The recently built off-road Chevrolet Corvair of Matt's Off Road Recovery is now to ready to pull stuck vehicles out. It's now called the Morrvair, combining the recovery outfit's name (Matt's Off Road Recovery or MORR) and the Corvair. While not receiving calls for recovery jobs, Matt and his crew decided to pit the Morrvair restomod against their older mainstay – the Jeep Cherokee XJ.
A Contest Between Off-Road Recovery Siblings
Matt has been doing recovery services job with his XJ – a.k.a. Banana because of its yellow finish – as his main recovery vehicle. It might be old, but it's powerful and reliable enough to accomplish several jobs that come on the services' way. But it needs a reliable backup. So, when a shell of a 1961 Chevrolet Corvair wagon arrived, Matt knew what to do.
Featuring a custom-built truck frame, Dana 60 and 70 axles on the front and rear, massive wheels and matching large tires, the Morrvair is powered by a 5.3-liter LS V8 engine, with power sent to the wheels via a TH400 transmission and an NP205 transfer case. It's really a capable build, as shown by the off-road tests Matt has conducted. But how would it perform against Matt's trusty Banana?
Morrvair Practically Besting The Banana XJ
To answer the question, Matt let the Morrvair (240 hp on the dyno) compete against the less powerful Banana (105 hp on the dyno). So, Matt and his crew compared each off-roader in terms of their capabilities on the job.
The first contest was a dead pull, in which each off-road need to pull a "stuck" Ford F-150 from the sand to the road. It took the Banana 56 pulls before leading the pickup to the safety of the road, while the Morrvair took just 26 pulls to accomplish the same job.
The powerful yet heavier Morrvair won a couple of sand contests thereafter. It proved to be quicker and faster during the sand drag race and was the superior off-roader in the sand tug-of-war match. The race to the top seemed to be draw though. In the night comparison, the Morrvair seemed to provide better lighting.
Banana Finally Winning One Contest
Interestingly, the contests extended to the road. As expected, the Morrvair won the drag race, slalom and drag of war. However, the Banana was better at panic braking, simply because it's a lot lighter than its newly found sibling.
Source: Matt's Off Road Recovery on YouTube