subaru and porsche not the only one using flat 6
 

A local suby member who has a forester and an sti showed up in a CORVAIR
last week it runs a carburated flat 6 engine in the rear i was surprised.

Re: subaru and porsche not the only one using flat 6
 

And some of those are turbocharged :)
a Bigger surprise :D

Re: subaru and porsche not the only one using flat 6
 

Air-cooled, at that.

dcb

Re: subaru and porsche not the only one using flat 6
 

The Tucker was a rear engined flat 6 too :p

Re: subaru and porsche not the only one using flat 6
 

I had a Convair spyder convertible which was the turbo model, terrible shift linkage and scary handling. This is the car Ralph Nader wrote about in his book - "Unsafe At Any Speed."

Ray

Re: subaru and porsche not the only one using flat 6
 

I heard in the last year or two of production they prefected the suspension and it handled very well. But by that time the damage was done and no one wanted to buy them.

I remember reading a book about VWs and Combis. Saw that alot of guys fitted Convair engines into there combis.
Looked like atleast 2 cylinders or half the engine hanging out the back :p :lol:

Re: subaru and porsche not the only one using flat 6
 

The father of one of my daughters friends bought a Corvair convertable about the same time I got my SVX. I have to admit it is a pretty cool car. I heard the unsafe reputation was way overblown too.

Anyhow I talked to him about it a few months ago and he told me it was in the shop because "the clutch peddle broke off". I got a good laugh about that. Old cars, they definitely got personality. :)

Re: subaru and porsche not the only one using flat 6
 

In the last years, the Corvair Monza was a decent driving car. I think the biggest problem they had was keeping the seals from leaking oil.
Gene

Re: subaru and porsche not the only one using flat 6
 

At least the corvair came with a clutch pedal. Yes it was slightly overblown. The first 10 years of the Triumph Spitfire had the same rear end set up that the Corvair did. Only difference was it didn't have the engine back there as well. For GM it was a brilliant engineering design, which of course, they only developed it 3/4 of the way initially.

Re: subaru and porsche not the only one using flat 6
 

my mom had 3 of them back in the day. I think 1 or 2 of them was convertable too. My family had the last one stolen out of storage back in the late 80's. :mad:

Re: subaru and porsche not the only one using flat 6
 

The shift lever was REALLY long with a long throw, but it loved to be "speed shifted" ; keep the accel pedal floored while shifting as quickly as you can.

A friend swapped a Corvair H6 into a Porsche 356 coupe. Lots more power and no worse in the rear-end-coming-around-in-trailing-throttle corners.