Yesterday we took a turn to the dark side, but the mystery of the turd-like Rot Rod Miata was easily unraveled - you all deduced the owner to be a freak, and feted his freakdom with a 85% Crack Pipe vote. Good work people, get yourselves a Scooby snack.

Today we're going over the river and through the woods to grandma's house, and Granny's 1986 AMC Eagle will make that trip all the easier.

The Concord-based Eagle arrived in 1979 as a 1980 model, and took the honor of being the first full-time all wheel drive production car (discounting the 320 Jensen FFs built), providing AMC with a stay of execution. The Eagle uses a single-speed transfer case with a viscous coupling to smoothly shift power to the end with the most traction. The rear end is a live axle with a 2.73 final drive, and the front is a novel independent setup where the differential is bolted to the engine and half shafts carry power to the wheels via double cardans. Engine choices included the AMC 2.5-litre four, their 4.2-litre straight six, and for a time, GMs craptacular Iron Duke 151-cid wheezer. The most common trnsmission choice was the Chrysler's A998-based 3-speed automatic, but manuals could be had as well.

It would unlikely to expect grandma to row her own, so, as the seller of this '86 Eagle Wagon notes that he is selling it for his Maw-Maw, it comes as no surprise that it's sporting only two pedals. Fortunately, it also has the 4.2-litre six, which is good for 110-ponies. In 1986, AMC dropped the lock-up torque converter from the car, and added an open differential transfer case. There were 6,943 wagons built that year. A common problem with the Eagle is right-rear axle failures, but they're easy and cheap to fix.

Aside from the radio, this Eagle scouts out as complete and functional. The 97,000 miles under its tires look like they've been gentle ones, and that's not too many for a 23 year old car. Then there's that price. It's possible grandma is still living in the past, and that works to the buyer's favor as the asking price is from a bygone era as well. At $2,700, this car is in the realm of an impulse purchase. Not only that but there's at least three Jalopnikadians here whose eyes have bugged out, and whose jaws have dropped on their keyboards just at the sight of the car. But, is it really a deal?

What do you think about $2,700 for a 23 year old Eagle? Does that price fill you with all the warmth of a grandma's hug? Or, does that make you think that granny's on crack?

You decide!


Johnny Knoxville Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears. Fedora tilt to theallpowerfulme for the tip!

Help me out with NPOCP. Click here to send a me a tip, and remember to include your commenter handle.

Yes, they were still putting on that 60s-style SimuWood™ plastic siding on Jeeps as late as Reagan's second term; note the plastic "dowels" and decal inserts. Enough time has passed that this stuff is now cool! This truck is also notable for its AMC 360 V8, an engine that Chrysler kept in production all the way until 1991.

I found this truck at one of the now-defunct East Bay Pick Your Part yards, so we can assume that any parts that you see here have now been digested and dumped into a Guangzhou-bound container ship.

It went all day long, involved over 100 cars and thousands of penalty laps, and that's all I've got the energy to say right now. Let's see how these fine racin' machines perform later!

Music: Lille Knox, "I'm Troubled About My Soul," source: Prewar Blues

Of course, we all know now that you pretty much need AWD to negotiate your typical shopping mall parking lot, so maybe Chrysler made a mistake by killing off the Eagle soon after gobbling up AMC in 1987. Could Chrysler have beat Subaru at its own game, had they only kept developing the Eagle?

If you like weird twists and turns in your engine-history plot, you'll like the Buick V6. Buick engineers took their aluminum 215-cube V8, lopped off a couple of cylinders, and cast the shortened block and heads in cast iron. The result displaced 198 cubes and made its debut (as the "Fireball V6") in the 1962 Buick Special. Oldsmobile and Buick dropped the 198 and later 225 into their A-bodies, but The General made the decision to use the Chevrolet I6 250 as their six-banger of choice. The V6 was sold off to… ready for this? Kaiser-Jeep! When those Kenosha swashbucklers at AMC bought Kaiser-Jeep in 1970, the bulletproof AMC Straight Six shoved the Buick aside.
Fast-forward to the dawn of the Malaise Era: "Rat turds!" screamed The General's suits up on the Fourteenth Floor, "We need a V6, like, yesterday! So, all the Buick V6 tooling traveled back from Wisconsin to Detroit and the world was introduced to the 231-cubic-inch "new" Buick V6, which was installed in such stellar machines as the Skyhawk. The funky "odd-fire" crank setup made the engine rough, but reliability was very good (and The General eventually loosened the purse strings enough for his engineers to make a smoother "even-fire" version).
Keep fast-forwarding, and you'll find this engine surviving through the Malaise Era, through the Oliver North Era, and all the way up until the present day. Displacements have come and gone, but the 3800 aka 231 has proven itself to have the real staying power; not only did a turbocharged version power the legendary Buick GNX, but Eaton superchargers started getting bolted on during the 90s. What was the most powerful factory Buick V6? Well, that depends on whether you believe The General's numbers about the GNX! Hate away, you pushrod-phobes, but you're looking at a success story.

[Wikipedia, image source here]

The heated battle yesterday over the merits of a $3,700 Pontiac ended with a surprising 75% Nice Price vote saving the LeMans to cruise Hollywood yet another night. Speaking of Hollywood- it's a long way from Cherry Hill New Jersey, which is where we're headed today.

Nash Kelvinator had always been a second-tier automaker here in the U.S., and by the mid-fifties, while everybody was leaving it to beaver and loving lucy, they quietly merged with Hudson to form American Motors. A brand cue of Nash's (other than Nash Seats which would have engendered a population explosion had the cars been more popular) was the bathtub body design. The tall fenders with semi-skirted wheel arches - front and rear - made the cars look like they should always be transporting a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker. While the major competition was zooming into the future on fins bedecked with chrome, and everything longer, lower and faster, what Nash felt America needed was a diminutive shoppers trolly disguised as a car. Setting one of their biggest Kelvinator washing machines on extra-hot, they shrunk down their compact Rambler into the even smaller two-seat Metropolitan- an example of which is our candidate today.

