CPotD #125 (A Different Way To Cheat)

Starting with the Spyder in 1962 and ending with the Corsa in 1966, you could buy a turbo-charged Corvair from your local Chevy dealer. Matt Nall, a prolific poster on Virtual Vairs and the CorvairCenter forum, refers to turbo-charging and super-charging Corvair engines as cheating. So while you could get your exhaust-driven (turbo) cheater straight from the factory, those that opted for belt-driven (super) cheating required the help of the aftermarket. Paxton Automotive and Judson Company to name the two most known manufacturers. Today’s CPotD for Motor Monday is a ’64 engine equipped with the Paxton supercharger. Note the airtight box required to enclose the carburetor. This kept the pressure relationship balanced between the air flowing through the venturi and the gas in the bowls - while more air was forced through the carburetor, the proper amount of gas was added to the flow.

This reminds me of a story of how I almost landed a used Corvair supercharger last year. A guy in a nearby town posted an ad for a couple v8 ‘vairs he wanted to sell plus a bunch of parts. I got there a few days after the ad was posted, and he had a yard-full of stuff. I pawed through what was there, asked if he had any Corvair parts, and all he could point me to was a Corsa dash with gages that he was asking too much for. I found out later that he’d had a Judson setup, but had sold it the day before I’d gotten there. The guy that had bought had immediately put it up for sale on the web for five times what he’d paid for it.