Jeni's Kenosha Journey

Day 1

Day 2

	Glen Hoag and his Pacer #4, in front of my somewhat shady motel.
	The welcome banner at the AMO host hotel.
	The AMC-logo-based registration information signs at the AMO host hotel.
	The host hotel sign -- it read, "Welcome AMO classic cars".
	The Kenosha News published a decade-by-decade weekly series of articles in the months leading up to the show. The AMO goodie bag contained a special edition of the paper including all of the articles. This is the article from the 70s, which has the following to say about the Pacer: "Even more innovative [than the Gremlin] was the Pacer, which joined the AMC lineup in 1975. The car was low and wide-bodied, with plenty of interior room and plenty of glass. It was a daring gamble that received plenty of attention, not all of it favorable. One car magazine likened it to a vehicle designed for lunar exploration. "AMC produced 145,000 Pacers that first year, but by 1978, the novelty had worn off and production had dwindled to about 20,000."
	A view of Lake Michigan from the lakefront park where the swap meet and car show were held. Tomorrow, this view would be filled with AMCs from across the continent.
	Pat Barnes' grandmother's Pacer. He drove it from Washington state to Kenosha for the show. I first met him at the cruise night at Wendy's on Friday night.
	A blue Pacer coupe from Wisconsin, at the Wendy's cruise night. I couldn't find the owner. If anyone knows, please let me know! :)
	This totally tricked-out Pacer dragster has a Pontiac engine, massive racing slicks, and a pretty cool custom paint job.
	Glen and his Pacer at the quarter car wash late Friday night.

Day 3

	The view from my not-even-good-enough-to-be-a-Knight's-Inn-anymore-but-still-looks-a-lot-like-one-and-charges-so-much-it-might-as-well-be-the-Ritz motel room. Oh, the rain -- that's what I wanted to point out. :) It was coming down at a pretty good clip that morning. When I first looked outside and beheld this view, many folks were still holed up in their motel rooms, waiting for it to pass.
	A bunch of Ramblers in the AMCRC section of the show field.
	The "Thermador Car Cooler", a window-mounted air conditioning unit. This unit was not original with the car, but the owner made it fit perfectly. He still uses it to this day, and he told me it works like a charm when speeding down the road quickly enough.
	The oldest car at the show: a 1902 Jeffery's Rambler. The owner told me that the car is all original, not restored, which is especially impressive, considering the body is made out of wood! This beauty tops out at a speed of ~20 mph, though the owner has only taken it to 15 mph or so.
	A beautiful restored 1908 Rambler.
	The California "Horseless Carriage" license plate on the 1908 Rambler.
	A bunch of cars in the Nash section of the showfield.
	One of my meager attempts to capture a shot of most of the showfield in a photograph.
	A great restored 1929 Nash. The owner catalogued his restoration in the photo album near the front bumper. Once the sun came out later in the day, the top came down and the rumble seat was opened. Stay tuned for more pictures of this... :)
	This purple Nash was screaming for a photograph from this angle. :)
	Just a few of the 50 or so Nash Metropolitans present at the show.
	An autographed photograph of a '75 Pacer with its designers (from left): Chuck Mashigan, head of advanced design; Vince Geraci, director of interior design; Dick Teague, Vice-President of Design; Bob Nixon, director of exterior design. Vince and several of his former AMC colleagues were at the show, and Vince was kind enough to provide me with a copy of this photograph.
	Some of the Dick Teague memorabilia on display at the tent where the AMC designers were stationed, centrally located on the showfield.
	More memorabilia...
	Some of the original interior drawings of various AMC cars.
	A portion of one magazine's tribute to Dick Teague, following his death.
	Chilton's Automotive Industries magazine named Dick Teague "Man of the Year" in their February 1, 1976 issue, less than a year after the introduction of the Pacer.
	This AMX was just too unique not to snap a photo of.
	Just a portion of the AMX "rainbow" on display at the show.
	Curt Uhrin's Pacer from Clearfield, Pennsylvania.
	David Gardner's '76 Pacer from Royal Oak, Michigan, with a hand-sprayed blue-green paint job.
	Tom Altemus' '77 silver/brown, four-speed wagon with bucket seats from Connecticut.
	Another one of my meager attempts to capture the showfield on film. Unfortunately, my photo-stitching program seems to have had some trouble merging these images.
	A view of Lake Michigan, from behind the sea of Nash Mets.
	A Pacer from Wisconsin, in the non-club section of the showfield. I can't recall whether I ever was able to find the owner of this car.
	A biege Pacer in the non-club section, with a for sale sign in the window.
	A blue Pacer X, which appeared at both the cruise night at Wendy's the first night I was in Kenosha, as well as on the showfield.
	Another shot of the yellow 1929 Nash I photographed earlier, this time with the sun out and the top down.
	A close-up of the rumble seat on the 1929 Nash.
	Me in the rumble seat. The very nice gentleman who owns the car helped me in. He had a very well-defined procedure for helping folks in, which strangely enough, requires stepping on the seat itself. The seat was more comfortable than I expected for such an old "piece of furniture", but I could never ride back there -- the inability to see out the front window (it being blocked by the folded-down top) might activate my unfortunate tendency toward motion sickness. But, all in all, it was a very fun experience. :) You may also notice me "modelling" my Pacer "Hi" t-shirt, which I homemade specifically for this event.
	An orange Pacer, parked off (but near) the showfield.
	A shot of the showfield, from atop a picnic table near the south end, as the day drew to a close.
	A look at some of the "shriner-sized" motorized mini-Gremlins at the show.
	A close-up of one of the mini-Gremlins.