This 1961 Metro is attractive for both its convertible top which lets the sun in, and an opening trunk, which lets you in to get your stuff. Previous models required you to limbo your way behind the seats to access your bottles of scotch and Life magazines. The two-tone paint is most complimentary to the cheery but rounded shape, which is surprising on such a small car. That carries over to the interior with a pair of broad seats, in red and white, and a metal dash that is dominated by the speedometer- directly ahead of the wheel and three on the tree shifter.

While Father may know best, the mileage of this BMC- B-series powered Metro is in question. The seller claims it might be 21,000, or. . . maybe not. But really, who cares? You're not buying this for its long term drivability. This is a fun car, a top-down Sunday afternoon kind of car.

And with those expectations in mind, let's revisit that price. The seller is asking $16,500 for this littlest Nash, and that gets you not only the top and the trunk lid, but also a continental kit, which looks a lot less ridiculous on this than you might imagine. These cars have extensive support networks- the Nash Metro Club has chapters all over the place and the members typically aren't weirdos, just regular folk. And they're not all a bunch of dwarves, so stop thinking that.

So what will it be for this Nash with panache? Is $16,500 a Price that is Nice for this slice of American life? Or, is the seller smoking the Crack - from a tiny, little Crack Pipe - for asking that?

You decide!

South Jersey Craigslist or go here if the ad disappears. Hat tip to evanschmitt!

There's a good cross-section of Kenosha advertising style here, from the 60s muscle cars and penny-pinching economy sedans to the Malaise Era favorites and into the Members Only 80s. When you're done here, you might enjoy our favorite VW ads, then continue your car-advertising overdose with the Datsun, Toyota, Renault, General Motors, British Leyland, Ford/Lincoln/Mercury, Honda, Citroën, and Chevrolet ads.

1979 Jeep Cherokee	1983 Jeep CJ-7	1987 Jeep Comanche
1976 Jeep CJ-5 Levis	1975 AMC Pacer	1969 AMC Rambler Rebel
1967 AMC Rebel	1967 AMC Ambassador Wagon	1981 AMC Eagle
1969 AMC Javelin	1969 AMC Ambassador	1969 AMC AMX
1973 AMC Gremlin	1979 AMC Spirit

The Spirit was built on the aging Gremlin chassis, and you could even get a not-so-quick AMX version. Still, we'd have taken the Spirit over the Chevette, if only for the possibility of getting a 304 V8 with a 4-speed.

You see, Casadelshawn, of Bunny With A Pancake On Its Head VW Rabbit fame decided he didn't feel like racing in Buttonwillow's 110° heat (actually, it was only about 97°) and took his '76 Audi Fox wagon to Monterey instead. He won the prestigious "Der Self-SatisfiedKrauttenWagen, 1970-current" trpphy, but he took a break from laurel-resting to shoot these photos for us.

Meanwhile, the coveted Worst Of Show trophy went to one of the most horrible-yet-cool motor vehicles ever made, a 1980 KV Mini 1. The owner towed this precision-made, belt-driven machine all the way from Washington… with an MGB! So next time you're shopping for a big ol' truck to tow your bass boat, go with British Leyland instead. Here's the official Cd'L press release:

Mike Harrell from Shoreline, WA stunned the crowd and judges with his 1980KV Mini 1 and took home Worst of Show honors. The KV is a horrible little car powered by a 125cc one cylinder 2 stroke motor that drives the rear wheels through a constantly variable ration belt drive system and friction rollers on the rear tires ensuring that little of the meager power available actually results in forward motion. The features dont stop there, to put the car in reverse, one must shut off the engine and re-start it so that it runs backwards. Combine this with the tin bumpers, solid steering shaft aimed at the drivers chest, the lack of a roof and any other safety features and it was a shoe in for the Worst of Show title. As if to convince the judges that he truly does have a screw loose, Mike towed the little French death trap behind his MGB the 1000 miles from Washington to Monterey. Well done.

Given the similarity in era, two-door body styles, and use of steering wheels, it would not be out of place to see today's contender fare as well as yesterday's Mercedes 300CD, which garnered a most excellent 88% Nice Price vote.

Then again, maybe not.

American Motors, always seemingly barely hanging onto the narrow precipice of financial solvency, needed a product that differentiated it from the company's competitors. Instead of yet another new grill treatment on the evergreen Hornet, they decided to go for broke and develop- from the inside out- a radical new car that would provide positive buzz and generate sales.

The result was the fishbowl-shaped Pacer, which offered large car width with small car length, and a basket handle roofline that was eerily aped by the Porsche 928 two years later. The Larry Craig stance gained it instant notoriety, and the car did well in its first year, racking up over 145,000 sales. However, the car lacked the economy of its competitors, and, like Craig, its differentness wasn't universally seen in the positive, ergo sales dwindled in the ensuing years.

Originally intended to employ a General Motors-supplied wankel engine, the car debuted with the tried and true AMC straight six when GM pulled the plug on their rotary program- and hopefully refunded AMC their $1.5 million in licensing fees. This ended up being both a blessing and a bane for the Pacer- warranty claims for thousands of blown apex seals would have bankrupted AMC, but the iron six weighed nearly double that of the proposed GM wankel.

This '77 has the larger 4.2 litre six, which puts a little more pace under its short but wide hood. That's a good thing because the one barrel 3.8 had a tough time dragging around 3,300-plus pounds of Pacer. It also has the unique styling features of all Pacers including a passenger door 10 cm longer than the driver's side, and door panel "wings" to hide the glass which doesn't roll all the way down. The orange over black color scheme will be good come Halloween, and hopefully the seller will be able to find that missing ashtray, noted in the ad.

And about that ad- it reads like it was written by Tina Fey doing Sarah Palin, with oddly constructed sentences and strange word parings that make you wonder if the seller might live under the power lines or something.

So, what about that $7,000 asking price for this orange orb? Considering that's double it's price when new, and the question of the missing ashtray, is the seller on crack? That would explain the ad. Or is that in line with what you'd expect to pay for so original, so orange, and so wide a car?

You decide!

KSL.com, or go here if the ad disappears. Props to Jo Schmo for the tip!

You might notice that there's no Vanishing Point Challenger, no Two Lane Blacktop '55 Chevy or GTO, no Road Warrior Falcon, no French Connection Pontiac LeMans, and so on; you can go anywhere to find those admittedly deserving machines in a Top Movie Cars list… but you're in for something a little different when your Rambler clanks into my drive-in!

