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Thursday, January 4, 2001 | Print this story

Loving Tribute to Pacer Stirs Memories of Quirky Car

By STEVE CARNEY

The sight of her first car--a bulbous, disco-era AMC Pacer--made Jeni Barovian cringe.
Now, just seven years later, the Phoenix resident displays her Pacer passion for all the World Wide Web to see at http://www.amcpacer.com/, the Internet's leading resource on the car that was a sight gag in "Wayne's World" and Eminem's "Real Slim Shady" video.
"I get some people who write and tell me I'm crazy," said Barovian, 23, but others appreciate her devotion. "I love reading those e-mails: 'You've brought back so many memories, thank you so much.' That's the reason I love the site. That's why I keep it up. It's incredible how many memories are tied to something like that."
Although Motor Trend magazine called it "the freshest, most creative, most people-oriented auto to be born in the U.S. in 15 years" when it debuted in 1975, the Pacer's odd shape eventually made it an object of ridicule. American Motors Corp. made only 280,000 Pacers during its five-year production run.
"When it came out, it was so different. Cars of that era were so boxy and usually very large," or tiny, cramped economy cars, Barovian said. Its width made it the first small car that felt roomy, she said.
When Barovian was 16 and living in Mentor, Ohio, on the east side of Cleveland, her grandparents offered her their extra car--a white 1975 Pacer. "They used it to haul garbage to the dump," Barovian said. "I knew this car as the one that did all the dirty work.
"I looked at it and cringed," she said. "I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I'm going to look ridiculous in this car.' It soon became endearing. It went from, 'Oh, I don't know if I really want this thing,' to something I really loved and enjoyed."
Two years later, in 1995, she was working on a senior project in which she had to design a Web site. She started the obligatory personal Web page, then realized she had a chance to do something unique. She kept the site up while studying computers at Case Western Reserve University, and expanded it to cover all Pacers when she started getting e-mail from aficionados from around the United States and even Iceland, Switzerland, France and Germany.
"I'm still surprised every time I get an e-mail. I was surprised from day one," said Barovian, now a computer engineer who does both marketing and engineering for Intel.
The site features a history of the vehicle, technical information, photos, information about toys, models and other collectibles, Pacer fan testimonials and a chronicle of the car's appearances in movies and TV. Barovian also tells her own Pacer story--her first one fell victim to an accident in 1997, but two years later she bought another, a brown 1977 wagon with faux wood-grain sides.
"It's not your typical classic car, like a '57 Chevy," she said. "People like things that are kind of quirky. I think they're cute."
Just as she has since the beginning, Barovian writes all the HTML for the site herself. A friend who owns an Internet service provider in her hometown hosts it for free. And Barovian said she typically spends three to four hours a week tinkering with the site, adding information and answering e-mail--mostly from owners looking for technical help. She connects them with others in the Pacer community.
"People out there have these questions and love their car and want to keep it up," she said. "I'm sort of a matchmaker. I don't have your answer, but I know someone who does."

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Steve Carney is a freelance journalist.
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Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times