[AMC-List] Sayonara, saraba, adiosu, AMCya

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

>>
Got snorkle?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330000203865
<<

http://www.moparts.com/Tech/Archive/fuel/20.html

>>
Sounds like the speedo is being driven backwards.
<<

Or turning from 0 to 90 back to 0...

http://tinyurl.com/r7d3v

Click Lot 237 for a clearer photo.

http://tinyurl.com/s5d5u

A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage, and a dot on every dash.  

Laughter is the best medicine.


My eyes didn't see a lot of AMC in the "Art of Design" at Edsel Ford's old home (billed as "Abstract Expressionism, Cubism/Futurism, Found Art, Modernism, Pop Art, Realism, Renaissance, Romanesque, Romanticism, Hot Rods, and Performance") but, since 6/18 also was 1960-1976 day at Henry Ford's old museum also, American Motors mustered old Gremlins there for a third place award.

http://www.thehenryford.org/village/events/motor_muster/default.asp

I did, however, again see how AMC history is still new for the taking, if AMC experts took an alternate route through Milwaukee, New York and Los Angeles or looked at alternate roadmaps of 1913 through 1995.  Too much of interest to type/too little interest to read?  Too bad.  Maybe  someday/somewhere/somehow.  

To see how diverse the car hobby -can- be, on that same day, as NASCAR fans watched Nextel after Craftsman in MI (watch Toyota too!), SPEEDtv watched GI Joe drive "Euro" in OR, oldies-but-goodies ran wild in WNY.  

http://www.theglen.com/521657.html

http://www.hcca.org/events/June18-24-2006/flyer.html

Historic sports cars and horseless carriages are now accepted as valid aspects of auto mania, but more AMC fans don't want to know more about AMC?  Wow.  

It's sad when AMC fans boast that they don't read, they don't care, or they don't care to see beyond their own view of the make.  I can't see why anyone -wouldn't- want to learn as much as possible about cars they choose to drive, repair, restore (or only to store) --- and why they'd be proud of such attitudes.  I cannot see why anyone interested in AMC wouldn't want to make it a bigger, better, broader, more desirable part of every car-lovers' world today.  I can't see a lot of future for AMC, yet I can't forget seeing a little of its past.
      
I've "seen" AMC since the late '50s: I didn't see much -in- AMC until it became "Spectacular" in the '60s, I didn't see myself in -an- AMC until AMCs became beautiful and muscular in the late-'60s, and I didn't see my way into -buying- AMCs until the early '70s.  For the next twelve years, I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly in AMC.  I saw the end of AMC, and I saw carmaker become memory-maker.  The good, the bad, the ugly, again.

I've seen AMC on the Internet since 1996: seen a lot of AMC promised in the beginning and seen a lot of AMC noises since.  I've seen AMC family celebrate a centennial and seen AMC families separate.  I haven't seen a lot of change --- for the bigger or the better --- in the state of AMC.

I've seen a lot of success at Studebaker, Packard, Pierce-Arrow, A-C-D, and other independents in the past ten years; seen remarkably little of that in the Nash-Rambler-AMC world.  The latest and largest independent car name in American history seems the least successful collector brand.

Motor Trend couldn't see AMC forty years ago.  Many can't see AMC still.

8/06 PHR sees a green shoebox Rambler wagon; 7/06 Automobile sees a '70 AMX sold (and says that the AMX is --- and always will be --- "leftover muscle" [what people buy when the desirable muscle cars cost too much.])

I can't see how to change such a perception from the inside of AMC out.

"What's wrong?" seems a simple question: "Whither AMC?" a simpler song.

http://tinyurl.com/hvoub

So sing of past, present, or future.

Before AMC becomes further forgot.

Before AMC sees its new revival.

Ha, ha, ha.

>>
"Won't happen. You will however see bits and pieces. From the current
Chrysler 300 grill identical to the 72 Ambassador grill, to the possible
intro of the new Hornet series. But bringing back American Motors won't
happen.

http://hemi.l3it3r.com/comment.php?t=1104
<<

I saw that student contest sketch months ago, but, given the "interest" AMC listers have shown, didn't take the time or make the effort to post an FYI link informing whatever collector club old AMC has dwindled into.

That "AMC" on Joe's Javelin grille (Eddie isn't stupid, so he's funnin') didn't look right at all (his front looks right for the new-old Camaro), but he got the AMC all right in his side and rear rendering.  To revive old Javelin-era words: "Right on!"

http://www.namf.org/documents/BrightDesignfeat.pdf

If you really like AMC, compare his treatment of the rear with one dated 3/28/66 [I think] on a "Cavalier" [I think] clay for the production AMX.  Its "lights-in-bumper" may only be airbrushed [I think] onto that photo (its real "reverse-slant" side window appeared again on an AMX/2 proto), but it's an advanced design, a good look, and an idea that the US style setter of the '60s would not put into production for two, four, or more years.  

http://tinyurl.com/puqhf

http://tinyurl.com/sx696

http://tinyurl.com/qqot8

AMC once had potential.