Fee Waybill's 1968 Plymouth Sport Satellite
Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, 1981. Just look at this evil '68 Satellite, driven by the character played by Tubes mastermind Fee Waybill in the nearly-forgotten punk classic starring Diane Lane.
Stacey Keach's 1972 AMC Matador
Up In Smoke, 1978. Some folks might try to tell you that Cheech's '64 Impala is the automotive star of this all-time Malaise Era classic, but those same guys will sell you a bag of "Acapulco Gold" that turns out to be oregano. Sergeant Stedenko's unmarked Kenosha sedan, take a bow!
Isaac Hayes' Cadillac Fleetwood
Escape From New York, 1981. An apocalyptic Caddy with chandeliers on the fenders, in jail, being driven across a mine-studded bridge by Isaac Hayes? Why the hell didn't Cadillac issue a chandelier-equipped Escape From New York Edition Cadillac?
Barbara Stanwyck's 1937 LaSalle
Double Indemnity, 1944. It's taking all my willpower to avoid stacking this list with nothing but film noir cars- for example, the cop '49 Ford stalking Sterling Hayden in the opening sequence of Asphalt Jungle- but there's no way we can neglect this LaSalle, which features in the greatest post-murder-victim-body-dump 'car won't start' sequence in cinema history.
Robert Mitchum's 1950 Ford
Thunder Road, 1958. That ol' dope-smoking Bob Mitchum won't let the '57 Chevy-drivin' revenoors catch his triple-carbed Ford, no way! You'll get some nice closeup shots of the triple-carbed overhead-valve Ford V8 in this excellent car movie.
All 250 Vehicles In The Final Sequence Of Used Cars
Used Cars, 1980. The greatest Malaise Era movie of all time! You'll see everything from an early Bronco to a Fiat 128 burning rubber in the final ten minutes of this Kurt Russell classic.
Mel Gibson's 1994 Chevrolet Caprice
Conspiracy Theory, 1997. A movie in which Crazy Mel delivers the line "It's time someone lifted the festering scab that is the Vatican" is already starting off on the right foot, but his awesomely evil Caprice cab sets a new standard for scary movie taxis.
Harvey Keitel's 1972 Imperial LeBaron
Mean Streets, 1973. What do low-level mob associates drive in Early Malaise New York City? Exactly. Spoiler: this car doesn't get a happy ending.
Reese Witherspoon's 1967 Dodge Coronet Wagon
Freeway, 1996. This movie features cynicism galore, a nightmarish Danny Elfman soundtrack, Brooke Shields sticking a gun in her mouth and pulling the trigger… and this beautifully wretched Coronet wagon, the crapping out of which starts Witherspoon's character on her Red Riding Hood-esque adventures. Murilee says check it out!
Bette Davis' 1947 Lincoln
What Ever Happened To Baby Jane, 1962. Yeah, so I like my movies dark and cynical- you got a problem with that? Davis' character, Baby Jane Hudson, uses this reminder-of-past-glory luxury machine to haul her crippled sister to her death on the Santa Monica beach.
Ronald Reagan's 1959 Ford
The Killers, 1964. Man, imagine having an actor become governor of California! Watching The Great Communicator- in this case, playing a criminal mastermind plotting a mail-truck heist- hoon this gigantic boxy Ford down a dirt road while wearing the same exact suit he wore as President… well, I'm shopping for '59 Fords now!
Dick Rude's 1976 Toyota Corolla
Repo Man, 1984. I'm going to go on record stating that Repo Man is the Greatest Car Movie Of All Time, and that choosing one car to honor in this list was quite difficult. I've read the screenplay many times, and it's telling that Alex Cox specified the exact year, make, and model of every car to be used in the film (and, in most cases, those are the cars that were used during the production). The red Eldorado? The Government Agents' Matador? The Malibu? I'm going to give the honor to the "get sushi and not pay" gang's very punk Toyota… and that reminds me that I've committed a grievous mistake by omitting the Torino from Suburbia in this list. Well, next one!
John Lurie's 1965 Dodge Coronet 440
Stranger Than Paradise, 1984. What's the best possible car for a pair of small-time gamblers to drive from New York to Cleveland to Florida during the winter in 1984? Jim Jarmusch knows!
Rodney Dangerfield's 1966 Mulliner Park Ward Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III
Caddyshack, 1980. What car best epitomizes bad taste and conspicuous consumption, Middle Malaise Era style? Sure, a Zimmer might have worked just as well, but a Mulliner Park Ward Silver Cloud is just as horrifying and ten times as expensive!
Matt Dillon's 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood
Drugstore Cowboy, 1990. When you're ripping off drugstores for that good pharmaceutical-grade junk during the Nixon Era in the Pacific Northwest, there's no better ride.
Billy Bob Thornton's 1940 Dodge Coupe
The Man Who Wasn't There, 2001. Of all the Coen Brothers' films- which show excellent taste in vehicular selection- I settled on this one as my favorite. Tough choice, and I almost went with the '85 Cutlass Ciera in Fargo, or the detective's Beetle in Blood Simple.
Roger Sloman's Morris Minor 1000 Convertible
Nuts In May, 1976. This annoying little car is so perfectly suited to Sloman's fingernails-on-chalkboard character that it's impossible to imagine him driving anything else.
Gloria Swanson's Isotta-Fraschini
Sunset Boulevard, 1950. Wicker bodywork. Leopard skin upholstery. 800 feet total length. Best of all, a golden telephone to speak to the driver!
Burt Reynolds' 1972 Citroën SM
The Longest Yard, 1974. A drunk-driven SM being chased by Malaise Era Mopars, with Burt Reynolds at the wheel and Lynyrd Skynyrd on the radio. Enough said!
Ömer Simsek's Opel Manta
Manta, Manta, 1991. As any longtime Jalopnik reader knows, we have a sick love for the Opel Manta, otherwise known as "the German Camaro." Here's one of the many, many gorgeous Mantas from the German film Manta, Manta.
Image source: Automobilsport

We love perfectly restored AMXs, of course, but seeing one with a few rough spots that still survives on the street is pretty cool. Patrick was inspired by the Alameda '69 AMX to send in these shots from his neighborhood:

This one appeared a few months ago on my block in Santa Monica and calls the street home. It's riding on its original glass tires and is in 100% pure time-warp condition. Virtually its entire life was spent sitting in storage before recent liberation.

