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 Posted - January 17 2011 : 07:21:23 AM
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Bidding ended on this sweet customized slot car body this weekend. I'd have LOVED to own it ( both the slot car and the real prototype that once existed ). It was a concept show car AMC had in the '60's, the AMX/GT was the predecessor to the Gremlin in rear styling, but with the AMX front end.
Here's what the slot car looks like -
 [/center]
Wow, I'd have loved to buy this  , but that's just too much for a piece of plastic and some copper wire. Nice job, though!
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - January 17 2011 : 07:33:10 AM
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| That is a very good custom. I remember paying for my neighbors back bubble window of his AMC Pacer thanks to my baseball shenanigan's as a kid.
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Posted - January 17 2011 : 09:13:14 AM
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 Wonder how hard it'd be to make one 1:1 scale 
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Posted - January 17 2011 : 11:02:48 AM
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quote:
Well...actually, the fenders of the Javelin and Gremlin are not really compatible, but I DO have extra Javelin fenders....with a bit of cutting, welding, and splicing, I think the rear part of the gremlin hood and fenders could be grafted onto a Javelin front clip and custom fitted. I do have NINE Gremlins to work with, of course. Full-scale, of course.
I think someone is actually working on this project somewhere, mine is just a fantasy, I don't have the welder OR experience to do it. But it would be awesome to have a real one built. I'd use '70 Javelin fenders on mine, not the 68 that was used on the original. I prefer the look of the '70 myself ( plus I have one of those, too).
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - January 17 2011 : 3:13:39 PM
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| oh I KNOW you do AMC You posted the pics in here once
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Posted - January 17 2011 : 7:16:09 PM
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| The only reason Chrysler bought AMC is so they could destroy another company. AMC was way ahead of the game with the 4wd car the Eagle. Not only that but they had Jeep. They always thought out of the box.In my opinion I'd take any AMC over anything brought here by boat.
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Posted - January 17 2011 : 7:19:36 PM
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That & AMC was on the verge of bankruptcy 
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Posted - January 17 2011 : 9:18:24 PM
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quote:That & AMC was on the verge of bankruptcy
Originally posted by microbusss - January 17 2011 : 7:19:36 PM
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What was unfair, really, was that Chrysler got bailed out 8 years earlier, but the Big Bad Brotha Fed Gov't would NOT do the same for AMC. Maybe because Chrysler had SO many important military contracts? Hmm? Even though AMC had jeep, I guess it didn't matter anymore, the Military was using Suburban SUVs and other vehicles more and more by then. AMC took some unfortunate mis-steps , but some of it was just bad circumstances. The Matador Coupe debuted the first year of the major gas crisis in '74- people fled to sub-compacts. AMC tried an Audi 4cylinder motor in the Gremlin in 77-78, but gas prices dropped again, so people went back to bigger cars ( the Matador was dropped in '79, having sold pitifully the previous 5 years ). The Pacer enjoyed record sales the first 2 years, but because it was supposed to be a Wankel engine car, bought thru GM, but GM cancelled their end of the project, so AMC had to shoe-horn in their 6-cylinder motor, so the Pacer stank on gas mileage, was heavier than planned, and while a wild looking car for the time ( nowadays every car looks like a bubble on wheels ), it had no economy to speak of, and competed more with the Gremlin than anything outside it's own family. With limited development funds, the Eagle was a last gasp to try something new, and the Concord was made into a luxurious small car, but people weren't ready for that yet. Small? AND luxury? Unheard of! Think Lexus and Acura now. Hmph. AMC had done some fast footwork over the years, but the '70's and '80's see-sawing of gas prices and more gov't car regulation basically put AMC into a non-competitive situation that they could not get out of by themselves. Renault COULD have helped saved them, but when the man at Renault in France responsible for the affiliation was shot dead, the French company backed out after just a few years of investment, basically giving AMC a death sentence. While the quality varied, overall AMC had some good, innovative products that were generally reliable. The Jeep acquisition kept them going for years, if they'd JUST had a break or two more, they might have grown just enough to be able to survive. Having outlived all the other storied car makers like Packard, Studebaker ( 150 year old company! ), and others, they deserve more respect than they generally get these days, or back then. All we can do now is enjoy the dwindling legacy left behind, and I"m trying to do my part by saving Gremlins.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - January 18 2011 : 12:33:46 AM
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I remember my mother was soo happy in late Dec 1968 picking up her brand new (Beal Street Blue)1969 Rambler from the dealer. I'm a lover of a lot of cars now, but as a kid I thought the Rambler was corny and would have rather took the bus to school. I liked AMC cars but they always lacked something to be really cool. A friend of mine had a Javilin back then that he thought was fast. But two of my other car nut friends had big block Chevies and they would absolutely smoke him in a drag race.
I like high end restored cars and really strong engines with tons of tourque which again AMC failed to offer. I someday would add a couple of AMC cars if I was to become wealthy. But they would probably be some early 60s Rambler wagon in one of their colorful two tone paint schemes...
