I was probably 2 maybe 3 days old before I started dreaming about my first project car.  At the time, my dad was working on putting together a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 and as far back as I can remember, that was the car that got me hooked on muscle cars.  As I got older, my dad and I threw around more and more ideas for what we could put together as my first project car. Camaros, Mustangs, Challengers, but they were all too expensive for a beginning driver and didn’t quite have the flair that we were looking for.

It was then one fateful day when I watched Wayne’s World for the umpteenth time and put two-and-two together.  Why not a Pacer?  Dad laughed, but I was serious.  He wrote it off as crazy, but I kept my eye open.  A month or so later, paging through a car trader with my buddy (yea, that’s how car obsessed I have always been) we stumbled across a 1978 Pacer that the ad claimed to be equipped with a V8!  I clipped out the ad and rushed home to my dad.  Showing it to him, we both wrote it off as a typo until he called.  AMC DID in fact put a V8 in a Pacer, and this was one of them.  We had found our project car.

I was 13 years old when we took delivery of our Pacer, and within a month it was completely torn down and body on a rotisserie.  Three excruciating years and a lot of blood, sweat and tears passed until we had it fully restored and ready for the street, and when it finally was, it was a HOOT!

Those three paragraphs must be the longest introduction to a post ever, but I had to give some perspective to the Black Pacer in the above image and accompanying photo gallery.  I’ll have more details, specs, and images of the Pacer in the coming months, so you all have something to look forward to.  Now, getting to the point.  Did you know that the Porsche 928 was rumored to be inspired by the styling of the Pacer?

It’s true, I swear.  Porsche design chief at the time, Tony Lapine has credited the Pacer as being responsible for inspiring the bubble-shaped tail end of the 928.  Seriously.  The Pacer, one of the most unloved cars of all time has been rumored to be credited with one of Porsche’s more “unique” cars.  How does that happen one might ask?  Well, it’s hard to say.  I suppose design inspiration can come from anywhere.  Still though, a performance car inspired by a bulbous economy car sounds preposterous.  As a Pacer enthusiast though (yes, those DO exist, there’s even a Yahoo! Group for us misfits) it ads to the flavor and character of our portly little pals.  “Did you know the 928 was designed after the Pacer?”  “Yep” I reply as we roast the rear Kumho’s on the 401 V-8 powered Pacer.

Dan has made some new friends as of late who happened to be pretty well connected in designer circles, and we’re hoping to be bringing you an inside look at some designs.  While I have to keep the cat in the bag for now, let’s ponder the copy cat Pacer-Porsche scenario I posed above.  While nothing has been completely proven, the photo evidence I provided from last years Hot Rod Power Tour does speak volumes.  A picture’s worth a thousand words?  This one’s worth seven.  “The 928 was styled after the Pacer.”

Tags: Cars, cool, design, images, Pacer, Photos, Porsche, v8