So, in an attempt to get the 450 DOTS Celebration to show up on your computer, I'm breaking it up into sections. We've had the Germans and the Wagons, and today I've been so inspired by the beautiful DOTS '69 AMX that I've put together a collection of Alameda's street-parked vintage American cars and trucks that were not designed by Detroit's Big Three (I say "designed" because I think that the '45 Jeep counts as a Willys, in spite of being built by Ford). I believe that the trio of kit cars, the Shay Model A, the CMC Gazelle, and the Fieroborghini- based on Pinto, Chevette, and Fiero chassis, respectively- qualify here, because, well, why not? You Scout fans will find plenty of iron to admire, we've got some Ramblers and a couple of Studes, and there's even a Packard!

1943 IHC	1945 Ford	1948 IHC	1951 Willys	1953 Packard	1956 Willys
1958 Willys	1960 Studebaker	1960 Rambler	1961 Rambler	1964 Studebaker	1964 Jeep
1964 Checker	1965 IHC	1965 Rambler	1969 AMC	1969 AMC	1972 IHC
1972 IHC	1972 IHC	1976 AMC	1976 IHC	1977 IHC	1979 Shay
1980 IHC	1983 Jeep	1984 Jeep	1988 CMC	2000 Fieroborghini

If you count Ramblers, so far the only Kenosha cars we've seen on the island have been this '60 American, this '61 American, this '65 American, this '69 Ambassador SST wagon, and this '76 Pacer X. While I've got a real soft spot for the Oleg Cassini Edition '75 Matador, most car freaks would suggest the AMX- or maybe the SC/Rambler- as their all-time favorite AMC product. Here's one, with a 4-speed and everything!

This car lives on the same block as the '65 Mercury Comet, seen here in the foreground, and both machines are part of the same family; father owns the AMX and daughter drives the Comet.

Since the Comet DOTS photos resulted in some very Robert Bechtle-esque photographs, I decided to shoot for that effect with the AMC as well. This one's a little dark for true Bechtle style, but what the heck.

Yesterday, 77% of you deemed FREE to be a Nice Price for the poor little AMC Spirit, and we're eagerly awaiting the first report on when you go to pick up your prize. Today, we're pleased to present another AMC product- this time a foreign exchange student who liked America so much it moved here permanently.

By the late 1970s AMC was running out of ways to annually refresh the centuries-old Gremlin and Hornet, and their innovative all-wheel-drive Eagles wouldn't be on the market soon enough to keep the Kenosha car maker in hookers and blow a financially sound position. In a historic reversal of fortunes, the French came to the aid of the struggling Americans, but in this case financially rather than militarily. Renault, salivating over the Jeep brand, and seeking a more robust presence in the still lucrative U.S. market bought a controlling interest in the little Wisconsin manufacturer. In addition to pumping fundage into the company, Renault also provided the basis for some new baubles to adorn AMC Dealerships, and new frustrations for those dealer's service departments. First among those was the mawkishly-named Alliance, based on the Renault 9 sold to the surrender monkeys back home. The Alliance was quickly anointed by Motor Trend as the Car of the Year for 1983, ensuring its place in history, as well as heavy volume of Renault advertising in Crain publications for the next twelve months. Car & Driver, not to be one-upped by a rival, named it to their Top 10 list the same year. Both are deeds for which neither magazine has yet to officially apologize.

But time wounds all heels, and summer is upon us offering warm weather, longer days, and the chance to enjoy some quality time behind the wheel of a breezy convertible. Now, along with all that, summer has also brought gas prices that have been creeping up like a cheap pair of underwear. That means that your summer driving fun should be in something that doesn't drink with the rapaciousness of an auto blogger, hence today's $4,500 question mark; a Renault Alliance convertible from the halcyon year of 1985. Not only was that year that the film Otac na sluzbenom putu was recognized with the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival, but it was also the year that Renault recognized the resemblance of the Alliance to Marie Antoinette, and decided to lop its head off too.

This white over metallic bleu Alliance is ready for your summer lovin' and that 37MPG means you'll be spending less time at the pump, and more time next to the hump, rowing your own with the five-speed manual, the linkage for which likely feels as though it was made from rubber bands. And since this one has the 1.7 litre OHC motor, rather than the precambrian 1.4 pushrodder, you'll have fewer instances of being humiliated at stoplight drags by octogenarians on riding mowers.

Described as like new (which may not be a positive considering the dog-crap quality these cars seemed to have been cursed with upon leaving their Kenosha birthplace), and with a color-matching interior, this little brie-baker could enliven your summer motoring for not much more than two months lease payment on an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, and without all the attitudinal baggage associated with that 12MPG beast.

So, does $4,500 sound like an amount that could let you form an alliance with this tidy little Renault? Or, is that a price, and a car, that you more closely associate with the axis of evil?

You decide!

Milwaukee Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears. Hat tip to tempesjo!

Help me out with NPOCP. Click here to send a me a tip.

Now, don't go sending me a bunch of those "ZOMG where is this junkyard? I need them parts for my Rambler project!" emails, because I shot these photos a year ago and this proto-AMC long ago served as a tasty snack for the steel jaws of The Crusher, an appetizer for the main course of Tradesman vans and W126 Benzes. Instead, contemplate the temporary nature of life as you peruse this Server Hamster-Approved™ new-style gallery, which I'm hoping won't cause a blackout to descend upon the Eastern Seaboard the very first time a reader clicks on one of its images:

Holy crap! A Weather Eye!

It's a still-in-shrinkwrap Jo-Han 1:25 scale kit of one of my two favorite musclecars of all time: the '69 AMC SC/Rambler. The current top bid is just $3.25, but there's a week to go. How much would you pay for this rare red-white-and-blue beast?

[eBay]

Ramblers and AMCs haven't been particularly plentiful on the streets of Alameda, but we've seen a handful. This '61 American, this '65 American, this '69 Ambassador SST Wagon, and this '76 Pacer pretty much sums it up, though I could add a few more if we consider pre-Chrysler Jeeps to be members of the AMC family tree.

