[Amc-list] Re; Count

["John Elle" <johnelle@xxxxxxxxx>]

The dust from PCCBs  has not been declared by the grand poobah of the
US, the 
Surgeon General as being hazardous to your health as yet, however the
to having a set of functional brakes has always been to pick up
something cheap
to hit which is also a bit fraught with it's own kind of danger!  
 
http://nashparts.com/Wrecks/53HarrisburgIL400.jpg
 
There was a time when the term 'SS' was considered politically incorrect
by the minions of those who were dedicated to the eradication of humor
and 
such
 
 http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/neo_nazi_ss_bolts.asp
 
thus influencing a up and coming maker of sporting type automobiles to
change 
there name, no it was not an overweight and overpriced truck, but a
smart and 
quick roadster of the time. 
 
http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/ssjaguar.html
 
When that period of time had passed into history and commented on by the
infamous Spike Jones and the City Slickers with appropriate renditions
of
Der Fueher's Face
 
 <http://www.lyricstrax.com/spike-jones/der-fuehrers-face.html>
http://www.lyricstrax.com/spike-jones/der-fuehrers-face.html
 
The overuse of the term "SS" began anew during the period of prosperity 
and healing with various Ferraris ripping there 12 cylinder songs around
the 
race track of the world. Of course these were true sports cars of the
world at 
this time. 
This lead to American automotive makers attempting to cash in on the
image
of performance by marketing there own versions of the SS of course.
These 
automobiles were referred by the Britt's as some of the fastest lorries
ever 
produced, but Gm and others did not care. As long as the marketing
indicated 
a sporty image people flocked to the show room in droves until insurance
costs 
and performance reductions cleverly imposed by the great automotive
design 
experts known as Congress were legislated into being known as smog
reduction
laws. As a side bar to this, if Pro is the opposite of Con, is Progress
the opposite 
of Congress?
The automotive industry and some of us who were living at that time
muddled 
through this period listening to advertising terms and excuses such as
"a little 
pinging is good!" and "I understand the new and improved part is
defective" but 
it is covered under the 50,000 mile federally mandated smog warranty. 
 
Of course during this time interval, Detroit unable to engineer
something that ran
well imported several high efficiency models with reliability and
re-badged them 
as Chevys (Isuzu and Toyota), Ford (Mazda's)  and Chryslers (Mitsubishi)

smaller companies tried to re-engineer Volkswagen engines to run with
carburetors
and then install them in cars quite a bit heavier than they were
designed to pull 
around and wondered in amazement why they could not sell them when the 
performance turned out poopy by anyones definition. 
But if one does take a good  look at some of the offerings, they were
not
bad even if they could have been better. By the end of the '70's all
manufacturers were recognizing the performance does sell, they just 
had not gotten around to designing for it. The Spirit AMX's were an 
admirable offering in their day, the optional V8 although as sold was 
not the best performing engine in the world but it was no worse than the

alternatives and had potential. 
By 1980 with the hue and cry for economy was in full song most of the 
manufacturers were turning towards a new generation of design and were
beginning to get it down fairly well, AMC on the other hand dropped 
the V8 for their cars leaving the 258 I-6, the work horse of the company
the only engine offered for 1980
 
http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~afleming/amc/pictures/vfleming-amx.gif
 
http://faculty.concord.edu/chrisz/hobby/80-AMX-2info.html
 
But, if you read the spec. sheet at the bottom of the above web site,
you will
find that even in this form, the AMX was a pretty decent package in it's
own
right. It suffered from the lack of a well developed  performance
oriented 
economy engine, but it did not lack in other areas. Having 2  AMC Spirit
based  cars, one of which is pictured above,  today's technology and
some
money can give it what it should have had then. To bad it was not done
then!
Woulda, Coulda, Shuda, does not hack it when seen in the light of
historical
yesterdays. 
 
Snip
In 1958, Ed Iskenderian patented the first self-locking roller tappet so
racers 
could rev faster without a need for special tooling or machining.
Snip
 
The addition of an Iskenderian cam to the pedestrian 258 I-6, will wake
one 
up and still allow it to pass smog! Wonder why it was not done then? 
 
http://www.iskycams.com/iskyindex.html
 
The history of firsts is fascinating to look at. It is amazing some of
the things
that we perceive today as relatively new were in use 100 years ago. Just
a bit 
less refined. 
 
http://www.motorera.com/history/hist05.htm
 
However it seems that today, we concern ourselves with what was the
last. 
It it sometimes too bad. 
 
Snip
And do you remember the Rambler Aria and Shahin built by Pars Khodro?
Snip
 
Of course, how could one forget them? And in the country of manufacture 
you would probably find them parked in the garage next to; 
 
http://www.raystevens.com/SongLyrics/AhabLyrics.html
http://www.iranyellowpages.net/en/about_iran/Economy/auto_industry/auto_
industry02.shtm
 
It has been said, the Americans have lost there sense of humor. But that
is not necessarily true, 
just take a look a current politics and up coming presidential potential
candidates. 
To quote Walt Kelley
"The Dam at the Booby bin has burst."
John
 
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.amc-list.com/pipermail/amc-list/attachments/20070306/e96e54c6/attachment.htm 
_______________________________________________
Amc-list mailing list
Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.amc-list.com/mailman/listinfo/amc-list