As we made our way to different parts of the infield to find the best spots to photograph the action, we spotted this license plate on Jim Burkhard's late model convertible. The plate brought a smile to my face as I thought once again about the whole issue of Corvair handling and the wild "unsafe" claims of Ralph Nader.

As the day progressed and the Corvair racers burned around the raceway, we'd see no evidence of handling shortcomings. A couple of days later in St. Charles, the same would hold true at the Corvair Society of America autocross event. Driven to their absolute limits, both the early and late model Corvairs proved their road-holding abilities.

It was good to see early models in competition as well. In the foreground, a modified early coupe waits for the "go" signal from the tower as Rusty Rose of the North Texas Corvair Association (NTCA) charges by in the background, piloting his awesome restored 1964 Monza Spyder.

Below is a rare and very collectible turbo-charged early model 1963 Monza Spyder convertible we noticed while wandering the grounds. How rare is it? The Spyder was produced for only three model years (1962, '63 and '64) during which a total of 39,808 were built in the U.S. We know the '63 Spyder coupe was the most produced of the Spyders, and accounted for 11,627 units. We also know coupes accounted for approximately 75% of total 1963 Monza coupe/convertible production and can therefore conclude that there were approximately 15,502 1963 Spyders built, of which approximately 3,875 were convertibles. This number represents less than 0.3% of early model car production of 1,271,099 units and less than 0.25% of combined early and late model Corvair car production of 1,659,022 units.

Obviously in the process of undergoing restoration, The Spyder convertible was remarkably complete. Note the correct 1963 fresh air grill, which is becoming increasingly difficult to locate.