Where -did- it all go?

Which reminds me of something someone --- who is around 80 now --- said this past weekend.  He knows his chosen make and model well enough to be known as "the" expert who wrote "the" book (and he never touted how many examples of that model he owned --- I remember AMC experts here writing: "I owned 151!" in response to other AMC experts who wrote: "I owned 150 AMXs!" [even if 148 of them were rusty hulks]), he knew Teague via his cars' designer, and he knew I once hoped AMC would become more respectable and collectible.  Sometimes wisdom comes with age; sometimes it doesn't. 

He asked me, "Have you given up on that yet?" and then he went on to say that, had Dick not been handicapped by sight (in depth and on color) and not been handicapped by situation (at Packard, Chrysler, and at American Motors), he possibly would have become the GM Design Vice President.  Wow.

The problem was that no amount of vision, skill, and effort --- on those particular nameplates at those particular times --- could yield a result necessary for the success he could have enjoyed --- had he done the same work at Packard in the early '30s, at Chrysler in late-'60-early 70s, or at GM in virtually any decade before his '80s AMC retirement.  The best of his achievement was a fraction of potential; the worst of his reality was a repeat of failure.  Ow.

He talked about other car failures, about his last encounter with the widow of E. L. Cord (I learned why C. W. Nash moved to Los Angeles...) and I told him about my encounter with the granddaughter of P. R. Williams, AIA, FAIA (the first black architect so honored), designer of "Cordhaven," of the LAX signature "Jetsons" tower, and of many more buildings, among which are two with AMC historical connections.  But we didn't talk about elephants on that field of dream cars.  We didn't discuss death and consequences.  We both face them.  So do you.  As did old car companies, old-car people, and old-car lovers' dreams.  No, we just looked and learned.

But enough of that!  You're not reading or you don't care to read.  OK.


Will we see a production DCX AMC Javelin AMX?  Along with a new SS DMC?

One is a reality, one is a dream: you can find some words that explain.

I'm done driving back to the future in my old '60s, '70s, and '80s AMC.

(And FWIW, some of the "sharper" AMX clay models would look new today...)
 
But Gregg Howell will bevel, bulge, chamfer, and curve many more "world-car" Dodges that will "really stand out" (his words), chill out, sound off (in the
ChillZone and with the MusicGate) to make cheapo cars from DaimlerChrysler seem cool to own.  Cooler than recycled Ramblers, perhaps, not as cool as a new AMX.  Heard of 'Cuda?  Challenger?  Road Runner?  Demon?  GTX?  Duh!

Small from DaimlerChrysler will also seem smart when Zetsche announces (very soon) that the US will see Smart cars specially designed for city and suburban streets.  A decision has already been made; only distribution remains to be determined: you will soon be able to buy $14,000-up Silver Star commuting cars.

Stuttgart saw the success in Mini and Scion, will sees how Yaris Fits America, and can see how to sell both SUV vice and CVT Versa by watching the Japanese. The Germans also see that America sees no problem with Korean Accents, so they will welcome immigrants from Rio, Brazil, China, India, and the moon if they make money.  That's the way to survive.  Change.  Adopt.  Adapt.  Advance.  Avanti!  (Which, for the solidly stolid, still means "Forward!" at warp speed.)

Mercedes stores won't be selling 50-mpg Smart cars soon, but their new independent network which is "flexible, requiring very little investment" (his words in my translation) will.  Seen any vacant old AMC dealerships in some suitable neighborhoods?  Smart buy.  Get rich.  Be the next Nash, Chapin, and Romney.

And finally, before DaimlerChrysler begins erecting RWB signs atop shiny new American Motors showrooms, it will spend a few billion dollars/euros on its current American motors.  Sometime before December, Auburn Hills will announce that its new V-6 will be a) designed and built in America (unlike its I-4 designed and built in Korea, Japan, or who knows where), and that b) it will be produced by whichever UAW workforce agrees to turn the most "competitive" (Chrysler CEO Lasorda's word meaning "low-paid"), most productive, and most Asian in terms of quality.  Those V-6s will be cranked out in OH, MI, or WI.  Perrysburg doesn't make engines now and Trenton OK'd a two-job, ten-hour, no overtime working schedule, so the future of an American motors in the old home of old American Motors (at Kenosha Engine) is yet to be seen.  Labor?  Quality?  Vision?  AMC?

You're the AMC experts.  You don't need to study history.  You tell us.  
 
But don't expect to see the 300-hp twin-turbo V-6 AMX by Chrysler soon.    
     
There could be a diesel version for your old Rambler American, though: and that may make the sort of new/old American motors/Motors statement you'd want to see.  Keep reading your Mopar magazines for such a motor for your old AMC.  But read carefully.

