gone.

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

>>http://schwartzperformance.com/evilspirit.htm

Fine design still shows!  In "current" silver paint, with "current-size"
wheels (which call for skillful --- albeit minor --- radiussing of front
arches) that --- Torq-Thrust, that is --- recall a late-'60s vernacular
Spirit spoke, and with neither flares nor chin spoiler marring sculpture
(remember the title of Teague's good friend's book...), it gives a hint of
where the Turbo facelift was to go.  Add flag mirrors, integrated bumper
skins, aero face and flush rear (plus any of the finalist wing designs):
it'd turn heads as fast as a Mustang GT.  Someday, somebody should build one
--- and not 70 or 80 years later, as with some never-built Packards.  I'm
surprised somebody hasn't built the"Asymmetrical" [Gremlin] AMX or the
Javelin Kammback yet.  Or even the Ambassador LS.  They'd all be
interesting.


>>
That's why they will get the 1998 Altima.

It weighs 4,000 Lbs with it's sunroof and leather
<<

Including the COW?  ;-)  How 'bout ~3,000 lbs?

http://www.kron.com/global/story.asp?s=2590700

http://auto.consumerguide.com/Auto/Used/reviews/full/index.cfm/id/2329/act/u
sedcarreviewspecs


>>
It's a little fiberglas sports car based on a Dart, apparently.
It's clearly (to me) 60's vintage.
<<

Hmmm, if Dodge-turned-Deusies (from SoCal) date to the '70s

http://www.histomobile.com/histomob/internet/207/histo01.htm

and two 2-seat factory Wayfarers# (from Motown) date to '49,

http://www.fridrichdesign.com/dodge/images/thrillmap.jpg

http://mclellansautomotive.com/photos/B15087.jpg

http://www.carlbest.com/dodge%20pics/index.htm

it could be an alternate version of Dodge Daroo

http://www.desoto58.com/dreamcar/dreamdog67.html

(a yellow example exists also), designed, in part, at least, by someone who
also designed a car some readers should remember for its AMC power. 

http://www.davewolin.com/bricklin1.htm
http://www.davewolin.com/bricklin2.htm

Remember some other creations by that artist

http://members.aye.net/~hippie/deadpics/garcia.jpg

http://www.in-the-spirit.com/images/jerryeel.gif

(oops, sorry, must be the wrong artist!)

http://herbgrassedesign.com/resume.htm

who dabbled both in Dodge and (who knew?) AMC.

http://herbgrassedesign.com/productionvehicles.htm

Maybe, but I doubt it.  It sounds more like something that Ghia cooked up
according to an Ex Italian recipe.  If so, it may be quite valuable.

(No Canon Elph or camera phone?  Or a "Gremlins got 'em!" kind of day?)   

#115" wb was 4.5" shorter than '48's; 8.5" shorter than other '49s; the
$1727 [originally side-curtained] Roadster was cheapest open car by the
Big-Three.  $1611 Business coupe also 2-passenger; $1738 two-door sedan was
only Wayfarer with a rear seat. 


>>
On May 16, 2005 Johanne Villeneuve wrote:

Hey headmaster of this chat site. Can you please change my e-mail address
from jvilleneuve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:jvilleneuve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> to
buttercup8@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:buttercup8@xxxxxxxxx>
<<

If it's Johanne, not Jacques, not a new AMC/-Renault- lister.  ;-)

http://www.roncodosmotores.com.br/displayimage.php?album=78&pos=8

http://www.renault.jp/index.cfm?category=24


OK, to fill time wasted on planes, in airports and going from place to
place, I took along some of America's best-seller current car magazines.
Beyond an SBC history (not new) in MT and R&T's import/exotic coverage, what
a waste of paper.  Automobile is short on content, yet couldn't say "Eagle"
in eight pages on '80s Audi.  HR SC/Rambles to brake at "Hudson Taraplane"
(was that a "Gone With The Wind in Sixty Seconds" star car??) and sail past
an AMX panel on a Buick Barcelona II.  Then, a ten-page I6 (Chevy, not AMC)
build.  The Juniors at Speed rate M45 as sixth and 300C (which Bob Lutz%
calls an "angry appliance") as first, so price is their determinant?
Whether brain dead by decibels or just rebellious against the old man (Speed
is published by R&T), hard to explain.  MCR 'splains what a side-oiler is
(someday, they'll need to 'splain what a carburetor is also) but, happily,
HMM is all AMC.  Houston Nurburgring platter, the Chilson archive and
Jeepster.  However, if SSR "ovoid door latches evoke old AMC pull-forwards"
then they'd better evoke a Fiat or Renault before they choke on their own
words.  Other bad examples, let's leave unread.

