New Car Show Called Muscle Car Crash

[Michael Bailey <route66rambler@xxxxxxxxx>]

> > Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 17:00:48 -0500

> Subject: Re: New Car Show Called Muscle Car

 farna@xxxxxxx wrote:

  (extract)

> Here here Doc! I have to second that. I didn't see
> that episode, but that's a definite sign of a hack
> job to me. ...
  ...It doesn't take a lot to level the car up on a
somewhat level concrete floor and take some
measurements at least.
> ... better than telling millions of viewers (it will
be in syndication and re-run a few times too, and
videos/DVDs sold) it's okay to hack something!! 
> 
> On March 8, 2006 Mr. AMC wrote:
 
" Nice show BUT anyone can bolt together a half
finished El Camino and an all new Camero convert. ...
   
...when they found that the fenders did not fit on
 the old Mopar because they determined the unibody was
bent they notched the unibody and bent it so the
fenders fit properly and rewelded it back up. Not
having the whole car put on a frame machine and having
it all straightened properly. Sorry to me that made
them HACKS...
 
... I am just not running them down I have been there
and done that and know a hack job when I see it.
Sorry.
'Doc'  "

]------->Here Here Doc! Damn Frank you took the words
right out of my mouth...

(P.S. When you combine the subject of this message
with the subject of the next, you get:
  
     New Car Show Called Muscle Car Crash

...just seemed appropriate somehow.
 mike
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>  
> 
> > Subject: Crash
> Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2006 18:00:28 -0500

  John Mahoney wrote:

   (extract)
 
"...Can anybody see any solutions for the problems
we've
> got within old AMC?
> 
> Oh well.  It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp --- even
> when we're pimpin' AMC.
> 
> Here's proof:
> 
> >>
> Date: Wednesday, March 8, 2006 11:43 AM
> TEH AMC authority, Patrick Foster, has informed me
> that the B. in Thomas 
> <<
> 
> Suspense?  Suspense???
> 
> Or simply not reading?
> 
> >>
> Date: Wednesday, February 8, 2006 05:29 PM
> 
> No , It was Bucknum , not sure on an exact spelling,
> but pronounced Buck -num.
> <<
> 
> No, it was Buckland.  An exact spelling but
> pronounced "BUCK-lund."  And he was born in Stoke,
> Devonshire exactly 161 years ago this past Sunday!
> 
> Sad that he is not better remembered --- by the AMC
> experts, especially.


]------> Here Here John!  (Dude. I LIKE saying that.)
 

"... Even sadder that the AMC fans don't use the gifts
> that are freely given.
> 
> It is sad when auto history is forgotten,
> misinterpreted, or rewritten."


]-------> I have heard and read repeatedly how little
information is out there. How hard it is to find.  

          Absolute hogwash.

 All you have to do is LOOK. REALLY look, NOT just
scan a couple of things and say,
  
"Well, ain't gonna find out how to adjust my Eagle's
kickdown linkage here.",

 and just move on with the day.
  The Internet is literally heavy with AMC stuff.
There are scanned brochures and manuals dripping all
over the net. Videos out the yinyang of
drag/road/offroad racing, car shows, auctions, guys
showing off their car and almost anything else you can
imagine. Probably every promotional image ever created
is out there somewhere.  Can you hear the call?
Listen... 

   TREEEASURE HUUUNNTT!!!!

Printed material and tech information like manuals are
almost impossible to miss, once you actually think and
look. Sort of like "The Matrix", (or drawing from
life) you have to learn to SEE it, not just look AT
it. Swap meets, book sales, plain old AMC vendors.
Sometimes, just like MP3's or ArmorAll, you actually
have to pay something for reference material(usually
not that much when compared to parts... and tools!
           These are TOOLS!
 Libraries. People DO realize that one goal of the
Library of Congress is to catalog every piece of
literature printed in the United States, do they not?
/;] 
A call to arms:
Eastern Seaboarders, plunder it!
 
And what the hell IS the deal with that Pikeville
dealership in the Carolinas? Collier Motors, is it?
How about some of you retirees and students down in
the Southeast find out?

 As far as the West Coast, all you have to say is "Los
Angeles". In the Iron belt, it's the only place where
the cars actually sold. There has got to be stuff in
estate sales and clues in the classifieds.

"... And that fact is true whether it is General or
> American Motors history.  
> 
> Ken linked a Foster piece recently: if anyone
> clicked it and read it, it contained one view of
> auto history.  AMC did not always have "excellent"
> managers, did not always "maximize" resources, did
> not always choose the "sensible design" and was
> sometimes neither "bold" -nor- "conservative" enough
> to succeed.  Mason and Chapin were visionaries,
> Romney was smart, but some AMC managers were, in
> fact, idiots who couldn't see or wouldn't read. 
> Some knew about cars; some knew about other things,
> and some knew nothing.  That's the real AMC history.
>  It is not as simple as it seems.

-------> Now THIS is something which MUST be brought
out. There has been a lot of whining about "If only...
(insert favorite boondoggle here) had been handled
differently" or "If only the market had been ready for
(insert favorite miserable failure of car marketing
here) or "If only the economic climate had been
different in (insert favorite year of MEGA LOSSES
here)
  The fact of the matter(in my humble opinion) is, if
AMC ever stood a chance, it was early, not after GM
ran out of liquidity for the Wankel. As soon as Mason
died, or (MY favorite here) most likely, when Romney
left for politics. After that, they got further and
further from the genius ideal that spawned them. There
were some outstanding, bold, daring, innovative moves.
There was some absolutely ingenious engineering going
on with not much money. There were a LOT of STUPID
decisions. That is, by the measure of 30 plus years of
hindsight. By the time of "Muscle Car Apocalypse" or
"Assault on the BIG three", or "What the hell is
THAT?"(Pacer), they were already destined to buy one
of the three or be bought. Remember, Chrysler didn't
really survive either.


"... (If GM had a 'line of 4wd cars similar to the
Eagle' now, it'd be able to fail to sell as well as
Subaru -and- as Toyota.)" 

-------> There, there. The U.S. car industry has been
dead since 1975. Now we're all selling ads.
 mike




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