AMC of ode

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

Out with the Olds --- and the Oda --- as production of another old
Soviet-era Gremlin-Pinto-Chevette model ends and assembly of its replacement
--- another new Asian-developed model, for this plant, the KIA Spectra ---
begins 

http://www.izhauto.com/

http://www.izhauto.com/about/history/

(soon to be discussed by Russian equivalents of Richard Truesdell...)

http://www.avtozvuk.com/az/Az_0604/htm/132-135.htm

as proof that the old ways/days of low-price RWD hatches are fading,

http://izh.2126.ru/kuzov/kuzov_001.gif
http://izh.2126.ru/kuzov/kuzov_002.gif

http://www.sok.ru/common/f/SOK/Avtoproizvodstvo/IZh-Avto/i/auto_izh-auto_9.j
pg

http://www.sok.ru/common/f/SOK/Avtoproizvodstvo/IZh-Avto/i/auto_izh-auto_10.
jpg

http://www.sok.ru/common/f/SOK/Avtoproizvodstvo/IZh-Avto/i/auto_izh-auto_7.j
pg

http://www.sok.ru/common/f/SOK/Avtoproizvodstvo/IZh-Avto/i/auto_izh-auto_8.j
pg

in Izhevsk and Kaliningrad just as in Detroit and Kenosha. 

http://www.gremlinx.com/images/AMC-ad56.gif

While some won't be missed much, one surely had much more, um, potential

http://www.gremlinx.com/images/GremRi101.jpg

for further development as an "object of desire"

http://www.matadorcoupe.com/AMC/AMXGT.jpg

http://faculty.concord.edu/chrisz/hobby/80-DataBook/C39.JPG

http://faculty.concord.edu/chrisz/hobby/80-AMXitems/pictures-80/Daytona-PPGr
ear.jpg

and one object some surely would desire could be painted silver-blue.

Brien asked if I meant a Turbo PPG.  No, the "Asymmetrical Gremlin AMX" was
a much earlier one-off --- a chopped and sectioned Kammback hardtop and its
most distinctive feature was the "off-center" front clip --- something that
mixed Project IV with Avanti to create a very appealing potpourri.

It was one response to the question "Can we build a two-seat '71 AMX?" and
one option considered so AMC could afford a 96-97" wheelbase sports car.  It
would've been a good answer --- and probably a good choice for such
development.

I first saw a color rendering of it in GM's "dungeon" (that third-degree
secure basement design vault in the Warren Tech Center): the label said,
"1970 moquette" and the pencil note read, "Destroyed?"  I saw that same left
front three-quarter view again many years later so I know it wasn't a crazy
dream.  I've looked for it in every AMC book and article written and gently
asked the AMC experts' expert about that car (and some others which the AMC
world seems not yet to have seen); it's not Casper (though AMC doesn't
always have friendly ghosts), but it is part of AMC history.

It's just as much a part of AMC history as the "California Jeep" models
posed under Pacific palm trees, the 118" wheelbase (R-body) "Ambassador"
photographed in Michigan (at its builder's expense) and the 1972 Matador
coupe that turned out looking as much "too Ford" as had the 1966 Sceptre
coupe turned out looking "too Chrysler" to another independent board. 

http://www.autoweteran.gower.pl/concept/1962_Studebaker_Sceptre.jpg

(note that the prototype had a different trim treatment on each side...)

http://www.mam.org/exhibitions/_sites/brooks/detail.asp?id=7010

(also note that the Sceptre name was in use both in 1966 and in 1963...)

http://mclellansautomotive.com/photos/B22530.jpg

http://mclellansautomotive.com/photos/B22513.jpg

But I digress.  Again.

I have a pencil drawing (one can take nothing but a soft-lead pencil and
blank paper into the dungeon; one is under surveillance during research;
one's person is subject to "inspection" upon departure and one must sign
one's life away to the General's legal team before and after every visit to
the most hallowed of halls of American auto history...) of that 96" '71
"AMX" and a few hood/fender/grille/greenhouse details; I've no clue what the
rear looked like.  I believe the stock Hornet/Gremlin "center-hump" dash was
customized so outside hood sculpturing could continue "through" the
windshield           

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/possumblog/Cars/1963_avanti_ad.jpg

http://www.theavanti.com/Sixtyfour.jpg

and I presume that seats and door panels were custom upholstered.  Have you
seen silver-and-blue "open-style" buckets in any showroom Gremlins?

I suspect that its wheels were either custom-designed too, or that they were
adapted from something catalogued by a US or European wheel seller of the
era.  All in all, I think it would have been a highly collectible AMC car.
It probably wouldn't have sold well --- probably no more than the '70 AMX it
hoped to continue had --- but today, it'd be the second most-desirable AMX
generation on the collector market.  And it would be a testament to the
development potential in the littlest model from the littlest maker in the
little lost world of AMC.

But don't lay too much blame on poor old American Motors; General Motors
fell short on development also.  GM spent over $300 million to bring one
proud Pontiac to market that, just as styling and performance potential were
being realized, it cancelled due to a "hunch" that it would lose a -maximum-
of $20 million between 1988 and 1995.  Fiero, which sold three times as many
units during its lifetime as did Toyota MR2; Fiero, which was prototyped
(twice) shortly before cancellation (could have had both an aluminum frame
and ~200 horses of Quad-4 technology) --- got a death sentence just as
abruptly/sadly as did the Gremlin-Spirit-AMX-Turbo-GT.

Don't cry for Oldsmobile (or Duesenberg or Pierce or Packard); exact the
best revenge on whatever uniformity and/or mediocrity that has survived them
by knowing and appreciating their successes.  By that method, even AMC can
be portrayed as a "winner" and a "marque of [some] distinction."