Rick Norris - Founder Of CORSA
Near 70, Hurricane man living his racing dream
In the workshop of his Hurricane residence, Rick Norris stands next to his 1965 Sunoco Corvair Yenko Stinger clone that was a project car when he first purchased it in 2005. He will race it at the HST Walter Mitty Challenge this weekend in Braselton, Ga.
Metro Photos By BUTCH COOPER
Metro Photos By BUTCH COOPER
To say that Rick Norris has a passion for fixing, building and driving Corvairs is like saying that fish like to swim or ancient Vikings liked to plunder and pillage. For nearly 50 years, Norris has followed his passion in one form or another and it has taken him on an enjoyable ride.
He began collecting Corvairs in the mid-1960s, built his own workshop/garage in the basement of his Hurricane residence and was the first president of CORSA, the Corvair Society of America, attending their first national convention in Chicago in 1971. He currently serves as CORSA’s historian. Norris, however, always had one dream when it came to his love of cars and Corvairs in particular: racing them.
“I always wanted to be a race car driver, but I always had kids and responsibilities, so I couldn’t do it,” he explained. “So, I had to live vicariously through the people who were racing.” In July of 2006, already in his early 60s, Norris saw his youth’s dreams fulfilled. He began participating in vintage car racing for the first time.
He built, basically from scratch, a 1965 Sunoco Corvair Yenko Stinger clone made as an exact replica of the Trans-Am owned by Roger Penske and driven by Mark Donahue, one of his favorite owner-driver duos, and hit the track at the Nelson Ledges Raceway in Garrettsville, Ohio. Since then, he as competed in numerous races throughout the eastern United States and will take part in his sixth HSR Walter Mitty Challenge this weekend at the Road Atlanta course in Braselton, Ga.
The Mitty, as it is known, is one of the biggest vintage car races in the country, bringing in celebrities throughout the years such as the late Paul Newman, Bobby Rahal and AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson. It is named after Walter Mitty, a fictional character from the James Thurber short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, which would go on to become a movie in 1947 starring Danny Kaye in the title role and a remake in 2013 with Ben Stiller in the lead. “The Mitty is one of the biggest,” Norris said. “It will draw well-known people. The Mitty is more of a big circus.”
Born in Charleston and raised in Clarksburg, Norris and his family returned to the Kanawha Valley where he graduated from St. Albans High School in 1962. His father, Gene, a milkman, first got him first interested in Chevys. “My father was a Chevrolet man and I guess I inherited that from him.”
Rick was raised during a time when young boys fantasized about fast cars and hot rods, a time depicted so famously in the 1973 George Lucas movie, “American Graffiti.” “I never had enough money to have my own car or my own hot rod in high school, but I could always work on them,” Norris said. “So, I had friends who did have cars but didn’t know how to work on them. I always got to ride and cruise around with them.”
After high school, another love of his during his early days led him to join the Air Force, where he would spend four years of active service and three with the Air National Guard in Charleston. “I’ve always liked airplanes, so it was a no-brainer to me,” he said, as his father had also served in the Air Force and, in World War II, the Army Air Corps. He would end up in Vietnam, stationed at the Bein Hoa Air Base as a bomb loader. “I was going to make the military a career, but Vietnam changed my mind. Plus, I had young kids at home. At that time, I was in a critical career field with four years of experience at it. I knew if I signed up, I’d be back in Vietnam.” It was during his time in the Air Force that he came into ownership of his first Corvair.
“My first was a ‘64 Corvair that my then father-in-law basically gave to me. I always said he felt sorry for his daughter when he saw they we were driving an old ‘59 Ford that brought from a sergeant on base. That was our transportation. “I fell in love with the car. When I came home from leave one time, he asked me if I wanted to trade and I said I don’t have the boot to trade. He said trade straight up. So, a ‘64 Corvair with less than 10,000 miles on it ... that was pretty much a new car for me.”
Over the years, he has purchased and sold numerous Corvairs, losing track of most of them. “I owned Corvairs back when they were cheap cars I could afford, because all I had were kids. Back then, people who didn’t know how to work on them and had them in their yard would give them to you. I knew how to fix them. I had one that was given to me, I fiddled with it and drove it out of the ladies’ yard and she wanted it back. Said ‘nope, deals a deal.’”
The Corvair, a compact car produced throughout the 1960s, was built by the Chevrolet division of General Motors. “Corvair was originally marked as an economy car and later on an American version of a poor man’s Porsche,” Norris said. “It shares some of the handling characteristics and design style of a Porsche, but it’s all GM.” It was the success of the Ford Mustang that would lead to GM to end production of the Corvair in 1969 and focus on the Camaro.
Today, Corvair lovers are a dying breed, but their connections are strong. “We always refer to our friends in the Corvair community as an extended family,” he said. “As one of the older fellows said, of which I am now one, we like the cars, we like the racing, but we look more forward to seeing our friends. It’s a social affair.”
Vintage car racing gives a second life for older model cars such as Corvairs. “It’s a growing sport right now,” Rick said. “You’ve got anybody from people like me who’s doing this on the $1.98 budget, I pull this car on an open trailer with a pickup truck, to people that show up with the big double-decker (trailer), full machine shop, two or three cars and whole crew. They’ve got a little bit more of a disposable income than I do.”