1960 was the last year for the upside-down-bathtub Rambler styling. A low sticker price was the main goal for this car, and AMC was quite successful; car shoppers could get a two-door 1960 Rambler Deluxe Business Coupe (back seat not included) for just $1,781. Compare that to the $1,912 price tag on the cheapest Ford Falcon, or the $1,984 Chevy Corvair sedan. Or, heck, even the $1,565 '60 Volkswagen Beetle- the extra couple hundred bucks got you a much more traditional-looking and substantial car than what Wolfsburg had to offer.
The American's low price tag came with a few compromises, of course. Even this relatively high-zoot Custom (priced at $2,059) came with a flathead inline-six engine as standard equipment. That's right, you could still buy a new car with a flathead in the 1960s!

TheEastBayKid spotted this fine machine not far from 24 Hours Of LeMons Headquarters, in the former bootlegging capitol of Northern California, Emeryville. As befits an Oakland native, TheEastBayKid describes this Kenosha wagon as having "hella bass." We certainly hope so!

That's how Alan Galbraith sees it, so he's put together perhaps the coolest Pacer we've ever seen. No, AMC never made a Hurst Edition Pacer, but so what? It just looks right! As Alan says: "It's really not a bad car. Oh sure, it's rusting at the seams right now outside my house in the rain, the 30+ year old emissions system is going fail me at smog check one of these years, the brittle and non-replaceable plastic interior is one bump away from completely crumbling to dust... But it drives, rides and handles pretty well. Personally the design is growing on me... like a fungus I guess."

In one of the most ambitious senior prank stories we've heard in a while, Fruita, Colorado seniors decided to use a long defunct AMC Eagle lying around someone's backyard as the centerpiece of their prank. They removed the rear door and cut a notch in the floor and roof then transported it on a covered trailer at night to the schools flagpole, where they slid the car around the pole, welded on a roof patch and reattached the door.

Since no property damage was done the seniors will be getting off scot-free as long as they agree to haul the car away eventually. We're pretty proud of these kids as our senior prank only involved a truck bed full of horse manure and the front entrance of the school. (Hat Tip to Ash78)
[GJ Sentinal]

New York real-estate developer Steve Green has been collecting classic 1960s and 1970s AMCs for quite a while, amassing a stunning assortment of Gremlins, Ambassadors, Javelins, and the like. Health problems have forced him to sell off some of his cars, and the auction takes place on April 3. Looking for a "one of one" Oleg Cassini Matador or the lowest-mileage '74 Javelin on the face of the earth? Get to Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte next month!
[Tom Mack Classics, thanks to Goatrope for the tip!]

And we love those cars, no doubt about it, but looking at one is much like hearing the same classic-rock song for the millionth time. Sure, "Satisfaction" is a good tune (especially when performed by The Residents), but ennui sets in eventually. But there were plenty of vehicles built that can be classed as muscle cars, yet never attained truly iconic status. I'm a big fan of some of the less common machines, and UDMan truly loves them. He's put together a regular Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot series over on CarDomain, where you'll be able to see obsessively documented and illustrated studies of such greats as the 1958 Packard Hawk, 1970 Mercury Marauder X-100, 1957 Rambler Rebel, and 1977 Pontiac LeMans Can Am. We say check it out!
[CarDomain Blog]

I hear a lot of potential 24 Hours Of LeMons entrants whine about the supposed impossibility of finding any running car for under 500 bucks: "You can't even get a thrashed Taurus for that kind of money!" Bullshit, I say! Even if you rule out the option of selling $300 worth of parts from an $800 car, you can still find plenty of seriously LeMons-worthy machinery that will fit your budget. With that in mind, tonight we're going to have 10 choices- the largest number ever offered in Project Car Hell history- and every one of these vehicles is located within a day's drive of Buttonwillow Raceway Park. You've got six months, you've got a bunch of suckers friends to join your team, and now it's time to go race car shopping! Note: if any of the original Craigslist ads disappear, just go to the gallery at the bottom of the post for screenshots.

1. 1978 Jeep DJ5
Do you want to be just another team with a soporific Sentra or coma-inducing Camaro, or do you want to stand out? You don't need to go very fast to put in a strong showing at the 24 Hours Of LeMons; all you need to do is keep grinding out the laps. With that in mind, how about a machine that will let neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stay your drivers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds? Frankenstein up some fat swaybars onto this lightweight two-wheel-drive box and it definitely won't might even put down some respectable lap times!

2. 1987 Renault GTA Convertible
In theory, the extra chassis bracing in a convertible will make for an extra-stiff platform, once you get a roll cage installed, and of course there's the comfort factor of having those cowshit-scented soothing Buttonwillow breezes flowing past your helmet while all the other drivers swelter in their steel prisons. What you need is the hot-rodded ragtop version of the Renault 9-based Alliance, with 95 front-drive horses and Franco-Kenosha build quality. This one is just 300 bucks, and it seems pretty close to being in running condition: "i drove where it parks and i think it needs a fuse but easy to fix." Remember, French cars have a massive head start at the Index Of Effluency trophy!

3. V6 4X4 Geo Metro
An engine-swapped Geo Metro won the last LeMons race, so you know it's a superior formula. But what you really need in a racing Metro is four-wheel drive! Imagine the advantage you'll have when the track gets covered with dirt, oil, and shards of Porsche connecting rods, as you pilot this fine GM 2.8 V6-powered machine to victory. The project isn't exactly what you'd call "finished" yet, but it's not even close well on its way; what you get is a shortened Chevy S10 chassis with a Metro body sitting (loosely) on top of it. How much? 450 dollars in Trilateral Commission-approved fiat currency... or firearms... or GOLD.

4. 1963 Ford Fairlane 500
1960s Detroit Iron always does quite well in LeMons races, since what little does go wrong with the car on the track can be fixed in minutes by any random group of bystanders hanging around the pits. Just keep racking up the laps, try to avoid getting upside-down, and you'll cruise right past all them high-strung furrin machines. This Fairlane has the very first version of the Ford Windsor small-block V8, which you'll most likely be able to trade for a 302 + cash from some numbers-matching-obsessed Ford restorer. In fact, this thing is fully loaded with parts you can sell; we'd be shocked if you failed to squeeze 400 bucks out of it, which should provide the budgetary room to get some junkyard disc brakes and swaybars on it. Does it run? Well, it "ran when parked in my grandparents barn Last year," which would make you run away screaming if applied to a BMW, but a Fairlane? Easy!

