tobias.kochs-online.net

Now that the secret has been disclosed, I can tell the complete story of our vehicle fleet’s latest addition.

Last year Adrian borrowed me the book “60s Cars – Vintage Auto Ads” from his comprehensive fund of literature. That’s where I discovered an advertisement for the ‘67 Ford Thunderbird which blew me away because of the car’s fantastic rear lights. Unfortunately the designers seem to have made the front and the rear separately and discovered a bit too late they designed it in different width when putting all together. A likewise stunning rear end appearence could be seen in a picture of the ‘69 Chrysler 300 (s. image at the right). Every time I saw this ad the car got me more interested. A bit of Internet research revealed Chrysler hadn’t only made the rear lights even nicer for the next model year, but also teamed up with Hurst Performance, producer of the famous Hurst Shifter, to produce a special variant: the Chrysler 300 Hurst. However this decision wasn’t made until the Chrysler 300 of 1970 was already well in production. Accompanied by the fact that it was hardly advertised, only 485 (or 501 – depending from source) cars were made. In the next (and last) model year 300 Hurst wasn’t offered again.

Given how rare these cars are, I didn’t expect to ever see a 300 Hurst in real life, not to mention to buy one of them. After all even the regular 300s of 1969 to 1971 are hard to find over here. In last year’s early October I finally discovered two 300s at the German car trading site mobile.de. A ‘71 Coupé and a 300 Hurst! But I couldn’t imagine at all, a Hurst would be offered for this price. [missing content...]

70, 300, 485, 440, 375, 480, 727, 225, 79, 4352, 1

As Adrian already wrote a few times, we are planning to participate in the rallye Dresden-Dakar-Banjul in November this year. In preparation Adrian had planned a first meeting of the insane daring Africa travellers for last Friday night. Since we are gonna split up into two teams and I still had to find a co-driver, Adrian’s friend Antje stepped up to join. So this was our first opportunity to get to know each other a bit. Obviously I didn’t leave such a bad impression that it would stop Antje from taking part in the rallye.

We also discussed some organizational issues. Besides from the important question of how much it would cost us, we had a talk about such minor points like vaccinations, visas, acquisition of sponsors or team names. At the end of the evening we finally registered our teams at the organizers’ website. By now we are listed as team #195 and #196. The big, unanswered question of the night is still existing though: What’s the meaning of our team name? We really don’t know!

Tonight I met my old friend Oliver who beat us to the draw and took part in this February’s rallye challenge with his team “Steinheim goes Afrika”. He had some quite good hints for us and tried insitently to hold me off from going to Gambia in a Mazda 121 DB. In fact this encourages me even more to do so. I think…

His main arguments against using a 121 were it’s missing all-wheel-drive, the tiny space it offers as well as it’s low clearance resulting in lesser fun going off-road. Nothing you can’t countervail with some improvisation paired with a good load of momentum, I guess.

After about four weeks the repair manual for my Pacer arrived from the USA yesterday. Now I only have to pick it up in Bellenberg to finally immerse myself into the subject. In particular the somewhat opinionated braking characteristics are preventing a registration of the car currently. Already low brake pressure is enough to block the front left wheel. I discovered this when I was about 500 meters away from the seller’s house while approaching the first red light. That raised my stress level for the rest of the transfer fairly which is why I’d like to tackle this problem as fast as possible.

Just in time for the literature supply a package of spare parts from Austria is on its way to me. It took a bit longer than I expected at first, but the important thing is I can start soon. All this great weather lately got me more and more nervous and I can hardly wait anymore to go for a cruise in the evening.

I have to confess, I was quite proud when I visited carsablanca.de today and discovered an AMC Pacer being the current “favorite of the week“. With it’s dark two-tone paintjob it’s even pretty similar to mine. And it’s equipped with the fancy CB radio as well.

Accompanied by Adrian, his girlfriend Nici and my father, i drove to Mülheim an der Ruhr today and finally picked up my car. So three long weeks of waiting have come to an end now. As a reward everything – except for being a bit late – worked out fine: The car has been ready for pick-up, streets were dry, even the sun took a peek through the clouds every once in a while and the transfer came off without difficulty.

And because the gagging order doesn’t apply any more now, I’m gonna end the guessing game and disclose the secret. It’s a 1979 AMC Pacer D/L:

“Party on, Wayne!“

That I would buy a small car one day, noone might have expected – me included until three weeks ago! But when I stood in front of the car back then, it was plain sailing. Good condition, low quantity still existing (even in the US, I’ve read), geek factor and fancy design were a clear basis for decision-making.

And now some bare figures:

So true by earthdog (found on Flickr)

Would it be justifiable, to put stickers onto a car – this would be on top of my list. (No, Adrian, Phantasialand stickers are out too!)

As a reading for lunch break I recommend “Die letzte Ölung – Besuch beim Abwracker” at Carsablanca. Just to sing from the same hymn sheet as lately and to point out the madness of the German junking-bonus.

After arriving in Mülheim at the Ruhr, the son of the seller welcomed us. They had some of these models, he said and asked, if we would be interested in taking a look at his current project. Well, of course we had. He led us down to a garage in the basement and we figured out, we weren’t dealing with another offspring of Laberbacke’s breed. A black car stood there properly jacked up, a long row of shelves at the wall behind it holding lots of spare parts. A yellow E-Type was standing in the front area of the garage. With some intermissions they had been working for ten years at the black car now, he told us.

We drove to the storage, where we met his dad, who had already taken care of the car which is for sale. The storage packed a punch. Seven classic cars of American and British brands stood there orderly side by side. After some introducing words Adrian and I inspected the car of our interest – and what can I say? We were stunned. Despite it’s age of thirty years, the car is in excellent condition. Everything is original and perfectly maintained. Low mileage, no rust, fantastic paint. When the seller told me, he had to replace the gear gaiter by a new one made of black leather, it became clear to me, on which level we found ourselves. Even the rare radio is still in place and fully functional.

We took a look, but did find a few minor flaws at best, which you would not mention at most used cars from this millennium. I had quite some difficulties to control my euphoria until we were back in our car and heading home.

Sunday morning I called the seller, negotiated a price and sent him a purchase covenant by fax. Now he is going to exchange the petrol filter and clean the carburetor, afterwards the car is ready for handover.