| 251. "My name is Mike, and I'm from the Netherlands. Since October 2001, I'm a Pacer driver too. It's the best car i've ever had, it drives so smoothly and relaxing. Mine's a 3.8 sedan automatic from 1975. It's an original Dutch car, and I'm the third owner of it. The Pacer has run about 75,000 miles and was almost completely restored in 1995. It has an automatic gearbox at the steering wheel, power steering, a roofrack, an AM radio and a back window wiper.
"The car is in marvelous shape. When I drive around town everybody glares at me and askes questions about the car. Even the ones who don't like it at first start liking after a spin around the block. I took a picture with a webcam; that's why it looks a bit bad. Oh, by the way, this car has starred in a commercial for a cellular phone provider called BEN. I'm still trying to get the video."
-Mike van Hoof
Submitted 8 November 2001. |
| 252. "I am enclosing photos of a car I recently rescued from the crusher. I am not really into Pacers but this car was in just too good of shape to be crushed. It has 64,000 original miles, the interior is near mint, everything works, and is original, it has a delivery date of 3-20-76, vin # A6A667A299935 delivered to Michael S Frommer, 29 Hubbard St, Chicago, IL. It still has factory warranty, owner's manual, warranty record, jack and spare. This car is in excellent shape, needing only tires, brakes, and a new driver's side door striker. It's practically still a new car. I do not have a title, as in GA 12 years and older it is not required." -Daniel Forsyth
Daniel was offering this Pacer for sale when he submitted these photos on 30 November 2001. |
| 253. "Found your web site and thought you could you some rustic Canadian Pacers: 1975 Pacer (orange) - 6cyl-std, brown interior 1975 Pacer (green) - 6cyl auto, brown interior 1976 Pacer (black) - 6cyl std, bronw interior, a/c 1976 Pacer (maroon) - 6yl auto, maroon interior. "Note that the rear bumper on the black Pacer is bolted upside down. All these vehicles and more our on our website listed below, and we'll sell parts or complete units."
-Jeff Roblin of Roblin's Garage in Demorestville, Ontario, Canada
Submitted 19 December 2001. |
| 254. "I first got this car when I was 16. I bought it for $200 with a bad clutch. So I put a clutch in it, and that was my very first car, and I loved it. To be the only one in town to own a '77 AMC Pacer wagon... It had a 258 six-cylinder four-speed with centerlines all the way around with a 3:55 posi init and traction bars. I drove it for about 8 weeks and then I was on my way to a family reunion and came around a corner and went into a bean field and rolled 3 times. I was heartbroken that the only pacer in town had been totaled and was not fixable. I went to the hospital, and after I got out I saw my car on the tow truck, and I lost it. I could not take it that my car was gone. Then some lady came up and asked me what year it was. When I told her she asked me if I wanted to buy another one; only it was a '79 coupe. So we exchanged phone numbers and went our own ways. 2 weeks went by and I called her, and she told me to come up and look at it. So I did, and I came to find out her dad bought it when it was new, and it had been sitting in a garage for 10 years and it was perfect. She said she would take $800 for it, so my dad and I got down to $400 and that is what we bought it for. And now I am in the process of putting a 454 big block Chevy in it." -Chad Baldwin
Submitted 29 December 2001. |
| 255. Jeremy Poole submitted this photo of his Pacer, taken just after he finished restoring it.
