American Motors concept cars & dealership info

[MoparDan]

Here's that pic, about 1976. He bought a 68 Super Bee with the engine all apart in the trunk. We rebuilt the engine in his kitchen while our ship was in port. After installation, we had to push start it with a truck, and ran it with open headers for a test run. It screamed.

Attachment 437

LOL Sweet! I bet it ran faster than a scalded dog!

[Bigb23]

MoparDan -

Here's a couple of Mopar audio files on Detroit and Motor City Dragway in the 60's. I'll try to import the files, but if they don't work, click on the links.

Problem on the import. Here's the links. Enjoy.

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com...udio/mcd67.mp3

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com...io/ddrag64.mp3

[MoparDan]

MoparDan -

Here's a couple of Mopar audio files on Detroit and Motor City Dragway in the 60's. I'll try to import the files, but if they don't work, click on the links.

Problem on the import. Here's the links. Enjoy.

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com...udio/mcd67.mp3

http://www.waterwinterwonderland.com...io/ddrag64.mp3

Those reminded me of the radio spots for Alamo Dragway in San Antonio. Unfortunately that was shut down & is being made into a business park. Here's a link talks about a few other tracks in the S. Texas area that I always heard about.
http://hechointexas.blogspot.com/200...s-history.html

[56packman]

Mopar Dan states "I just thought it was interesting that even though Hudson & Nash had merged they were already calling themselves American Motors. I thought that "officially" didn't occur until about 1970".

Dan, the merger of Nash and Hudson into American Motors happened in 1954. The Nash and Hudson brands continued to be marketed by AMC until the end of the 1957 model year, after which all AMC models were sold under the Rambler name, reintroducing that name. Ramber began as an enterprise of the Jeffery bicycle company of Kenosha, WI in 1902. THe Rmabler line was expanded in the mid 60s with models like the Ambassador, the high-end AMC offering. Nothing of consequence happened in 1970, although AMC bought Jeep from Kaiser Industries in 1969.

Nash President George Mason saw the end of the post-war pent up demand and accurately predicted tough times ahead for the "little five" [[as opposed to the "big three") and was attempting to put together a merger of four independents into what he planned on calling "American Motors". Packard, at the top, to go against Cadillac, Lincoln and Imperial, Hudson, to go against Buick, Olds, Mercury and De Soto [[Packard's Clipper line would also be in this bracket), Nash to go against Pontiac, Dodge, Upper end Ford and Studebaker to go against Ford, Chevy and Plymouth. This merger would have made American Motors #3, forcing Chrysler into #4 position. In addition to the car lines they would have Studebaker light and heavy trucks, Kelvinator appliances, Worthington air conditioning, South Bend Lathe, Packard defense, Packard aerospace and Studebaker defense.

Mason died just after the merger of Hudson and Nash, Packard bought Studebaker largely predicated on the final join-up to come, which didn't happen. George Rommney took over after Mason's death, and had no intrest in S-P, history proved him to be wise in that decision. It is daunting to think if there exsisted in AMC's management the ability to marshall all of those companies into one efficient organization.


Yaktown states:

AMC people, the dorks of the car world!

You know, when I was a kid growing up, the families that had AMC [[only, never a big 3 car) cars were "that weird family"

[MoparDan]

Packman, thanks for all the history & background info. What I may have been thinking of in reference to 1970 was the Rambler name no longer being used & all the products were branded American Motors.
Any good books you can recommend on the history of Packard? What I have found is that it is both an amazing & tragic story how the company went bankrupt. Then I see all those pictures of the plant...indescribable. Being a Chrysler guy, I saw them come close to the edge back in '79...I hope it doesn't happen.
As for the weird families driving AMCs...I remember when my best friend's mom bought a '72 Sportabout wagon. They weren't weird at all but the car definitely stood out on our street. However, that family on the next block driving the Ambassador...freaky!

