Three green

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

'31 Pierce, '41 Packard, '49 Packard, '64 Studebaker, '69 AMC, '71 AMC, and '96 Nissan: variants green.  Both favorite Mustangs: '68 GT fastback in Highland Green Metallic and '68.5 Shelby GT-500KR in Lime Green Metallic.  And one of the few European cars I cannot resist envying: 1999-up Bentley Arnage Red Label in Black Emerald.  With its new-old V-8 by the Crewe crew serving up 619 lb-ft at 2150 rpm and 400 hp at 4000 (like AMC, unable to "rev past a [4500 redline] walk"), it was blindingly fast and makes a Chrysler 300 look like bargain-house bling-bling.  Sadly now, even Bentley buyers can be blinded by added accents such as wheel and grille chrome 

http://www.smithimports.com/0407225.htm

(Toss 'em on the grill for a good burn!)

and some lesser cars with better wheels wear another wheel wrong and seem to be sold,  

http://tinyurl.com/g2p54

http://www.cjmlondon.com/ben.htm

so "It's not easy bein' green" and it's not easy bein' GM.  GM, like AMC, has no cash.

If GM can't borrow, GM, like AMC, will be forced to face the fact that it is bankrupt.

>From the frying pan into the fire and into ashes: exactly how the once great can fall.

"George Mason" to most Americans today may mean basketball,

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/julia_morrill/03/30/lamar.butler/   

but to American Motors fanatics, George W. Mason meant an old "butterball" who made Nash big.  In 4/06 CA, Foster looks back at "Chrysler's boy" and ardent biker [motorcycle] from North Dakota (hey Retro Ralph!) and how Walter P. did not buy the "very troubled" Kelvinator, but did tell Kelvinator to hire Mason.  Read how Charles Nash knew his car company could thrive only if it grew bigger (hey Roy Abernethy!) with higher volume, how -Mason- first realized that Nash needed higher style (he founded a Nash Styling Studio a mere 21 years after GM had founded Art and Colour: Ha, ha, Harley Earl!), how Mason ran rushing for Rambler (hey, not the first name, but -he- was championing a compact!) that arrived 56 years ago this month, and how, from his Nash beginning 70 years ago, when it was a $31 million [sales] corporation until one year before it made hash with Hudson and became American Motors, when it was a $500 million [sales] company, George Mason was the big thing.  Read about his version of a "Final Four" dream.  Even if compact chronicles are not in your own recurring dreams, learn more about AMC through reading.

Pat even touches on a part of the Big-4 AMC dream that usually has been overlooked: maybe next time, he'll tell the alternate play coach George also wrote. 

Read about Brazilian-American cars, too.  Some attractive, some weird, some related to the AMC family tree.  All interesting.  If you really like to learn.

And read the three Rambler letters.  From "lousy-looking" to "did not have any other future" --- it's all part of learning and really knowing all about AMC.  

Someone may grill you on AMC someday.

And you want to shine.  Tastefully. 

Whether you're a greenhorn newbie or a golden oldie, there IS something all AMC fans meeting Mustang fans could make themselves seem smarter by knowing.

R U interested?

There once was a Mustang Hornet
Built to be one of one.
It really was green
But so rarely seen,
Ford fans asked,
"What'd become?"

You're up.

Go!