While Dan Curtis was showing the power of killer Bs in Phoenix, 2000 miles to the east First Coast AMC did an outstanding job hosting a show which featured 100 cars evenly divided between 50 2 seater's and 50 other AMC's. Participants came from Ohio, New York, North and South Carolina and a very large local contingent.
Best AMX was won by Preston Carter of Dunkirk, Md. Best AMC was a battle between the two awesome A schemes with the much photographed and written about car of member Bob Hodson losing to Manny and Kay Cheek's car by one point. Bob also showed up with his Sportabout wagon and his '69 Rambler 6 gas saver 2 dr sedan. Hey Bob, if you need a volunteer to help drive your fleet to the next show....

Patty Snead came from nearby New Smyrna with her '68 390 AMX stirred with a 4 speed and a T shirt "Bad Ass Girls Drive Bad Ass Cars". That's an AMC er with an attitude!

Harold Lengel of Palm Bay, FL likes to work on his tan while sipping gas in his '65 440 convertible with a 232 six pack. Stan Best from the same home town as the late funny car driver Al Hoffman, Umatilla,Fl has a last of the breed '67 Ambassador convertible which is very much a driver and not a trailer queen.

Rick and Donna Pittman brought their '70 360 AMX from Lake City, Fl complete with a custom made neon AMC sign for their display. The Kenosha brand truly lights up their lives! Gary Kelly made the short trip from Deltona in his drop dead gorgeous '70 RWB Machine.

Subtlety is not something William Pinto values. The Cocoa resident's '81 Spirit with 401 looks like it would be at home on the launch pad of the nearby space center and the all black paint job gives the appearance of a refugee from area 51.
The last year Javelin bowed out with class. Palm Coast's Carl Sheppard showed his 401 go pack, a/c automatic AMX in a very upscale looking black and gold similar to the Lotus John Player livery.

Carolina AMC's showed up with about half a dozen members including Salisbury, NC's Jimmy Barrow with his animal A scheme. Jimmy chose comfort over concourse as you can see by the a/c compressor. He also chose some Lucas style headlights to illuminate the Carolina byways and he opted for chromed magnums to add some flash to his Nash and they are covered with BFG TA's so he can get a grip. What lies below those unique aluminum valve covers is in military intelligence speak information disseminated only on a need to know basis. In plain English what that means is if you are driving brand X and you are intelligent, don't mess with it. Of course, with the in your face attitude this bad boy projects some conspiracy theorists think that Homeland Security might put him on their watch list as a Tarheel Terrorist.

The AMX with the greatest Hollywood history was the AMX 400 which given by Dick Teague to George Barris who transformed it in 13 weeks to what is seen here. It toured the ISCA circuit and also appeared in an episode of the TV show Banacek. Current owner Mike Teddy towed down from Buffalo at a fuel cost of 1100 bucks. In case you aren't wearing your driving suit and nomex underwear and have 125k which is absolutely burning a hole in your pocket it can be yours.
Herm Lewis, Mr. AMC horsepower made the show and mentioned that he has a new NASCAR style head under development. Give him American Money Cash and he will give you Amazing Muscle car Crushing horsepower.
Thanks again to First Coast for a job well done.

Al Russell
1512 Registry Supporting Member
& Writer for Amazing Muscle Cars

Saturday morning dawned blustery with weather more suitable for a windsurfing competition. This in no way detracted from the "Legends of Trans-Am Racing" seminar hosted by former Trans-Am, Can-Am and endurance racer David Hobbs and former actor, journalist and enthusiast Tim Considine. Drivers present were Tony Adamowicz, John Morton, Horst Kwech, Sam Posey, George Follmer, Dan Gurney and Parnelli Jones. The tech side was represented by Tom Yeager, Jim Huffstader, Peter Brock, Judy Stropes and Bud Moore.

Much of the discussion involved differential. Not ring and pinion or differential equations for you math majors but differential interpretation of the SCCA Trans-Am rule book aka "creative engineering". Unfortunately one of the most creative engineers in American motorsports, Smokey Yunick, is no longer with us but his spirit was represented with the #13 Camaro now owned by Vic Edelbrock. Sam Posey recalled how at Riverside in 1970 at tech inspection the crew were having some cold ones and invited SCCA chief tech inspector John Timmanus to have one. John leaned back with his elbow on the car's roof which immediately made a large dent in the roof due to the amount of acid dipping which had been done. He then told the crew that they would have a long night in front of them. They then bought a new Challenger, decapitated it and the next day they had a legal roof!

