[Amc-list] Flying Gremlins

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

Thanks, Mike, for putting that "Hornet-by-Cash" photo online.  You can put a "1972" in your "Grembin" caption also, for the Gremlin "Voyageur*" debuted at

http://www.montrealautoshow.com/

in January and toured the NA auto show circuit throughout the 1972 year.

*Someone should write something on that name:  both "eur" and "er" used.

Seeing cars indoors in Quebec or upstate New York in January or February 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73416633@N00/364572118/in/photostream/

(click "more" to see Beetles, Chryslers and Olds Vista Cruisers in snow)

is a good way to warm up to them, but, while AMC's pull-out package tray didn't see production, its model -name- and its -concept- certainly did.

Despite what one one-time AMC List leading light wrote about the design,

_____

During the 70s, a lot of different experiments were done using the Gremlin as a platform. The 1972 Gremlin "Voyager" was one of the earlier aberrations, exhibited on the 1972 auto show circuit. Designed for sportsmen and the like, the major feature of the car was that the taillight panel pulled straight back, along with the luggage compartment floor, effectively creating a "drawer". I personally can't think of anything that this configurationn would be particularly useful for and apparently neither did AMC because the idea was forgotten.

_____

Quoted from article(s) which can be read at:  

http://www.n0kfb.org/homepage/amc/gremlin/development/index.htm

http://www.gremlinx.com/gremlin-history.htm

(If anyone has a copy of the 9/30/99 OCW article, s/he can scan/link/post it, too...),

it definitely is -not- forgotten (maybe it is by Americans...)  

http://www.autozeitung.de/online/index.php

(it's there, for those who work hard enough to seek and see)

http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/studio/2003bertone_birusa_3.jpg

http://www.bertone.it/en/birusa_birusa_en.htm

http://www.conceptcarz.com/view/photo/35856,6937,0,0/photo.aspx

and it's not just a car-designer's pipe dream.

http://tinyurl.com/jgczu

A sliding load-floor car is on the market right now: I can't remember which it is.

How odd.

Can you?

Isn't it too bad that AMC fans like Fred Koos and Greg Taylor and etc. aren't "on" any more.  A lack of continuing and growing community surely limits AMC.

How odd.

Or not??


http://encarta.msn.com/list_OddAutoNames/10_Odd_Auto_Names.html

Star Trek made millions on "Voyager" and "Gremlin" and a different "Voyager" really saved Chrysler so LH could save it again until it could be saved by Daimler Bee, but while no new Plymouth Voyager will debut beside the new 2008 Town & Country and Caravan,

http://www.allpar.com/model/m/2008-minivans.html

Chrysler may have a Voyager in its future.  Odd?

http://tinyurl.com/38pu9y

No, not really.  Odds that a top "odd" car name:

http://encarta.msn.com/list_OddAutoNames/10_Odd_Auto_Names.html

will be the most-remembered thing about AMC throughout history?  Odds-on, yes indeed-dee. 

PS - Golf was not a club that VW used to kill a Rabbit (which is back): it was short for "Golf-Strom" which, in America, where people read "Playboy" for the articles, means "Gulf Stream" --- not a bunny, not a semi-Chevy, and not a queen's [N540W] carriage.

http://z.about.com/d/cars/1/7/4/W/gm_07g5gt_taillight.jpg

http://www.aircharternetwork.com/images_aircraft/gulfstream4int.jpg

After Oprah's G4 broke the "windshield barrier," she refused to fly in it, but, like so many car buyers have, she bought not a bigger longer, wider, faster American-made "Cadillac" (do you see the GM parallel?)  

http://www.gulfstream.com/g550/

and her newest royal conveyance [N54SL], like several AMC cars, was built in Canada.     

http://www.entity38.de/aeronews/06-01/img/an1_31_1.jpg

http://www.entity38.de/aeronews/06-01/img/an1_31_2.jpg

http://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/global/images/globalexpress_4.jpg

Someday when her net worth is counted not in the billions, but in the trillions, her bigger, faster coaches will probably be built by Honda.  Or by Hyundai.  Or by Avic. 

http://www.avic1.com.cn/English/EnglishIndex.asp

Wake up, America.  Are we too fat, lazy, or dumb?

http://www.news365.com.cn/yw/200703/t20070331_1352997.htm

http://www.aerospace-technology.com/projects/arj21/images/ARJ21_1.jpg

Are we not scared enough to study or work harder?

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-01/05/content_775966.htm

If we're not worried about that, shouldn't we be?

American Motors wasn't much worried about Toyota.  In 1967 or in 1970.  Or in 1987.

Which American Motors models compete with Toyota?  In 1997 or in 2007.  Car dreams. 

 
Finally, to pull an AMC out of a hat, while Mark I Golf, which debuted for 1978, was inspired by Citroen, Renault, Fiat, and BMC engineering, its styling cannot help but have been inspired by Gremlin.  It's simply too similar not to have been semi-copied.

Your question, should you choose to answer it: how was that Golf related to the later larger car built by American Motors (for American motorists) --- in North America.  And don't say "Gremlin got a G-code engine" --- that's true, but it's not what I'm lookin' for.

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