Re: non AMC powered AMCs <long!> (was: GremlinTime)

["Eddie Stakes" <eddiestakes@xxxx>]

Doc wrote:
I agree. Let the AMO have an alternative engine class and be judged. Some
people have suggested to me in the past about just letting them on the show
field but not be judged, I disagree. They had to do the same work on their
cars as we did with just the engine being different. It's time to put old
rivalry's behind us and unite for the common good of saveing our cars.
"Doc"

I strongly agree here and have been very vocal about it for a long time. It
(to me at least) is not watering down the marque. I look at the bigger
picture. If I have seen over 8000+ AMCs be crushed in Houston alone, how
many more have been silently crushed in say, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Kansas
City, Atlanta and other places thru the years?
For some reason AMCers seem to think there is a infinite well of parts that
will always be there. It won't. That well ran dry roughly in 1994 and what
is out there is out there.
I used to go to 10-30 police auctions and storage lot auctions a month in
Houston and bid on AMCs for pennies on the dollar. There is nothing to bid
on anymore. And there are no AMCs in the Pick A Parts either. I'm not
advocating everyone run out and turn their neighborhood into a pick a part,
on a 'save the javelin' campaign at all, just save what you can, know what
is worth picking up, what is penny ante stuff and what is high dollar, and
if you pass on it, please by all means spread the word will area AMC or
rambler chapters, clubs, individuals, even on a place like this Gremlin
website.

As for the altered AMCs, these people could have easily just let a old aMX
or Gremlin sit and rot, or in hundreds of cases I can personally verify,
send it to the junkyard, but they decided to drop in a non AMC engine in it.
Yes, my tacos turn over when you lift the hood of a 69 Javelin and see a SBC
in it. But again, I get over it real quick realizing what the alternative
could have been for that car sitting in front of me now.

And as I have said it a million times, including to the AMO Board of
Directors thru the years, I look at it like this: Longtime Texan Carroll
Shelby has a history of heart problems going back into the 60s. We almost
lost him in the late 1980s and he had a heart transplant. So then Dodge
comes up with a little car called Viper and it ends up being the Pace Car
for Indy. The person who drove it around the track was no other than Carroll
Shelby himself, a longtime Ford & Dodge man. When he is in the pits signing
autographs, you do NOT pull his vest back and see the scars on his chest
from the transplant. What if they put a Bowtie Chevy heart in this fella?
Nope, you see Carroll Shelby STILL kicking around at his age enjoying old
cars. In other words, you don't need to know what is under the hood when you
see a AMX or Gremlin at a cruise night or car show. And I guess in the grand
scheme of things it should not concern us either as it ain't our car. We
don't have to "like" it, but again, when you stop for a moment and consider
what could have been with that car, then well, you soften up a little. Yes,
you can buy Chevy 350s on street corners with a newspaper free. Some people
prefer them, some can build them in their sleep, some are scared off by the
scarcity of AMC parts, notably pistons and cranks.

Maybe we are just mellowing with age who knows, just a though,I'm happy to
see that AMO is letting all in, as I hate to turn anyone away who took a
chance on a AMC.
90% of our cars are Cuban Cars anyhows, I would estimate less than 5-10% are
indeed "stock" anyhows. And so it goes.....
Eddie Stakes'
Planet Houston aMX
www.planethoustonamx.com
"the poor man's george barris"