Bud Moore pointed out the intense rivalry between the Ford camp and the Penske Camaro. Penske was noted for the overhead fueling rig which also used dry ice to make the fuel denser. Bud was no slouch when it came to pit stops and used some mighty big ol' boys to hoist 14 gallon cans similar to those now used in NASCAR and he also used a type of plastic retainer for the lug nuts and was able to gain 15 to 30 seconds advantage on the Camaro. He alleged that Penske had observers with binoculars looking at his stacks of tires but he always stacked them with the lug side down.

There was also some discussion about the use of automotive accessories, namely the chrome horn. Since Parnelli Jones was this year's honored driver it is no surprise that he was singled out as one its most frequent and skillful users.

Sunday was chilly but sunny and no less than four Javelins were on display. There were examples of all the manufacturers except Pontiac in the over 2 litre category. These were the Dan Gurney Cougar, the George Follmer Mustang, the Parnelli Jones Mustang, the Sam Posey Challenger, the Swede Savage Cuda and the Penske Donahue Camaro. There were several private entries as well. The under 2 litre field was well represented with the Adamowicz Alfa, the Brock Datsun 510 and an absolutely gorgeous Lotus Cortina in red and gold Alan Mann livery. The Javelins were the 1968 Ron Kaplan car, the 1971 Penske cars and the Roy Woods '72. The #6 Javelin was parked next to the aforementioned #13 Camaro. Sometimes concours judges will request that a car be started to make sure that it is a runner. In an Amelia Island to the Bakersfield cacklefest the two cars started simultaneously and idled for about 3 minutes at 2000 rpm. Meantime your faithful scribe was photographing #6 when judges David Hobbs and Brian Redman came by and I mentioned to Hobbo about what little respect AMCs get and what a nice car that was. He diplomatically replied that there lots of nice cars in the field. After shooting some more I came back to see a blue ribbon attached to the hood of the original Mark Donahue Javelin. I'm sure my comments had no influence on the outcome whatever but it's nice to see a Javelin of this provenance get the respect it deserves.

Al Russell
1512 Registry Supporting Member
& Writer for Amazing Muscle Cars

In his excellent column "Legal Files" John Draneas in the 1//08 issue of Sports Car Market tells a story of a Jaguar owner which serves as an object lesson to all of us. Very briefly, Jag man selected a restoration shop to which he had been referred for work on his XK 150. After having received an estimate of 16k for the work to be performed he received monthly bills totaling 30k. Dissatisfied, he took it to a second shop which found that some of the work billed had not been performed and work that had been performed had not been done satisfactorily. They found that he had been overcharged by 17k. Meantime, the first shop secured a lien of 5900 bucks on the car which the owner paid before taking the owner of the first shop to court where the jury awarded the owner the 17k, legal fees plus damages. The jury could not compensate the owner for time lost or aggravation.

What did Jag man do wrong? He should have joined a make specific club such as Jaguar Club of North America, gone to their shows to become familiar with the judging standards and most importantly asked other members which shops restored their cars and what was the business experience like with shops.

What does this have to do with the S/C community? Fair question. As these cars gain more attention and popularity more cars will be restored which both preserves other cars which may have been lost and retains value for existing cars. As we all know car restoration takes time, tools, a garage and skill. Some enthusiasts don't have all of those commodities, hence the restoration shop. There are some whiners in the AMC who complain about this and the professionally restored cars by which people are "buying their way in"but this is preserving our heritage. The registry serves as an irreplaceable repository for both restoration shops and individuals.

As those of us who have been around the hobby for more years than care to admit, as in - sitting in a new S/C on the dealer's lot know that AMC's have always been treated like red, okay punk rockers, red white and blue haired step children by the automotive media. Other makes have multiple publications dedicated to them. AMC has none. While AMO has a national judging staff, the National Corvette Restorers Society has judging manuals and conducts classes for its judges on both a regional and national level. I understand that the Nash Healy owners club went belly up due to lack of member support and a great deal of expertise was lost.

