[AMC-List] Up in the air

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

>>
The air springs were an option in 59 and 60 only. The air springs will come out with the low rate coils.
<<

Only?  We all need to Ramble with X-ray vision

http://mclellansautomotive.com/photos/B9376.jpg

for a Magic Carpet Ride (with both Steppenwolf and Dinah Shore playing) back to when new concepts were in the air.  Don't get off this Boukhara in 1968 or 1967 or even in 1958.  Fly back to 1952, when Fred Covin and Les Milliken let the genie out of the bottle of GM.  Hover briefly, then fast forward to 1957 and trade this broadloom for broadcloth.  We found the mythical city of Eldorado.  We are booked into a sweet suite at the Eldorado Brougham.  

There is an air "spring" above each wheel of the bed, with a domed air chamber, rubber diaphragm, and piston.  A central air compressor feeds the system: each dome is continually adjusted by valves and solenoids for load and road conditions.  We are in for a smooth and level night.  Enjoy the "Cadillac" of hotels.  Only 704 beds available for '57-'58; even fewer (only 200) in '59-'60 --- no doubt due to more "common" re-design.

Don't say, "This bed's nothing special; it's just a Buick Sleepmaster with another name!" because if we do, the staff may know that we are unworthy (and they may put something bad in our soup): for the other divisions beds were of "closed" construction; the Brougham is "open" taking air from the outside.  Breathe deeply; enjoy the gentle night.   

Urk.  Clunk.  Ouch!  What happened?

Too complex, too costly, too leaky?

The air domes leaked; the bed fell!

We demand coil-spring replacements!

Now fly to 1961: the General Manager, those of the other GM divisions, and the hoteliers who host the Ford and Chrysler chains, switched air with General Dynamics --- no, with Goose Down.  Air bags in the Edsel were abandoned by those in the Buick (optional front and rear in '58; rear only in '59 --- except on the exceptional beds [there always are exceptions: that's what makes savvy travelers smart, evidently] where they were standard --- which we probably don't care to see near AMC. 

If we care to see where "Air Poise" was under a '58 hood, look here:

http://www.kingoftheroad.net/buick/source/buick_194.html

(if we care to see the condition of cars AMC fans should clamor more for, click "next" or "home" and ask ourselves if -Ambassador- doesn't deserve the same degree of care and attention and even <gasp> respect; it's not merely the cars that keep AMC "downtrodden" --- it's the AMC people and attitude, too...) that its erstwhile "competition" now earns.

If we care to see how "rare" a ride air was at the beginning of the jet age, look at how few '59 "LevelFlite" Dodge beds were built.  But seven-tenths of one per cent!  1065 exactly.  Maybe $127.55 was too expensive.  Maybe the thought of, "If it fell flat in a Packard, how can it work in a Mopar?" was too recent.

If we care to see a Dearborn mullet (independent in front, live air in the rear) that was to be optional in Ford's new 1958 Thunderbird Lodge (the architect used no French curves; just his T-square), we'll need to keep flying.  To the same place as the '58 Rambler Ambassador was found.  Tulsa?  Glasgow?  Cape Town?  Berlin?  Bangkok?  Bombay? Mumbai?  No, dummy (mirror!): to the state of confusion in the place called the State of California.  To LaLaLand!

http://jpg1.lapl.org/spnb01/00007053.jpg

http://www.you-are-here.com/building/1918_ambassador.html

http://tinyurl.com/zpagz

Karnak said: "May a Coconut fall in your Grove but not dent your AMC."     

http://www.defensetech.org/images/Carson-Karnak.jpg

He drove his Rambler Classic home to check the "Weather-Eye" forecast

http://tinyurl.com/kheoc

It's "A-OK!"  Let's load the Air-Coil Ambassador wagon and sail away.
   
http://www.boatingsf.com/photos/031105/DSC_0196_edited-1.jpg

So, where are we now?  The T-bird air bags, the planned '58 Ambassador air suspension, and the GT. Spirit of Karnak will be found just flying around in history.  Things that were, things that weren't, things that won't be remembered if we don't "receive" AMC history soon.  Got that?  

Technology has put the best flights of '58 fancy in nice new bottles,  

http://www.lexus.com/2007ls_prelaunch/index.html

http://www.mbusa.com/microsite/s-class/index.jsp

so despite the fact that American Motors did not pump itself up only to be embarrassed in the '58 deflation (but Rambler still floated the idea that it could fly on air --- during the recession that actually kept it from crash-landing into the ground three decades before it finally did),    

http://mclellansautomotive.com/photos/B30590.jpg

good ideas never die: all they need is more work 'til they work better.

Too bad that sort of good idea still doesn't seem to work for AMC fans.

