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Post by kiev4a on Sept 18, 2006 16:33:29 GMT -5
I was talking to a retired local police officer recently and said I could remember when the local cops had Rambler police cars (early 1960s). They only had the cars a few years. I asked my friend how they liked the Ramblers. "They were great," he said, "until we discovered a kid on a bicycle could outrun us."
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Post by Just Plain Curt on Sept 18, 2006 23:18:34 GMT -5
Hi Wayne, Yep, no tire burners for the most part. The old reruns of Adam 12 and early cop shows used to have plenty of Rebels and Ambassadors as cop cars though. A friend at work had a similar story about his Hyundai Excel when he was on a trip through Banff Alberta. Said he was livid that a guy passed him on a 10 speed racing bike going uphill "But I showed him a thing or two on the way downhill" as he said, LOL. By the by, on the how soon they forget note, perhaps most folk have forgotten the Chevy Vega, Citation, Chevette, Ford Pinto, Dodge Omni/Horizon, K cars .....none were tire melters either, just decent (for their time, LOL) affordable cars for the masses. And no Gremlin/Pacer jokes either guys, ha ha.
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Post by herron on Sept 19, 2006 10:26:13 GMT -5
My sister-in-law had a 1965 Rambler Ambassador. Real tank...and it moved like one, too! And my first new car (long before any Big 3 affiliation) was a Gremlin. I even had the optional back seat! LOL!
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Post by kiev4a on Sept 19, 2006 10:57:13 GMT -5
Ron: First person I have met who will admit to owning a Gremlin:) I must admit, however, I once considered buying an AMC Pacer (A Gremlin with the body corners rounded off). Speaking of non-tire melters, we had an '82 VW Rabbit Diesel we bought new and drove for 10 years and 250,000 miles. I think the engine was rated at 55 horsepower. Once driving to San Francisco we hit a headwind and it wouldnt go faster than 40 mph (in third gear) for a 100-mile stretch. Plenty of time to enjoy the scenery. Unfortunately, there wasn't any! On the plus side, the Rabbit got 50 miles per gallon in the summertime. I kept track of every gallon of fuel I ever put in it. During the time we had it, the Rabbit averaged 41.6 miles per gallon.
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Post by Just Plain Curt on Sept 19, 2006 15:18:35 GMT -5
A local fella had a Gremlin that he dropped a 401 into, one of the few Really fast cars I've been in. A guy in our school bought a diesel Rabbit in '79 I believe and we all thought he was crazy since most of us had rushed out of school and bought Firebirds and Camaro Z28's. Within a few months most of us had accidents and sky high insurance. Yes, you guessed it, one of the only smart ones, he had his Rabbit for years and could actually afford to insure it.
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mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on Sept 20, 2006 14:33:22 GMT -5
Didn't Nash once produce a car in which the seats converted to a bed?
Mickeey
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Post by John Parry on Sept 20, 2006 15:07:17 GMT -5
Mickey - No that was a Ford Consul - the front bench seat was a bed!!
Regards - John
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Post by kiev4a on Sept 20, 2006 15:33:15 GMT -5
Mickey. I seem to remember something about the seats in the Rambler folding all the way flat for sleeping.
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mickeyobe
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Posts: 7,280
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Post by mickeyobe on Sept 20, 2006 18:31:51 GMT -5
John,
A Ford consul was my first car. It had no bed. It is a car I should like to forget about. Nasty beast. Anyway, the dealer got flooded out in hurricane Hazel.
Mickey
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Post by vintageslrs on Sept 20, 2006 19:42:22 GMT -5
Yes Nash certainly did.....it was in the 50's.... and I do not remember the model name...but I saw one just a couple of years ago at Hershey,PA.
;D Bob
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Post by Just Plain Curt on Sept 21, 2006 9:12:05 GMT -5
Hi Wayne, Don't know which particular year or model they started with but both my '64 Classic 770 and my '66 Classic 550 had or have seats that fold perfectly flat for sleeping or whatever other mischief to which you were inclined.
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Post by herron on Sept 21, 2006 9:24:57 GMT -5
Mickey. I seem to remember something about the seats in the Rambler folding all the way flat for sleeping. Wayne: I don't know when that started, but "way back when" my sister-in-law's 1965 Rambler Ambassador had those "fold flat" seats. We used to kid her unmercifully about them! ;D
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Post by John Parry on Sept 21, 2006 14:26:33 GMT -5
Mickey - Remember the vacuum powered windscreen wipers? Fine going uphill in low gear, ground to a halt going down again. I meant that the front seat was broad and wide enough to be a bed (and with the column change, no obstructions either!)
Regards - John
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Post by Just Plain Curt on Sept 21, 2006 19:06:25 GMT -5
My Classic has vacuum powered wipers, a glass fuel filter bowl, a bellows style foot pump for the windshield washers (right beside the floor mounted dimmer switch) and a red rubber bag like a hot water bottle for the washer fluid. All still work fine except the foot pump so it'll get an electric one soon.
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mickeyobe
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Posts: 7,280
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Post by mickeyobe on Sept 22, 2006 1:25:29 GMT -5
John.
When my mother decided to stop driving she gave me her old Ford Pinto with wipers that stopped whenever I accelerated, even slowly. She only drove in nice weather. I recall one snowy winter morning having to keep the window open as I leaned out and worked the wipers with my frozen hand. The open window didn't make the car any colder as the plastic bag that stuffed the hole in the floorboard had fallen out. The really tough part was steering with one hand as the steering mechanism was quite stiff. That evening I bought a new car. It was a small Pontiac the model name I forget, but it turned out to be worse than the Pinto which had at least served a long and useful life.
Mickey
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