[MUSIC PLAYING]
[CAR ENGINE ROARING]
MIKE MUSTO: My name is Mike Musto.
Each week I travel the country with the goal of showcasing
the best and baddest muscle cars and hot rods around.
Every car has a past and every owner a story.
welcome to the world of "Big Muscle".
[CAR ENGINE ROARING]
MIKE MUSTO: Magazine clippings.
Tools.
Repair manuals.
Photographs.
Telephone numbers.
Scale models.
A differential.
And, of course, an extra engine.
These are just some of the things we found when we
visited the garage of Chuck Rust.
Now, on their own these items wouldn't raise an eyebrow to
most folks, but collectively and in this setting they set
the stage for one of the most die-hard car guys we've
featured to date.
The difference, however, between Chuck and the rest of
the automotive populous though, is that not only has
he been racing his whole life, both on two wheels are four,
but he had the innate ability and understanding to see how
the Chevrolet Corvair, a car once deemed unsafe at any
speed, can not only be improved upon, but with some
extra hard-core modifications built into one hell of a
performance machine.
CHUCK RUST: It all started--
I had an El Camino and I was over in Manhattan Beach, and
it had a healthy 350 in it.
And I'm coming off of the light, and right next to me is
a white Corvair, which I'd never
even thought of Corvairs.
I always had big Chevy's.
And so I pulled ahead and we're going,
kind of, up this uphill.
He pulls up next to me--
and this is the key thing that's really got me--
he looked over at me and pulled right up next to me and
turned a 90 degree and went down a side street.
And I never forgot that.
I pull up in my van at this party and
there's the white Corvair.
And I got out and I looked at it.
And I'm like, Oh my God I've got to talk to
this guy, you know?
I put the word out, and out into the universe too, and in
two weeks this car-- a friend of mine called me and said,
hey, I got, I got a car you got to look at it.
And it was a complete basket-case.
It was all apart.
The guy had blown the transmission, but he rebuilt
it and put it together and stuff.
Anyway, long story short, I'd sold my dirt bike for
$2,500.00 How much did he want for this car in its form?
$2,500.00.
It was perfect.
MIKE MUSTO: Sometimes we come across a car that we look at
and we go, I--I-- got to film that.
We have to film that.
So a couple weeks ago, Zach and I were walking through a
car show and we happened upon this.
We are right now behind the wheel of a 1965 Chevrolet
Corvair Crown Corsair.
This is something that I--
I-- you know, I've read about them, but I've never actually
seen before until we kind of stumbled upon this.
What Chuck has done is actually taken one of the
worse cars in history, and I'll be honest with you, made
it one of the coolest that we've driven to
date on "Big Muscle".
Think about it like this, the flat 6-engine that used to
hang over the rear wheels is gone, and in its place is a
mid-mounted, 283 cubic engine V8 that revs to the moon and
sounds glorious.
now I driven a Corvair before.
In fact, I raced one, the 24-hour of the Lemons.
It was the biggest POS I've ever driven, to the point
where you would step on the brake and you would turn a
left at the same time because the car just pulled to the
right so bad.
This car--
holy crap did he sort this thing out.
I mean, you can bring it, down shift, right?
Pitch it into the corner and then just throttle it around.
You've got no power steering, so you feel
everything coming through.
And rolling, and just let it rev and rev and rev
and rev. Oh my God.
Now you've got to realize, it's not a massive, massive
horse-power car.
I, mean it's only about 310 horse-power, but it's the way
you can utilize that power that makes this car so good.
He's figured out the handling of this car.
He's figured out the way to make it work.
He's-- he's dialed it in to a point where I--
I could be driving a Porsche Cayman right
now, and I got news--
I wouldn't be having as much fun.
This car is a visual and mental assault to the senses.
I've got this massive race mirror up here.
I can see everything that's going on.
Not only that, I can hear everything that's going on
because of the big V8 behind me.
And holy [BLEEP]
is it unbelievable.
[CAR ENGINE ROARING]
CHUCK RUST: There are probably 2,500 kits made.
And on-- and I was thinking last night I'm just going to
say 50 in the--
maybe 100 in the United States running.
And there's a lot more that aren't running.
And then there's some in Europe, and there's some in
Australia, some in Sweden.
They're all over the world, but there's not very many
running and that are set up.
[ENGINE CAR ROARING]
MIKE MUSTO: All right, so let's talk a little bit about
what this car actually looks like.
First of all, the mountain design is gorgeous.
This is a really, really slick looking car.
