Weird/wonderful

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

Over the years, there's been so much said here (and, we presume, around the
great big AMC hobby world) about T5s, adapters, flexplates, flywheels, etc.
that it's hard to understand why AMC experts would rather rewrite and repeat
than build and buttress --- a permanent online resource of AMC
knowledge/experience.

Maybe feeling useful, filling time, being busy, (or proving weirdness?) is
reward enough for followers of the late great American Motors.  And before
long, maybe for the late great American motor industry, as well.

While Ford now uses only three-quarters of its North American assembly
capacity --- a twelve percent drop in just two years --- and GM can't keep
its newest facilities humming (or Hummer-ing), both companies now plan to
move much more manufacturing to China.  Chrysler will design and build
parts, engines, cars and trucks in Korea and China --- for sale, bearing
Mopar badges, in the US.  AMC might not be "last" much longer: the
"domestic" American motors industry may be dead.  The content of a new
Avalon will be 100% American; the -profit- on it won't.

That new 300C you'd probably all love to own?  Built in Canada of parts from
Germany and elsewhere --- with that super-duper semi-Hemi assembled in
Mexico.
Quality and reliability are also universal.  Chrysler + Mercedes.  Good
grief?  Good luck!

AMC fans can't look into the past, but can see the future

http://www.autoshanghai.com.cn/index_en.aspx

that Detroit brass is shining up to this very week.  I'm not referring to
pre-1914 veteran cars, but to veteran execs like Lutz and Padilla.

If you need to get some idea of what China could be building for America to
buy, click around at random [no English] at this retail website.

http://royaum.buick.com.cn/home.aspx

Download a high-res photo or two, too

http://royaum.buick.com.cn/download/pictures/royaum_pic04.jpg

That's not your father's Oldsmobile --- and, considering how well it appears
to be assembled, he'd probably "rather have" it than his Buick.

America is in for even bigger troubles than those that left AMC dead.

And maybe Germany and Japan should start worrying along with Detroit.

AMC fans who fan flames for Javelin can see Zeta.  Not by reading news about
Catherine, but from where GM's next Camaro Z28 will be created. 

I can hand you a free copy of this latest issue;

http://www.vcamm.com.au/!upload_files/attachment/GoAuto_enews283.pdf

spotting mules (badged as Buicks!) is up to you.

AMC fans who can't fancy Ypsilanti's Orphan Show can be June bugs

http://www.angelfire.com/or3/orphan_cartour/05flyer/2005-Flyer.pdf

in Virginia.  Note their definition: Rambler is to DeSoto as Plymouth will
be to Oldsmobile.  What Mercury, Buick, Pontiac and ??? will be, is unknown.

How the cars are "staged" will probably depend on how many there are.

When I suggested "by-year" display, I was thinking of P-A shows.  We get
between dozens and a hundred vehicles at those, not the -thousands- that AMC
shows apparently attract.  Of course, Pierce survived only 37 years; AMC
must have lasted many, many more.  (What?  1954-1988?  Really?  Why that's
barely 34...)

Pierce (and Packard) patrons like to read pre-printed identification.  Some
multi-make shows I attended around the country last summer used truly
elegant "bordered" placards (I should share those 2004 photos before it's
time to replace them with 2005 scenes...) on stakes for a very easy
stroll-see-and-read.
The only downside to meticulous show planning is an occasional (and luckily,
rare) empty space for a car that didn't appear.  And if fellow fans are nice
enough --- are there enough nice AMC fans to fill a showfield?  ---
sometimes even "accidents" aren't enough to stop the music.  Owner of a
one-off 1930s towncar (built for opera singer/movie star Mary Garden, 

http://inkpot.com/classical/debuspelleas.html

who, herself, earlier, had posed in a Pierce-Arrow ad) 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13559&item=4544775785
&rd=1

put a mean gash (slipped transporter tie-down cable) in his fender at
Buffalo's Grand National.  Added a "DNJ" to his card; had another car tale
to tell.

Repair would probably cost thousands, but he didn't scream and yell.  If
it's not the numbers, maybe it's the people.  Maybe AMC fans can be and do
more.

>>
Badly battered, ragged out, and rusty mostly Kermit The Frog green 1968
American 4 door sedans. My car would kick butt in that class.
<<

Matt, your Kermie should've met mine (it looked like this without the mods)

http://www.se-r.net/multimedia/pictures/national_convention_98/kojima2.jpg

when it (he?) wore a "for Kermit attire" license plate --- and its [his?] ZX
garagemate (attired in Cobalt Green Pearlcoat) croaked jokes about frogs...)

The big bad green 320-hp Mr. Three (as opposed to the little black MR2 Toyo
which rented storage space for a few years) wasn't smart enough to know that
Kermit had almost exactly the same profile and dimensions as the [315-hp;
OK, different eras/different measurements] Big Bad Green AMX that Mr. TT
(twin turbos, not Audi's) called "unsophisticated" AND "painted with a
brush" (OK, he was correct on the second claim.)  Or at least, that's what I
heard while listening to "Car Talk."  (I don't name cars, but I do turn off
the radio occasionally to let them "speak" to me.)  Next time you're in a
styling studio, take along a '68-'70 AMC AMX and a '95-'98 Nissan SX to put
"under the bridge" (over a bed of clay, not of river, that is.)  Japan was
learning from AMC while America was "Learning from Las Vegas" (via celebrity
architect Robert Venturi, not via Celebrity Poker TV, that is) and that
showed most at Nissan.
(About which --- AMC influence on development of the current Z --- I've
already written here...) 

>>
I think that Rusty Sea Foam Green Convertibles with shot white tops and
trashed  bucket seat interiors should be included in this class to be fair!
Then we could compete!!!
<<

Mark, your green/white couldn't beat my white/green (OK, turquoise) '68
Rebel 550 convertible (if it escaped being crushed to rot away somewhere in
one of those fields [ask Eddie for photos] of "rare car" AMC dreams; it was
so loaded with Bondo that a) it sounded like a Trabant (the body, not the
engine, that is) and b) it showed off sculpting that Hudson (the designer
[Fred], not the make, that is) never, ever would have let "slip" into
Teague's "stream."  [If you don't get those jokes, read more words about
AMC.]  It was a poster boy (girl?) for the axiom (the saying, not the Isuzu,
that is) that "quality beats quantity" for collectible things.

It was rare, it was rusty, it was rotted; it was too much "AMC routine." 

"Rare" does not translate into "valuable" --- especially for AMCs, but too
much "uncommon" and "worthwhile" AMC forest is being overlooked now [ask
Eddie about "no bid" eBay examples] for the musclecar AMC trees.  

>>
" Sandwichmaker said earlier. I think he missed his AM coffee! <G>)

well i don't drink coffee, so there! :^P
<<

Wow!  I don't drink coffee either, and people always think that's weird.

Maybe weirdness IS a characteristic (or requirement?) of/for an AMC fan!