>>
Obviously we need a new forum, since the new/old one is officially gone. Do we have some one who will actually administrate it and not BAIL at the first sign of trouble? I need an AMC/Rambler fix. This list is OK, but I only receive 75% of the posts listed. What say you? 
<<

If "receive" means "get" (as in: "I got it in my in-box"), why not read it off the AMX files website?  "Cleaner" [looking], "faster" [skimming], "easier" [navigating], and "archive-ier" [if searching]; if "get" means "comprehend" (as in: "I got it in my head"), why not read the other 25% and encourage 25% or 50% or 500% more AMC/Rambler fans to read and write and learn in one vibrant, growing AMC community online?  I'm not hitting anyone's comment; I'm just asking everyone to think hard about -impact-.

Why does AMC/Rambler require two/three/four/more forums to make it more rewarding?  If "weakness in [sales and profit] numbers" caused the old AMC to fail, would not "strength in numbers" permit a new AMC to sail?  Onward and upward?  Online and on the street?  On steel springs and on air suspension?  Why doesn't AMC get together and -go- somewhere?  Why does AMC still sit around as time and opportunity pass it by?  Why does AMC take whatever from whomever in wherever for forever and give little back?  Who looked up Hornet "Kashmir" fabric this week and posted info?  Who even read my question?  Who wants to be part of such a "community?" 

Who finds any reason to drive the last two (of seven owned, since that squeaks AMC fans' wheels: two ordered, one bought off-the-lot-new, one bought demo [Cassini of dealer's sister who worked part-time answering his phone] and three more bought in varying stages of "usual" AMC used- car condition [with more than a usual amount of Bondo in used Big-3s]) HPOF AMC cars in my barn if AMC never stops looking Lost in LoserLand?

Who wouldn't want to chose from two one-owner AMC cars to drive a few miles to the store, the library, or the post office on some sunny day?  I sure would; I'd claim them as "daily drivers" (I walk the mile or so to catch a "Park-and-Ride" bus to downtown; free exercise/free reading time/free gas) and sell my Nissan (if I don't, I might trade it on an '07 Infiniti --- the G35 coupe still does a classic AMX number on me!) and insure my "new" Buick (isn't a decade-old Roadmaster Estate Wagon with fewer than 2,000 miles technically still "new"?) as a "main" car.  I rent weekend specialx for most of my major running-around, anyway.

Who wouldn't want to be the funny old (53?) guy with those funny old ('70s?) cars that he put-puts around in occasionally and then spends half the afternoon washing, wiping, and covering?  Who wouldn't want something more than "trailer queens" by Pierce, Packard, Auburn, and Buick (five cared for --- and insured by --- museums --- four on the other side of the country) that have become more "investments" [ha!] than "enjoyments") in the -home- garage to gaze upon infrequently.

I last -drove- one of my AMCs in 1994; I last -saw- my AMCs in 2004; I'm running on memories and hopes and dreams: not even on gas fumes.            

A '72 Buick Estate Wagon with over three times the miles on my '71 Ambassador recently sold for $16,500; the AMC owls would screech at $12,000, they'd hoot at $9,000, and they'd peck at a $6,000 asking.

Who will ever fly with such a willful flock of fickle-billed birds?

Who will wrap arms with the make that makes its mark as the marque everyone loves to laugh at because its cars and its collectors are, well, so darn weird?  Can't get along with others, can't get along amongst themselves, can't get no respect, can't get over it.  Huh?

Why doesn't AMC look at the other weird ones, among them A-C-D, Packard, Studebaker, and, yes, Edsel (which looked at Packard, but that's another very interesting --- albeit not to you probably --- AMC-related history) that get more attention, respect, value, prices, publication, etc. than does AMC?  Why doesn't AMC see that they even have archives and museums; not mom-and-pop or some-guy's-garages: permanent professional places to be?

Why doesn't AMC support one widely read car magazine?  Why doesn't AMC support one widely populated online discussion group?  Why doesn't AMC support one widely used information website?  Why doesn't AMC get over being "just" AMC?   

Why does AMC expect servers and services and smiles should never switch off, and when (or if) they are, AMC simply says: "Gimme!  NOW!"  Is AMC so much a "last independent" that last or -lost- are the same?  Why not fifty forums?  Why not a thousand websites?  "All for one with none for all!"  Why can't AMC see what AMC has become?  Why can't AMC learn from the AMC past?  Why can't AMC do more than muddle along?  Build it: they will come; build it up: they will raise AMC's standards; build it even higher: they will raise the numbers (fans & dollars) for AMC to thrive.

I must be a 1950s AMC airhead.  I still don't get it.  (As in: "Duh?")

Do nothing, and you'll be done; do nothing more, and AMC will be done. 

I'm done.  I'm always done.  And then I come back a do a little more.

So, how you doin'?

Huh?

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