When Rick hits the track, the results of the race are not as important as the race itself and the joy it brings. “My idea of winning is that the car went back on the trailer the same way it came off,” said Rick, who became a pipe designer after his military service and still does some contract work from time to time.
“I’m out there racing myself. I’m not really racing anybody, per se. You can always finds somebody to ‘run with,’ but there’s no money involved. If you win anything at all, it’ll be a plaque, or a little trophy. It’s not done for winning money. It’s more or less bragging rights.”
The car was purchased in Arizona in 2005. “It’s the only Corvair I had with no rust. It had a bullet hole, but no rust.” He keeps his race car in pristine shape, one that could easily be found on the showroom floor as easily as on the asphalt track.
“It was a project,” he said. “The motor was in parts. I had to do everything to it. I stripped it clear to the bone.” The only thing he didn’t do was put in the roll cage and paint job itself, even though he knew what he wanted the car to look like, an exact replica, a tribute car, of that driven by his idol.
“Mark Donahue was one of my hero drivers. And Penske always has Sunoco as a sponsor and Sunoco had these colors of blue and yellow. All of his cars were always immaculate. Even today, the man (Penske) is a giant in the racing industry.”
“The car is always faster than I am,” he added. “Seat time is valuable. You never seem to get enough of it. All I have to do is let somebody who’s a better driver than me drive this car and they’ll cut a faster lap than I can. So, that proves to me that I don’t really need to be improving the car anymore -- although I do because it’s fun, it’s what I like to do -- I need to improve the driver.”
He also owns a 1967 Corvair Monza Convertible that he has driven in numerous parades since 2007.
Turning 70 in July, he proves the old adage that “you are only as young as you feel” or, in his case, think. “My body will (turn 70), but my brain, well, people use to say, “You need to grow up.’ So, I said, ‘I’ll pick an age I like. How about 12?’ That’s when I discovered hot rods and girls in tight sweaters. I’ve figured out hot rods and cars, but not women.”
Corvair lovers and anyone else interested can visit his website at www.CorvairAlley.com
- See more at: http://kvneighbors.com/article/20140425/ARTICLE/140429463#sthash.dnvXhkem.dpuf
He began collecting Corvairs in the mid-1960s, built his own workshop/garage in the basement of his Hurricane residence and was the first president of CORSA, the Corvair Society of America, attending their first national convention in Chicago in 1971. He currently serves as CORSA’s historian. Norris, however, always had one dream when it came to his love of cars and Corvairs in particular: racing them.
“I always wanted to be a race car driver, but I always had kids and responsibilities, so I couldn’t do it,” he explained. “So, I had to live vicariously through the people who were racing.” In July of 2006, already in his early 60s, Norris saw his youth’s dreams fulfilled. He began participating in vintage car racing for the first time.
He built, basically from scratch, a 1965 Sunoco Corvair Yenko Stinger clone made as an exact replica of the Trans-Am owned by Roger Penske and driven by Mark Donahue, one of his favorite owner-driver duos, and hit the track at the Nelson Ledges Raceway in Garrettsville, Ohio. Since then, he as competed in numerous races throughout the eastern United States and will take part in his sixth HSR Walter Mitty Challenge this weekend at the Road Atlanta course in Braselton, Ga.
The Mitty, as it is known, is one of the biggest vintage car races in the country, bringing in celebrities throughout the years such as the late Paul Newman, Bobby Rahal and AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson. It is named after Walter Mitty, a fictional character from the James Thurber short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, which would go on to become a movie in 1947 starring Danny Kaye in the title role and a remake in 2013 with Ben Stiller in the lead. “The Mitty is one of the biggest,” Norris said. “It will draw well-known people. The Mitty is more of a big circus.”
Born in Charleston and raised in Clarksburg, Norris and his family returned to the Kanawha Valley where he graduated from St. Albans High School in 1962. His father, Gene, a milkman, first got him first interested in Chevys. “My father was a Chevrolet man and I guess I inherited that from him.”
Rick was raised during a time when young boys fantasized about fast cars and hot rods, a time depicted so famously in the 1973 George Lucas movie, “American Graffiti.” “I never had enough money to have my own car or my own hot rod in high school, but I could always work on them,” Norris said. “So, I had friends who did have cars but didn’t know how to work on them. I always got to ride and cruise around with them.”
After high school, another love of his during his early days led him to join the Air Force, where he would spend four years of active service and three with the Air National Guard in Charleston. “I’ve always liked airplanes, so it was a no-brainer to me,” he said, as his father had also served in the Air Force and, in World War II, the Army Air Corps. He would end up in Vietnam, stationed at the Bein Hoa Air Base as a bomb loader. “I was going to make the military a career, but Vietnam changed my mind. Plus, I had young kids at home. At that time, I was in a critical career field with four years of experience at it. I knew if I signed up, I’d be back in Vietnam.” It was during his time in the Air Force that he came into ownership of his first Corvair.
