Ripley's AMC

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

How.  Simply write, "Jim, isn't he?" and his Spirit GT rallies 'round.

Can I write, "Are there any other '81 AMX PPGs?" and find one in LeRoy?

(Doesn't such stuff call for a WNY AMC Club?  Oh.  There isn't one?)  

Now.  Simply write: "Tom isn't here." and some eBay sales are pitched.

Can I write, "Are there any lost AMX/3s there?" and find one on eBay?

(Doesn't such stuff call for an AMC Museum?  Oh.  There isn't one?)

Wow.  Simply write: "A grille is a 'grill'" eleven times and it can be.

Can we write, "Are there any other AMC tools?" and find one by 'Dremil'? 

(Doesn't such stuff call the AMC conscience?  Oh.  There isn't one?)

Yow.  Simply write, "Cool! I wonder what model?" and read it again. 

Weren't the year, model, and color of AMC he owned in original [which was a -repeat- info...] posted?  In English, not in French, German, Chinese or Klingon?  

Holy cow.  Real simple.  Chris Bangle, head honcho who decides how BMWs (and Minis and a few more makes...) look, once picked the wildest-looking pony car (a 1972 or '73, or '74 Javelin/AMX --- if I had the time, I'd dig for my interview notes, possibly find them, and check the year, but this is a perfect example of "Why Bother?") for his ride.  Yes, it was painted purple.  And, yes, he still wears pink, pistachio, purple, etc.  

He left Wisconsin, went to California, worked for various car companies, and ended up, as Wolfgang noted, as probably the single most influential automotile designer of this modern age.  What he began at BMW is being copied by the best of the rest, among them the once stuffy (and old) but now slick (and new) M-B.

I've posted pics before.  Zuuuup?

http://www.speedheads.de/forum/archiv/topic/2778-1.html

http://www.3harts.nl/passat2004/VW%20Passat%20Coupe-2b.jpg

Think of it as if Cadillac copied Lincoln or Mercury copied Oldsmobile or Nissan copied Renault or AMC copied Chevy.  Oh.  That's been done?

http://i1.ebayimg.com/02/i/05/1d/55/ca_1_b.JPG
   
http://mclellansautomotive.com/photos/B32599.jpg

The point was equally simple.  When someone passes your car at any show, simply ask if they know how influential weird AMC was.  Give them a song and dance about bubble fenders and flame sculpting and so on until their heads explode.  Let AMX lookers learn its relationship to classic Cords, let Corvette and Mustang owners hear what the designer of their terribly terrific twosome (split-window and Boss 302) designed for AMC, let your Pontiac pals "see the light" that shines from AMC history, and do offer Grey Poupon to both the British and German automotive aristocrat cats. 

http://tinyurl.com/m8f7g

http://www.carsearch.com/photos/729836.jpeg

http://www.jaimekop.com/250SForSale/FrontLeft.jpg

If you dare, tell Benz owners that their new W221s have "AMC fenders."    

http://tinyurl.com/zew3y

If you dare, tell ricers that when their "headlights and grille ['grill' in AMC?] exist tucked back behind the rest of the front fascia, which is also found on the AMX Javelin" --- then weird AMC still influences Asian retro styling, as well. 

http://www.s-e-design.com/sedesign_117.htm

If you share, don't say these are by Bangle  

http://motoringfile.com/pictures/mini_concept_large.jpg
http://motoringfile.com/pictures/mini_concept3_large.jpg
http://motoringfile.com/pictures/mini_concept2_large.jpg

If you care, read some other words.  Mine aren't working.

http://www.autospies.com/article/index.asp?articleId=4682

http://www.leblogauto.com/2005/07/atrocits_automo.html

(If you dare, find "AMC" in the first page and "Bangle" in the second...)

And finally, realize that no one finds it easy to change.

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?STOPCB

That's why Packard, Studebaker, Hudson, and AMC are now gone.  Watch GM.

And then remember who, in 1987, directed a now-legendary F1 engineer to respect another weird AMC: "a remarkably agile car for its size, weight, and front-drive layout."

So Lutz and Castaing developed a new American Premier and LH, like K-car and minivan before it, again saved Chrysler from becoming the next AMC.

Ken, I have posted info here on the availability of wood grain; no doubt it's too old to be searchable (and if it were in a "wagon" section of an online AMCyclopedia, it'd be a matter of click and read), so I will only say that some patterns are still available, Sportabout (save reflective) included, as should be some of the "frame" trim.  Talk with later GM and Mopar owners of wagons named Safari, Parisienne, Diplomat, LeBaron, etc.

It won't be long before much plastic trim will be as "unobtanium" as are many pre-war metal parts: the only source for such is custom fabrication and that's another good reason why AMC must become a bigger, better, and more "appreciated" (in both senses...) segment of the collector car hobby.

No one will pay the freight to replicate parts for cars of limited value and interest.  The -full- AMC story will become even more forgotten, and fewer will ever see the whole of AMC the way it once was really meant to be.  Row after row of four or five models.  "Bellybutton" AMC like Chevy and Ford.  No national museum for one-off, original-condition, survivors to be seen.  AMC documents scattered hither and yon; its archives a hit-and-miss thing.  Who will tool up for "forgotten" AMC models?  Who will pay big bucks for such stuff?  Who would even elect to?  Money plus time can be either friend or enemy.  Which for "the rest" of AMC?