[AMC-List] Mobil Oil Economy Run -- 1964

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

Hope you all had a good Excessmas!


Nice mention of Rambler's success in the 1964 Mobil Oil Economy
Run -- New York Times auto section, today. The writer was the
driver of the 64 Valiant, which came in 3rd in his class, B.

It's pretty notable:

"... Our competition included a Rambler American 440 6-cylinder
driven by Les Viland, an American Motors engineer with several
economy run victories under his belt; a Chevy II 100 6-cylinder;
a Dodge Dart 170 V-8; a Chevy II Nova V-8; and a Ford Falcon
V-8. Class results were tight except for the Rambler, which
averaged 27.8336 m.p.g. and ended up with the best mileage
in the entire 1964 economy run. The Chevy II 6 was second,
at 23.2182, and my Valiant V-8 finished third, at 23.0851."

Hmm, that probably doesn't get the muscle car people all hot
and bothered, but it's very Rambler!

The description of the run was pretty interesting itself. I
wonder if you could get the U.S. culturally interested again in
cross-country events again; some sort of constraint (mileage;
Mobil Econo Run, time; Gumball Rally). It's at once very old
fashioned and made for reality-TV. It would have to involve
"ordinary" cars, otherwise it would turn into a manufacturers
marketing pissing contest. Boring; today anything goes 100mph,
and makin 300HP is routine, what's the big deal?

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