Re: [AMC-List] you two enjoy this

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

Date: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 04:35 PM
From: Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>

On Wed, 20 Sep 2006, Mahoney, John wrote:

>
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1973-AMC-HORNETT-ONE-OWNER_W0QQitemZ320024818984Q
QihZ011QQcategoryZ5357QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
>
> snip
>
> Maverick is almost same condition, and ugly color to boot still got $1200
more bidding and no dumbass questions:
>
>
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1972-Ford-Maverick-Excellent-Condition_W0QQitemZ2
80024696326QQihZ018QQcategoryZ6057QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

OK, I agree with you, that is embarrassing. What a bunch
of lamebrain remarks on the Hornet. And I think they are an
excellent pairing for comparison.

#######################################################

For the record, Tom, you agree with -Eddie-, whose note (below) set me rambling, and, as my time for AMC nostalgia limits me to seeing just one list, Doc's 'script also was dispensed phrom the Phamous Pharma Planet rX in Houston.

That said, and having just landed from a brief fly-by of the Eagle's Nest forum (which, unlike the Badass Gremlin group, I had not even -read- about; how can such a small sector of the car hobby [if AMC is as small as it seems] expect to grow if it remains so divergent?), I, too, agree with what was writ --- even if I'm not fast to fold 5H into a Pampers in hopes it will grow more ethanol.  Comfort with unfamiliar colors (in people as well as on cars?) is one of the harder things to master, but, when we turned up our noses at a wildly white/black/pink 1956 Packard Caribbean convertible for $5,000 that looked "loony" in 1976, what did we smell when it's worth $150,000 in 2016?  Maybe $1,500,000 in 2056?  Sweet success or eau de dumb?

http://www.treasurecoastmustangs.com/1972-ford-ppg.jpg

We can love cars in resale red, bad boy black, or shades of silver (I silently snicker seeing several snob-setters show up in similar silver/gray/beige painted steel --- especially if they run from rental-fleet Taurus to retinal-heat Porsche and they all ran from point A to point B), but we needn't "Yuck!" at purples, limes, or, yes, browns.

Number three: they're likely less common than the "loved" colors, number two [!]: they're likely more valuable in terms of telling the "real" story of the steel they cling to, and number one [!]: they're the cars that the -real- car lovers get all hot and bothered over, or they get a warm, wet, and tingly feeling from.  Not like purple rain.

A close-coupled two-tone Pierce comes to mind; to most, it looks totally bogus, but it's exactly how it was built.
It was a unique statement then and it's an even more unique statement now.  It's the kind of car that -real- auto history -really- needs to see.  Two convertibles come to mind too: two variations on one tune composed by Lincoln.

Both were Full Classics, both went on American auction blocks just this 2006 year: one in April and one in August.  

One sold for twice what it may -really- be worth: in black paint/black top piped maroon/maroon leather with gold-plated [yuck, but that's just my opinion, which has no merit in terms of car history] interior trim.  Story says: "It was a gift from the president of the NY Yankess to Babe Ruth" (with a 1940 Rhinebeck horse show ticket found under the carpet); provenance says: "Whoa now, this ain't Monopoly money [$407,000] we crazies just throw around."
Except for the story and the g[u]ilt, just another #1 Zephyr.  Just not one -really- wonderful set of old wheels. 

The other Lincoln was just as #1 in condition and one giant leap above in design: not one-off, but as designed by LeBaron and built by Brunn, it was one of just 20% of the 1935s that were -not- factory-bodied (as if the factory bodies were just chopped liver instead --- oh, how little do our musclecar contingents know!) and it was built on what was probably the finest (remember that when you count K cars!) chassis Ford ever made --- of which just over 1,000 (remember that when you count SC/360s!) were assembled.  Do the math.  20% of 1041; maybe 20 of 'em custom-bodied convertible coupes.  They didn't just offer SUVs, 2-doors, 4-doors, and [wow!] retractables way back then.

http://www.pontiac.com/g6convertible/index.jsp

Life was very different for America and for Ford: when Hudson (and even Nash) were big and "big" in body styles.

What's more, this car had the last of the "flowing" fenders --- it was one of the last cars that looked -really- great before cars began to look really -good- again in 1955.  Twenty years of so-so.  As if the mid-'70s went on until the '91 Caprice was spawned until now.  Yaris?  Versa?  And they say that the Gremlin and Pacer looked bad?
V-12, twin sidemounts, whitewalls on chrome wire wheels --- what more could you ask?  So it sold for just $6,000 over estimate and just $186,000 less than the black one.  So kids, the '35 is just about half the car the '40 is. Money never lies, right? 

Wrong.  Eyes lie.  Its paint blinded the buyers to quality, history, provenance, and value: they were too yellow.
Maybe they were too uncomfortable or maybe they just never learned how wide and fun the -real- world of cars was.

(On a very slim chance that anyone is -really- interested, both Lincolns can be seen on the sites that sold 'em.)

http://www.rmauctions.com/

Maybe Lincoln can learn from AMC: it never put a "grill" on a "Rouge" and no Lincoln was ever bodied by "LeBarn."   
      
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10076&item=330011890011

Maybe Studebaker can learn from AMC too: it never built this chromed-and-two-toned car.  Cue your auto volcanoes!  

http://tinyurl.com/raqox

"Look at those AMC wheels!"

"What?? They are by Mopar."

Open your yellow umbrellas.

The yellow rain could fall.

In 1989, when J. E. Stiglitz wrote: "There is a fool born every moment"

http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/index.cfm

and altered P. T. Barnum's famous: "There's a sucker born every minute"

http://www.newyorkcitywalk.com/html/interactive_W150th.html

he wasn't thinking about the economic theories of selling collector cars, but both J. E. and P. T. saw something.

On September 20, 2006, when Scott McNealy said: "Selling is what business is all about!", and "Why don't you get together and build a community online?" and "Don't let the lowest common denominator slow you down.", he was not just thinking about how to make today's AMC as big as the big car company his father would proably have led in the early '70s (after he helped to create the Javelin/AMX/SC/Rambler/Machine/etc. AMC that you see as "the" AMC still), but he, too, saw something.

Whatever YOU see when you see a Ginger Maverick, a Brown Spirit, a Lime Ambassador, a two-t P-A, a three-t Packard,

http://www.cincyconcours.com/1999/99-030.jpg

or a yellow Lincoln beside a yellow Gremlin, keep your mind as open as your eyes are: you may see some gold in AMC.      

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/837334

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/chronicle/archive/2005/03/14/MNGU6BOT6J1.DTL&o=1

What's next, oddball, ugly, loosers?

Just what are you still waiting for?

Some yellow torqu [sic] tube aliens?

Someone, sometime, who will see AMC?

Guess what, you're that someone.

And that sometime is today.

Seek not some old AMC son.

http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/index.jsp

http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/ceo/mgt_mcnealy.html

Seek some newer AMC sun.

Shine on silver or gold.

http://www.amcrc.com/sturb05/N2-2.JPG

Make a "new" AMC better.

Yell!  Hell!  Rebel!!!!!

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eddie Stakes [mailto:eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:22 AM
> To: Mahoney, John; Tate, Randy
> Subject: you two enjoy this
> 
> This is a interesting comment below by Doc. The reason why is 
> recently on 
> fee-bait there was a 73 Hornet for sale. Great looking car I may add, 
> however, the poor fellow was fending off a lot of 
> questions...ok, fending 
> off a lot of comments, by people who had emailed him telling 
> him he had a 
> 74.

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