Sports Sedan Forum

What ended up happening to Gardners Corvair?
I can just remember seeing it run as a kid, then it apparently just dissapeared...???

It became landfill at Amaroo Park. It was up for sale for a while but I guess noone wanted to buy it as it was inelligible due to the rule changes. The componentry was stripped but I dont recall which car all the bits and pieces ended up in. There were a few known cars that ended up in the tip there.

Does anyone know the exact running gear the Corvair had? There is always talk about Formula 5000 parts but what exactly did it run (engine, gearbox, suspension)?

There was a magzine put out on the car titled "41 from 49: The Incredible John Player Racing Corvair". I picked my copy up years ago on ebay by chance. Has plenty of pics and a review of the 1977 CHampionship. It is pretty much 67 pages of tobacco advertising with a little info on the car.

It has Lola rear uprights and half shafts from a Formula 5000 and the rest was based on F5000 componentry but designed and re-developed by Frank. Engine was a Chev F5000 motor. Body was all steel apart from bonnet and bootlids which were fibreglass. Brakes were twin caliper fronts with an F5000 inboard disc brake system at the rear.

Thanks for that JD Yort. Do you know if the Covair had a space frame or monocoque construction?
Would be interesting to know what happened to the running gear out of it. Some of it sounds very similar to what the locally built BMW E21 318i turbo ran which of course was a car built by Gardner.