Those folks who know me well know that I am a voracious reader. I rarely go anywhere without a paperback book or a magazine stuffed in my back pocket. Well, about twenty tears ago, I went through a period of reading biographies instead of my usual mysterys, crime dramas, or science fiction, just for a change of pace. One of the more interesting books I read during that time was "IACOCCA: An Autobiography" by Lee Iacocca, past Chairman of the Ford Motor Company. Being a Corvair enthusiast, there was a paragraph on pages 63-64 in "Chapter VI: The Mustang" that particularly interested me. I quote it here verbatim:

"We knew that General Motors had taken the Corvair, an economy car, and transformed it into the hot-selling Corvair Monza simply by adding a few sporty accessories such as bucket seats, stick shift, and fancy interior trim. We at Ford had nothing to offer the people who were considering a Monza, but it was clear to us that they represented a growing market."

As most of you reading this know, I'm heavily into the challenge game here on Motortopia, but I like to challenge cars as similar to mine as possible. When entering my 1966 Corvair Monza in challenges against Mustangs and other Pony Cars, I will often cite this passage, although not as a direct quote as I have done here. Let's face it - there aren't too many cars on Motortopia that compare directly to the Corvair, so I have to take my challenges where I find them. Since the Corvair Monza was the inspiration for the Mustang and, by extension the entire Pony Car class, I feel justified in challenging those cars.

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