As I had mentioned in my previous post, my first project car was being discussed days after exiting the womb. My dad’s a car nut, and I had no choice in the matter. It’s always been a part of me, and unlike many men, I’m proud to say it’s an AMC Pacer. Of course, it didn’t start as that. I always envisioned a boss Mustang, rad Camaro or sick Challenger. However, the thing about me is that I don’t really go for convention (yea, that and those three cars cost more than triple what the Pacer did). Having gotten the idea from Wayne’s World and finding a V8 coupe just days after it was almost fate that brought us together.

Beginning with a full rotisserie resto, we stripped our ugly grey Pacer into all of its unique AMC parts. From the beginning, my dad and I were building a car that would be a safe reliable driver for a first timer. I rebuilt my first engine (304, later to be replaced with my second built engine, a 401), and learned the ins and outs of body work, paint, suspension, wiring, you name it. It was a valuable experience, and what you see in this post and the accompanying gallery is the result. This is a fanatic job through and through considering that 99% of the work on the car was performed by us or friends in or their garages. This isn’t a 1800 hotrod. No sir, a lot of home-built blood sweat and tears are manifested in one of the most unique hot rods on the road.

So, most people thought we were crazy.  Telling people what we were working on during the resto got a lot of confused looks, but we had visions that nobody else did.  What do you think?  Did we actually build a Pacer you’d consider cool?  For further consideration, below are the technical specs of the car. While performance numbers have yet to be tested…they will be coming with this years Hot Rod Power Tour. In fact, we’ll be covering the whole tour from the Pacer this year with live updates at the end of each day! We’re hoping to both drag and autocross the Pacer as well as scout some great fanatic cars…all on a 7-day rolling car show. But that’s still a month away so for now, check out the beastly Pacer’s specs and let us know what you think.

Powertrain:

• AMC 401 V8
• Bored 30 Over
• 9.5:1 KB Pistons
• Mild Engle Cam
• Stock heads port matched on the intake side
• Edelbrock Performer Intake
• 725 Demon Carb
• GM Style HEI Distributor
• Custom headers
• Dual 3″ Mandrel Bend exhaust with 40 Series Flowmasters

Drivetrain:

• Borg Warner Z-Spec World Class T5 5-Speed
• Steeda Triax Shifter
• Centerforce Clutch
• AMC 20 with 3.50 gears and Trutrac limited slip dif

Rolling Stock:

• American Racing 200s 17×8 (Front) 17×9.5(Rear)
• Kumho Ecsta SPT KU31 Tires

Suspension:

• Front:  Stock coil springs with one coil removed
• Rear: Stock leaf springs dearched 3″ with air shocks

More pics here

[View with PicLens]

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.”