Northern Ramblers Car Club of Canada

Car Club
Newsletter
AM Spirit
Northern Ramblers Car Club of Canada Newsletter
Canada’s National AMC Enthusiast
Group
A very unusual, and cool, Gremlin
goes up for bids on eBay™- Page 18
A legendary AMC
“Rally Car”
comes back to
life– Page 5
Keep the AMC Spirit Alive
Winner of the Golden Quill Award Eleven Years Running!
The Restoration of an AMC
Rally Car Legend
Part 1- Seann Burgess
The following story is about one of those cars that comes out of “hiding” every once in a while, and
reminds us of what a terrific hobby this is. It’s another lost or forgotten treasure to give the feeling
that you should never stop looking. In this particular case, I didn’t have to “look”…this one came to
me. To introduce the story, I’m inserting the e-mail sent to the editor of this fine publication from the
man who was in charge of things back at the Brampton AMC plant in the late ‘60’s…Ernie Regehr,
who was the quality control manager for the plant and the man who took on the pro rally project to
campaign a team in the Shell 4000 Cross Canada Rally. Ernie wrote:
“Hi Editor Steve,
As you know, back in ’67 & ’68, we got into the Shell 4000 Rally at American Motors. For the second
year, I prepared a “mule”/test car which became affectionately known as “Old Blue”. The drivers
tested and borrowed it and many a tale of fun and mayhem still is told for the first time. The car was
sold and whereabouts unknown for a long time. Seann Burgess is now the owner. He has an excellent car build/restoration shop and has undertaken the job of restoring Old Blue. It generates many
side issues, technical and historical, and we think it would make interesting reading for your publication. He keeps a log with pictures and has agreed to record it all for the Northern Ramblers.
Regards, Ernie Regehr”
Ok, so if some of you don’t remember, after getting
their feet wet in 1967, Ernie got serious about doing
the Shell 4000 Rally in ’68. The factory prepared
three white Americans, all with 290 V8’s, T10 four
speeds, Twin Grip limited slip rear ends, big brakes,
close ratio steering boxes, heavy duty everythings…
the list goes on and on. The story of these three cars
and their records (2nd, 3rd, & 5th OVERALL in the Calgary to Halifax event) is a great tribute to AMC, the
team, Ernie, and above all the car that this article is
about. One of the reasons these cars enjoyed such
great success was because of the prototype/test car,
Old Blue.
Ernie knew if they were going to really give it a go in
’68, they were going to have to do their homework.
He poured over result sheets and driver histories and
selected a team who along with the enthusiastic
AMC plant employees, would give a real fighting
chance in the “personnel department”, then he built
this car. As you know, 1968 was the year for the
introduction of the AMX (American Motors Experimental). This blue car went down the assembly line
at the same time as the latest offering to the muscle
car market and received quite a list of factory parts
that your dad’s American never got! I’ll get into more
detail in Part 2, but let’s just say, this car was built to
go, stop, fly, land and everything in between. As
Ernie said, many “test sessions” were undertaken,
legal or not (come on this was the ‘60’s), and over a
relatively short period of time, the basis was established for building the three white race cars. The
contribution to the overall success provided by this
blue car (including team and manufacturer awards)
cannot be understated. The team did a superb job
coming up with a platform that proved to be rugged
and reliable, in fact, Old Blue was dispatched as a
chase/parts car, following the rally course across the
country to “donate” any required parts to the participating team cars. They never took a part off it. All
four cars made the journey with incredible reliability.
At the conclusion of the rally, the four cars were
taken back to the factory and subsequently “sold off”.
The white cars went on to some very interesting far
away places/competitions, while the blue car was
sold to an enthusiast right here in Ontario, Sid
Crump. Sid Crump and partner Dave Mackenzie,
both BARC (British Automobile Racing Club) members purchased the car from Ernie with the intention
of having something interesting to compete in some
Ontario winter rallies. Many fellow BARC members
and friends remember the car well since the guys
were very active in the club and its many social and
competition events. The car has quite a competition
history (still being compiled) having been entered in
rallies, at least one road race at Mosport, and the
Knox Mountain Hill Climb in Kelowna, B.C.
5
garage (another BARC member) , down in Toronto. I
spent a bit of time there learning how flames shoot
out of a carb, how to tractionize tires for ice racing
and how to “bench race” by some real pros.
When Bob’s shop wasn’t too busy, he let one fellow
club enthusiast in to do some work on his car between events. You guessed it. Sid Crump and his
1968 Shell 4000 prototype Blazer Metallic Blue Rambler American!! I probably LEANED on this car when
I was in grade 7!! Man, I wish I had a photograph of
the inside of that shop with that car in there when we
were hanging around.
