Chris Happé visits GM Design

   I dug out various articles in books last night and started to re-read some of them. Many facts substantiate or refute what I thought I knew. It seems these cars were constantly being changed as they tried new things on them. The carbs we saw on the SS were definitely two GM Weber-style three-barrels, but Mike Knepper, in his book Corvair Affair, said the SS had six Dell'Orto carburetors. That was probably before the GM Weber-style carbs were installed. He also says the GT was fitted with a variety of normally aspirated engines during its life, the most potent being a 3-liter version of the flat-six. He then goes on to say that when he rode in it, it was fitted with a twin turbo engine, although the existence of such an engine is disputed. He confirms my suspicion that the wheelbase on the SS was shorter than the GT, and says it was 88" instead of the 92" of the GT.
   The book GM The First 75 Years also confirms these wheelbase lengths and adds that the track of the GT was 53" and the height was 42". In Tony Fiore's Corvair Decade, an article by Karl Ludvigsen says that Jim Musser developed the chassis, a monocoque design with wishbone suspension, using torsion bars all around. But can we say for sure that this was the chassis that remained in both cars?

   The Monza SS is strikingly similar to the 3rd generation Corvette, which went into production much later, in the 1968 model year.