Walt
Luck, usually comes dressed in work clothes...
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Posted - January 18 2011 : 08:02:26 AM
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quote:I remember... I liked AMC cars but they always lacked something to be really cool. A friend of mine had a Javilin back then that he thought was fast. But two of my other car nut friends had big block Chevies and they would absolutely smoke him in a drag race.
I like really strong engines with tons of tourque which again AMC failed to offer.
Originally posted by walt - January 18 2011 : 12:33:46 AM
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Your friend must have had a 343 or a 360, and not the 390 or 401. Plus, was this Javelin a street car with highway rear axle gears, or light-to-light 4.11 gears? The largest AMC motor has no problem powering an AMX or Javelin to 11 or 12-second times in Hi-po form, AND with the right rear axle ratio. AMC motors had lots of torque, IF you bought the accessories to use it. At the AMC drag meets nowadays, it's easy to find Gremlins, Hornets, and AMXs pulling 9-second times with , yes, highly modified but not outrageously so 390 and 401 engines. My former roomate had a '68 Super Bee with 440 6-pack, and he told me he lost to only two cars in his teen street drag years - a 427 Corvette,and a '69 AMX with 390. And how many big-block Chevies did you see on the street, compared to 350 ci ? They were out there, but not as common. So that's kinda comparing apples to oranges there. How comparable were these big-block Bowties compared to the AMC Javelin as far as rear axle ratios, etc., or even to small-block Camoros and Chevelles ? That's a huge performance-enhancing option, most people opted for street gears, not performance. Just because they regularly trounced his Javelin, doesn't mean they were comparable, or highly superior. With the right gear ratios, any car can move quicker, but lose gas mileage faster.
The cool factor was always a thorn to AMC, because most of their former customers were penny-pinching economy-minded people a la Rambler buyers. Trying to change images was a big switch, and cars like the Gremlin helped, plus the Levi and Gucci add-ons were catchy. But to this day, you find AMC people are cheaper and not likely to pay big bucks for parts and cars compared to other makes. It was always an uphill battle to overcome image, lack of performance, and other issues.
But it's changing. More and more you see multi-thousand dollar sales of AMX, Javelin, Machine, and other Hi-po AMC cars as people find out about, and start to like, this underdog car company and their offbeat offerings. It's just all in what you like. And I like them.
Jerry
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Posted - January 18 2011 : 10:44:57 AM
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| & lets not forget AMC cars were used in a James Bond movie once & the Gucci & Levi in AMC & Jeep are worth abit more AMC has shown up in recent movies too
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Posted - January 18 2011 : 12:32:06 PM
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His car had the 401 in it. But as any real drag racer knows, nothing, AMC produced could hold a candle to a big block chevy.. . and the gear ratio made no difference in that ... as agear "doesn't make power", it just assist movent a bit... It was obvious that Big block chevy & hemi cars of that era was by far at the top with no excuses...
Walt
Luck, usually comes dressed in work clothes...
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Posted - January 18 2011 : 2:27:36 PM
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quote: It was obvious that Big block chevy & hemi cars of that era was by far at the top with no excuses...
Originally posted by walt - January 18 2011 : 12:32:06 PM
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As the old saying goes, " there's no substitute for cubic inches". My 6-pack friend with the Superbee said he'd never race anyone from a dead stop, as his rear axle ratio was too high ( 3.73 or so ) to take anyone from a light, but if raced them from 20-25, he could whip them with his top end. So, it does matter which END of the spectrum you want to race from. Dead start, or rolling, he preferred rolling start races. If you don't have the cubes at the end, then you need the ratio at the beginning. I don't think the smogged 401 cars were as good as the the earlier 390 AMX's, by then they'd detuned them too much. AMC never had a big block, so they suffered in that respect, as the 401 was still a small-block. But for it's size, and class, it beat many a similar-sized motor in Ford and Chevy and Mopars.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - January 18 2011 : 2:46:15 PM
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Gear ratio is not a deceding factor of wether your car moves from a stop light. What happened in the case of the Superbee was that he had such a large cam and or OVER carburation in it that it had NO low end torque. COMMON mistake in street cars still today.
John Force would tell any street racer (or bench racer) that the gear ratio is not a great factor if you have an engine making torque.
My therory ; I build, "low end torque", , everything else you need comes with it.
Scott Jordan's therory, If you don't see it being used in the professional Tractor pulls, it's not a torqey motor...
I have a 3:23 gear in my 79 Smokey Trans Am with a 468 BBChevy. A basic gas milage gear and it still won't hook up!
If one depends on a rear gear to help them move in a drag race (or at all), they haven't got much of an engine... You build torque and THEN deceide which gear is suitable to get the power to work for the car.
Walt
Luck, usually comes dressed in work clothes...
Edited by - walt on January 18 2011 2:56:11 PM
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