Comment Rescue: Insane Art Downs Edition
I did drive a Corvair that belonged to my sister and the negative comments by Ralph Nader were so much hokum.
The next time you almost accidentally take Art Downs seriously, just remember this is a guy who thinks, “Psssh, Corvair? Totally safe. My sister had one and nobody died.”
Discuss.
Tags: local R's, Republican Crazy
xstryker, I go back to his Heil, Obama! post as well.
Art is so far right he’s around the corner.
Art is also OLD!
I rode in several Corvairs. Three of my friends rolled theirs. Thankfully I wasn’t onboard when it happened, but I spent a lot of time visiting the hospital thanks to Corvairs.
Nader is an ass but he was right about this.
Nader and Downs both have that ‘old man smell’.
Art,
Don’t listen to these guys. Just before Barney Frank wrecked the economy I drove my Corvair past a so called volcano monitoring station and it was a cool 50 degrees in the middle of August.
When God made the planet 10,000 years ago he thought of everything even placing dinosaur bones in the ground to provide me with 10W40 motor oil.
Art – please take Bobby Jindal’s medical advice. He’s very cautious.
Art Downs drove a corvair that his sister owned?
Oh the irony.
That’s logic I can believe in! Perhaps we can make Art a product safety expert.
… a crash dummy? 😉
As it happens, Mr Downs is a car enthusiast, and he knows his way around a toolbox and hot cars. The man has practically collected cars!
My seemingly flippant comments re Ralph Nader are base on his misrepresentations. One that comes to mind was a drawing in his book ‘Unsafe at Any Speed’ that shows the Corvair real axles making a nearly 90-degree angle with respect to the differential. This would seem frightening to the lay person but any engineer (or auto mechanic) familiar with the car would know that suspension stops made such a configuration impossible.
Tail-heavy cars tend to oversteer and nose heavy cars understeer. I never had any problems driving the Corvair or any of the mid-engined cars I owned. These started with a Pantera and included a 246-GTB, 308-GTB, and MR-2 Turbo. Porsche drivers seem to love their cars. I have owned two four-wheel drive and one front wheel drive vehicle but these were never my daily drivers.
Detroit turned out some very dull products and finally began to get the message. Regrettably, they ignored Deming and he headed for Japan where he was able to make a big difference. John DeLorean and Zora Arkus-Duntov worked their magic in bringing excitement to the American car industry.
There was a step backwards under the Carter maladministration when Nader associate Joan Claybrook held sway. We had anemic 1980 Corvettes and silly speedometers with no markings above 85 mph. Fortunately, Carter got the boot in 1980 and with him went Claybrook.
I suppose that the devotees of Big Nanny (Big Brother in Drag) would like us to worship at the altar of the Great God of Perfect Safety but some of us were born with more than a few libertarian bones in our body. One size does not fit everyone.
Art Downs, the 10th Dentist of Cars, much like Bobby Jindal’s expertise in medicine, ladies and gentlemen.
BTW, Art, what year Corvair? Before or after Chevrolet improved the safety features because of Nader’s book?
Ralph Nader is a man who has always been for the people. Art should get a copy of Ralphs book: Delaware the Corporate State, and tell me Ralph isnt or wasnt right on. The demorats and the repukes have consistently slammed Ralph, because HE is not a corporate whore but a man who truly has the citizens of this country in mind and always works from their point of view.
The Corvair was a great car
Always passing the Man with the Star¹
Then came dour Nader
Cheerful as Darth Vader
Corvair’s reputation he mar’d.
________________
¹ – A reference to Texaco, not the sheriff
Can a socialist ever improve the lot of mankind?
While evil General Motors produced the Corvair, how many know anything about the Trabant, the ‘People’s Car’ from what was euphemistically called the ‘German Democratic Republic’. Profit was not the motive for this miracle of (socialized) German Engineering.
It was ugly, had poor performance and reliability, and polluted. It did have a body made of a durable plastic. After the evil plotting or Reagan and John Paul II, a certain Malignge Empire began to be undermine and a wall intended to keep refugees from capitalism out of a workers’ paradise crumbled.
‘Trabbies’ were being abandoned in wholseale lots and there was a worry that the body shells would litter the contryside for centuries. Farm animals found them tasty and the problem was solved without Government interventio.
What are the current prices collectors are paying for old Trabants and functional Corvairs?
Mr Downs asked:
I noticed that you made no assumption that there were any functional Trabants. 🙂
I noticed that you made no assumption that there were any functional Trabants. ……
Few Trabbies were driven by members of the GDR Nomenklatura. Lower-level GDR functionaries might have driven a Wartburg (the deLuxe version of the Trabant).
A few are offered for sale on the Internet but caveat emptor must be kept in mind.
Note that the fuel tank in this marvel of Marxist engineering was between the driver and the engine. Pintos were a lot safer.
What’s really hilarious is that Art Downs decries socialist engineering but drives a Mercedes. Art, do you know anything about the modern German political system?
See, in Art-style capitalism it doesn’t matter what the other guy’s economic system is, as long as their productive capacity exists to serve America. Unless it is Venezuela.
Is Daimler-Benz AG a government entity or a private company?
Germany has single payer health care Art. They can keep the prices of their cars down because they contribute not a dime to health care. Daimler brought Chryler to its knees. Guess you believe in buying cars from “socialist states”, means you are more of a socialist than you admit you are.
Well, by buying a Mercedes Art is certainly supporting a system he labels a threat.
Art — Nice to see you write on a topic you know something about. Stick to autos.
Yeah, but Art made his money the good, old-fashioned capitalist way, to buy a luxury car beyond the means of most liberals and socialists.
And, by definition, most conservatives. Or is that just the philosophy of the rich now? Oops, stating the obvious, sorry.