Welcome to Torq-O's first short report on the way current car companies copy the things that orphan car companies did decades ago. We're calling it Been There Done That.

I drive a 2005 Chrysler PT Cruiser. Recently, my Chrysler dealer started sending me these Chrysler Magazines. As the cover states, they're "exclusively for owners."

They're glossy. They're slick. They're lifestyle magazines disguised as shameless promotions for their cars. And they're nothing new.

Nash did them back in the 1950s. When they came out with the Airflyte design in 1949, they started publishing Nash Airflyte Magazine. Each issue featured articles on vacation getaways, scenic vistas, the newest Miss America (Nash was a proud sponsor of the Miss America program.), upscale sports like golf, and regular reminders to let your Nash dealer pop the hood and do some maintenance.

And, of course, there were those stories about new models and products that looked like dealer literature disguised as news stories. The only difference was that these magazines weren't published on glossy paper like dealer literature.

The main difference between the Chrysler and Nash publications is that Chrysler publishes more pages and devotes more ink to their cars and accessories.

I wonder if Hudson, Packard, or Studebaker published similar magazines. If you know, tell us. Post a comment through the "Comments" link below.

Friends and Investors,

I'm happy to report that the Gremlin/Pacer DVD that many of you poured your hard-earned dollars into is finally moving forward.

After after six or seven months of inactivity, I've asked a graphic artist to help me design a DVD interface to help make the packaging look good. (Don't wanna give you folks a product that looks slapped together.)

Plus, I'm digitizing and organizing all of the movies that I had transferred to broadcast-quality videotape this past January. So stay tuned, folks. I'll get this puppy out the door before we're all too old to remember the difference between a Gremlin and a Hornet.

For those of you who are scratching your heads right now, last year I and a group of Swedish and French AMC fans acquired a group of impossibly rare 16mm films about the Gremlin and the Pacer. Some of the longer films show these cars being assembled in Kenosha in 1974 and 1975. The rest of the films are all about the introduction of the Pacer. Commercials. Silent film of Pacer press previews. Beautiful footage of Pacers at Riverside and the Michigan International Speedway. No one had watched these films since they were shot in the 1970s. (I know, because I peeled off the crusty 32 year-old adhesive tape on the film leader of each of these films.)

If you're interested in joining this pool of investors, please email me. I can provide more details. Get a piece of AMC history now. I won't be offering this DVD to the public.

I opened up the New York Times Cars Section today to find a nice article on HET Member Bruce Smith and his trio of vintage Hudsons.

The article devotes a lot of ink to Jack Kerouac's reference to driving a Hudson cross country in his beat book On the Road.

Matter of fact, the Hudsons share a lot of ink with Cadillac and with Kerouac's fellow beatnik and proto-hippie Neal Cassaday.

Now don't get in my face, Kaiser-Frazer fans.

I'm only referring to Tommy Lee Byrd's rusty 1953 Henry J in the October 2007 issue of Rodder's Digest.

He writes about buying his '53 H-J and allowing the body to gracefully continue to oxidize naturally while he fixed up what was underneath. He would rather enjoy it in its current au natural state than turn it into a trailer queen. Besides, he and his dad have two more Henry J's that they're restoring at the shop.

I've said it before; i'll say it again. Sometimes the only way these cars get saved is if somebody customizes them or rods them out. Kudos to Tommy Lee for keeping any Kaiser-Frazer on the road.

...He'd be a Pierce-Arrow.

Like Packard's distinctively-shaped grille, Pierce-Arrow had its own unique styling cue: the googly-eyed, fender-mounted headlight.

I like Matthew Litwin's article (Hemmings Motor News, November 2007) about the evolution of Pierce-Arrows headlights, because it focuses on the men who developed it.

My problem with so much of the auto history that's written is that it obsessess over facts, figures, model numbers, and production reports. Hey, writers. Listen up. These machines were built by people. And people, with all their quirks and idiosyncracies, are what make stories interesting. Tell the story about the people who built the cars first. That will breathe life into the story of their machines.