Submitted 2 January 2002. |
| 256. "This is a 1975 Pacer, original everything (except of course, tires). Originally purchased in Southern California, now resides in the San Francisco Bay area. 3-speed on the column. The guy who bought and cleaned it up wanted $5000, I offered $4000 and we had a deal. Kind of funny since I also have the original window sales sticker--the car was priced at $4200 brand new!" -Kim McMaster
Submitted 16 January 2002. |
| 257. "I would like to fix it up for recreation or maybe the next driver. He'll be due for license in 3 years. Might make a good crash dummie tester." -Nathan Welch
Posted to the AMC Pacer mailing list on 17 January 2002. |
| 258. "This is our 1978 D/L Pacer situated in Haarlem, The Netherlands. I was told that it was made for the European market back then, but I don’t know for sure. We still have to fix it on some points but within the near future we’ll be speeding the Dutch highways." -Rene van Stekelenborg
Submitted 18 January 2002. |
| 259. "This is my memory of a Pacer. I'm from the Netherlands and in a small country as this is, is was spectacular to have a car like a Pacer. But as teenagers (my sisters and I) we were embarrased to be picked up at school with this car. Can you imagine? My parents owned two Pacers in the '70s. This yellow one and a brown metallic one. They sold both of the cars, and I still regret it. I'm hoping that one day I could have a Pacer, but they are very rare in Europe. But you can never tell." -Cheriette
Submitted 31 January 2002. |
| 260. "Today I bought an AMC Pacer X from 1975. A car in a good condition. Difficult to find in the Netherlands, but anyway I have one. In real life, it even looks better." -Jan Jaap Kuiper
Submitted 2 February 2002. |
| 261. John Jones submitted these pictures of a Pacer he was negotiating to buy on 11 February 2002. Unfortunately, the car was not in very good condition, and the seller was not very honest about it. The car has been in the shop much of the time since John purchased it. |
| 262. "I drew these at school. Loving pacers and still wanting one." -Patrick, age 12
25 Feburary 2002 |
| 263. "Here's our darling 1976 in a brief dusting in Portland, Oregon." -Bobbie Savitz & Chris Christensen
27 February 2002 |
| 264. "This is my first car I bought in December of 2000. I only paid $150 for it and it ran good. I have done some mods to it and now am wanting to sell it." -Matt Appleby
Submitted 14 March 2002. |
| 265. "Here is some pictures of my Pacer DL coupe, it just turned 40K orig miles last weekend." -Wade, Long Island, New York
Posted to the AMC Pacer mailing list on 20 March 2002. |
| 266. "I did run across some photos of my Pacer while updating it in the fall of '90 (it was originally constructed in '85), and scanned them. I thought you might be interested in the process of 'tubbing' a Pacer." -Harrel Lamkin
Editor's Note: Harrel's Pacer is pictured in multiple other places in the archives: here, here, and here.
Submitted 4 April 2002. |
| 267. "I never finished it...not much to it. I drew it freehand in CAD using just a photo and a ruler." -Harrel Lamkin
Submitted 4 April 2002. |
| 268. An animated GIF 360-degree view of Colin Hadden's red early model coupe. Colin reported: "Still a few details to go before she is back on the road as my daily driver." Colin lives in the southwest UK.
Submitted 29 April 2002. |
| 269. "I bought this cute '79 Pacer Wagon Limited V8 -- very complete and runs beautiful. Was used as a daily driver in west London by a private detective. He spent a small fortune on servicing and new parts. However, on closer inspection it has a fair bit of rust, which I'm now working on, especially on the lower driver's side. This is a rare and very useable AMC, approx. 90,000 miles on the clock." -Colin Hadden
Submitted 29 April 2002. |
| 270. Colin Hadden has two Pacers, a Gremlin, and many other AMCs in his collection. Here's a photo of his two Pacers and Gremlin.
Submitted 29 April 2002. |
| 271. Stevie submitted this photo of his '77 Pacer wagon. It was for sale when he submitted the picture on 7 June 2002.
Updated 10 March 2003: "A friend talked some sense into me that I should keep it. Since then, I've gotten in a car accident. One day on a slick road, there was a random stop of the cars on front of me. Going 60, you know how sucky Pacer brakes are. Well, due to the sheer mass I rear-ended a 1999 Kia Spectra and tore it all to ****. I took some pictures of the accident site, but at current cannot find them. I will send them soon.
"Anyway, The right side of the Pacer clipped the left of the Kia (it hit the car and kept on going), and the hook-like protrusion on the back bumper ripped the Kia door open and flattened the tire and busted a strut, among other things. It had to be towed from the site. The almighty Pacer (a.k.a. The Fantastic Death Machine) was OK. The front turn signal lens had a series of tiny cracks and the rear bumper was bent out straight. At home I removed the bumper and slammed it into the ground a few times and bent it back. Otherwise, I haven't done anything.
"After the Kia got extensive body work and a trip to Wal-Mart for some new hubcaps, I saw it again, and it was looking good. It was a strange coincidence -- 30 miles from the accident site, and I was behind it again. You should've seen how fast it went at the green light!
"No stories from the performance front. I beat a Nissan 240 something, but lost to a V6 camaro the same day." -Stevie |
| 272. Jeremy's perfect '76 Pacer.
