OK- so I am back up North, uncertain what the week will bring beyond the cold front blowing throw, cleaning out the sultry humidity and bringing the moment of unseasonably comfortable temperatures to Baghdad by the Potomac. It was a good technical drive in the Panzer- a solid road car that is peppy enough in its own way to cover the fact that I haul a lot of crap in the back. There are times in life when the even the reviled mini-van made sense, much as I hated it at the time. Mercury made the one we had- the 1993 Villager with Nautica package.

Yesterday, lost in a reverie of cars and the people who drive them, I passed effortlessly between the storms, and early enough on Sunday that decent people were in church, not driving, and the stop-lights on the limited access Rt. 29 make smooth speed-limit driving an interesting driving challenge.

There has been some vigorous conversation back and forth about cars and car people over the last few weeks, and it is time to share some of them.

I shared the tale from Alaska yesterday- there are more from people who take their cars as seriously (and yet whimsically) as I do.

Accordingly, it is time for a catch-up column today- I decided to write a book about something fun and this one has been a blast so far! Here is one of the dozens of vignettes that have come in along the way:

Well Vic, I resisted on the first chapter but can resist no more. I had a Charger. Saw it at the 1970 Tokyo auto show. Nancy and I went looking for something more sedate since we then had three little ones. But, to my joyous surprise she saw the Charger and said, “lets get one of those.” I was beside myself and quick to agree. We ordered one in “burnished gold” (or something like that) to be delivered by her brother, who was then at a Dodge dealership in Cincinnati – where we would be going to see her parents on the way to Washington for my attaché and language training en route Helsinki, Finland, to become the A/ALUSNA.

I loved it! We had it for the year of training in Washington and the three years in Helsinki. BUT – by the time we were to come home in the summer of 74, the Arab -Israeli war wounds had opened and a great gas shortage had erupted. So, I sold the Charger (the only one in Finland so far as I knew) and we ordered a hum-drum ’74 Dodge Dart for delivery upon our arrival back in D.C.

We got it and had it for one year before it was impaled (and totaled) by an AMC Javelin on Route 1 at Beacon Mall as I attempted to make a left turn onto Route 1 northbound out of the Mall. He hit me so hard that that he knocked me about 40 feet from the point of impact. The driver’s door glass shattered and hit me full bore in the left temple. Didn’t even break the skin, but I had a hellofa headache for a couple of days. The gallon of white paint I had just bought, which was sitting in the right front footwall, had its top blown off. It flew into the air and covered my face and chest, not to mention the whole dashboard. A guy from the service station opposite the intersection came out and wiped off my face with his bandana kerchief. I was glad the paint was not red.

(1968 343 Cubic Inch engine-equipped AMC Javelin. We had one and it did better than a 120MPH out of the box).

Maybe the only time a Dart was impaled by a Javelin.

-Sid

Subject: Re: Big Engines in Little Cars

“Vic,

My Dad’s mid-life crisis led my father of six to buy a Sunbeam Alpine in 1964 as we were leaving an assignment in Paris. Three years later Shelby dropped a Ford V-8 into the car which they called the Sunbeam Tiger. I remember the Car and Driver review. The photo showed the wildest zig zag of rubber you have ever seen. When Chrysler bought Rootes, they killed the car because they didn’t want no stinking Ford engine in there! Jay Leno has one; listed by Hemmings as one of the top 10 collectibles. No James Bond connection, but Maxwell Smart had one!

As I recall, the 289 fit the compartment with 1/2″ to spare. Always my dream car. Of course with Lucas electrical, dream could become a nightmare. You know the old joke among British Sports car aficionados. — “Know why the Brits drink warm beer? Because Mr. Lucas makes their refrigerators.”

John

By the way, your Dad was something else!

Subj: Big Engines in Little Cars

“This is a pic of my 298 CI Stroker motor in my 1980 MGB…which I bought new in P-cola It consists of a1998 Rover 4.0 block; 1964 Buick 300 heads and crankshaft; 1983 Ford 255 pistons; 1961 Olds 215 connecting rods, 1963 Buick 215 manifold and Edelbrock 500 carb. This is the first engine I built that was balanced. Idles at 500 RPM with 11.25 to 1 compression. Mostly aluminum, it weighs less than the iron block 1.8 liter motor that it came with and I had to lower the front end. The car has a 50/50 weight distribution. 300HP and 340 lbs of torque. Its mated with a Z-28 T5 tranny, hydraulic through-out bearing, custom driveshaft, and MGC gears in the original rear end. I put it in the car about four years ago.

(Morris Garage’s B model got a significant testosterone implant!)

Smokin’!

Space”

Anyway, that was some of the stuff that piled up that is at least as important as what I am channeling from the 1960s and early Seventies. For the most alert readers- the ones who count typos in the daily story, there is a bit of errata in the tale of “Big Engines and Little Cars.”

Towards the end of the story, I mention The most legendary (and quirky) of the factory produced hot rods and then fail to name it. The car was a bizarre Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride from American Motors. It is probably the most collectable car that ever came out of the plant at Kenosha. Perfect for collectors- like Uncle Dick’s 1991 Syclone, there were only a couple thousand built, and they were run hard and put away wet, so the remaining exemplars are few and far between.

As a pal wrote to say, “Vic, a boyhood friend for life had (maybe still has) an AMC SC/Rambler. Biggest engine that would fit. All were painted red, white and blue and had matching upholstery. They didn’t make many. I guess it was to get them on the track as a competition car. Worth some research because I’m sure there’s a story there.

I’m still a car guy. I find good ones, take care of them and hold onto them. Done right, they’re part of the family.

Jake.”

He is completely right. I never had one of these, but I would like to have one now. Check it out. There might be a culmination of the Big Engines in Little Cars saga right here: the AMX 390 cubic inch engine stuffed into a Rambler American body not much different than the modest little car in which Big Mama tooled around Grabbingham.

Man, those things were as smokin’ as Space’s MGB.

(1969 AMC SC/Rambler. 1,512 were built at Kenosha in two paint schemes. You still see them at AMC meets and a nice one can be had for $35,000 today. The “outlandishly adorned” limited-edition, mid-model year addition to the Rambler line “built under the aegis of the Hurst shifter people” is unique. The SC/Rambler has a strong collector following, with websites, clubs, and a registry).

(AMC 390 Cubic Inch engine in the SC/Rambler).

Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303