That's why we called them Shaggin' Wagons.....Back in the day as they say . There were lot's of Vans around when I was in high school with shag carpet and a mattress in the back , lol. For obvious reasons.......
Nice cars other than x-fire
- Thread starter 1st Vette
- Start date
Dave91TM
Power User
Ah the stuff of a young mans dreams..... if this van is rockin' don't bother knockin'
LE BARON
Power User
The company Packard trusted to build its sports car dream also built its hearses. That detail alone tells you something about how unlikely the Pan American should have been.
Richard Arbib, a designer at the Henney Motor Company of Freeport, Illinois, had sketched a long, low two-seater on Packard's existing 250 convertible chassis. Packard president Hugh Ferry approved it, and Henney's craftsmen worked evenings and weekends for six weeks straight to get the finished car to the 1952 New York International Motor Sports Show. They chopped the windshield, sectioned the body four inches, channeled the frame, stripped the rear seat, and painted the whole thing in a custom DuPont shade called Green-Gold Metallic. The 327 cubic inch straight eight underneath produced 185 horsepower.
Standing among Ferraris and Pegasos at the show, the Pan American won the award for Outstanding Automotive Design. The Corvette would not debut for another 14 months. Only six were ever built
Richard Arbib, a designer at the Henney Motor Company of Freeport, Illinois, had sketched a long, low two-seater on Packard's existing 250 convertible chassis. Packard president Hugh Ferry approved it, and Henney's craftsmen worked evenings and weekends for six weeks straight to get the finished car to the 1952 New York International Motor Sports Show. They chopped the windshield, sectioned the body four inches, channeled the frame, stripped the rear seat, and painted the whole thing in a custom DuPont shade called Green-Gold Metallic. The 327 cubic inch straight eight underneath produced 185 horsepower.
Standing among Ferraris and Pegasos at the show, the Pan American won the award for Outstanding Automotive Design. The Corvette would not debut for another 14 months. Only six were ever built
LE BARON
Power User
Nothing about this car screamed for attention. Two small SS badges, a set of fender flags, otherwise identical to any other Chevy II rolling off the line in 1966. That was exactly the point.
Underneath sat a 327 cubic inch L79, lifted almost straight from the Corvette parts bin, with forged pistons and 11 to 1 compression squeezing out 350 horsepower in a body that weighed barely 2,800 pounds. That power to weight ratio put it in NHRA's A/Stock class, running the quarter mile in the low 15s straight off the showroom floor.
Drag racer Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins took one to the strip against Jere Stahl's 426 Hemi Belvedere, a fight that should never have been close. It was, running high 11s at nearly 120 miles per hour, an evenly matched duel nobody expected a Nova to win.
Underneath sat a 327 cubic inch L79, lifted almost straight from the Corvette parts bin, with forged pistons and 11 to 1 compression squeezing out 350 horsepower in a body that weighed barely 2,800 pounds. That power to weight ratio put it in NHRA's A/Stock class, running the quarter mile in the low 15s straight off the showroom floor.
Drag racer Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins took one to the strip against Jere Stahl's 426 Hemi Belvedere, a fight that should never have been close. It was, running high 11s at nearly 120 miles per hour, an evenly matched duel nobody expected a Nova to win.
LE BARON
Power User
he corporate giants in Detroit viewed American Motors as a harmless nuisance. They assumed the independent brand would strictly build economical grocery getters for frugal buyers. Then AMC abruptly stopped playing nice.
Engineers took their four seat Javelin, aggressively chopped a full foot out of the middle of the wheelbase, and welded it back together to create a vicious two seat sports car. At the time, only the Chevrolet Corvette dared to offer a strict two passenger layout in America. AMC brought a steel sledgehammer to that exclusive party.
Ordering the Go Package added thick racing stripes and dropped a monstrous 390 cubic inch V8 under the hood. That massive powerplant shoved over three hundred horsepower through a remarkably short and terrifyingly agile footprint.
It was a ferocious brawler that completely shattered every boring corporate stereotype. Detroit executives suddenly stopped laughing when this scrappy underdog started humiliating their premium muscle cars at the local drag strip.
Engineers took their four seat Javelin, aggressively chopped a full foot out of the middle of the wheelbase, and welded it back together to create a vicious two seat sports car. At the time, only the Chevrolet Corvette dared to offer a strict two passenger layout in America. AMC brought a steel sledgehammer to that exclusive party.
Ordering the Go Package added thick racing stripes and dropped a monstrous 390 cubic inch V8 under the hood. That massive powerplant shoved over three hundred horsepower through a remarkably short and terrifyingly agile footprint.
It was a ferocious brawler that completely shattered every boring corporate stereotype. Detroit executives suddenly stopped laughing when this scrappy underdog started humiliating their premium muscle cars at the local drag strip.