Submitted 10 June 2002. |
| 273. "This is Dick Teague's own customized Pacer pickup truck. This truck was customized to show AMC brass the Pacer could be used for a variety of purposes including a utility vehicle. The car last I heard is still in the Daryl Starbird Collection, who is one of the legends of customizing like Barris, his museum is located in Oklahoma, and he designed the Spacer Pacer bubbletop car also shown in your photos. Neither are for sale, display only." -Eddie Stakes
Submitted 12 June 2002. |
| 274. "This is a Mexican 1976 Pacer coupe from Mexico City that is equipped with the hard-to-find, was-not-available-in-the-US 282-6 cylinder engine. Owner Gerhard Gedrange, Jr. drove this wonderful vehicle to the Houston AMC Nationals in the summer of 2001. The car drew crowds all day, especially curious AMC fans who had never seen the south of the border 282-6. If there was a way to import these desirable Big AMC Sixes, there would be a huge demand for them. In fact any Auto Zones here in Houston stock most parts for the VAM 282-6." -Eddie Stakes
Submitted 12 June 2002. |
| 275. A Pacer owner in Germany submitted this photo of his 1976 Pacer X.
Submitted 18 June 2002. |
| 276. "Here is a photo off my website of a original owner, low mile 1977 Pacer wagon I bought at the Houston AutoRama auction about 1993. It is a factory vinyl roof vehicle. Not a whole lot of Pacer owners opted for the vinyl roof, whihc first appeared in dealership saleman's guides in 1976. The car went thru the auction at the Astrodome Autorama, was a original owner and no one bid on it for starting bid of $600; I guess mainly to the auctioneers jumping up and down on the front and rear bumpers yelling 'Wayne's World!!' at the top of their lungs, who would want to bid on something like that? Well, me. But not then, I waited until the car had been run thru the auction two days in a row with no bids, then went up to the office and asked the promoter if he would consider $600 for it, he didn't bat a eye and said 'hell yes' and I was the new owner of a mint 77 Pacer wagon, 258, AT, AC, PS, PDB, tint, tilt, towing package, AM/FM, sport rims, vinyl roof. I drove it from 62K to 70K miles before selling it for $2500 to a fellow in Tennessee." -Eddie Stakes
Submitted 28 June 2002. |
| 277. "Here is a picture of me and my '76 D/L Coupe before the driver's side got side swiped while it was parked in my high school parking lot." -Parker Rome
Submitted 22 June 2002. |
| 278. Glen Hoag and his Pacer #4, at a motel in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during the national meet in July 2002. |
| 279. Pat Barnes' grandmother's Pacer. He drove it from Washington state to Kenosha, Wisconsin for the national meet in July 2002. I first met him at the Friday cruise night at Wendy's. |
| 280. A blue Pacer coupe from Wisconsin, at the Kenosha 2002 Wendy's cruise night. I couldn't find the owner. |
| 281. This totally tricked-out Pacer dragster has a Pontiac engine, massive racing slicks, and a pretty cool custom paint job. Definitely one of the most creative Pacers at the Kenosha 2002 show.
Editor's Note: Shortly after I posted these pictures, Harrel Lamkin realized that this car is actually his former Pacer, but with a new paint job! The car is owned by Barbara Ann Schmidt, and Harrel realized the connection by recognizing the same racing number "C336" on the window. The car is also pictured here, here, here, and here. |
| 282. 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 2002 AMC convention in Kenosha, and Vince was kind enough to provide me with a copy of this photograph. |
| 283. Curt Uhrin's Pacer from Clearfield, PA. I took this photograph at the national meet in July 2002. |
| 284. David Gardner's '76 Pacer from Royal Oak, Michigan, with a hand-sprayed blue-green paint job. I took this photograph at the national meet in July 2002. |
| 285. Tom Altemus' '77 silver/brown, four-speed wagon with bucket seats from Connecticut. I took this photograph at the national meet in July 2002. |
| 286. A Pacer from Wisconsin, in the non-club section of the Kenosha 2002 showfield. I can't recall whether I ever was able to find the owner of this car. |
| 287. A biege Pacer in the non-club section of the Kenosha 2002 showfield, with a for sale sign in the window. |
| 288. 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. |
| 289. An orange Pacer, parked off (but near) the Kenosha 2002 showfield. |
| 290. Conway Twitty is arguably the most famous Pacer owner. Here are pictures of his Pacer. |
| 291. "I sold [my previous Pacer] a few months ago and I now have this one. A '76 Pacer X, 3-speed stick, 136,000 miles and still going strong. It spreads whimsy and monkeyshines on every journey. It was formerly owned by a kooky lady who worked for Hasbro toys, so she painted the headlight buckets, luggage rack and some of the chrome trim pink and turquoise. Cute, but we're in the process of correcting that." -Jon Eisen
Submitted 1 September 2002. Jon later sold this Pacer and purchased this one. |
| 292. John Pryor modified the comic Pacer found in the archives at entry #43. "Note the added flames with the hood scoop," said John.
