Over there

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

'71 "Horonet" --- just right for someone coming over from, say, Dodge: It's green, it's got a V-8, and it's the next big collectible thing.  

http://www.countryclassiccars.com/cars.htm

Frank, I doubt the Car of the Dome was under the noggins of 1984 XJ designers; in part because, save ever-outsider Stevens, none were really classicists, and in part because they'd been "tasked to" (woo-woo, I'm using the latest lexicon --- if you've been listening to the blabber from every creep in Congress and every talking head on TV) make it as much a "heritage" carryall as possible; meaning, of course, that it look to and draw from the post-classic 1940s [thus sometimes Stevens'] Jeeps. 

AMC realized and respected what it had bought from Kaiser and Willys; if anything, AMC was more perceptive --- or, shall we say, quicker to perceive --- than was Chrysler about value in selling American history.  Corrective surgery on Liberty; the re-boxing of Grand Cherokee into a Commander and other stylistic twirls are really but back-to-the-future dance steps to the Willys quadrille.  Ohhh, what just happened?  Quad!  Fore!  (IOW, I might be hitting funny today; watch out for silliness.)   

The BJ2021EL Super's 2678mm wb (dontcha wish America had gone metric?) and 4322mm ol look better than, say, the Lerma (not a bad car at all, but just a slight bit "off" in certain proportions) and it proves how good was AMC's "original" idea.  Unlike, say, the Scion xB (not a bad car either, especially in the right colors, ever so slightly slammed, and with the right [dark center/bright rim] aftermarket [yup, TRD has nuthin' that's really right enough) wheels), which is something of a modern reconsideration of AMC's segment-busting niche-maker (whoa, my words are now buzzing like a 190-hp 1.8L WTi; somebody install a rev limiter!), but will never become (and isn't intended to) a gens-later "classic" (as Chrysler even chose to call it) all-AMC-designed Jeep.

Style is temporal; beauty is eternal: only occasionally can they meet.

The Packard I posted yesterday is one of those rare instances; it's as desirable today as it was when new.  Even in non-stylish colors (which surely weren't all that stylish --- on big cars--- in the '30s, also...), its beautiful shape and proper proportions show through.  The new AMC Javelin that turned heads in 1968 might have an inch or two too many between the trailing edge of door and rear wheels (and an inch or two too few between there and rear bumper) plus, depending on trim level worn to look "stylish," it might have excrescences elsewhere than on its --- and it's little brother's (albeit not to John Rosa) --- hoods, but a vinyl top that would make a '68-'70 AMX as uncomfortable looking as did the same application --- or rather appliqué --- of style on the equally classic '66-'67 Toronado, thankfully, doesn't cover up Javelin's beauty. Except from certain viewing angles, Jav can wear a vinyl cap with style.

Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder.  Wrong, they should be told: beauty can be codified.  Some Pacerare beautiful; some are not.  Pacers are all the same shape, but when the basics aren't quite perfect, style might be able to shout louder than underlying beauty can overcome.

Everything is derived from something that came before it; nothing --- at least nothing in the design of automobiles --- is entirely new.  "Style" of grilles, of headlights, of taillights, or even of an all-new car body 
   
http://www.rsportscars.com/foto/08/eclipsegt06_05.jpg

can be so stylish that it seems --- for a few minutes, at least --- all new, but when parsed, "this is 350Z" and "that's Cougar" tell the truth. 


>>I agree -- sytle wise they are a rather "timeless" modern design.

Doc, Bryan, Eddie, Joe, Frank, et al: Giorgetto's "25 on 21" Premier could be collected as a "modern classic" sedan in 20, 30, or 50 years.  It -was- an "executive class" near-luxury car in some markets and trim levels; it -is- an understated-yet-sophisticated design in some more-cognizant design circles.

