H-ot air

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

>>
There were no sedan deliveries made in the 61-63 body. There were SIX made
in
1958 only, three w/glass and three w/solid panels in place of the glass.
<<

There's a box-on-wheels steel-sided wagon Rambler with a big motor in one of
the current rodding magazines.

When American Motors built 990-H hardtops,

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4560909299&cat
egory=5357&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1#ebayphotohosting

Hurst was not building those Ambassadors. 

http://www.adclassix.com/images64rambler990h.jpg

http://mclellansautomotive.com/photos/B5675.jpg

>>
it would be nice if they had actually told a few people what they where
thinking when they dreamed up the "H" It could stand for Hardtop or Happy or
Hot even perhaps a way to link the cars to Hurst without paying up. Just
change the split in the H and mumble something about the cars being loaded
Hardtops to get the "H" tag.
<<

AMC was not linking

>>
I think that Olds had a Hurst package in '66 on the
Cutless, but I could be wrong.....Russ
<<

Hurst was not new Olds

>>
Hurst didn't modify any factory cars until the late 60s, I couldn't find any
mention of a Hurst modified car until 1968.
<<

and Olds was not first Hurst.  Not officially, at least.  

If the first "official" Hurst production was the '68 Olds 4-4-2 upgraded
with Toronado 455 supplanting the 400 (and Toronado-only Peruvian Silver the
only choice for its paintwork) and if the genuine "Muscle Car TM" is any
smaller-than-full-sized 2-door coupe, sedan, hardtop or convertible endowed
with a taken-from-larger-model V-8 engine of definitive potency, that
Hurst/Olds was the real thing.  (And the red plastic fenders, along with a
tiny touch of walnut on the dash, were rather definitive, too.)

http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/oldsclubofflorida/Images/Members/C.Amara
l_68-HurstOlds.jpg

If it was genuine enough that 15 extra copies (beyond the 500 scheduled)
were built, it should also be genuine enough to be linked to 1971 Hornet
SC/360 --- the similarly low-production, genuine Muscle Car TM from AMC.

If Chrysler was working with Hurst when AMC was using Hurst's [imported]
mirrors, flapper and vacuum motor on its 1969 SC/Rambler (three times as
popular as that earlier Hurst/Olds --- not bad for lil ole Nash Rambler ---
they were both building genuine Hurst Muscle Car TM machines back then.

The "first" Hurst to be fitted with the famous wheels was also a geninue
Muscle Car TM.  Its 1964 CA Title states "Hurst & Campbell Company", its
Protect-O-Plate reads "Motor Trend" and it was debuted at the LA Ambassador
Hotel (better known for RFK assassination and Trump purchase; now facing
demolition)  

http://www.citizinemag.com/politics/politics_0506_ambassador_twhite.htm

on 1/5/65, with George Hurst, Ms. Linda Vaughan (Eddie Stakes can probably
supply some photos) and "Hurst Girls" in attendance.  Cheesecake was there
to sell wheels and that Pontiac GTO wore wheel numbers 000019, -21, -25 and
-28.  A clone was built and the two paced the '65 Riverside 500 race.
Ford's Dan Gurney won one, the other was won by a race attendee.  Jim
Wangers' publicity machine was in high gear.

Gurney's prize no longer exists; the fan's copy survived in original and
unrestored condition (~20,000 miles) in a private collection in southern
California, where many automotive legends happily live on, but it now lives
on with another Hurst legend, the first 1965 GeeTO Tiger, which was won for
a song*.  Wangers' contest for that Hurst Gold [later called Tiger Gold] car
was won by a WI teen who mailed his [HR magazine] entry nearly 40 years ago
[7/27/65] only 4 days before the deadline.  After a dinner with "Miss Hurst
Golden Shifter," three owners, ~60,000 miles of driving (some on known AMC
blacktop, Appleton's Great Lakes Drag-a-way) an engine rebuild and a body
repaint, it, too, is back in Indian--, no, as of this spring, in the state
of Nash, Rambler and AM Muscle Machine.       

(*Count the number of times "Tiger" was heard in a Colpix recording...)

Here is the Hurst firsts' owner

http://www.shelbyamericancollection.org/events/party2003/images/17.jpg

And here's where they're stored

http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=3833+N+Hubbard+St,+Milwaukee,+WI+53212
How much AMC history lives in WI now?