Submitted 9 September 2002. |
| 293. "Here are some pics of a '77 Pacer X that I won on eBay. Looks pretty cool, huh? Still has the orginal 258, and I'm looking at dropping in a 390 just to get the performance up with the looks. This one is replacing my '76 Pacer DL that was stolen in CA. But first, the trip to OK to bring it home... I have decided to name it Jeni, after famous person who made the page..." -John Pryor
Editor's Note: I'm very flattered! :)
Submitted 9 September 2002. |
| 294. While on vacation with my husband in northeastern Arizona in the fall of 2002, I spotted this abandoned Pacer in a field next to Cake Chevrolet on Old Route 66 just east of Winslow, Arizona. As you can see, it's not the only orphan in this field. The tires are shot, and the car's full of junk, but it was registered as recently as '99 (see the license plate picture), which may mean it wouldn't take too much to get this little coupe running.
Marianne Richardson wrote to tell me about this car, after I had seen it myself and taken these pictures, but before I had a chance to post them. Thanks, Marianne!
Photographed 21 September 2002. |
| 295. "I just bought two 1976 Pacers for $300. Both run, but barely. Ever since I was a kid (I was 13 in 1976), I've wanted a Pacer. Now, being that my primary vehicle is a 2000 Cadillac Escalade, all of my friends, except one, think that I'm nuts to want to restore these Pacers. The D/L is the one that I've started on (needs a new water pump, oil change and tune up) and the X will be later on (unless I salvage it). The D/L needs a bit of interior, cosmetic work. I have to get the bloody, glued seashells off of the dash, but the engine looks and runs surprisingly good, being that it was ignored for so long." -Tonja Jackson
Submitted 24 September 2002. |
| 296. "I have some bad news. He [the seller] said the Pacer was a '76, but it turns out it is a '78. It was also not as good as described. It's still cool, but I don't think it is the one. I am going to fix it up and try to sell it. It's starting to look real nice. I buffed it and polished it today. I also cleaned out the interior, which was full of junk. Literally full to the top. I found a CB radio that still works, so that's pretty cool." -Tommy Gustafson
Editor's note: I first met Tommy in Kenosha in July 2002. He had driven out from Minnesota to find a Pacer, his dream car. He found this Pacer for sale in Tennessee and his dad drove it home to him in October 2002.
Submitted 14 October 2002. |
| 297. "This little red & black hot rod has a built 401 under the hood, automatic transmission with a 2500 stall converter, 373 ford rear end and 12" Mickey Thompson Pros, disks brakes front & rear, 15" custom wheels, custom interior & gauges with a B & M shifter, Corvette front bumpers and Corvette mirrors. This Pacer is quick, fun, and gets a lot of attention." -Charlie Smith, Clackamas, Oregon
Submitted 18 October 2002. |
| 298. "Here are some of my 'before pictures'. I will send you a picture of the finished product. The car was not driveable when I purchased it in July of 2002. I have done a lot of work on the car already, and it is now a daily driver. It has 54,000 miles and lots of bad rubber everywhere (it was a New Mexico car and the heat was very bad on ALL of the rubber parts). It is also in desperate need of paint (still the original Loden Green)." -Sly Rose, Lake Zurich, IL
Submitted 1 December 2002. |
| 299. Michelle sent in a picture of this '77 wagon when she posted a classified, advertising it for sale. |
| 300. "This is my newly found daily driver with 52,000 original miles. It was in storage for the last 6 years; just got it out and going again about 1 month ago. A college professor at Ball State University owned it." -Rob Godwin, Daleville, Indiana
This Pacer was for sale as of the date it was submitted, 17 December 2002. |