Day 4

	Looking down the path to "scientific collision" at the MGA Proving Grounds. Vehicles (or objects to be crashed into vehicles) are pulled by cables (by an AMC motor, no less!) down this track, from the garage-like building in the distance into the building behind the location from which the picture was taken.
	A look inside the building I mention in the above caption. This area is set up for a side impact collision (you can see the same track as in the previous picture running underneath the car). The car is underneath a tarp to hide confidential information from prying eyes. :)
	Know those car commercials that show head-on collision tests? This is one of the areas where films like that are made. The car is a prototype cab from a British company.
	Another shot of the collision area. Man, those lights were hot! (And not even all of them were turned on yet!)
	All the lights were going full-blast. Notice how most of the people cleared away as a result. :)
	The rotisserie, onto which a car was loaded after a collision to check for fuel & oil leaks and other such defects.
	One of the few remaining relics from the days of AMC ownership of this facility -- the AMC engine that facilitates the collisions.
	A (not-so-great) shot of the AMC bushes. AMC used to hold company picnics in this area, and they planted the bushes in 1961. Fifteen feet tall when this picture was taken, MGA finds this shrubbery unwieldy to maintain. Our tour guide later told us that MGA had hired a company to chop the bushes down to just four feet tall. They aren't sure whether they'll survive.
	Another photograph of the AMC bushes.
	The "body twist" segment of the proving grounds track (with a 10 mph sign). Since the tracks aren't regularly used for MGA's work at this facility (collision and related experiments are their primary activity), you can easily see the signs of neglect -- poor-quality, cracked pavement, through which grass grows.
	Some of the crash test dummies used in MGA's collision testing. These dummies are carefully calibrated to mimic real human bodies as closely as possible. The colored chalk you see on some of the dummies is used to indicate where the dummies collide with various parts of the car's interior.
	More dummies...
	More dummies...
	More dummies...
	More dummies... oh, and me. :)
	An old dummy head mounted above a door frame, much like a hunting prize. ;)
	The alternate roll track, as seen out the windshield of Glen's Pacer.
	The sign announcing the shimmy exciter, which was a faster, tighter version of the alternate roll track. I took a picture of the sign because I liked the phrase. :)
	The incline portion of the 20% grade. I didn't take a picture of the decline -- I was too busy holding on!

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