Yesterday, today and tomorrow

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

Spinners are yesterday, floaters are today but which wheels will be big
tomorrow is unknown.  If AM was yesterday's S-P, GM is today's Chrysler and
Hyundai is tomorrow's Toyota, no one knows the next Yugo.  In auto history,
however, knowing the facts really makes the past come to life.

Example 1

In Greenwich this weekend, a car that cost about $750 about 70 years ago
sold for about $75,000 above the estimates.  About 40 years after it was
built, its designer drove an AMC car as his own.  Maybe he saw something
others missed.

http://www.christies.com/presscenter/pdf/06062005/06062005a.pdf   

http://www.christies.com/promos/jun05/1629/promo_gallery.asp?page=3

If black isn't your quarter-million choice, scroll to third-last car at:

http://www.nashnut.com/archives/cat_auburn_cord_dusenberg_museum_2004.html 

and while there, revisit 2004 from Kenosha.  Your AMC car(s) may be shown.


Example 2

80 years ago yesterday, Walter poured his last cup of Maxwell in house,
stirred cream of W-O   

http://www.ourheritage.net/index_page_stuff/Local_History_Links/AH-OAA/Auto_
History_192503.html

http://www.ourheritage.net/index_page_stuff/Local_History_Links/AH-OAA/Auto_
History_192502.html

and, while Kenosha was cranking out Nash Blue Sixes by the thousands

http://image03.webshots.com/3/7/87/56/73578756wyIYNp_fs.jpg

sought MOre than PAR fame and fortune.  From the building of his cars 

http://image28.webshots.com/29/5/53/0/249155300onQxsr_ph.jpg

to the building of his building (planned/briefly was world's tallest*)

http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/statue/1287/English/ArtDeco/chrysler/Te
xac2.jpg

http://www.nycvisit.com/_uploads/images/Empire_Chrysler_op_S.gif

*If you've forgotten, when America reached its earlier, ahem, height of
prosperity, two buildings were vying for world's record and the design of
each was secretly altered to win.  As the Bank of Manhattan appeared to be
tallest, a needle-thin 185-foot spire was being assembled -inside- the
Chrysler Building: on October 16, 1929 (days before you-know-what!), within
just 90 minutes, that spire was jacked up into the New York sky.  For 18
months, Chrysler's monument to his amazing automotive achievement stood
tallest --- at 1,046 feet --- until the Empire State Building was topped off
at 1,239 (later extended to 1,459 by a TV antenna) and which, before and
after the WTC rose to 1,368 feet was both taller and far more famous than
any Hemi or HEMI or "Million Dollar Muscle Car" will ever be

(notice its wheel, hubcap and hood ornament details

http://www.arch.tu-dresden.de/ibad/Baugeschichte/bilder/new%20york/chrysler%
20bdg%20fassadendetail.jpg

which look like a '20s bus via computer rendering...)  

http://www.howardmodels.com/Architectural-Renderings/Chrysler/

so, yes, after having been such a strong competitor that, in 1910, only Ford
and Buick outsold it, the last Maxwell produced in 1925 was a dark blue
coupe with black fenders and no future for its name (unless an "Oh,
Rochester!" still means something --- "Now cut that out!") 

http://carnut.com/cgi-bin/04/_image.pl?/show/04/hcca/hcc013.jpg

http://carnut.com/cgi-bin/04/_image.pl?/show/04/hcca/hcc015.jpg

but a great future for Chrysler's.  In 20 more years, will Chrysler be as
old as Rambler or Olds: past one hundred?  Or will it be like Buick,
Cadillac and Ford?  Only tomorrow's auto history will know.  


Example 3

Got AMC content?  Walter Percy Chrysler was Works Manager of American
Locomotive Company when he was hired by the Buick Motor Car Company's
President to be its Works Manager in Flint, Michigan.  In 1911, Buick was
the rock upon which General Motors had been founded (by Durant) in 1908.  In
1910, that head of Buick became GM President (when Durant lost his job) and,
by 1916, when Durant regained control of GM, that same GM President was
fired and Chrysler became the new Buick President.  When Durant discovered
he (Chrysler) had been offered a job at Packard, W. C. offered more pay
(from $50,000 to $500,000!) if Chrysler would stay at Buick and become
Vice-President of GM Production.  His predecessor at Buick/GM faced an even
greater challenge in automotive history.  His name was Charles W. Nash.
Without Buick, there'd be no Nash, without Nash, there'd be no Chrysler and
without Willys-Overland, there'd be no AMC/Jeep and no DaimlerChrysler.
Take that, you Roadmaster Ambassadors.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/skpowell/wpcpic1.htm

http://www3.sympatico.ca/skpowell/wpcpic2.htm


Example 4

...June 5, 1969, clay model photographed in Detroit design studio

...dutifully labeled "S-14276-2"

...first "downsized" pony car clay

...rear quarters like '68-'70 AMX

...behind it another unfinished clay

...'71 Javelin/AMX-type rear fenders


Did you pull out your Hadsall books, Zinn albums and Foster references?

Did you find the styling studio study you were thinking of/looking for?

Did you wonder if some aspect of American Motors history was overlooked?  


...make, model and "working" name

I've probably peeked into every dusty corner Detroit has not demolished;
 
I've probably peered down every blind alley DaimlerChrysler Archive has;

I've probably looked (twice!!) at every photo GM ever gave me access to;

I still see things I'd never seen before in places I'd never planned on.


This example of AMC being alive as part of American auto history is one.

That Ford was named "Apex" and it was an EARLY study for the Mustang II.

No, not the Mustang II prototype you may be thinking of

http://home.pon.net/hunnicutt/images/MustangII_proto.gif

but the Mustang II newly born as the Javelin was retired

http://bradbarnett.net/mustangs/ads/74-78/74FOMU01.jpg

A pony car for when US inflation was 12%, when 55-mph was fast and when VW
Rabbits multiplied faster (to a million) than even had the "Iacocca-era"
Mustangs; way back before America changed from what it -was- to whatever
it's still trying to -become-.

You won't see it in the AMC books, in the online Mustang II drawings

http://www.mustangii.net/photo_scans_prototype_drawings.asp

or a vast array of online Mustang II clay/fiberglass prototype photos

http://www.mustangii.net/photo_scans_prototype.asp

because, as you'll see, you're not seeing before 1970 (although AMX sail

http://www.mustangii.net/photo_template.asp?pagename=Prototype&chosenin=prot
otype&imagename=images/prototype/sep_70_proto2.jpg

and a little Javelin/AMX fender still "bubbled" up as late as that October) 

http://www.mustangii.net/photo_template.asp?pagename=Prototype&chosenin=prot
otype&imagename=images/prototype/oct_70_proto3.jpg

Mustang II, of course, before '77 Hornet AMX led to a '78 King Cobra; in
style, if not in Spirit.  What some saw as being the "last gasp" of AMC
influence on Ford.

Unfortunately, they, too, would be missing something.

Something an Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg-Ford designer saw.

How the "most influential" Ford since the original Mustang has been
influenced by the last of several "less-than-successful" cars designed by
AMC.  

Maybe that's why he drove a Pacer instead of two of his better designs for
Ford.  One was one for 1951 (he designed the first Ford hardtop) and II was
for, as they say, the automotive ages.

No, not the Ford Mustang II we've been discussing.

I of the last true classic cars not named Packard.

By now you'll know what -it- was and who -he- was.

http://www.adclassix.com/images/55lincolnmarkII.jpg

http://www.adclassix.com/images/56lincolncontinental.jpg
 
http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1937/buehrigb.jpg
 
See your AMC history from a different point of view.


Today and tomorrow.