In stock form, you know, you might, kind of, pass it up,
but the way Chuck has it done its great.
From the gold paint to the black accents, the little
skulls that run across the rocker panel.
All these little touches lend to a really
aggressive look and feel.
This back panel in back of me is made out
of a composite that--
it's not going to scratch and at the same time it's totally
vented to let heat out.
You know, you guys are looking at me right now and I'm--I'm
wedged in this thing.
I mean, I got, you know, basically, I can shift if I
wanted to underneath my leg.
That's how tight I am in this car.
But I feel--
I feel good.
You know what I mean?
And the cool part is like, I look in my review mirror and I
see this big massive air cleaner on
the top of the motor.
And every time I hit the motor I can see it tweak like this.
[ENGINE CAR ROARING]
MIKE MUSTO: Guys you've got to remember
I'm driving a Corvair.
This is the car that Ralph Nader tried to get killed
because he was like, it's unsafe at any speed.
What Chuck has done to this car has not only made it good,
he's made it brilliant.
And, oh my God, does it show.
I mean, take it, drop it in-- oh my God, oh, I'm in first,
drop it down into second.
Throw it in, let it rev. Let it wind, let it
wind, let it wind.
Shift up.
Aw man, does it work.
And it works really, really good.
[ENGINE CAR ROARING]
MIKE MUSTO: As far as balance and everything, it's near--
near perfect balance.
It's a little bit heavier in the back, and it's got I
believe a 55 45.
And I put--
I had to put big brakes on the front.
I put Corvette disc brakes from like a '78 Corvette.
The car's light, and so it hauls it right down.
Sway bars front and rear, which are available, but
obviously a lot of these things are harder to find now.
And it's got eight inch rims with 245/50-15 on the back and
seven inch on the front.
Now mind you, that's coming up from 13s because stock is 13.
Some add 14s.
So, you know, a 15 inch wheel and then going--
and they were, I think, six inches wide--
so we've widened it.
We've got a 225/50-15 with an eight inch print in the front
and a nine inch in the back.
It's got nine inches of rubber.
I've lowered it.
I've cut the coils and got it-- got it down.
And so that-- that seemed to be the hot seller.
[ENGINE CAR ROARING]
MIKE MUSTO: If there's a theme that goes on throughout this
car I'd have to say it's balance.
You know, he's gone through great pains in his garage by
the way, to make sure that this was a very
well-balanced car.
Everything was done for a reason, be it the large
race-style mirrors so you can see all around you, from the
pressure of the clutch, to the, you know, to the bump
stop on the bottom of the clutch, to the gauge package,
to the mirrors, to everything that's gone into this car to
make it Chuck's own personal idea of what the perfect
Corvair is.
Now, you know, you've got to remember also, that this is
the car that came before the Chevrolet Camaro.
So you've got to wonder well, could this have been, if
Chevrolet had maybe done a Corvair in a mid-engine, if
this would have been the Corvette, or kind of, the, you
know, the next rendition of the Corvette?
Could they have gone to a mid-engine
if it worked better?
I don't know.
Little questions like that always, kind of,
spark the old psyche.
[ENGINE CAR REVING]
I don't think anybody would ever consider a Corvair a
muscle car until they see the episode.
You know, because nobody says, like, you know, hey, I'm going
to go hot rod a Corvair.
Yeah, that doesn't happen to often.
[ENGINE CAR REVING]
CHUCK RUST: People see this car and they go, oh my God
they've got the motor in the back seat.
Nine out of ten guys go, that's where Chevy
should have put it.
That's what they should have done.
And maybe someday the Corvette will be that, but to right
now, this is what it is.
Yeah.
MIKE MUSTO: Sometimes we come across cars that not only
surprise us, but inspire us.
They go against the grain of conventional wisdom, and they
asked the question of, what if?
This Crown Corsair right here is such a car.
And even though it's not the fastest car we've ever driven
on "Big Muscle" it's a rule-breaker.
And that's something well-- that this show is all about.
You know, V8 engine, mid-section, gone is the rear
flat-6 motor.
It does everything the way that owner Chuck Ross
wanted it to do.
So guys, as always, thank you for joining us.
And we will absolutely see you again next
week on "Big Muscle".
-Hey, that sounded pretty good.
Yeah!
MIKE MUSTO: Yahtzee!
-Yahtzee.
[LAUGHTER]
-Good?
Do you want to try one more?
MIKE MUSTO: I could do another one but I'm OK.
[LAUGHTER]
-I think that works.
-All right.
-OK.
[MUSIC PLAYING]