Video on traveling the Darien Gap

[midnightventure]

A few years ago there was a lying braggart on here that claimed he rode through the Darien Gap. He was always making wild claims about what he did but never posted pictures.Here is an old video of a group that did make it through. A lot of work and support. And the jungle reclaimed what they did pretty quick. I thought a few people might enjoy watching it.

[uncledj]

Cool video. I never knew the Corvaire was such a bad a$$ off road vehicle.

[bpate4home]

That's pretty cool. I wonder how many vehicles they left in the jungle though. that would be very telling.

[zagger]

A few years ago there was a lying braggart on here that claimed he rode through the Darien Gap. He was always making wild claims about what he did but never posted pictures.Here is an old video of a group that did make it through. A lot of work and support. And the jungle reclaimed what they did pretty quick. I thought a few people might enjoy watching it.

 

Watched the vid and was impressed. I was ready to see about getting a Corvair but discovered that they aren't made anymore. WTF?

zag

[tufftom4]

I can just imagine what enviromentists would say about that today and they did it with one of the worst built cars.

[cecdoo]

Hey Corvairs were great cars! My first car as a matter or fact. I beat the heck out of it, 4spd convertable. Headers, bigger carbs, ran pretty good for a little 6 banger. The only problem I had in the end was blowby at the dipstick. I ended up having to plug dipstick hole to keep from oil spraying all over engine. Ralph Nadar put an end to them, never understood why. I was clocked by Statey doing 105mph, I swore up and down there was no way that little car could go that fast, he wasnt buying it, lost my license!

 

Craig

[uncledj]

Never had a Corvaire, but I did have a Corvaire powered rail buggy. Had to reverse rotation on that motor, but it was a solid motor. The only issue I had was the spider intake would frost on cool days and make it run poorly. The crazy belt setup was never an issue. The extra weight of the motor kept breaking the stock VW trailing arms though.

[Freebird]

Hey Corvairs were great cars! My first car as a matter or fact. I beat the heck out of it, 4spd convertable. Headers, bigger carbs, ran pretty good for a little 6 banger. The only problem I had in the end was blowby at the dipstick. I ended up having to plug dipstick hole to keep from oil spraying all over engine. Ralph Nadar put an end to them, never understood why. I was clocked by Statey doing 105mph, I swore up and down there was no way that little car could go that fast, he wasnt buying it, lost my license!

 

Craig

 

I had a Corvair in the summer of '73. I had bought a new Chevelle SS 454 and didn't want to drive it to the construction site where I was working so found an old Corvair for $200.00 that I bought for a work car. I had the same problem you did with the blowby. A older guy that I worked with told me to let him drive it home and he would fix it that night. I did that. He brought it back the next day and had added a rubber hose to the dip stick tube and rani it to a one gallon oil can turned on it's side. He ran another tube from the oil can to the hole where you put oil in it. So the oil blew into the can and ran back into the engine. I laughed like heck but hey, it worked and I drove it that was from about a year. . Never had any problems with it and sold it the same way. It was just a base Corvair though with a three speed on the floor.

[cecdoo]

Great idea on the oil return can, wish I had thought of that. Those 454 Chevelles were the "beast" back then, a good friend had the 460HP, dark met. green. It would just smoke the tires whenever he nailed it. Those were the days!

 

Craig

[1997royalstar]

Never had a Corvaire, but I did have a Corvaire powered rail buggy. Had to reverse rotation on that motor, but it was a solid motor. The only issue I had was the spider intake would frost on cool days and make it run poorly. The crazy belt setup was never an issue. The extra weight of the motor kept breaking the stock VW trailing arms though.

I had a VW Bug with a 180 horse turbo engine with and iecco manifold setup and holly 4 barrel. I flipped the ring gear in VW trans and put 2 transmission case strap supports that held the transmission in check. Aluminum flywheel and that engine reved up like you wouldn't believe. Crown Conversion out of California adapted the engine to the VW trans. Miss that car!

[uncledj]

At the time, I was concerned that flipping the ring gear would weaken the transaxle, which was going to have to endure the increased HP from the Corvair motor. I seem to remember seeing a number of 170hp listed with the cam setup I put into it.

So, I replaced the cam with a reversed rotation cam, I believe I had to flip all the rods and change the distributor gear. Really wasn't that hard to do. Confused the heck outta the guy who did the tuning.

That was my last rail buggy and I felt that setup was too much power and weight to be used off road, at least for what I was doing. If I ever have a buggy again, it'll be a stock VW setup. Simple and relatively trouble free. Like a big lawn mower.

I'm gonna have to see if I can find some pics of that old buggy. It did sound mean though.

 

[WRIDR]

Sorry Guys, only time for a quickie on this topic. However... those of us who actually OWNED one of these Death Rides will nod their Toppers at these words...

 

The Corvair was the WORST car we ever owned. Hands down. Driving that PIG in any kind of slippery conditions was nothing short of LIFE threatening.

 

They looked pretty for The Time, but not much thought went into reliability, or handling. Headache coming just thinking about that B*tch.

 

Sounded cool under acceleration, we recall. There, said something flattering about the damned thing.

 

Wasn't easy.~

 

Hugs, WRIDR

[Bubber]

I worked for a guy that specialized in fixing Corvairs. (St.Paul MN)

He loved those things and he was a wiz at fixing them.

I think he was the only guy around that would even touch them.

He made a nice living fixing them.

That was a lot of years ago and I am sure he is gone by now. He was in his 50's back in the 70's.

I personally did not like them but each to his own.

[jeromeb]

I can just imagine what enviromentists would say about that today and they did it with one of the worst built cars.

 

Brings back memories. I had a '65 coupe, 140 hp and 4 spd trans. The biggest problem was that with it being rear engine, it would create oversteering in turns rather understeer like front engine vehicles. Original models, (60-64) had an inferior rear suspension design flaw. That was refined with the 65 and later models.

 

That little 140 hp, 4 spd would give an automatic small block V8 hell 0-60 hell. Oh, the originals had a gasoline fueled heater. Those bad boys would smoke up the interior and light the pavement at night if they weren't tuned correctly.

[Guest divey]

A few years ago there was a lying braggart on here....

You sure got that right!

[RandyR]

After watching the videos of the Corvairs going across Darien Gap, I bounced to google and found a short travelog that included this paragraph:

 

Hilary Bradt published a nice book with details on crossing the gap it was written in the 70s people have crossed it on bicycles(carrying them) and there is an abandoned Chevrolet Corvair on the trail

 

 

ha ha, that wasn't mentioned in the Chevrolet commercial for the Corvairs