.....EVERYONE's got to have a soft spot for the Corvair-powered UltraVan, and this is the first one I've seen on eBay......

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ultra-Van-vintage-motorh...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

UltaVans also have their own site at:

http://www2.onu.edu/~kwildman/ultraVan.html

A classic study in Form-Follows-Function

I will be at auburn on 9/1/05 for the show
have to take a look at it. JKB "All who wander are not lost"

Wow! Nifty. When I was a Corvair nut, I almost bought one of these. Kinda wish I had. Ended up with free use of a Cortez instead.

With the current affairs this coach might well be more than a collectors item. We used to see a gem at nearly every show down here and I always thought it was a piece of genius.

------------------
Dan & Suzy Z
'81 Euro 28

The common misperception is that the Ultravan suffered its decline as a fallout of Ralph Nader's antipathy toward the Corvair. He may have hated the Ultravan, too, but it was the Feds that killed it. The Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration compiled a list of accidents involving the Ultravan. Almost all were head on collisions.

The resultant investigations revealed that these occurred on non-divided two-lane roads, usually in daytime. It was determined that automobile drivers saw an Ultravan in front of them, heading toward them, and assumed they were viewing the rear of the Ultravan. This caused them to automatically follow it, getting in line behind it (or so they thought).

The working hypothesis evolved that the Ultravan had to be re designed so the front did not look like the back. This would involve relocating the spare tire and a complete redesign of the windshield. This hypothesis evolved into doctrine, and became the official position of the government.

There was a brief, but ill-fated experiment whereby the factory switched the front and back moldings, since the back was quite streamlined when converted to front mounting. This experiment, however, was short lived, as those who were familiar with the Ultravan were involved in several fatal collisions, as they, now in turn, could not tell the front from the back. This caused the Feds to require Ultravan to come up with a complete new set of front and back moldings, and to submit them for approval before initiating production.

As a result, Ultravan, faced with incredibly expensive engineering costs and mold redesign, stopped production, refunding all the deposits and full orders that had already been placed in anticipation of the new design.

It is interesting to note that Studebaker was facing the same issued in the early 50s, which many insiders consider to be the cause of their demise.

In fact, the early Edsel designs faced a similar issue, the result being the distinctive grille we all know and love, making sure that no one confused the front with the back.



[This message has been edited by bill h (edited August 30, 2005).]

Bill:

This is very interesting. I thought a copyright infringement suit from Jane Mansfield concerning the body shape precipitated the demise of the company.

As I heard the story after costly and protracted litigation an out of court settlement was reach where the company did not admit fault but promised not to produce any more pink versions of their product. However by this point the company was too cash strapped to continue.

Timothy

[This message has been edited by timnlana (edited August 30, 2005).]

The Ebay posting of the sale of the Ultravan
is very interesting. Over the past weekend,
I was at our Detroit Area Corvair Club Home-
coming, and there was an Ultravan there that
one of our members owns. In fact, I took 4
pictures of it. I have not yet mastered the
mystery of transferring the image on the
compact flash card to attach it to an email,
so I'll just report on it. I also acquired
a beautiful 1963 Corvair Monza convertible
that I'll be towing behind my '85 Barth Regal when the new engine gets installed
in it. I also have a 1963 Monza Spyder that
I'm restoring. The Spyder has a turbocharged
engine. To the best of my knowledge, the
turbocharged engine used in the Spyder was
the first turbocharged engine that GM ever
put in a production passenger vehicle. There
were fuel-injected Bel-Airs and Corvettes at
about the same time, but I don't remembered
any that were turbocharged.

Jake Jacobson

We bought our first RV at a show in Washington, D.C., in 1969. I drooled over the Barth trailers sold by the same dealer, but their prices were well above my pay grade. An Ultravan was also displayed at the show.

Sometime in the early '70s. I saw an article in Trailer Life about a prototype built by the Ultravan company. It was Toronado powered a la GMC, & was to be called called the "Tiara." TL raved about it, but I don't think it ever came to market.

In style & construction it was much like the Barths we have come to know & love, and the first Barth motorhomes came to market shortly thereafter. I wonder if there was any connection.

Tonight, on the Travel Channel, I saw a program about weird & wonderful Rvs. Most were homebuilt, but one was an Ultravan with a great big smile painted across the front.

[This message has been edited by olroy (edited August 30, 2005).]

Sorry , just got back from Auburn. This RV will not arrive until Friday sometime. I checked and it cost $40.00 per night to camp no water,elect,sewer hook ups. Saw 3 RV go in auction most expensive went for $600,000.00
I go each year for 1 day of the of the 7 that it is open, what a collection of cars, trucks,RV,motorcycles,flea market, car parts, after market people plus good food and this was a very slow day. JKB