AMC Gremlins

["Mahoney, John" <jmahoney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>
<http://perso.wanadoo.fr/thierry.roustit/expo43/chryghia.htm>
<<

Frank, Tom, and ???, come face-to-face with Facel-Vega

http://www.facel-vega.asso.fr/

including a green and small one in Kal-ee-for-knee-ya.

http://www.facel-vega.com/club/gallery/9mark020605.jpg

(But I doubt it's the "thing" you're talking about...)

In CA last weekend, the new Benz was top topic among designers.  Almost no
one found it attractive.  Mitsubishi, Maybach, Camry and CTS cues were
discussed; its lack of "vision" was contrasted with where Audi is today and
where Lexus/Infiniti are headed.  Its "cowardly" or "nasty" style was noted,
but, with since the BMW "butt" flap is still open, the funniest comment was
a Spaniard's (who knows his way around styling

http://media.seat.com/view_manager.html?root=35,42,241

and, today, works at [OK, directs the design of] a German auto maker.)

As he doesn't know me from a tree, his reference came out of the blue.

In comparing the new S-Class to the updated 7-Series, he said that the
latter "still looks like an angry Gremlin."  I'm not sure what he meant (or
if he knew that Bangle once owned a '72 Javelin AMX) but I found it funny he
would still remember the car that many Americans try to forget.

Just like "his" cars (even if one is not quite an AMX two-seater

http://www.seriouswheels.com/pics-abc/Audi-Le-Mans-side-1920x1440.jpg

and another's not quite a long hood-and-wheelbase AMC Ambassador)

http://www.dubspeedracing.com/photopost/data/724/12IMG_8263.jpg

are better-regarded over there (Europe) than here (America), what and why
value is attributed will vary greatly by place and person; how we make our
own value judgments can only be improved by knowing what the others think as
well.  AMC is more than Muscle and madness in Europe; AMC -should- be more
than a semi-manqué marque in America.  Could it be?  That's for AMC clubs
and leaders and experts and followers to answer.        

>>
It's a hardtop. Two doors. Muddy dark green. Dodge "A" chassis
(according to Nicky).  Slant 6.  Interior partially disassembled
(carefully), many badges say "GHIA" with a crest. Short wheelbase
-- 100"?

Mahogany dash, pushbutton shifter matching pushbutton dodge
heat/vent controls.

Turtle-deck-like rear; simple horizontal tailights, one per
corner, slight wraparound, two screws fasten.

Slab sides, hump front/over rear wheels. No decorations (eg.
stainless strip, etc).

Hood noses towards the ground, ala porsche. Two headlights, thin
horizontal grille, deeply concave, with 11 verticals.

It's all top-notch coachwork. Door panels were off, doors are
entirely fiberglas and solidly constructed in good shape. Electric
windows. Vent windows, operated with a 6? sided knob, about 3"-4"
diam.
<<

>>
This one looks very italian 1966; clean lines, hood slopes down to
thr ground in front, tail slopes down. Clean, thin, low,
horizontal grille.  That first one's (above) grille is about
2-times too tall, and has that 50's prominence (mouth full of
braces).

This thing is spare and clean and smooth, Porsche 911 style, very
approximately, but lean, not muscle-fat-ass like the 911. Big
greenhouse, relatively. Low beltline
<<

Assuming those Ghia badges are Torino --- not Dearborn --- pieces and the
bodywork is carrozzeria --- not Carson or Dominguez Hills --- done, the
thing is definitely curious.  I have a few ideas (and probably a few design
drawings as well...), but they're all over the place --- without seeing at
least one photo --- particularly of that front end.  Some of the car sounds
like something gestated in the mid-'60s (finally built a decade later), but
an aero front is all wrong.  The front sounds like a Gallic oddball (that
influenced AMC's odd entry into 1970s space wars), but the rest of the thing
would be all wrong instead.  Too bad I didn't have another week in Los
Angeles; too bad you [he] didn't show it in February.   

http://www.laalleuro.com/index.html

Keep us posted, but don't "speak" out loud.  The thing could be worth
considerably more than you [he] might imagine.  Even more if a one-off.

>>
Well I'm obsessed with this particular look, a mid-1960's italian
touring coupe/american rally car with import-scene interior.
That's what I'm working towards, that 60's naive cleanliness (that
teague's original hornet easily pulls off) (though the greenhouse
is a bit smaller than I'd like, and the wheel flares are 100%
american).

