[AMC-List] IRS

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

I cut instead of pasted yesterday's figures,

>>too wide.  iirc pacer track is wider even than the '60s big cars.

so I'll take a second chance to do it right.

>>Sly, the Pacer front clip isto wide for the small cars. It could

Wider than '70s ['69+] bigs also: 60.2 F/61.3 R v. 59.901 F/60.001 R.

Why write: "It's some Nash Rambler" and not "It's a '69 AMX 390/325"?

Old cars that aren't butts of jokes earn respect through performance.

On the racetrack, on the show field, and in [paper and online] print. 

MCR might add an AMC to its recent coverage of the 1974 Buick Apollo.

All they need is a growing and spending collector car market for AMC.

Start that trend with your own words and actions: virtual and online. 

Leave the "no va" stories to the other guys.  And don't believe those "The name meant 'Nova, Omega, Ventura, and Apollo'" historians either.  If AMC is as hot as you profess it is, and you're cool being AMC fans, then put the pedal to the metal and make AMC information better than.

Pick a make; choose an era: learn from the worst; model on the best. 

Mark wrote:

>>
Some of the similarities in the specs from the C4 Corvette to the 65 Ambassador is scary and has me dreaming bad thoughts!
<<

and he was dreaming about suspensions; what would he dream if he knew who worked on development of the -last- new car RAT designed for AMC?  Such AMC spirit would show in the shine of the real Bloomington gold.

That's the kind of information that should make Big 3 fans take a new look at "dumb old Rambler" --- but it's also the kind of info no real AMC fans seek.  It might require looking beyond comfortable confines, studying seemingly unrelated things, and keeping an eye open for the unexpected.  It might demand hard reading and involve major headwork.

If head work is a way to make more AMC power, head work is ridiculed?

Stop and smell the carbon: before you --- and AMC --- are fossilized. 

You think I should lay another "unknown" aspect of AMC history in an online lap?  You think you -deserve- to read more than AMC historians have told in their many fine published words?  You're joking, right?  AMC is not a joke.     

Sometimes, everyone needs to slow down for a good laugh.

"Anyone who's restoring a Rambler is beyond help anyway."

			- Red Green


Against my better judgment (unless that train left about ten years ago), I will lay something else on you.  Before the Tarpon, before the Marlin, before the '67 Rebel and Ambassador were finalized, three 1963 cars were built in a Big 3 plant.  It took production convertibles off an assembly line and sent them to an even more specialized plant.  The cars were torn down and rebuilt: their hoods, front fenders, front and rear bumpers, inner and outer doors and trunk lids were handmade in --- fiberglass.  They were rebuilt as, gasp, fastbacks.  They also were given new rear suspensions.

(If you're as smart as you think you are, you know from which '63 car...) 

They were sent to the left coast, where their motivation was questioned, and a mysterious ministration (smoke and mirrors) was done to their iron hearts.

They were about to face the world --- at least the world of Ford, Mopar, and the last of the independents (do you know all you want to know about the final racing history of -Studebaker-?) --- but they never did.  No, something happened.  And then were to be sent to the trash heap of automotive history.  How sad.

The rest of the story is fascinating.  They died, yet they lived.  They did exactly what they were built to do.

"Now how," you ask, "were they related to AMC?"

In two ways.  For now and then.

I'll let Mr. Milner write that.

And illustrate with old photos.

My ax has become too dull.

Best,

Imp

PS --- For Brien (or anyone else who can't recognize tongue-in-cheek):

A spark ignites an engine that drives an old-car hobby to a race lead. 

Would I spend ~40 years and lots of money if I thought AMC was a joke?

Only if I really was crazy.

And would AMCs be expensive v. Big 3 if more others thought similarly?

Only if car nuts really are.

Cause then AMCs wouldn't be joke fodder: "Ramblers" wouldn't be funny.

A "Civic" was a barrel of laughs when a "Javelin" was a sharp machine.

Honda is not a joke in 2006.

Build [the best AMC community, network, and hobby] and they will come.

Bash [the good and bad truths of AMC] and they will continue to laugh.

Look beyond the AMC myopia.

Open your eyes: to success.

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