TWTWTW

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

The way it was:

53 years and 8 days ago in Detroit, two GM men showed a plaster model to a
third GM man, charging him to design a chassis for it.  The next day, a GM
general manager and a GM president approved construction of the car for 1953
Motorama display.  Ten days later, a GM divisional director of research and
development showed initial drawings: frame, wheel, radiator and mounting
points were specified.  GM was making American history then and America was
leading the world in automotive engineering and design.

Exactly 1 year and 18 days later, the first production copy of that car left
the assembly line.  It would become one of GM's most famous models; it would
eventually even make American Motors make -its- own most famous model as
well.  (Assuming that you think the two-seat AMX was AMC's most famous...) 

That GM model was designed by a man named Olley; it was code-named Opel and
both facts are largely forgotten.  That it was inspired by a -Buick- built
to "reverse" the status of a pre-eminent automotive engineering power in
Europe is also largely forgotten.  Or maybe it's still unknown.  Like too
much of AMC history.

A 90-page book (3 feet wide, 2 feet tall and weighing 24 pounds...) tells
the earlier car's story.  Only two copies of that book are in existence: one
is owned by the family of the GM man who had created -that- car; one is
owned by GM.   

Among documents in that book is a letter from a president: the President of
the United States during an era when GM was great and America was the
greatest --- automotive and otherwise --- undisputed power in everything in
the world.

The car (that led to the car that led to the AMX) that led to the letter
from the [future] President had cost GM approximately [no one shall ever
know precisely] 7 million dollars to develop.  Definitely a lot of money as
the mid-century (car debuted on December 28, 1950) of America dawned.

(The fastest appreciating American residential buildings in 2005 are the
so-called "mid-century modern" houses [built from the late '40s through the
late '60s] that remain in their original state.  The fastest appreciating
American motor vehicles are the so-called "muscle car era" coupes and
convertibles [built from mid '50s through early '70s.]  Art is art, whether
it sits, hangs, rolls or stands its ground.)

However, although XP-8 led to EX-122 (and in due course, on September 9,
1954 to a T-bird Ford [styled by William P. Boyer under the direction of
Franklin Q. Hershey, who had brought Richard A. Teague, the AMC styling
director, to GM about 15 years before] and, of course, in "the fall" of 1967
[AMC just doesn't compare very well at the telling of its history, does it?]
after AM-X led to AMX, to your own garages, boneyards and/or [scatological]
dreams.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, apple pie and flags waving were a
response to Apfel Strudel und silber Stern.  America once rose to a
challenge and rose above the rest.  The America that once was.

But what led GM (back then, the automotive heart and soul of America) to
build the LeSabre that led to --- if you haven't figured it out yet, you are
asleep at (or under) some sort of automotive wheel --- the Corvette, the
Thunderbird and the AMX?  If it wasn't a Stutz, Cord or Nash-Healey; if
Ferrari and Porsche were barely seen on the American scene, what was it that
made America make a sports car "made" to meet the world's best?

Since most of us aren't from that "Greatest Generation" that's passing and
many "American motors" types also drive cars built outside America, we may
not realize how hard Americans once fought to -remain- American.  It may be
impossible to remember when new Americans really -wanted- to learn American
English, -wanted- to adopt the values of old America and -wanted- to become
Americans proudly saluting the red, white, and blue.

It may be politically incorrect to remember history the way it really was
instead of the way it's been reworked (if not --- since Americans don't
really -want- to read today --- rewritten), just as it might be impolitic to
refer to some world residents as "America haters" --- no matter how much
American assistance (monetary and otherwise) they may receive.

Nonetheless, the car that was GM's target was made by a make that Americans
of the Bling-Thing Chrysler and Dodge persuasion don't remember as part of
an earlier era of hatred toward America; the tough time when "Tough
Americans" were the millions on the war fronts, in the factories or in the
kitchens and backyards working to keep an American dream alive.  What GM
wanted to "build better" in the America-that-was was a Mercedes: 

http://www.classics.com/images01/pb01-04.jpg

a 500-, 600-, 700-hp history of performance:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman/c9.htm

that only America --- at its best would beat.

Two years after GM's Harley Earl had turned that Mercedes star upside down
and filled its background with true American red, white and blue

("View Video" [LeSabre is seen first])

http://www.gm.com/company/corp_info/history/gmhis1950.html

(Note front star and rear "USA" badge)

http://www.madle.org/elesabre.htm

(Note its original wheel covers)

http://www.seriouswheels.com/1950-1959/1951-GM-Le-Sabre-Concept-SA-Harley-Ea
rl-1024x768.htm

(Note later wire-style wheels)

http://www.fedrelandsvennen.no/amcar/background/bilder2/334.jpg

GM's American talent pool was working to keep American cars on top.

For as "America's first sports car" 

http://www.prn.ee/ajuvant/wallpaper/b53vette.jpg

was leading toward America's second

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1955%20Thunderbird.JPG

and America's third, your fave (despite what the self-impressed scribes
wrote in their recent C&D, even the dudes who scribble shizzle in Rides know
that it's "Fave" not "Fav" --- fer cryin' out loud) without a doubt

http://not gonna see it 'cuz AMC "resources" are so weak I can't quickly
find any comparables; and that's the non-PC truth you don't want to read  

Those who don't care about M-B or GM or AMC history, who only want to go as
fast as --- or faster than --- someone with a Super Six, Twin-H Power or
even "a HEMI in that thang," there's one more GM memory from 53 years ago
worth your notice.  Three weeks after Corvette had a design for its chassis,
two other GM men began work on something to put in it: Cole and Barr began
work on a new V-8 engine.  It would alter American auto history.  And
eventually, it would even influence your AMC block [and] heads.

(Which is not to say that small blocks = small minds...)

The way it is:

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=3&id=339782

The way it'll be:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20050609a4.htm


When AMC will still be gone...