Photos courtesy Vince Geraci, Frank Pascoe, Bill St. Clair.
Sometimes it’s just enough to retire, head south to a warmer place, and soak up the sun. For a handful of retired Detroit designers, though, imagineering new cars remains a habit they just can’t shake, and they’ve been spending the last few years wondering what some distinctive American Motors vehicles might look like today.
We already got a glimpse of what shape designers Vince Geraci and Bill St. Clair and clay modeler Frank Pascoe thought a modern AMC Marlin would take a few weeks ago. That 1/6-scale clay model, which retains the stacked quad headlamps of the 1967 Marlin but places them in a somewhat beefed up body shape, debuted in 2010 and resulted from a collaboration of the three former AMC and Chrysler employees. The three found a shop in Novi, Michigan, willing to donate some space to their efforts and embarked on a part-time project to revisit some of their favorite designs.
After the Marlin, they then set their eyes on the Metropolitan convertible, done in 1/5-scale and retaining the Pininfarina door dips and the general proportions of the small car, but adding more bulk around the lower half and a tonneau panel similar to that on the early 1960s Thunderbird Sports Roadster.
Their wildest creation to date, though, has to be their latest, a mashup of both the AMX and the Rebel Machine. Geraci’s rendering of the two-seater pulls in elements of the Javelin AMX, including the generous sail panels and the humped fenders, along with some from the Machine, including the famous red-white-blue paint scheme and the hood tach.
“The AMX was probably the icon of all of AMC’s cars, and the Machine was a unique offering for the time, so why not combine the two and come up with one vehicle that represents both?” Geraci said.
Work on the AMX/Machine’s 1/5-scale clay model began last summer, and Geraci said he anticipates that the trio should be able to complete it by next summer. He’s hoping that they can raise some funds to make casts of the clays, just so they can have more permanent models than the clay. No mention was made of any attempt at producing these designs; Fiat-Chrysler already appears to have plenty of performance vehicles with resurrected names in its stable as it is.
“This is just so much fun to do,” Geraci said. “We’re so privileged to still be able to do this.”
from Hemmings Daily - News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/12viCxf
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