5. Dodge Caravan Turbo
Who says you can't run a minivan at the 24 Hours Of LeMons? Chief Perp Jay Lamm hisself has stated that minivans are totally acceptable. And the Dodge Caravan Turbo will never in a million years could be a total sleeper winner; just look at what they'll do on the dragstrip! Sell all the interior crap, lights, glass, and so on, and you should have the cash needed to go junkyard shopping for an intercooler and bigger turbocharger. Then it'll just be a matter of Sawzalling the clearance needed for huge, sticky tires, maybe chop the springs, and you'll be showing busted engine parts that big tailgate to the competition!

6. 1985 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz
What kind of car did Robert De Niro's character, Ace Rothstein, drive in the movie Casino? Damn right, a Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz! That alone is reason enough to drive a Biarritz in the 24 Hours Of LeMons, and never mind that the car in the movie was destroyed by a car bomb. You get a stainless steel roof, an Olds 350 V8 driving the front wheels, and more style than all the other schmucks in the race combined! The deal we've found here gets you one putatively running Biarritz and another parts car, which means you should be able to make a few bucks selling all the crap you won't need for racing (we recommend that you have your racing seat upholstered with that snazzy Biarritz leather). As long as you can keep from frying the transmission, and your crew works quicksville with the front tire changes (big front-wheel-drive cars tend to eat front tires in a hurry on the race track, as all the Taurus SHO guys will tell you), you should have a snowball's chance in hell a great shot at the checkered flag at Buttonwillow.

7. 1967 Toyota Crown Wagon
Tired of all those Supras and Celicas in LeMons races? You need to show some real Toyota pride, by roaring onto the track in a vintage Crown! And, crazy as it seems, it's possible to get a Crown station wagon- which might even be close to running condition, though that's not the way to bet- for a LeMons-grade price. This '67 has the big six-cylinder M engine, and no doubt many valuable parts you'll be able to eBay-ize (to the same vintage Japanese car lovers who will want to skin you alive for trashing one of the last surviving Crown wagons in the hemisphere) into extra budget money. Spare parts might be tough to find, but it's a Toyota- who needs spare parts?

8. V6 Chevrolet Vega
If a Chevrolet V6 works well in an Opel GT, wouldn't it be even better in a genuine, all-American Chevy Vega? We've got that setup here, with some flavor of Chevy 90° V6 and a 4-speed already installed. It's plenty rusty, but so what? It runs! Well, sort of: "will need some work to make it road worthy." Roll cage kits are easily obtained for the Vega, thanks to all those Vega drag racers, and you might even be able to sell sufficient parts to afford some big swaybars!

9. 1948 Buick Super Eight
Remember when serious road racers ran straight-eight-powered Buick sedans? Of course you do (provided you come from an alternate universe in which Dewey really did defeat Truman), and now is your chance to scare the living crap out of get the edge over the competition with this '48. Except for the hood- which you won't need, because you'll want to show off that torquey OHV eight- this car is totally complete. It appears to have been sitting for 10,000 years a while, but you've got Buick quality on your side here. Imagine piloting this ponderous stately dredging barge cruiser over and through past all those lesser race cars, straight to victory! We're sure those drum brakes will become hotter than the core of a nuclear reactor hold up just fine under the infernal balmy conditions of Buttonwillow in August, and that three-on-the-tree transmission should be pure agony the bee's nuts for racing!

10. 1977 AMC Pacer
Can you believe that we have yet to see an AMC Pacer in a 24 Hours Of LeMons race? That's a damn shame, but your team could be the first to clog up dominate the track with the Small, But Wide AMC. This one has been sitting for 12 years (probable translation: 22 years), but the seller says it runs and drives. The price tag is $350, which means you might be able to sell a few parts and fit a junkyard V8 into your budget... but why do that, when the AMC Straight Six is such a strong engine? Unlike pre-Malaise American cars, the Pacer sports front disc brakes, and the whole package is simple enough that it should be able to hold together for many laps.

Even non-AMC freaks appreciate the original AMX (reviews are much more mixed for the Malaise AMX), but the days of snapping one up for cheap are decades in the past. You want a really nice two-seater AMX, you must pay. But must you pay $45,000? That's what we're dealing with here. The car looks great: original California car, stripped and repainted, all the original accessories down to the canned spare-tire air, etc… but it's not a 4-speed and that price is a real jolt. What do you think?
[Cardiff Classics]

The AMC Pacer looks crazy from any angle; as we saw in the DOTS '76 Pacer, it's pretty much impossible to tell if you're getting lens distortion when you photograph- regardless of angle- due to its weird bulbous appearance. Jean-Charles, the French distributor for the Pacer, figured the best approach was to demonstrate how not all big round objects look bad. Image source: Wikipedia

They make Coors beer in Golden, and the brewery is a Manhattan Project-scale operation that looms over the town and fills the air with the smell of yeast. Last Saturday, however, hydrocarbons filled the air! I found this '68 or '69 AMX (AMC experts, which year is it?) in beautiful condition parked on a side street. Even before I got close to it, I knew it would have a 4-speed and a 390. Note the "hyperspace" button on the shifter; yes, this car is probably a bit quicker than it was when it left Kenosha.



The Renault Torino was based on the Rambler Rogue, and the mighty '69 SC/Rambler was, too. With that kind of heritage, what's not to love about this '66 Rogue, equipped with built 390 and 4-speed?



I saw this Rambler cop car roll by, but never could find it holding still enough for photography. However, I was able to capture another Rambler of similar vintage in a nearby parking lot. Note the local dealer emblem on the trunk lid; it appears to be a lifelong Colorado car.



I think this screaming tangerine '57 Chrysler got more attention from passersby than anything else I saw in Golden that eventing; it was very difficult to catch it without a half-dozen awed spectators drooling over it. These things came with 375-horse 392 Hemis back in the day, but I suspect it has something even more wicked today.