I'm actually contemplating minimizing/eliminating the notch in the
rear quarter: if you look at the early AMX you'll see that's all
AMC did -- simply brought the sheet metal up higher than the
notchback-placed rear window! I've never done such work, so it's a
bit daunting. That sort of stuff is generally done in fiberglas,
but I'm thinking I'd be better of making a steel cap.
<<

You might be seeing AMC through a Pinin-hole camera in your mind's eye.  

http://www.webalice.it/vkanna/motori70_addon/images/Fiat%20130%20Coupe%60.jp
g

http://www.autoscout24.de/home/index/detail.asp?id=okidbroirti&TFCA=72480.49

(Click "Weitere bilder" for views 3 and 6 to best "C" its Hornet-ness...) 

http://www.desoto58.com/dreamcar/rambler/vixen1.jpg

http://www.autoweteran.gower.pl/concept/1966_American_Motors_Cavalier.jpg

Neither with a ["Bertone" to all the super-smart-n-stylin' crowd] notch!

A coupe-styled four-door ['05 CLS, anyone?) one-off (named "Opera") was
built for the 1975 Geneva show and a pretty two-door wagon --- looking not
unlike the Americans' Javelin sketches and Firebird concepts --- was also
done in a nice copper brown.  It even wore Javelin and Gremlin kicked-up
roof lip and Duesie-Packard-Pontiac-Cadillac-Spirit-AMX ribbed pillar
extrusions.  It was named for a shaggy old [sheep] dog (no kidding), yet it
was quite attractive.

Oh, good grief --- why don't I simply find a photo?

http://carcatalog2.free.fr/sw52a.jpg

Similar style (also Pininfarina) in a larger, albeit less successful, size
also came from Peugeot (including Ambassador-ial parade phaeton, Jeep
Cowboy-style El Camino/Ranchero pick-up and coachbuilt wagons...)

http://www.garage24.net/604-2.htm

and, in jumbo packaging at jumbo prices, as a mainly-loved-in-Middle-East
coupe which Roll-ed out for awhile, the semi-attractive Camargue

http://www.allsportauto.com/modules.php?name=Sportphoto&zl_idMD=883

http://www.rrsilvershadow.com/Gall/RRCam1977JRF31233.htm

made even less attractive when, in America, optioned with Everflex top.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6384&item=
4557853102&rd=1

(Which some think needed even more roofing work)

http://www.autotitre.com/forum/up/fb1433771e.jpg
http://www.autotitre.com/forum/up/2c350b620c.jpg
http://www.autotitre.com/forum/up/773f4e02be.jpg

A Jeepster (by Sbarro [!]) or by any other name it is.

What, you demand more AMC content also?  For what I'm paid?

OK, it -was- to have debuted about when the AMC Hornet did!

http://www.rrab.com/sep04.htm

And FYI, about 260 -fewer- Camargues were built than Hornet SC/360s.

525 Royces and 1 Bentley copy over 12 years.  Is that "rare" enough?

You don't get this odd kind of AMC history from Foster and Marquez, but one
AMC expert --- in 7/05 HMM, I think --- inadvertently [?] touched the AMC
design discussion third rail.  Did you catch that bit in the '71 Javelin
article, where "...stylists working under Bob Nixon, who ran one of three
external design studios for AMC products" was read?  Unless "external" means
"exterior" in odd AMC circles, someone may have let the black cat out of the
bag, leaned ladders over cracked sidewalks and poked pins in those big bad
voodoo daddy dolls that still haunt 27777 Franklin Road.

AMC styling was both more --- and less --- than AMC history now knows.

Given few views of the "AMC paint-by-Packard" album, no one ever will.   

But, while they slowly fade away, AMC fans can still have some fun.

If California is Choppers and Customs, Deutschland isn't far behind.

Their homeboys be BIZZ-y buildin' one-off autos from an old AMC era.

The '60s and '70s are alive on reali-TV.

http://www.prosieben.de/index.php

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=18302&item=4553282494&;
rd=1

So Ramble forth, Sportabout, be Matadors.  Build AMCs; rodded or stock.

http://hotrodnostalgia.com/Categories/Columns/hrn04/nost04nfn.html

http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/amcalberta/Gallery/Hornet/hornet.html

http://www.n0kfb.org/homepage/amc/mata_wgn-a.jpg

http://www.terrilowe.com/images/8.jpg

http://homepage3.nifty.com/Fleetwood/amc%2002-04.html
     
Show your AMC Spirit.

And your Gremlins.


Angry or smiling.