“My first was a ‘64 Corvair that my then father-in-law basically gave to me. I always said he felt sorry for his daughter when he saw they we were driving an old ‘59 Ford that brought from a sergeant on base. That was our transportation. “I fell in love with the car. When I came home from leave one time, he asked me if I wanted to trade and I said I don’t have the boot to trade. He said trade straight up. So, a ‘64 Corvair with less than 10,000 miles on it ... that was pretty much a new car for me.”
Over the years, he has purchased and sold numerous Corvairs, losing track of most of them. “I owned Corvairs back when they were cheap cars I could afford, because all I had were kids. Back then, people who didn’t know how to work on them and had them in their yard would give them to you. I knew how to fix them. I had one that was given to me, I fiddled with it and drove it out of the ladies’ yard and she wanted it back. Said ‘nope, deals a deal.’”
The Corvair, a compact car produced throughout the 1960s, was built by the Chevrolet division of General Motors. “Corvair was originally marked as an economy car and later on an American version of a poor man’s Porsche,” Norris said. “It shares some of the handling characteristics and design style of a Porsche, but it’s all GM.” It was the success of the Ford Mustang that would lead to GM to end production of the Corvair in 1969 and focus on the Camaro.
Today, Corvair lovers are a dying breed, but their connections are strong. “We always refer to our friends in the Corvair community as an extended family,” he said. “As one of the older fellows said, of which I am now one, we like the cars, we like the racing, but we look more forward to seeing our friends. It’s a social affair.”
Vintage car racing gives a second life for older model cars such as Corvairs. “It’s a growing sport right now,” Rick said. “You’ve got anybody from people like me who’s doing this on the $1.98 budget, I pull this car on an open trailer with a pickup truck, to people that show up with the big double-decker (trailer), full machine shop, two or three cars and whole crew. They’ve got a little bit more of a disposable income than I do.”
When Rick hits the track, the results of the race are not as important as the race itself and the joy it brings. “My idea of winning is that the car went back on the trailer the same way it came off,” said Rick, who became a pipe designer after his military service and still does some contract work from time to time.
“I’m out there racing myself. I’m not really racing anybody, per se. You can always finds somebody to ‘run with,’ but there’s no money involved. If you win anything at all, it’ll be a plaque, or a little trophy. It’s not done for winning money. It’s more or less bragging rights.”
The car was purchased in Arizona in 2005. “It’s the only Corvair I had with no rust. It had a bullet hole, but no rust.” He keeps his race car in pristine shape, one that could easily be found on the showroom floor as easily as on the asphalt track.
“It was a project,” he said. “The motor was in parts. I had to do everything to it. I stripped it clear to the bone.” The only thing he didn’t do was put in the roll cage and paint job itself, even though he knew what he wanted the car to look like, an exact replica, a tribute car, of that driven by his idol.
“Mark Donahue was one of my hero drivers. And Penske always has Sunoco as a sponsor and Sunoco had these colors of blue and yellow. All of his cars were always immaculate. Even today, the man (Penske) is a giant in the racing industry.”
“The car is always faster than I am,” he added. “Seat time is valuable. You never seem to get enough of it. All I have to do is let somebody who’s a better driver than me drive this car and they’ll cut a faster lap than I can. So, that proves to me that I don’t really need to be improving the car anymore -- although I do because it’s fun, it’s what I like to do -- I need to improve the driver.”
He also owns a 1967 Corvair Monza Convertible that he has driven in numerous parades since 2007.
Turning 70 in July, he proves the old adage that “you are only as young as you feel” or, in his case, think. “My body will (turn 70), but my brain, well, people use to say, “You need to grow up.’ So, I said, ‘I’ll pick an age I like. How about 12?’ That’s when I discovered hot rods and girls in tight sweaters. I’ve figured out hot rods and cars, but not women.”
Corvair lovers and anyone else interested can visit his website at www.CorvairAlley.com
- See more at: http://kvneighbors.com/article/20140425/ARTICLE/140429463#sthash.dnvXhkem.dpuf
Rick Buys A Special Dune Buggy
As some of you already know I have sold my 67 Royal Plum convertible but that allowed me to acquire what I think is one of the most important Corvair powered buggies in existence. I am now the owner of the famous Ted Trevor Deserter GS mid-engine Corvair powered buggy that ran the 1971 Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Ted along with Alex Dearborn and Reeves Calloway ran Deserters. Reeves buggy was powered by a VW however. I never dreamed I would own a Deserter GS. It has always been on my bucket list of cars I’d like to have. How this came about was the result of a good friend who bought the car from an ad he saw in California way back in 2005. It is interesting to note here he also bought my first Corvair powered dune buggy in 1974. He called me up to tell me about it and I of course grabbed my camera and went to check it out. He had plans to restore it but life got in the way so due to health problems too many projects and a loss of desire to build it back up he phoned and asked me if I’d like to buy it...hell yes! It was completely disassembled except for the engine which he was going to have me rebuild for him. Basket case or not it was well worth the price. I have posted some pics on my Facebook page and the Deserter Owners Group page. I doubt it will be on the road until next year but it will live again!
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