|
It sort of fell off map like many AMC "big" ideas out there. The AMC
landscape is littered with good ideas you know: AMC Unity Council, AMC Council
of Clubs, AMC Magazine (this one baffled me and still does, the guy spent
$10,000 of his own money to do glossy magazine, everyone said 'oooh, count me
in' or 'sign me up!' and few did, then he had display at biggest AMC event in
history in Kenosha, he needed to sign up 250 subscribers to make magazine float.
He had magazines laying out, people walk by booth, pick one up and when he would
say $2, they gently put it back down in ultimate fit of Rambler Mentality,
needless to say guy went back to NY, closed up shop and took major loss.) Yikes.
Don't forget a 'All AMC Meet' with all the clubs co-operating together on same
field, this was tried a few times, but ended up being like little roped off
areas, so had to choose your legion to Zod with who you went with, so if you
went with one club to have your car judged, you pissed off other clubs for
instance. Sort of like having different restrooms for different peoples in
1940s/50s, everyone has same color doo but have to go to different room. It was
like this unfortunately and created some ill will at what was supposed to be
largest AMC get together in history.
A case could be made for Mitchell's old AMCWC, at one time really big
before imploded due to all the darned vendors, businesses, chapters and
individuals leaving, so guess that falls into 'amc stuff that didn't work'
class. Or failures. Or going to the dark side without light sabre, there is
whole file on my site dedicated to that cesspool failing:
I'm sure some old soviet toothless ladies in Siberia are having fond
memories about Stalin too. Oh, he was dreamy with that big mustache.....sure he
only killed 20 million people but he looked so nice in that overcoat!
The amxfiles is another case in point, at one time was the place to be on
internet, occasional few wars but nothing that could not be solved. No longer
there, buy owner Jim Stone sold his AMX and moved on. The site is still up, but
most of the stuff on it consists of abandoned files with dead AMCers on it.
Created in 1996, died in early 2000's finally domain name expired in 2009 so
gone too. Go google it and leachers will direct you to their site, nothing to do
with AMC just create traffic.
The original amc forum also had problems with someone threatening to sue
the forum owner, so he shut it down, there is file somewhere on my site about
that debacle. The scab, 'new' theamcfoolum.com site no one goes to, (one guy on
Car Craft was gloating he signed up 140 times at college computers, I guess that
is like voting for your favorite MLB All Star when they want you to plug ballot
box!) and Fran's site changed names but still comes up amcforum so confusing to
say least.
I could go on here, as it is hot outside, so decided to try to answer a few
emails. The last I heard it was shipped back to MA where it originated from You
know, the original intention was to have it done and ready by 2001. Sometimes we
are rambler slow, sometimes rambler slow without rims and tires. But a number of
people donated things, and along the way, many places did great job on it, as
the donated car ended up being a turd to begin with (rough car with
frame/unibody damage if I recall) so tons more work needed to bring it back to
life. I think the original intention (gee was it really a decade ago?) was to
have different chapters take the vehicle, and do work to it, might be big job,
or small job, as long as people contributed.
The problem with that was it bacame a 'rolling pick a part' and all sorts
of rare parts suddenly disappeared. The new in box mufflers, nice tail light
lenses and housings I donated never made it to different city for instance. I
did later sell them a set of new ram air trim, but donated $200-$300 more new
parts about 4-5 years ago, no telling if that stuff was used or ended up on
someone elses' car or ebay, craigslist though. Frank Swygert of AIM magazine
tried to co-ordinate efforts but people got pissed off at him thinking he was
either taking over the project or profiting from it, whihc I believe was
neither. The backlash from that was no one wanted to get involved with it
anymore! It ended up in Kenosha, but no clubs would take it, sort of 'who needs
the bullshit' associated with it if they had it too long, or something came up
missing, or didn't tweet updates daily like damned corpse flower here!
I think what bothered me personally about this project was two things, one
was the lashing Frank took years ago with it from bunch of idiots posting
anonymously on the forum of the week site. The bigger thing was that with all
these chapters out there......few got involved. The car only been to handful of
states
I would have though that people would have jumped at the chance to help on
this project. At one point I believe the car almost got 'evicted' from a shop as
was taking up valuable space the shop could have used to actually make money
with customers. If not for making stops in Houston at the aMO nationals in 2001,
then onto San Antonio where the Alamo AMC club did great job getting it running.
Will always remember the enthusiasm and smiles when it was driven off the
trailer at the 2002 AMC SW Regional. Update! Can add Alamo AMC to 'stuff that
didn't work' as the whole club cratered several years ago. Now AJ is trying to
resurrect it, and I wish him success. Update! Hell, the big, successful AMC SW
Regional meet cratered after I quit sponsoring it and severed ties with local
aMC chapter after the national here! Google 'amc assholes' and well, even if you
in Nepal or Tasmania or hiding in rabbit hole in Fallauja, Iraq can read about
it. Too bad on all fronts.
I don't think that this old 'charity amx' falls into the 'amc stuff that
didn't work' class though. It's still out there, but has long since fallen off
anyone's radar for a variety of reasons. Maybe when finished in Y3K great, great
grandkids will say 'I remember that in Y2K' perhaps. Like seeing those heads in
jars of Nixon and celebrities on Futurama.
Anyways, if anyone still reading, here is link
__._,_.___
Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe __,_._,___ |
Back to the Home of the AMC Gremlin