Did you look at the '57 Cadillac down on the Alameda street and think "Man, I'd love to get me one of those... but who's got that kind of cash these days?" You could buy a somewhat rough one, but then the cost of parts will keep you poor for years. Don't give up on those Caddy dreams so easily, we say, because we've found a project '57 that comes with a parts car (go here if the ad disappears). Tune out the squawks of those can't-do-ers and never-happen-ers trying to tell you that both of those Cads barely qualify for parts-car status, because: 600 bucks. Really! Just six Benjamins and 9,000 pounds of rust luxury automobile will be all yours! And hey, you stand to make a profit on this deal, according to the seller: "Enough parts to build a complete car, and sell the remaining Vintage Parts to pay for your project, and then some!" You can't lose! Thanks to Scout_II_4x4 in Iraq for the tip!

A '57 Cadillac is a great car... if you're Vito Genovese, heading to the Apalachin Meeting, that is. If you're not a mob boss, however, you might consider heading to Kenosha for your 1957 project. Nash and Hudson joined to form AMC back in '54, so by purchasing this 1957 Nash/1957 Hudson combo (go here if the ad disappears), you'd be able to laugh at those noob Marlin owners who think they've got old AMCs. The seller doesn't think you need to know what models he's selling, but the cars appear to be a Nash Ambassador and a Hudson Hornet sedan. Since both are based on the same platform, you probably won't should be able to swap parts from one to the other with abandon. Just pick the nicest one and get busy! You get two AMC 327 V8s (one conveniently located in the trunk) and both cars are "pretty straight," with the interiors allegedly in good condition. Did we say you could use one as a parts car? Forget that- fix 'em both!

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AMC already had the AMX in 1969, and a fine car it was. But back then, real musclecars were based on midsize or compact sedans, and they had back seats and proper trunks; the two-seater AMX did fine on the race track, but left something to be desired when it came to real-world usage. But wait- what about the Rambler Rogue? 2,296 pounds and room for a V8 under the hood; just grab a 315 horsepower 390 off the shelf, add 4-speed, "Twin-Grip" differential, and a crazy paint job and you've got the SC/Rambler! They ran low-14-second quarter-miles on crappy 60s street tires, which was damn good back then… but it also means that just about every one of the 1,512 built was blown up, wrecked, or otherwise hooned into nothingness. Hold on to your red-white-and-blue hats, though, because we've found this '69 SC/Rambler, currently bid up to a sub-$7,000 price. We can't say what the reserve might be, but we can tell you for sure that there's rust. Plenty of rust, but check it out: the seller says the floor and trunk pans are good! The seller says it's all original and authentic, though the original owners are still "looking for the original bill of sale" and the engine is described as "correct" rather than "original." Most likely, however, it's for real, since the clone market for these machines has never been anything like what you see for Chrysler E-bodies and GM A-bodies.

That Rambler would be lots of fun at the vintage drag races, no doubt about it, but say you're more into fast mobster cars than you are into 60s quarter-milers? Something with a great big dinosaur-juice-swilling big-block under a hood the size of the stage in your most profitable strip club? Yes, we're talking about the 1970 Chrysler 300 Hurst here. 4,125 pounds, 375 horsepower, a fiberglass hood with a (sadly, nonfunctional) scoop, and a crazy two-tone paint job. The only thing wrong with the 300 Hurst was the appalling lack of a manual transmission, so if I ever get one I'll be willing to brave the wrath of the purists by installing a 4-speed. They only made 485 300 Hursts, and the low-single-digit gas mileage probably sent most of them to The Crusher during the 70s… but it's still possible to buy one! Oh sure, you could shell out 34 grand for C. Van Tune's 300H, but where's the hell there? No, all you need is a mere $4,500- or maybe even less- and you can buy this one! The seller doesn't give much description, other than "440 tnt needs resto," but you can count on quite a long and often tortuous journey to get this thing in proper shape. The good news is that your '70 Chrysler C-body parts are ridiculously easy to find, as are the correct hot-rod 440 engine parts… but the bad news: 485 300 Hursts made, meaning the special 300H-only bits will definitely might have to be fabricated from scratch.

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The Hang 10 Dodge Dart didn't come with a surfboard, but it did feature a rear seat that folded down, enabling Slant-Six-powered hodaddies to avoid that unsightly board-out-the-window look. You got cool Hang 10 graphics and a bunch of other special stuff to make you forget that the base Slant Six only made 95 horsepower and the 318 V8 just 145. We all want a Hang 10, of course, but where can you find one these days? Hawaii? Huntington Beach? No need to go anywhere near the Pacific, dudes and dudettes, because this 1975 Hang 10 Edition Dodge Dart (go here if the ad disappears) lives in South Carolina! We don't know what kind of engine this one has (in fact, judging by the height of the front end, we're not sure it even has an engine), but every junkyard in the hemisphere has at least one 360 waiting for you. As for the rest of the car… well, the seller doesn't waste any keystrokes on excess description: "Needs normal restoration, solid car." Does "normal restoration" mean "total replacement of floor pans, quarter panels, trunk floor, upholstery, wiring harness, brakes, and fuel system," or will this car end up being a difficult project? Only one way to find out! At least you can get repro decals for it.

Darts are great, but all the surfing-themed decals in the world can't make one a rare car. If you're thinking about a special-edition Malaisemobile that you don't see every day, you need to look at some of the stuff they built in Kenosha. Say, f'rexample, this 1977 Levi's Edition AMC Hornet AMX (go here if the ad disappears), priced at just $3,200. It's in (theoretically) rust-free New Mexico. The seller claims "This car is said to have belonged to the Levi Strauss family," and that it's either one of 2,500 or one of 100 made. It "runs and drives good," but needs a U-joint (or something more expensive that makes a sound like a defective U-joint) and a bunch of body work. The Hornet hood and trunk graphics are psilocybic, and you can even get replacements if necessary. How hard could it be?

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The American SUVs on the market in 1989 were quite a bit different than the generation that would take over in just two years' time. We tend to focus on their crudeness and lack of creature comforts, but more importantly, nearly all "mid-size" SUVs before the 1990s period were two-door models. The exception was the Jeep Cherokee XJ, which was developed with extra doors specifically because Chevy hadn't added them to their Blazer. The other players were either Japanese, like the Isuzu Trooper or, like the Suburban, based on a larger truck platform.