[HPGrmln]

Yaktown-were you at Greenmead this year? I had my ride in the "late-model stock" section. First year I was able to make it.
As far as parts, a lot are interchangeable. Doors and fenders are supposed to be interchable between Gremlins, Hornets, Spirits,Concords and Eagles.Best bet though, is ebay. They also have a very surprising amount of cool toys now. I have 3 different sizes of the "Fresh Cherries" '74 Gremlin in addition to the radio-controlled one. Also have a Lindberg "gremlin Grabber" kit.
Any info you need is on www.Gremlinx.com. Im on there in the "rides" section somewhere

[56packman]

Packman, thanks for all the history & background info. What I may have been thinking of in reference to 1970 was the Rambler name no longer being used & all the products were branded American Motors.
Any good books you can recommend on the history of Packard? What I have found is that it is both an amazing & tragic story how the company went bankrupt. Then I see all those pictures of the plant...indescribable. Being a Chrysler guy, I saw them come close to the edge back in '79...I hope it doesn't happen.
As for the weird families driving AMCs...I remember when my best friend's mom bought a '72 Sportabout wagon. They weren't weird at all but the car definitely stood out on our street. However, that family on the next block driving the Ambassador...freaky!

Mopardan--the best book is the Automotive Quarterly Packard book, it's about 3-1/2 inches thick, over 1000 photos, very accurate. There is also "the fall of the Packard Motor Car Compay" by James Neal, an excellent business analysis, devoid of rose colored glasses nostalgia.
The biggest thing going against Packard was their independence, the era of being a stand-alone car company in America ended and the cost of new tooling became unthinkable. Being in a big comglomerate like GM or Ford [[or Chrysler)
was the only way after the war. The independents had their last hurrah in the post-war "feeding frenzy" where dang near every person in America wanted a new car, and had the cash to buy it. The independents sold a lot of cars during this period, and would have sold more if the access to raw materials wasn't controlled by the government, who allocated steel, glass, copper, brass and other materials based on each company's pre-war volume, this favored the big three, because they sold more cars than the independents before the war, After the post war demand was met [[around 1951) the companies had to get people to trade in perfectly good cars for new cars they really didn't need yet, and the big three decided to battle it out for sales, discounting cars to a price that the independents couldn't touch.
Packard had an excellent defense business, and in certain years the only source of profits. "Engine Charlie" Wilson, Secretary of Defense [[former GM executive) saw to it that GM got most of the defense work from the early fifties on.

[MoparDan]

Packman, again a big thanks on the history & reading recommendation. A few things you wrote that I had completely forgotten about: lack of raw materials & the other companies discounting prices very low.
This fellow on YouTube has a huge collection of auto videos including a good number about Packard such as assembly line, road testing & commercials.
http://www.youtube.com/user/leif4444

Here's the first clip of a program about the proving grounds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBf1ZW2jjOM

[ccbatson]

"Weird"? If that is weird, who wants to be normal?

[yaktown]

Yaktown-were you at Greenmead this year? I had my ride in the "late-model stock" section. First year I was able to make it.
As far as parts, a lot are interchangeable. Doors and fenders are supposed to be interchable between Gremlins, Hornets, Spirits,Concords and Eagles.Best bet though, is ebay. They also have a very surprising amount of cool toys now. I have 3 different sizes of the "Fresh Cherries" '74 Gremlin in addition to the radio-controlled one. Also have a Lindberg "gremlin Grabber" kit.
Any info you need is on www.Gremlinx.com. Im on there in the "rides" section somewhere

Yes, I was at Greenmead back in August. I don't have a ride to show, I just like to peruse the cars. I once worked with a guy who had a Gremlin, he painted it flat black and was intending to fix it up. I really like the mid 60's Rambler Rogue droptops, cute little ride! I'll keep an eye out for you this year!

[MoparDan]

'69 Javelin featured in Hot Rod Magazine
http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicl...lin/index.html