See, Dan

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

Boys who play with cars [after lunch] instead of doing their [home] work
then have to turn in their toys and stay after school.  I wasn't able get
back to writing yesterday.  Sorry.

Did anyone see Sungold DPL and reflect what its AMC List owner asked?

(Yesterday's link to a big "apple" Ambassador was what's referred to)

Did anyone see George Barris in their AMC-history water vapor trail? 

(http://www.classiccarguy.com/details_new.asp?id=243 is the takeoff)

And did anyone --- anyone --- notice the car parked outside that Design
Lobby in the vintage GM photo?  Did anyone --- anyone --- determine its
Rambler --- RAMBLER! --- model year?  If you're not looking, you're not
living.  Plus you're only learning half --- a tenth --- what you could.

For each of the 15 years it was registered, my 1979 AMC Spirit liftback
(which technically is a three-door "fast" hatchback) was an "Ameri 2DSN" to
state bureaucrats.  I have no idea what a '79 AMC Spirit sedan (which
technically is a three-door Kammback), Concord hatchback (technically a
three-door hatchback coupe sedan), Pacer sedan (three-door hatchback) or
Pacer wagon (three-door, uh, wagon) were called by the tax types who steal
working types blind.  (And America isn't the worst welfare state!)

The all-new '74 AMC Matador was a pillared coupe with longer [interior] body
on shorter [114"] wheelbase than the seven year-old Matador sedan: it
replaced the shorter [interior] pillar-less hardtop on longer [118"] version
of a  shorter [114"] 1967 wheelbase.  A '74 Matador coupe could've become
four-door sedan and five-door wagon if AMC had had enough money to build
them --- and eventually, if AMC had money left over, possibly even a
two-door [narrow-post] sedan.  If Matador coupe had ever become the
six-window four-door sedan a famous outside consultant designed for AMC (an
aspect of AMC history sadly overlooked by the most prolific and
knowledgeable of AMC experts), it could've been a long [118" {122" with
"sidemounts"}] wheelbase pillared hardtop sedan with chrome-clad slim "B"
post and frameless side glass as well.  What car companies, writers and
consumers call car bodies is always interesting; it's not always accurate.

I doze off on the differences between collapsible sedan and all-weather
phaeton or drophead coupe and convertible victoria, so I'll not discuss
them. (You can tell me the differences between Cord 812 Phaeton and 812
Sportsman...)  I will however ramble to hit some topics ("hard points" in
body lingo) of interest.  Not much time, but a start. 

"Sedan" --- especially from about 1940 (the General introduced "Torpedo" in
1940 as "Four-door sedan" and "Two-door coupe" [Pontiac, for example, sold
"Business" and "Sports" coupes]; a six-window sedan and a fastback
"Streamliner" were added in 1941) through about 1970 --- can properly be
used with two- and four-door.  As derived from conveyances which predate the
horse-and-coach era (sedan chairs were human-powered), it's a closed body
and, while Essex (Hudson's companion make) liked offering a "Coach" as the
first affordable factory-bodied closed car for the common people, close
competitor (yes, Hudson --- and Willys-Overland --- once were that big),
Henry countered with his "Fordor" and "Tudor" --- sedans (and then he
offered them with a V-8!)

It's hard to think of many two-door sedans sold in America today; they may
have vanished after GM "dreadful-days" models and "couple-gen-ago" Japanese
ones did.  Two-door posts with little (or no) modification to their
departure views.

Today's "old" Civic (the new one will be very slick) would be a two-door
sedan if its upper rear weren't so fast and different.  It's a "modified
kammback" in Si guise, it's a "fast hatchback" as an Acura RSX (Acura EL is
the leather-lined Civic ["Concord"] in a forbidden land named Canader); and
like AMC's Spirit or Concord, all tend to share substructure plus [usually]
doors and windshields.  A Civic coupe could be a 2-door Civic sedan, but
it's not.

The late, lamented Nissan Sentra SE-R; however, very much the poor-man's
pocket-rocket BMW 2002 [a model, not year, for those new to such things] is
a true two-door sedan.  The '95+ 200SX SE-R is a true blue coupe, as it
shares no sheet metal aft of B-pillar even decklid and taillights are
unique.  The late, unlamented Infiniti G20 sedan was a Sentra stretched
between the B- and C- pillars; like the "L" cars from Mercedes, where it
increased passenger space.  Even back in the '60s, though every inch was at
least $1,000 precious.  Long '50s '60s and '70s American Motors hoods
imparted some straight-eight "classicism" to the homeliest rubber ducky Nash
and finny 117" Rambler, but those Ambassadors really trompe l'oeil.

They weren't quite they hoped, seemed --- or even measured up --- to be.


To be continued.