Re: [AMC-list] AMC-list Digest, Vol 46, Issue 1

[Jack Dale <mercendarian@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Jeff:  I can't get anyone to respond to this question, but it deserves an answer.  WHY is there no info about experimental engines for AMCs?   Was AMC so poor(or stupid) that they never considered OHCs, DOHCs, and larger displacement engines?  I've heard that the 464cu v-8 was planned in the late 60s, FOR use in the 70s, but was never built, maybe even never tested.   It never even reached the racers, which will often "test" a concept in stress beyond the "Real World."  I think it was simply a "tall-block, factory-stroked" 401/390, which anyone could do with a re-casting, while using as many previous parts as possible.   One of the GM "tall-blocks" was a 427 based on a SBC, a "perfect" engine for a 1st-gen camaro/other.  Also, WHY no exotic heads for the inline AMCs?  They didn't use the OHC which they could have gotten from Willys when they bought JEEP, but (232s{3.8L})AMC-blocks under-rode the fab "Torino" down in Argentina.  A
 famous European designer needed to "pump-up" the performance of the TVR for a new model, and he bought some motorcycle cylinder heads from Suzuki, cut/welded them together to make a DOHC-4valve head for a 4Liter inline 6 cylinder which produced 350hp!  (That's more HP by 25, than the 4L Aston-Martin in "Vantage" tune, which went into DB-6s of the mid-sixties.  The "cut-and-weld" was for prototypes, but then a run of castings were made, machined, and appeared on the TVR.  The engine was called the "Speed-six".  TVR sold at least hundreds of cars equiped with this engine.  AMC never had a similar engine "mule"?   If you don't reply, I'll know you don't know either, which is "OK", but where do we definitively find out?   All of the AMC engine people that went to Chrysler when they were bought, should be retired by now, so surely they could talk (--if any are still alive) about AMC "projects."   Imho, you're no "AMCnut" unless you have at least
 thought...about this, and having thought about it, GIVE US your thoughts, please.   I thought the Turbo-cars were "OK" and should have been preserved and/sold without the tubines if they couldn't handle the warranty.  I thought the '74-8 Matador Coupe looked better, but the Turbine came first, and with that engine, it was of greater significance.  This is kind of what I'm talking about.  AMC...and earlier, Studebaker, had engines that elicited little, if any, ROMANCE.   "Romance" to we gearheads, is POWER.

 

________________________________
 From: Jeff Reeves <amcnut@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 4:09 PM
Subject: Re: [AMC-list] AMC-list Digest, Vol 46, Issue 1
  
Chrysler crushed the Turbine cars because they didn't want to pay the taxes involved in importing them from Italy. These cars were designed and built by Pininfarina and were built specifically as a test bed for the turbine engine. They brought in the cars and loaned them to specially selected families to be used as test mules. After the testing phase was done, the cars were reclaimed from the test families and were destroyed as Chrysler didn't want to ante up to pay all the import duties on the cars---plus they didn't want to have to contend with the nascent emissions and safety laws that were starting to be placed on domestic manufacturers by the government. In their eyes destroying the turbine cars were a way for them to avoid liability---both fiscal and legal--plain and simple.

The turbine cars were automotive art. I hate that they destroyed the cars as they were absolutely beautiful and would have been worth doing driveline transplants with a more conventional 440 V8. I'm glad that the few examples that do still exist were saved as they are truly a high mark of automotive history.

Jeff Reeves
Auburn, GA
01 Grand Cherokee
72 Javelin SST
69 Ambassador DPL
68 AMX


Message: 2
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:38:04 -0500
From: Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [AMC-list] Chrysler Turbine Cars in crusher
Message-ID: <50E1F7AC.6040302@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Well, there was a much better reason fro Chrysler to crush those cars
than let them out into the public. They had those very experimental
turbines and would have been difficult, if not impossible, to maintain.
I suppose they could have sold them as-is with no warranty, but problems
could have been worse for the company.

They were built at least partially under a government grant. The grant
may have required the cars to be destroyed or otherwise disposed of, not
sold to the general public. They were given to particular people to
drive around in public to judge their suitability, but those were
specially selected individuals and Chrysler did all maintenance on the
cars. I don't recall the details, I'm sure with a little searching they
can be found, the cars are rather notorious!

55 were built, only nine survived.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Turbine_Car

-- Frank Swygert
Editor - American Motors Cars Magazine
http://www.amc-mag.com/

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