Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:55:31 -0700
From: tom jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>
To: wrambler242@xxxxxxxxxxx, "AMC, Rambler, Nash, Jeep and family"
<amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [AMC-list] mythbusters eagle vs snowplow
Message-ID:
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With few exceptions (and there were a few) American and European cars
of the 70's and 80's sucked, I think. Labor, quality, and corporate
decisions to stick their head in the ground regarding emissions "just
add more hoses". Clearly, we would not have 300 - 500 hp street cars
without the real effort and work that went into efficient drivelines
-- and efficient means power and cleanliness.
I wish: AMC had not squandered it's Nash resources. That it hadn't
tried to complete with the "big 3". I always imagined that it could
have stuck to rock solid boring Americans and Classics (or Vixens or
whatever) and a small stream of halo cars (Rogues, AMXs, etc) based
upon those 'boring' chassis.
Addressed the labor (and quality problems), kept Grandpa Nash's
quality. That frugal mindset spawned the 199/232, clearly one of the
best things they ever did. Competing with the big 3 was stupid and
fatal and obvious. They did before and should have continued to dance
around the dinosaur's feet -- small, frugal reliable cars.
A 4-cyl "232" with a turbo and an appropriately scaled trans and rear
axle (that stupid rear axle drove car design, AMCs and everyones, for
far too long) in a 2000 lb car (with another 500 lbs of metal for
crash worthiness) would have kicked serious butt and no one would have
cared what it looked like or who made it. That same chassis without
the turbo would have been a nice commuter car.
The halo cars could have got the new-design motors all gussied up with
performance, and a year or three migrated into the product line. AMC
style.
The fact that AMC gets compared product by product to the other three
biggies is exactly the problem. They were 1/10th their size, it was
silly to emulate the same product line. AMC should have made what AMC
was good at.
That stupid heavy Hotchkiss rear design that all the American manu's
stuck with was a major design limiting factor. Rear drive fine, but
sheesh, does it have to be that same 1950 boat anchor? There's all
sorts of designs, nearly all of them better. But no, we're tooled for
that and don't wanna change. Oh well.
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