>>
Happy reading!

http://www.liclassiccars.com/Newsletter/Jun06.html
<<

Good read, and

"In terms of styling, it's easy to see how the Met became such a winner considering its size. William Flajole and the Nash design team deserve an awful lot of credit for doing a small car so well. It had a cute, spunky quality to it, with the signature Nash door-dip so you could hang your left arm out the window"

sounds like fifties summer fun, but truth is, that "signature Nash" dip (doing Darrin and de Sakhnofsky dips de deux) had little to do with the hanging of Coppertone arms and all to do with the saving of copper-clad coins.  Like Cavalier (AMC, not Packard...) doors to follow, fixed points and flexible profits were why tall inline-engined cowl heights met with low independent-manufacturer tooling budgets for interchangeable doors.

To be more truthful, a "signature Nash" dip seen as an allusion on big Pinin Farina Golden Anniversary doors (which, to be most truthful, were done by Anderson --- since Italian rake was far too "Avanti" [which, for the backwater or backward, still means "Advanced" in this contextual usage) for 1952), 

http://tinyurl.com/psul9

did not fly into a simulated textural trim on every new Airflyte door,

http://www.nls.net/mp/mikemonett/Nash52/closeups%5Cfrlfbrow.jpg
http://www.nls.net/mp/mikemonett/Nash52/closeups%5Cbaklfwin.jpg

and, to take telling truths beyond the realm of Nash-AMC reckoning, the "signature" had been seen on a rare (is one of one rare enough?) -1949- Bentley or Rolls-Royce (which, I can't remember) designed by Pinin Farina and hand built by someone else (another name which I can't remember) in England.  -That- car had a signature dipped "hang your -right- arm out" door, also.

No doubt more than anyone here wanted to read.  Relief's ahead.  

Since Renee finished her season last [Thursday] night in Tokyo,

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200606020120.html

http://tinyurl.com/qsvn5

(not in "Jovanni" [sic --- even the Japanese must work harder!])

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/advanced_booking-kantoarts/listing.html

I will spend some travel time with "the girls" so will not be here to read about Hornet grills (I will eat Yakitori off hibachi grills!) or speedos (I will never wear Speedos!), and will not post again 'til, well, er, um, maybe never.  I dunno.  I will resume reading.  It's still one of the best ways to learn.

You will have lots to read.  Read carefully; ask lots of questions.

You may be surprised at what you see.  (I was surprised to open the 8/06 HR and see a "Chicken Hawk" article one day AFTER I had written about the 232 here!)  

http://www.hotrod.com/toc/thismonth/

>>
It drove the first -real- muscle car before GM did.  GOT-cha!

Almost one decade before GTO gotcha into a mood for musclin'.

Before Romney's Rambler Rebelled on a racy run of four doors.
<<

Cool, but I gotcha again.  That first muscle car (defined as a smaller-than full-sized, lower-to-middle-priced two-door body [hardtop, post, or convertible] with larger-displacement V-8 engine from bigger and/or more expensive model/line as delivered by the factory) certainly came to life with some derivative of Studebaker 232 in it, but it was NOT "driven" by Studebaker V-8s into the not-very-popular annals of American automotive history: it was powered by a 275-hp 352-ci that gave one of the highest power/weight numbers in American production.  At 3660-lbs and 380-lb-ft, drinking via WCFB Carter and shifting via T85 3-sp OD (or via the ultra-smooth Twin Ultramatic), it burned rubber via 3:07 or 3:92 rear, and it thus was the first -real- American muscle car.  It was not a 1949 Olds, a 1955 Chrysler, a 1957 Rambler, or even a 1964 Pontiac.  (GTO-cha good!) 

http://www.myhotrod.com/GTO/Art108.asp

It was a 1956 Studebaker with a Packard V-8 and had it been built by the 1954 corporation that wasn't, American Motors could rightfully claim the first -real- postwar muscle car   

http://hem.bredband.net/b284654/IMAGES/56gldnhwk.jpg

http://tinyurl.com/z6jgm

http://www.studebakerracing.com/rthomL.jpg

http://www.studebakerracing.com/rthom1L.jpg

and the first super sedan

http://www.bmwusa.com/vehicles/M/M5Sedan/gallery

as twin set of old AMCs.
 
http://tinyurl.com/htqy8

Silver can become gold.


So I'm done.  Ten years of giving-for-taking.  You're up at bat now.

If you don't like to read or don't want to write, you still can see.

Look carefully and ask questions.

So your -eyes- aren't deceived. 

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html


PS- Please excuse two short personals to save some short e-mail time:

To Frank Swygert: stay safe on the Red Horse; get home soon and sound.

To Jim Boone: stay on the Wagon Train; I'll get in touch --- sometime.
   

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