I am not trying to hijack your post but I have a funny story about a Corvair. In 1966 and 67 I worked for a HVAC company in the summer between school years. They had a 1964 corvair pickup. Now this company was owned by a family that lived down the road from us. My father worked there as their Service Tech and Installation Forman. These were great people and good to work for. The corvair pickup was a bright yellow / orange. Not yellow nor orange. It had a lot of miles on it and it was the all around truck to use. I was told to take it to a job about 20 miles away and pickup a bunch of cast iron radiators we were taking out of a house and installing a more modern boiler system in. I liked loading furnaces and boilers in this truck because it had the side loading ramp on the passenger side due to the engine being in the back. It did have a little tailgate over the engine but it was small. We loaded all the radiators on this truck. Not sure how many but it was a lot, a lot more than the truck was supposed to hold. We had a bunch of old pipe to take back to the shop also and we loaded them on a regular 56 GMC pickup and started back to town with me in the lead. Now it was known that the corvair pickup was good to drive as long as you didn't have a big load in the back. I was over loaded. It was like driving a clown car that had a weight in the rear and almost no steering due to the wheels on the front being almost off the ground. The guy following me said it looked like a bobber in the water as I drove down the road with it bobbing all over. He also said that he was sure the rear wheels were going to break off due to their being bent out at the bottom and in at the top. We stopped and transfered several of the radiators to the other truck and continued on our way. As I approached a 4 way stop, with a little more control over the truck and the steering, I applied the brakes and ...NOTHING...I mean , NOTHING. I hit them again and again no brakes. Now I had to make a right turn at the stop sign, I was down shifting as quick as I could and got down to 2nd and it would not go into 1st. As I approached the intersection I swung left across the centerline, no traffic comming, and then swung to the right. I would of made it had it not been for the Sherrifs car sitting to my left watching this whole thing transpire at about 25mph. As soon as I saw him I turned extra tight to the right and hit the dirt shoulder which had a few big holes in it and I hit them, and that darn ramp let go and spilled some of the radiators on the side of the road and I ran over a couple, which really helped to stop me. I got out after trying to compose myself just as the Deputy pulled up and got out, adjusted his Smokey Bear Hat and stood next to his car stareing at me and clapping. The first words out of his mouth was ..."Now that was pretty...why was that so pretty.."? After explaining the reason why I did not get a ticket but we did have to call a tow truck to pick the truck up. It did damage the ramp and the rear wheel. I never got to drive the truck again because they got rid of it shortly after fixing it. The guy follwing me was the owners grown son and he said that it was like watching something in slowmotion and that it was as graceful as a "pig dancing with a duck"! I remember it as one of theose times that I first experienced the "pucker factor. "