To date, the only period photo I have of the car is in
the line up with the Camaros, Mustangs, Darts and
Porsches, waiting to come back down the hill for another run at Knox Mountain in ’69. The car was also
equipped with a trailer hitch to tow Dave Mackenzie’s
Lotus 7 club racer to CASC events as far away as
Gimli, Manitoba in the west and Shubenacadie, Nova
Scotia in the east! By the time the mid ‘70’s rolled
around, the car was getting a little tired (no kidding!),
and the car was abandoned on the family farm near
Petrolia, Ontario.
Let’s fast forward about 20 some years to how this
car was “found”. At this point, I have to introduce a
very good friend of mine, Darcy Gitt, who we will refer to as the “saviour”. Darc and I go way back, to
high school days when we rode our first motorcycles
together, in Etobicoke. His dad happened to have a
pretty new car in the driveway at the time, you
guessed it, a Blazer Metallic Blue Rambler American
4 door. The saviour was reading the local rag from
his area down past London (mid-late ‘90’s) and he
spotted an ad for a “1968 Rally/Race Rambler, Shell
4000, Knox Mountain etc., MUST BE SOLD TO AN
AMC ENTHUSIAST” Darc has had an American for
just about forever and knew exactly what the ad was
describing and called the seller and made the deal
pronto like.
I went down to see the car and I guess it started sort
of “talking” to me right from the start…sort of like a
beer calling your name from inside the fridge on a hot
day. It turns out I had more than likely met this car
before. Long before I had been driving my own blue
Rambler American in around grade 13, (remember
Darcy’s dad’s car? Darc brought it from him and I
bought it from Darc). In the mid/late ‘60’s, my older
brother, Brian was just getting heavily involved in the
club racing scene in Ontario (Harewood, Mosport)
with a Sunbeam Tiger he had driven on the street
before race prepping it. I was in late grade school at
the time and helped out by painting in the lettering on
the Firestone race tires and some other critical jobs.
Anyway, my brother kept the car at Bob Atrell’s
6
Anyway, a few years ago Darc and his family picked
up stakes and having a bunch of vehicles to deal
with, I suggested we bring the Rambler to my place
for “safe keeping”. We could decide later what he,
we or I would “do” with it. All the while I never
stopped researching, phoning, tracking people and
information down.
Since then, Darc and I made a deal for me to own
the car. I spent until last October getting comfortable
with the amount of information I had collected, then
took the car apart. Here’s what I started with.
Transmission
hump
Since last fall, I have done a complete tear down
(bumper to bumper)….everything was taken apart.
Because this is a very unique car, (that being, a factory built competition car), every piece that could be
saved, was saved, no matter how much effort it took
to restore it. There are many “before and after” pictures at this point that I can hardly believe myself.
Remember, the car was basically un-restorable. It
was just too far gone after sitting outside for so long.
But, where there’s a will, there’s a way, right? I’ll explain what I did in Part 2.
I took detailed photographs of every inch of the teardown. Let me tell you, sitting outside for 30 years
doesn’t do cars or the people who work on them any
favours! I’ve worked on a lot of cars, bikes and
things in my day, and I’ve never run into a project
that required more hand cleaner than this thing. I
have to thank another very good friend of mine, “Dr.
Bike” Steve Turnbull, who has taken a real keen interest in the project from the day I first introduced him
to the story. In addition to bringing Old Blue to my
place, he helped out on the messiest of days…
yanking the dirty old drive train & suspension. He’ll
be “gettin” one of the first drives!
P.S. Although I’m flattered that Ernie referred to my
place as “an excellent car/build restoration shop”, the
suggestion is a little misleading. I have a nice building I put up myself (1500 sq. ft.) where I do my daily
sign/decal work. Cars do, however, fill approximately
75% of the space! One of the racecars, I did actually
build from scratch. I work primarily with simple hand
tools, nothing fancy. What I will admit to having is,
an honest passion for cool (and rare) gas powered
things, and a lot of patience. Nothing quite like taking
on something that everyone has left for junk, and
turning it into a respectable driver! If any of our
readers have additional information, or anecdotes, on the 3 white rally cars please supply it to
Editor Steve. Thanks.
Parts and Service, Appraisals and Sales
KENNEDY AMERICAN, INC.
7100 Route 142 S.E.
West Jefferson, Ohio 43162
Jim’s Restoration
1460 King St. RR #4
Port Perry, Ontario
L9L 1B5
[email protected]
Phone: (905) 985-1583
Fax: (905) 985-7936
American Motors
(Specializing in Rambler)
(614) 879-SAVE (7283)
Largest selection of new, factory original,
reproduction and select used parts at a
better price.
AMX-JAVELIN-RAMBLER-AMC-JEEP
FREE AMX/JAVELIN Catalog
1950s to present
20 years experience
FREE locator service
www.kennedyamerican.com
7