To reiterate: we have no media and we have only one resource, the 1512 Registry. Please read Dan Curtis's post on the message forum under General Discussion, open your wallets and take the 1512 Registry off the endangered species list.

On a more personal note as a former federal employee with an excellent health care plan and the recipient of a kidney transplant I am fully aware of how your life focus changes during such an event. You never know the extent of the health care crisis until it hits home as it has with Matt and Valeri Wilson. After I received my Lyndon Johnson Scholarship letter to Southeast Asia Community College I was told that the Army takes care of its own. Valeri's crisis has already been posted on the AMC forum. Let the 1512 Brigade of the AMC Army now take care of one of our own. www.highwayofhope.com

''The moving finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on: nor all your piety nor wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it"

from The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam

Many automotive historians cite the economic depression of the thirties and its uncertainties and lack of confidence as being the reason for public rejection of advanced styling ideas such as the Chrysler Airflow. As the depression hung on into 1938 Nash president George Mason decided that the senior Nash line, the Ambassador, needed some sales help in the form of what we would now call a halo car. Mason appreciated sporty cars and a decade later after a chance meeting with Donald Healy would be responsible for making the Nash Healy which would later finish well at Le Mans.

Mason wanted a distinctive top of the line platform on which to work some magic and the Ambassador model 4081 was selected as the platform. The powerplant was a nine main bearing OHV straight 8 with a bore of 3.125" x 4.25'" stroke resulting in 260 cubic inches and 115 hp@ 3400 rpm and 200 lb ft of torque at 1600 rpm with 6:1 compression ratio. Nash along with Buick and Chevrolet were the only major manufacturers to offer overhead valve engines in 1940, however, Nash featured dual ignition; i.e. two plugs per cylinder, a feature shared by Stutz and Rolls-Royce. Very exclusive company indeed. He knew that the car's styling had be an attention grabber so he brought in a previous Nash styling collaborator. Enter Russian emigre Count Alexis de Saknoffsky who was tasked with transforming the Ambassador 4081 convertible into the 4081 Special Cabriolet, a genuine factory custom.

The comparison to the other sporty factory custom, the Packard Darrin is inevitable. Packard occupied a higher priced market segment than Nash and was noted for its very expensive 12 cylinder cars with custom coachwork by Derham, Waterhouse and others. As the depression wore on sales of such symbols of conspicuous consumption dried up and 1939 was the last year of the V12. It was replaced by the series 180 which Darrin used as the basis for the sporty convertible. The engine was less advanced than the Nash being a flathead straight 8 with a 3.5" bore and a massive 4.63" stroke and 7:1 compression ratio producing 160 hp@ 3600 rpm.

Darrin had spent most of the thirties in Paris where Coachbuilders such as Figoni and Falaschi slathered their coachwork with chrome, Lalique hood ornaments and other art deco touches. The amount of chrome which Darrin uses and the use of GM style mini torpedo parking lamps atop the fenders and the floating headlights were just more of a continuation of a styling paradigm which, while well done, broke no new ground. By contrast the de Saknoffsky cabriolet is truly groundbreaking.

The car was lowered from the factory, the headlights were integral in the fenders, the hood ornament was shaved, the door handles were shaved, there were no side mirrors and there was no chrome trim other than the grille and bumpers. Sitting on its wide whites and baby moons this car is the prototype of the California Custom and its influence can be seen in numerous cars featured in Rodders Journal. For its time the car was well equipped with the state of the art heating system, the Weather Eye, leather upholstery, clock and something familiar to S/C pilots a steering wheel mounted tach to watch while you moved the chrome plated shift lever which controlled the three on the tree with OD. No, the Packard didn't have a tach. The topper was the floor mounted lever for the exhaust cutout a la Duesenburg. You gotta HEAR that horsepower!

The subject car owned by Mr. Reggie Nash of Richmond,Va was photographed at the 2007 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. Reggie purchased the car as a basket case in 1970 for the then not inconsiderable sum of $2500 or about $12,500 in today's dollars. The car was also the subject of an excellent article by David La Chance in the March 2007 issue of Hemmings classic Car.

Two 1969 1/2 A - scheme HURST SC/Ramblers at this years Barrett-Jackson Auction