Hemmings Muscle Machines July 2018

“I used to marvel at the way this guy got through nut-and-bolt car builds while juggling a full-time career and a family”... As the lights flickered on in the garage, washing everything with the dull blue tones of cold fluorescents, I looked over at the carb rebuild I’d been pecking away at for the better part of a week. I’d spent years striving to have a space of my own to tinker with my old cars, so now that I have it, why are these projects still progressing in fits and spurts? I’ve enjoyed a number of Saturday afternoon sessions in here, chipping away at the to-do list for my ’67 Camaro since its return from paint jail, and I’ve got it back to functional shape, but I find myself…

AMC ENTHUSIASTS TO CELEBRATE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF JAVELIN AND TWO-SEAT AMX More than just a shortened Javelin, the original two-seater AMX was a true sports car, and for its 50th anniversary this year, AMC enthusiasts are planning a museum exhibit and a full celebration of both the AMX and its pony car sibling. AMC launched its first AMX concept at the 1966 Chicago Auto Show. The company then followed that show car with its group of four concepts collectively known as Project IV, which debuted in June 1966 and included the Vignale-built AMX show car as well as the AMX II. But, as some AMC historians have pointed out, those show cars were merely eye candy for the public and for financiers. By early 1966, AMC’s design studios were already…

RETURN OF THE CALIFORNIA SPECIAL A popular package is revived for 2019, now with rev-matching! Following 2018’s facelift, you wouldn’t expect Ford to do much to its bestselling pony car for 2019. And you’d be right, save for the return of the California Special. The 2019 California Special, named for the limited-run 1968 model so desired by enthusiasts today (and highlighted in this month’s Buyer’s Guide), will feature special badging and striping, a blacked-out grille, the front splitter from Mustang Performance Pack 1, and unique machined five-spoke wheels. Inside will see black-suede-trimmed seats with red stitching, special badging on the dash, and the GT/CS logo on both headrests and the floormats. Of technical interest is the new rev-matching feature for the six-speed stick, available as part of the Mustang’s Performance…

MOPAR MUSCLE MARKETING By Jim Schild • SA Design/CarTech • 800-551-4754 www.cartechbooks.com  • $34.95 Some of the most visually arresting advertising of the late muscle-car era came from Dodge and Plymouth, this colorful art tied in with their respective “Scat Pack” and “Rapid Transit System” campaigns. These youth-targeted sales pitches that drove the Chrysler brands to new heights of popularity between 1968 and 1972 are the focus of an exciting new book by noted historian Jim Schild entitled, Dodge Scat Pack and Plymouth Rapid Transit System: Chrysler’s Muscle Car Marketing Programs 1968-1972. This 192-page softcover (ISBN 9781613253434) is the first of its kind to focus on the psychedelic imagery and compelling copy that made these campaigns so much of their time, but it offers more information than you’d expect. Readers are introduced…

Through the 1950s and ’60s, Ramblers had generated a reputation for being sensible, solid, unassuming... and unexciting. But performance was hip in the ’60s, and not even stolid Rambler was immune to the lure of the youth market and its need for speed. While the company had been gearing up through the ’60s for some more high-performance derring-do (ever-larger V-8 engines, Javelins and AMXs for the street, Super Stock AMX racers for the quarter-mile), it was the arrival of the SC/Rambler that made Doug Metheny a lifelong Rambler man. Stuffing Rambler’s biggest engine into its smallest, lightest car, then adding a hood scoop you could lose your arm in, was a one-year-only masterstroke that served notice on Detroit’s bigger, heavier performance cars. Problem was, the SC/Rambler in question wasn’t even…

When I was in my teens, I thought I knew where all of the AMC gurus were in Connecticut. This car never came up in conversation, and the owner was practically in our backyard. His garage was climate-controlled, he parked it on carpet, and he had two car covers on it. Two! He really babied this car. He liked the way it looked and sounded, I guess, but to order the four-speed? Why he’d do that is beyond me. I’m just trying to keep it preserved — I don’t want to mess with it at all. Paint isn’t perfect, chrome isn’t perfect, but that’s the survivor charm: presentable but not show quality.…