The Jeep Z5 concept will look very familiar to you.

Fortunately for Chrysler, Jeep had developed a more-refined version of the four-door SUV that we know as the Jeep Grand Cherokee all the way back in 1985, when the division was owned by AMC. Unfortunately for Chrysler, when they purchased AMC and Jeep, they put the development of the Grand Cherokee project on hold in favor of new minivans. Still, Jeep had the answer, and in 1989 they released the Jeep Z5 Concept 1, which was basically the final design for the Grand Cherokee that they would bring to market in 1992.

Contrast that with the General. For 1989, GM had two futuristic concept trucks that we assume they hoped would stir enough interest to guide them in their product-making decisions. One was the youth-oriented Pontiac Stinger compact SUV. Though it wasn't particularly powerful — its engine was only good for 170 HP — it had a high level of utility, including features such as a removable picnic table and portable radio. These types of features weren't put to use, as Pontiac wasn't going to build an SUV in the near future. Ironically, many of these ideas found a home — the ill-fated and poorly designed Pontiac Aztec.

The Stinger is certainly better looking than the Aztec, even if it isn't as practical.

The other concept truck was the Chevy XT-2 concept, which stood for the Chevy Experimental Truck #2. This futuristic-looking, performance-oriented vehicle featured a Corvette suspension, a front-engine/RWD layout built on a platform similar to the F-body Camaro, and a 4.5-liter V6 that was good for 360 horsepower and 315 lb-ft of torque. The V6 engine itself, which featured tuned port injection, was an important technological leap forward for GM. The TPI system not only provided more power than a carbureted engine, it was also relatively fuel-efficient. For an excellent discussion of the importance of this engine see this discussion of the XT-2 at PickupTrucks.com.

The XT-2 was designed as a pace car to be used in what was then the CART PPG Indy Car World Series, which is now a weird mix of words to see together. The truck itself went through two designs before engineers landed on the final one. The first version was fairly wild and had the engine mounted under the bed. The second version was a based on a passenger-car platform with a FWD/AWD layout and a smaller V6 engine, a concept not unlike the crossovers that would follow in the mid-2000s. So how did they end up with the final version? According to a press release provided by GM, "Given the consumer preference to small, sporty trucks, the evolution of the Chevrolet PPG XT-2 Pace Truck was natural."

So, in 1989, you had the Pontiac Stinger and the Chevy XT-2 from GM as the radically futuristic vehicles. The designers and planners clearly understood that, after the previous gas crisis, crossovers and sportier car-based trucks were the way forward. But that wasn't what happened.

In 1990, GM came out with four-door versions of their S10-based SUV's and Ford came out with the Ford Explorer. The design wasn't exactly revolutionary — the Explorer and others were the same basic body-on-frame trucks as before with an extra set of doors. The Explorer caught the imagination and dollars of Suburban families by offering car-like amenities such as leather interiors and CD players. Jeep suddenly had to rush their dusty Grand Cherokee to market in 1992 to catch up with the market.

Gas prices remained low, especially relative to the sudden increase in the purchasing power of the average American. In 1991 there were less than a million SUVs sold in the United States. By 1998, Americans were buying nearly three million a year. In 1998, the three best-selling trucks (F-Series, Silverado and Explorer) outsold the Toyota Camry, which was the best-selling car. Unfortunately, in this orgy of truck sales, nothing quite like the XT-2 was ever produced. Why make a car-based SUV or truck when you're suddenly making money hand-over-fist by adding a CD player and an extra set of doors to a body-on-frame platform you've already developed?

Fast-forward almost twenty years, to March 2008. The Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Toyota Camry bested the Ford F-150 in monthly sales, and you have your answer. Not long after, GM postponed development of their GMT-900 full-sized truck platform. It then leaked out that GM was considering a more Honda Ridgeline-esque pickup — not unlike the second version of the XT-2 concept that was never produced.

Then the news we were all waiting for: GM announced the Pontiac G8 Sport Truck in 2008. The Pontiac G8 ST will be built on the Zeta platform that underpins the 2010 Chevy Camaro, giving it essentially the same setup as the Chevy XT-2.

The General could have created car-based CUVs and sporty trucks; obviously, they thought the idea had some merit in 1989. But development and focus instead shifted to the cheaper and easier body-on-frame alternative with two extra doors. Almost 20 years later, with another energy crisis underway, it's fascinating to see how two versions of the same forgotten concepts from the late 1980s are now looking like the new way forward for an automaker desperately trying to grapple with age-old problems.

[Photos and press releases courtesy of General Motors. Special thanks to GM for providing the information, Mike Levine of PickupTrucks.com for tracking much of it down and to SmalleyXb122 for starting this whole search with his comment in the Five Ugliest Concept Trucks post.]

The Pontiac G8 ST proves Peter's maxim about originality.

AMC Concord AMX
Powered by an optional 5.0-liter V8, the '78 AMX was based on the otherwise boring new-for-'78 AMC Concord. You could get the 4.2-liter straight-six with a 4-speed manual, but if you wanted the macho V8, you were stuck with a 3-speed slushbox. For those wanting to rebel against the empire of Detroit's big three, while still buying American, this was the way to go. Besides, who else was gonna offer you authentic Levi's denim seats?
[source]

Ford Mustang King Cobra
With the new fox-body Mustangs right around the corner, the '78 King Cobra was a last hurrah for the old Mustang II. The Cobra-adorned hood featured a new reverse hood scoop, and tucked underneath was a 5.0-liter V8. That mill wheezed out about 140 HP, and was connected to a 4-speed manual or an optional automatic. Really, not much was mechanically different from the previous Cobra II, but if you wanted a bitchin' snake on your hood, this was the car for you.
[source]

Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am
Starring in the previous year's film Smokey And The Bandit, the T/A went mostly unchanged for '78. However, GM did make changes where it counted, as 1978 actually saw an increase in the 6.6-liter V8's compression ratio — to 8.1:1. Of course, output was still only 188 HP, but that was still more than you got in a base '78 Corvette. Plus, if you were a real bandit, you could order a special high-altitude model that used an Oldsmobile 403 CI V8 rather than the Pontiac 400 CI lump...and somehow lose 8 HP in the process. Either way, you were lucky sure to outrun any smokey.
[image source]

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