(By the way, something that appears to be the major object or point of a story but turns out not to be is called a McGuffin. Marty Feldman and Pierce-Arrow: I guess you're the McGuffins here.)

If Granny's car was a '66 Plymouth Satellite with a Hemi, all you would see was Granny's fanny four seconds after the light turned green.

Hemmings Motor News (again, November 2007) tells us about Steve Van Blarcom's perfectly respectable-looking '66 Plymouth Satellite with an engine that sucks gas like a thirsty supermodel with a milkshake.

Don't get me wrong. I like granny cars with deceptively modest looks. Van Blarcom's Plymouth is a great example of a car that keeps a secret that only gets revealed when the light goes green.

As I write this, the year is 2007. Can you imagine an Amphicar selling last year for $124,200? What the...?

It happened at the Barrett-Jackson auction last January, and it seems that Amphicar prices are definitely not waterlogged. Check out the analysis in the November 2007 Hemmings Motor News. And then trade your orphan beater for an Amphicar.

If you owned a hot rod whose top speed was 80 mph, you might want to find another cart to cart around in. Unless that cart is a factory-built 1910 Maxwell Q-4.

Matthew Litwin does a nice job scaring the bejeezus out of me when he writes about this Brass Era barnstormer in the November 2007 Hemmings Motor News.

It's a race car with leaf spring suspension only. The 16-gallon copper gas tank sits directly behind two cramped leather seats. And, like all the Brass Era cars, it's open bodied. If you hit a bump you fly up. If you hit a tree, you fly forward. But don't worry. The giant steering wheel, which gives you a healthy bicep workout, will stop you cold. Think of it as a safety feature. For the thing your body would have hit.

The whole idea of a Brass Era race car makes me laugh nervously. Nevertheless, it looks like a fun car -- to putter around in.

Studebaker disciples: you should make a pilgrimage to the Studebaker Ranch.

Hemmings Motor News (November 2007) has a great article about Frank Wenzel's shrine to all things Studebaker. It's a ginormous garage built on a tennis court in Palm Springs, California. And it's stuffed full of Studebakers and Studebaker automobilia.

That's one personal tour I'd like to take. Anyone been there?

There's an interesting article in Newsweek online this week about how the internet has changed the hunt for rare cars and rarer parts for those cars.

They talk about how classic car owners use the internet to find rare parts that would taken them years to locate just by trolling through auctions and the classified ad sections of marque clubs.

In my own ridiculously narrow-interest way, I'm in league with these car owners. At Torq-O, we primarily collect orphan car media. We're always scouting the shipping lanes and backwater channels on the internet to find orphan car training kits, TV and radio commercials, industrial films, etc. If it weren't for the internet, our collection would be 1/5 the size it is today.

How about you? Has the internet allowed you to build a collection much faster than in the old days? Tell us a story. Click on the Comments button below, and share your thoughts.

Ever wonder how the Gremlin got the thumbs-up from management? Ever wonder why AMC didn't produce the beautiful AMX/3 sports car? (Is it any wonder why we saved this podcast for last?)

Torq-O gets the answers straight from the stylist's mouth in the last of our interviews taped at the 2006 AMO International show in Dayton, Ohio.

Take a listen to our third podcast: an interview with former AMC Director of Exterior Styling Bob Nixon.

Dan Strohl of Hemmings blogged about our Torq-O podcasts today. (Thanks for the nice words, Dan.)

Check out the only classic car podcasts on the net*, and find out why Hemmings, the largest U.S. classic car publisher is listening in.

*That we know of.

That Vince Geraci podcast was looking really lonely all by itself on the Torq-O Podcast page. So we whipped up another one for AMC fans.

Here's an interview with AMC Clay Modeler Frank Pascoe. And just like the last podcast, we've thrown in another AMC radio commercial.

By the way, if you like what you hear, please tell us! Just click on the Comments link below to let us know what you liked, what you didn't, and what you'd like to hear in the future.

Enjoy!