BTW, that last GTO was purchased for $4200, when it was 10 years old...

How much are AMC "firsts" worth today?

This year, I've been trying to attend as many area car events as I can
manage time for (and can hobble around at), on the chance I'll be busy
elsewhere next summer.  (Busy fomenting weekly cruise-ins, or at least
starting up car shows around the Lincoln Center fountains, maybe??)  Last
night, I stopped beside the canal in Fairport (on Money Magazine's 2005 "Top
100 Places To Live" list): the weather was beastly (over 90F; my internal
thermometer never adjusted itself from PNW degrees) but the Tuesday scene
was mellow: boats from as far as IA tied up; cars from as far as Buffalo (I
recognized a BBG AMX headed home in that direction as I drove up around
7:30) were on display.

A couple of weeks ago, two '60s Ramblers were there (and the oldest car
present was a 1913 Overland); last night, just the two AMCs.  The other,
another AMX, was wearing "Kenosha Homecoming" and "AMO" badges, a
partly-original interior, new chrome and fine BBB paint.  Its owner wasn't
around at my first viewing, but, when he started it up [it was as loud as
the loudest of the Big-3] to depart, I let him leave in peace.

The black stripes on his roof were painted 1/8-1/4" off center: right from
the [AMC-famous] off-center windshield header clip to the more off-center
rear window header clip and he probably had no idea.  (I once told a plumber
that a [square soaking] tub in a house I was building was not level; he [a
former hockey player] looked like he wanted to stick me but, since I was
also the check-signer, he measured.  It was.  By ~1/8".  In the same house,
I didn't make the electrician relocate a row of down-light holes in the
kitchen ceiling [sheetrock replacement would've been required]: the result
was permanent disarray.  By about one-quarter inch.)

Since the only AMC club activity (an '80s attempt at organizing an AMO [?]
chapter and '90s attempt at reviving that attempt) either came when I my AMC
interest was dormant (or came to naught as I was re-interested again), it's
sad to realize that there are AMC owners around, but there's no area sharing
of AMC hobby or interest.  Maybe that's just the way with AMC.

That said, I still enjoyed seeing how the '69 Ambassador front end was
derived directly from Cadillac's (cowl-to-hood profile is like looking at
twins); I enjoyed seeing a '65 GTO that looked exactly like the car in 8/05
HMM (its ribbed rear trim needed some more toothbrushing) and I enjoyed
seeing how fancy a '57 Chevy could be --- when it's a Pontiac! With
"off-the-shoulder" [yes, that's the factory term] leather inside a
zillion-point top-to-bottom resto.  It even smelled new.  I'm not sure if I
enjoyed the $37,000 Charger R/T a Dodge dealer had on display (two questions
I didn't ask: Why is its HEMI hidden by an humongous plastic garbage can
lid? --- and --- Why are the car mag wags testing it with GTO and Mustang?
Charger's a 4200-lb. SEE-dan, not a pony car or a [too polished for muscle
car America?] coupe GT!  Oh well.

I look forward to Finger Lakes AACA Show (Auburn) July 24, Spencerport Canal
Days Show July 30, Genesee Valley AACA (Rochester Institute of Technology)
July 31 and a "little car" show that's always full of fun and spirit, the
15th annual Bug Bust (Webster) August 7.  Maybe I'll attend the Lions Club
(Brockport) Cruises July 23 or September 10, Wayne Drumlins (Marion) August
21 and maybe a Wednesday Log Cabin (Macedon) or Thursday Wegmans
(Canandaigua) cruise.  Before long it'll be fall and another car season will
be ending.  And where will AMC be?

"Economic analysts express skepticism even that GM and Ford, the last
American Goliaths in the car manufacturing business, will be around in ten
years --- at least as we know them today.  No Ford?  No GM?  Why, that's ---
well --- un-American.

 - Wes Vernon in his "News from Washington" column in 8/05 R&R (10-13)

(FWIW, 8/05 Trains notes GM's exit from the locomotive business --- a vital
part of American transport history that it completely changed in the late
1930s...)

"When purchasing a collector car for everyday use ... look for a model that
is not too high on the desirability meter of most people today. [Instead of
a GM model], cars from manufacturers such as AMC may be better."

- HMM, in 8/05 Matador coupe (comment anyone?) issue