%His Solstice had to be delayed until September (in time for the annual
convertible sales season: NOT!) and he bemoans how the best new GM cars seem
to be designed by Daewoo.  Chery (which he thinks needs a new name) has
twelve models in development --- designs by Bertone and Pininfarina.

Ford's US market is expected to shrink more (Ford's share has not been this
low since Model T production paused for the changeover to Model A [in 1928]
--- before the Depression struck America!)

DCX is a disguised disaster.  Smart and Maybach are real losers; M-B is
losing its reputation and its cachet.  The Asian front seems a failure:
Mitsu melted, Hyundai freed to join Toyota, Honda and Nissan as million-plus
sellers in America.  Chrysler is the only winner.  Fickle such fame.   

I returned to find that only 17% of eighth-graders can read, that school
budgets were passed with double-inflation-rate tax increases and that GW
makes his SS blitz (social security sales stop, that is) here next week.  At
least he'll have a new post-Post-Modern space to speak in; completed AHEAD
of schedule the way America used to.  Yet cost $120M?  LA's Disney cost
"only" $154M (and 15 years) more, but can fry eggs and cook sausage ---
across the street.  (Driven a shiny Audi or Ford lately?  DeLorean's
revenge?)   

http://www.christa.com/portfolio.asp?sesID=3&catID=34&projID=226 

Why can't America do more things better than it seems to do today?

In '05 America, where Kia outsells VW, Honda sells V-6s to V-great GM,
Toyota sells hybrid technology to "save" GM from itself, politicos sell
themselves to labo-liberal-cons alike for dollars and votes, and where
Motown, once a model of tomorrow's-world-gets-better, sinks deeper into
race-wrung-resolve-less ruin, we roll out more monster cars and trucks.  We
scream louder in ads, "Borrow, borrow/buy, buy!"  We rock or rap on.  

We play at tech with toys and talk on phones while we overeat drive-thru
fast fat; we overpay health care "providers" to run on autopilot, and we
overpay juris doctors to run amok on papered trails.  We Idol-ize Paula; we
wax enthusiastic over Paris (hotel slut, not haute site) and we wait
enthusiastically to borrow/buy the next big things we all have to have:
yesterday, 300C HEMI; today, Mustang GT; tomorrow, sun, moon and stars.  

We can't read, write or "add it all up" (our multiplication skills seem
limited to population, prisons and sprawl); we can't concentrate on any
topic for more than fifteen seconds (we bestow fifteen years of fame on
anyone our media anoints, though), we can't take any responsibility for our
mistakes (we look for excuses instead of for flaws), and we believe we're
still the coolest cats on prowl.  We're Americans, aren't we?  We created
the Muscle Car.  We can't be idiots!  Look at what we've done!

"We" or "they" --- in mirror or through looking glass --- then or now?

Maybe old Alice doesn't live in America any longer.     

And maybe Alice doesn't drive a Nash Blue motorcar.

Note to past readers: "Tower of Value" had -no- value if it couldn't be
seen, I take responsibility for someone's flaw, so post a different URL.

http://www.cityclicker.net/chicfair/autos.html

>From the teens until WWII, Nash certainly was what America was before it
lost its way in the late 1960s: Nash was something of which to be proud.  In
the 1940s, Nash didn't compete as well as it could (and should) have; in the
1950s, Nash/AMC fell further behind America's then "best"; in the 1960s, AMC
made valiant efforts to improve.  In the 1970s, AMC made too many mistakes
to make the 1980s into more than a decline and deathwatch.

We're "Proud Americans," aren't we?  We created the SC/Rambler, AMX and
"Machine."  We can't be forgotten by history!  Look at what we've done!

"Done" is the operative.  Look out.  Look ahead.  Today.

Then, if you know AMC auto history, ask yourself three questions:

What "halo" two-seat X-car that, over its lifetime, sold fewer than 20,000
units worldwide cost [an inflation-adjusted] $800 million to develop and
market?

What did that car accomplish for a maker whose bread-and-butter cars were
two-door economy subcompacts, mid-size four-door sedans, people-plus-luggage
family beasts of burden, and, later, unit-bodied trucks?

Was that car a success?

(Oh yes, name the car!)

Then try a second puzzle:

To what prior auto slogan --- used by a very powerful marque --- does Nash
"Tower" phrase evoke.  Hint: think of Nash Ambassadors.