convertible,... In February, and the heater was broken. That poor cat and I damn near froze to death on that trip. I made frequent stops at rest stops so that I could run into the bathroom and drape myself over the hand dryers just to get some feeling back in my body. My wife on the other hand had a nice comfortable trip with a friend who had come down to accompany her and she had a marvelous time. I really hated giving up that little Buick because I thought it was just a neatest little car I'd ever owned. Or at least one of the neatest. Okay, that's my American compact car story. I hope somebody enjoyed it.
Thanks again, Ed, for your great video. 😊
Ed, thank you for this walk down G.M. memory lane. Very much like your tung and cheeky take with the humor! Well done..
Fantastic episode as always. Thank you.👍🇨🇦
The aluminium Buick V8 went on to win the F1 Championship in 66 and 67 with Repco Brabham as the Repco V8, Brabham becoming the only man to win the F1 Championship in a car of his own construction , and the constructors championship , with team mate Denny Hulme winning in 67 .
And what came to replace the Corvair, and all the Y-chassis cars? The '62 Nova... with it's traditional-design I-4 and I-6 engines, and later V-8 offerings (SBC AND BBC) along with all it's divisional sisters (Buick Apollo, Pontiac Ventura, Oldsmobile Omega) and it's radical close cousin: The Camaro & Firebird... which shared it's suspension & chassis design, much like the Mustang did with the Falcon & Comet.
I won't lie, I've been waiting for weeks for Ed to release a new video with his fresh Dutch perspective on car culture. The tuxedo and tails dancing around the new compact models is hilarious! Ed's editing is just perfect comedy timing.
My mom had a 1965 turquoise Olds F-85 but I remember it well as being a rather large car, loaded with naugahyde plastic upholstery. Yuck! Not pleasant to touch, really. THERE'S a topic for your next video -- SEATING AND UPHOLSTERY. What about comparing DASHBOARDS from different eras from different brands? That could be even more interesting. The evolution of the dashboard! Wow! I submit that the larger the driver's personal need for power and control, the more elaborate the dashboard. You could even say that GM and Ford and Chrysler were stroking the customer's innate need for power and control, whereas the VW bug was just trying to tell the driver how fast they are going.
GM increased the size of those cars in 1964.
I love those Y body cars!
You left it all out there hanging at the end- IT WAS THE RAMBLER!😂
Nash came out of nowhere with the Rambler and it became a hit (story, story, story).....
Your content satisfy my deepest car nerdy needs. 10/10 content, as always 👌
I have never felt the need to twirl beside my car, open and close the door without getting in, and then twirl beside my car again. But that's just me.
The female models look good doing that...
I learned to drive on a 1962 F85, which was my parents second car, in 1973. It was pretty fun to drive. The one weird thing was that the gear selector was set up PNDLR.
That's interesting because I had a '63 F-85 and it had PNDSLR. And my '62 Buick Skylark (acquired in 1978) had PNDLR. (Not PRNDL, which was more common.) I know that the Buick had what they called "Dual Path Turbine Drive" which I believe was a derivative of Buick's Dynaflow, and I think the Olds (at least my '63) had that extra "S" range in there like the senior series Oldsmobiles had because they used Hydramatics or some derivative of the Hydramatic. Wasn't it great back in the days when the GM divisions were actually like separate car companies with their own powertrain engineering and chassis development? Different groups of engineers coming up with alternative solutions to problems and more choice for the buyer. Nope, can't have that!! Today it seems all they know how to make are boring gray Chinese SUVs.
Great entertaining Video. It left me wondering the identity ( 15.58) of the fast back, sweeping rear screen Car from the sixties still behind Nadar. Anyone know?
Studebaker Avanti.
@@danielulz1640 Checked some other sites, certainly looks like one from behind. Rare even in those days .👍
Edd, I confess, I had two Triumph Spitfires MK 2, a GT6 Convertible, yep, built myself. All had the awful Corvair rear suspension. Apart from the GT6, lessons learnt sitting in ditchs😢😂. Great channel.
The Triumph Herald shared the "swing axle" rear suspension and its penchant to "tuck under" at cornering limits. This led one British automotive journalist to pen, upon hearing the twisting metal as the car rolled over, "Hark, the Herald axle swings!"
@@richardmccaughey5928 A confession, as I didn't learn I stupidly brought a Vitesse. I suffered trunnion collapsing related issues while cruising by a bus stop full of females..........the embarrassment haunts me today.😂
USA military 'Jeeps' used in Vietnam and made by Ford in 1960's had swing rear axles (WHY???)... and a sticker saying don't corner above 20 MPH... picture showing tuck under...
@@BuzzLOLOL My god! It was a worrying trend. Perhaps a RUclips channel "your experience s of a swing axle @ other stories". Thanks for letting me know, it's so amazing the lack of technology that we used. Anyone else with experience or info on this positively bad set up?😁🤣
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When I was 4 my dad bought my mom a rope drive Tempest wagon with the Trophy 4. She liked it okay but had lots of trouble with it so she traded it in on a Chevy Nova in 1968. I remember once the idler arm fell out and my mom had me go and pick it up. She drove it home but she said the steering was scary.
Jaaaaaysus!
Hey I really like all your videos so much. Now that you kinda drive a Mercedes SLK, can you make a video about German cars in the US, or Benz only. I wouldn‘t be that sad when you leave the others out. 😬
I just absolutely love your videos. Thanks so much.
Excellent!
I am so glad they did this, I have a 1987 TVR 350i which has the Rover version of that 215ci buick v8, the V8 noise is a big part of its appeal and 200bhp in a car weighing 2500 lb makes it pretty quick :)
Similar to the 1962 Jetfire: ruclips.net/video/Jzw5W1rRMog/видео.html
And the Buick aluminum V8 is electric motor smooth... first appeared in 1950 in Buick concept cars...
@@BuzzLOLOL Just watched the video, sounds so similar to my TVR. Theres a guy here in the uk with a turbo 5L version of this engine in his newer model TVR, does a 10sec quarter :)
I do love me the corvair. From turbo to truck all of them are just neat
5:18 The soviet Zaporozhets looks like a Corvair
An amazing history lesson. Thanks for the video.