[Amc-list] why "upgrade"? was Re: t14 to t96 overdrive

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

I'm all for -- if you are driving and old car, it should drive like an old 
car. OK scary brakes and crappy tires must go, etc, but utterly modernizing 
an old car -- what's the point? Get a modern car!

I'm growing to love the way this American+195.6OHV+Twin-Stick behaves. Its 
a bridge to the deep past; you drive this car very differently than later 
cars, or even the 63 big car. It is happy lugging at 10mph in top gear in 
traffic. Non-synchro first doesn't even matter any more, only occasionally 
at stoplights, and there's workarounds.

I'm still babying the drivetrain since the trans is a mess and the engine 
actually unknown, etc. But yesterday I had to do some dimwit dueling in a 
parking lot and this car proved quite able to deal with modern traffic.

Pulling out of a spot at my local cafe, an SUV is behind me, coming into 
the lot from the left is some brainstem piloting a blacked-out BMW, from 
the right an overpaid incompetent in a Lexus/MB/Porch mini-SUV, both 
deadlocked in indecision caused by an utter inability to navigate -- 
theboth kept peering forward as if they weren't sure if they were going to 
fit between me and each other. The little American leaped more than quick 
enough through the maze of dimwits, in a tight and fast "S", down the 100 
ft to the intersection with Glendale Blvd, very busy rush-hour traffic, 
where the fat tires and "big" 9x2.5 brakes (sic) did actually stop on a 
dime (dollar, with inflation).

The secret is I think as I said before, the 3.77 axle and manual trans. 
With an auto and around 3:1 this car would suck for performance. 
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