long...

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

>>
My first car was a '63 Rambler Classic Wagon.....and it happens to be parked
in the garage (eyes tear up).  Life is good!
<<

My first -new- car was a '71 AMC Ambassador wagon.  It happens to be parked
(since 1984; face turns red) in storage.  Life is too short!

>>
<http://www.gwensmith.com/interests/rambler/american.html>

It was only a fluke (or divine providence) that led me to have a '64
Rambler Classic (in the same colour as my old American) as my second
<<

It was never a fluke (or divine providence) that led me to have a few [new
and old] cars in the same COLOR (none were built in either UK or Canada) as
my first two used ones.  My favorite Pierce?  A green '31.  Favorite
Packard?  Green '41.  Favorite Nissan?  Green '96.  Favorite Auburn?  Brown
'33.  Favorite AMC?  Brown '79.  Be true to your eyes; they're your truest
tools.

Teen car?  My "first" was a '57 Plymouth, more full-size Aurora/Revell model
than a street-driven automobile.  I wasn't quite 15 when I bought it, thus
spending next year priming, painting and primping (not pimping; bone-stock
"restoration") it in preparation for my sixteen-candlepower light-off.
Sadly, rust reappeared through repaint before "Happy" was heard,
powers-who-be decreed rampant rocker rot plus hideous headlight housings
made it un-roadworthy --- even for a spray-paint-fume-addled kid.  So,
instead of a twelve year-old Bat-by-Ex-mobile in a garish two-tone,

http://www.forwardlook.net/calendars/calendar2002/2002-19a.jpg

my first -real- wheels rolled out as a three year-old Dodge Coronet.

"Why?"  I'm really not certain.  Maybe it was paint color.  "Y" was the code
for "Bronze metallic" (somewhat similar to some Packard/AMC hues*) that at
least one part of one car that once was similar to mine might even show.

http://www.allamericanclassics.com/pics/K04135-66coronet.jpg

Coronet gave way to a one year-old Super Bee with neither Six-Pack nor 426
(both revved the original [~$3000] MRSP too high), but merely a 383 with
Torqueflite.  Bench seat, chrome trim, one of 25,000 sold.  Were it one of
2,000 440s or 166 Holy Hemis, it'd drive on today's Easy Street.  But at the
time, if green for a car was good, an F8 car was even better.  No, F8 was
great!  F8 was "Ivy Green."  I was "in the ivy" before I was admitted -into-
the Ivy.  And when such new leaf turned, I was into AMC.  Green, with a
twist of Golden Lime.  My final Mopar wasn't too bad 

http://www.hubcapcafe.com/ocs/pages01/dodg6909.htm

even if "interesting" auto history might be.  A 318 Super Bee?  Really? Show
us documentation: we'll believe.  (Show us a three-on-tree 304 AMX with
documentation: we'll also believe.  An open mind is the best route to
learning...)      

*I definitely promise to do something with those old photos: tomorrow.


>>
The reason AMC went back to shafts in mid 73 was due to a patent
dispute with GM over the bridged rocker design. I don't know how the
settlement was reached, but when it was AMC went back to a bridged
design for the 1975 model year.
<<

True: GM was king of engine patents for years and years.  In the '90s and
'00s, if you check new ones and referrals, you'll see nothing but Japanese
names --- building on earlier GM work.  GM's still litigious whether or not
it has patents to protect (right now, the grille is on the other hood, so to
speak, for instead of DaimlerChrysler suing for Jeep, GM is scrambling
lawyers to save Hummer from toymaker ignominy), but back in the day, it was
fearsome.  AMC David and GM Giant weren't "Rotarians" --- if you know what I
mean. 

(If you know what Jeffery did, you'll find it even more interesting...) 

Huh?  Oh, no!  More reading?

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/vintage_classic_cars/115638


>>
I doubt tri-level auto racks were as common, but maybe they were used?
Anyone with AMC / Railroad experience welcome to comment on this one
<<

While custom-built car carriers followed the war, a new Trailer Train
Company (formed in 1955 by the Pennsy and the N&W) developed Autorack. TT
owned the flatcars; railroads owned the racks only and each car was assigned
to serve a specific auto-manufacturing firm alone.  "Trailer Train" always
appeared under each RR name and logo, but all Autoracks in America were
Trailer Train "owned."  Since 1991 (when TTX was formed), carriers have been
able to purchase the cars on which their racks were installed and TTX has
branched [!] into other types of rolling stock.  

The original goal was simply to spread out the enormous cost of such
equipment, at a time when passenger service (after enormous costs to
modernize it following the war, II), was fast losing to auto and air travel.

Kenosha was served by such as C&K, C&NW, CB&Q and CMSP&P.  Burlington
carried a lot of AMC traffic, but certain AMC cars and The Milwaukee Road
shared the same industrial designer+.  Only GM could claim more.   

+One of the interesting "contract players" AMC historians overlooked.