AMC-age Eagle Premiers may be unreliable; Mopar-age Dodge Monacos may be more "Americanized" than European, but the basic body design may be one of those classic opportunities to look ahead and back in auto history.  In France, the R25 even was a desirable used car for many years --- as it was the first Renault that didn't have a reputation for rusting!  And before the Iron Curtain rose, "somebodies" who rode in R25 bodies could have -been- Premiers --- or nearly such.  Long before the official cars were Audis, BMWs, and Mercedes, in the early 1990s, I saw a glistening dark burgundy [obviously coachbuilder tweaked] R25 on a Belgrade street: it was the most elegant AMC Eagle Premier I'd ever seen.  Its occupants were surely high up in the Yugoslav federal government.  Too bad their legacy wasn't as shining as was their --- once also an AMC product --- limousine.

In the late 1990s, I saw a motorcade in Paris, obviously VIPs in parade formation: their "jamming" cars (to prevent radio-controlled bombs from exploding) identifiable by their odd-looking trunk-top "spoilers" and/or "wings" were sleek black Renault 25s: they were the most serious AMC-Renault Premiers I'd ever seen. 

In addition to a Giugiaro exterior, a hatchback version by Opron (Robert Opron, that is, designer of the future mega-buck collectible Citroen SM) and [European] interior by Gandini.  Marcello Gandini, that is, designer of several cars you might have seen in your youthful dreams, including:

http://tinyurl.com/87qp4

http://tinyurl.com/7du3h

http://tinyurl.com/crkoj

http://tinyurl.com/d7dx5

http://tinyurl.com/9z4y6

http://tinyurl.com/dxps4

http://tinyurl.com/76csh

(but not with DOT bumpers)

http://tinyurl.com/bjc5n

http://tinyurl.com/cxgzo

http://tinyurl.com/dov7r

http://tinyurl.com/bkoa5

http://tinyurl.com/bchge

(not in its latest form)

http://tinyurl.com/e2taf

(They are Alfetta, Montreal, Pantera, Monte Carlo, Stratos, Khamsin, Quattroporte IV [Smart alecks could call it the very first Four-Four*], Shamal, Mangusta [second coming, two times out...], in case you don't speak Italian), and, of course, every Lamborghini [Countach, Diablo, Espada, Jarama, Miura, and Urraco] you drooled over in car magazines or hung posters of on your bedroom wall.  I won't take time to illustrate them; if you don't know what they look like, you're reading the wrong blog.  

(*But if you're one who got that joke, you're reading the right one!)

It could rank with modern classic sedans by Peugeot, too: French cars might be funny looking, but more than a few of them become collectible.  French cars with French coachwork have become the most collectible yet.

The Figoni et Falaschi Teardrop [coupe] I mentioned yesterday was worth over three million bucks -because- it was French built.  The Delage D8 Aerosport brought home a BOS ribbon -because- it was so uniquely bodied by Pourtout of Paris.  Le dessin pour tout ne dessine pas pour l'avenir.

It might have looked, as one car wag --- a rich and famous wag --- joked to me, "like a tube of toothpaste," but it won the points and popularity and it made auto history.  Someday, the same might be said of some AMCs.

No AMC-Renault will do the same on the 18th green (although AMX/3 should someday, and AMX/4 --- that Detroit-designed Renault Alpine could have also; for heavens' sake, the clay model was photographed [another sight AMC experts haven't seen?] wearing widened Turbocast II-style wheels!), but that won't keep Ramblers from becoming cool collectibles and Bramalea Eagles from soaring above junkyard gulls.

Have you watched Studebaker Hawks lately?  Have you looked far out into the Corvair?  Have you bid on any Edsel Pacer wagons?  Can you remember what people -used- to think?  I am Tuckered-out from stargazing.  After all, who would ever pay almost $500,00 for a odd-looking independent 4-door sedan?

http://media.popularmechanics.com/images/lg_48tucker_rm-lg.JPG

What big blockhead would ever buy a $510,000 1975 Greenwood Corvette?  

What actress known for playing the Rambler-driving Lois Lane would pay $99,000 for a 1960 VW Camper?  Who'd ever be so desperate she'd want to play housewife in a van?  Wouldn't she rather tarry at the tables in Las Vegas than hatch herself such a wild idea?

(If you got all those TV jokes, you're ready for the closing bit...)

And who'll ever, ever, EVER pay $200,000 for a funny-looking Plymouth?

http://www.paulrussell.com/   

Click "Classics for sale", scroll to bottom; click again and think.


Always think.