One of the most important considerations in this business, as in most others, is knowing why customers do what they do. For some unexplainable reason I found myself contemplating the highly
ethereal question - WHY, do so many people treat their Corvair as more than just a good car? I know many of you do because I too look beyond the obvious reason for owning the Chevrolet air-cooled. Some reasons may not be obvious or easy to explain.
My number one hobby (Corvairs is a business!) is railroading. Chasing or riding the real railroads, building replica models - you name it. It consumes a great deal of my free time. Needless to say I have lots of pictures - quite often of abandoned right-of-ways or soon to be railroads of the past. Years later when the railroad is only a memory I can look over my paper memories and remember the not too distant past. I see lots of things in those pictures, including something extra. It
seems like at least one out of 20 shows a Corvair. There was my white 1960 4 door at the dismantling of the old SP Falls City line in 1969. There was the same a year later along the Valley and Siletz line. Then the time we tried to follow the old SP &S Keasy logging line with the 1963 van back in 1973 and almost drove into the river. Or how about the time I followed abandoned logging roads for 3 hours in the 64 Spyder just to get to Valsetz the hard way?
The 1963 van got the worst of it. Once I took it over almost two miles of abandoned track minus only the rails west of Salem. Those ties make for a bumpy ride! The 1963 made it over thousands of miles of logging roads, abandoned railroad lines and other assorted indignities, and it never once broke down. Always putting away so I could get home with my pictures, it has been immortalized next to the Newberg station - and was frequently pictured in the Valley and Silets yards at Hoskins - all now relics of the past. But the Corvair is still here.
Why, I wonder. I got my drivers license in 1967. I took the test in a Corvair and have owned nothing but since. Am I a fanatic? A hardcore? Could be, but then again it IS a good car. And what is wrong with preserving a bit of the past. Perhaps in 30 or 40 years there won't be any Corvairs on the road anymore. If that is the case I can at least show my grandchildren pictures of long forgotten railroads - and that over there - oh just an old car we used to drive called a Corvair.
Lon Wall
WHY CORVAIR UNDERGROUND?
I could come up with a lot of reasons why Corvair Underground should be your parts supplier, but one in particular stands out: Because we drive Corvairs everyday, we have to use the same parts we offer for sale. If there is a problem with a part, we will be the first to know - and we don't want trouble with our cars any more than you do! Corvairs aren't just a business to us, they are our daily transportation.