Friends, there are gremlins in my Gremlin/Pacer DVD.

To all of my investors, I want you to know that I've been working very diligently to burn a usable master for this project. But currently I'm stuck in the garage up on blocks.

I use a MacBook Pro and iDVD to burn my masters. This DVD is no technological marvel. Like a Rambler, the whole project is simple. It's simple to author the project in iDVD and simple to burn on my Mac. But my software just won't cooperate. I don't know why.

Stay tuned, folks. I have to switch to Plan B to burn a good master. It will take some time, but I'll do it. And all of you who are investors on my list WILL get your DVDs. I will kick these Gremlins across the horizon line. Grrrr.

I was wondering why the traffic to our site spiked on May 23rd. Now I know.

The New York Times published a story by Kit Kiefer about the 1949-51 Nash Airflytes and the Nash Car Club of America's founder Jim Dworschack.

The story reminds America that the bathtub Nashes were part sleeper sofa, part camper, and completely comfortable. You could drive an Airflyte Statesman or Ambassador off the beaten path and park it near a stream. There you could cast your line into the water and later sleep under the stars in your bedroom-on-wheels Nash. (The only feature missing was an onboard flushomatic commode!)

It's great at long last to see this story in print. Jim Dworschack contacted us last fall and asked me to provide Mr. Kiefer with a copy of our 1950 Nash Airflyte Trailer. I was happy to help, but honestly, I forgot about the whole affair until I saw the story in print. Congratulations, Jim. It's a great tribute to the Airflytes and to Jim, who founded the Nash Car Club at age 15 in 1969.

One of the most impressive elements of the story is the fantastic photo of Jim by photographer Andy Manis. (Use it as your publicity photo, Jim! Get some business cards and wallet-size prints!)

I keep coming back to the June 2008 issue of Collectible Automobile, because there are a lot of great orphans in this issue.

I always thought that CA confined itself to post-WWII cars, but I may have to change my thinking about this magazine. (I suspect it's because the content in their chosen field is finite. There are only so many old car stories out there.)

When you turn a few chapters farther back in history, you find some really interesting stuff. The Photo Feature of the 1916 Scripps-Booth Model C Roadster is a good example. Before this company was gobbled up by GM, they produced some cool Brass Era buggies. The Model C, pictured here on another web site, was a "luxurious light car" with a floor that was lower than the chassis rails. The Model C pioneered this concept 32 years before (and several hundred pounds lighter than) the Stepdown Hudsons of 1948.

They made 6,000 of these from 1915 to 1916 before William Durant bought the company in 1917.

There is a jump seat just ahead of the passenger seat. It looks like a padded toilet seat. Maybe it was a "safety feature" like the padded dashes of Kaiser-Frazers in the 1950s.

AMC historian du jour Patrick Foster (It used to be folks like John Conde and Arch Brown.) just wrote a story about the 1965-66 Rambler Classics. Look for it in the June 2008 issue of Collectible Automobile.

These cars are usually forgotten, because they weren't sexy, and they were built at a time when AMC was pursuing the disastrous policy of competing with The Big Three. But I like the clean styling. The boxy shape definitely screams, "Get out of the way, or I'm gonna clip some hippies!"

You'll get the usual ho-hum recitation of facts and figures, but I found some new and interesting items. Look for the sidebar story about the 1966 one-off Rebel station wagon called the St. Moritz. It was a winter-themed custom car built for the 1966 Detroit Auto Show. I love the tinted rear windows that wrapped up into the roof.

Also, look for the '66 Rebel hardtop owned by Christine and David McGowan (two fellow Buckeyes and friends of Torq-O). The car is a beauty.

To add a little zazz to the print article, we thought we'd dig around through the Torq-O Film Archive. We found this beautifully restored 1966 Rebel TV commercial. (You're welcome, Collectible Automobile.)

Enjoy it now, because we'll be putting it back in the vaults in a few weeks.

After many, many months of editing, authoring, and producing, I'm proud to add the word "shipping" to the list of accomplishments regarding this DVD.

And now, while I'm shipping units out to investors, I want to offer all of you orphan car fans the opportunity to invest in and own a copy of this DVD.

It contains almost two hours of vintage AMC Gremlin and Pacer movies and commercials. It's mostly Pacer stuff, but I guarantee you've never seen most of this footage.

It was shot by AMC for their own publicity purposes, but it was stored away in the back room of some Kenosha film company that liquidated its assets in 2006.

Here's a list of the DVD's content:

Gremin Films:
1973 Clean Air Economy Run (featuring AMC’s economy driving champ Les Viland)
1974 Gremlin Manufacturing Scenes - 25:09

Pacer Films:
1974 Pacer at Michigan International Speedway (October 1974) - 8:49
1975 Pacers at Riverside (January 1975) - 11:19
1975 Pacer Press Preview - 20:50
1975 Pacer Manufacturing Scenes - 22:52
1975 Pacer TV Commercial “Spoof” - :30
1975 Pacer TV Commercial “Shell (Nova)” - :60
1975 Pacer TV Commercial “Shell (Nova)” - :30
1975 Pacer TV Commercial “Shell (Grenada)” - :30
1975 Pacer TV Commercial “Piper” - :60
1975 Pacer TV Commercial “Sandwich King” - :60
1975 Pacer TV Commercial “Sandwich King” - :30

It adds up to 119 minutes worth of rare and vintage AMC content. If you're a 1970s AMC fan, this DVD is for you! Order now, because this is a limited edition DVD. Once I'm done making the current two dozen or so copies, there won't be any more. Click on the PayPal button below to get your copy!

I really like what Collectible Automobile has done with their Design Fantasy sketch series.

Basically, CA has asked, "What if Brand X cross-pollinated with Brand Y to create a car that looked a little like both?" Publisher Frank Peiler then sketches up the results.

These visual mashups are fun. Some of them force you to do a double take. The Ford/Nash mutation in the June 2008 issue almost makes me do a spit take.

Good job, Editor Biel. At least you're trying to lighten up the magazine while maintaining its scholarly credentials. (Now if we could just get CA to create a web site!)

Snap! Crackle! Pop! That's not the Rice Krispies elves, kids. That's the noise coming out of your vintage orphan car tube radio!

You'll jump on it first thing after that engine rebuild, right? Well, now you don't have to wait.

Torq-O talks with Jim Cross, the owner of Vacuum Tubes, Inc. Jim will tell you why car radios with tubes aren't that difficult or expensive to repair.

Listen here, or check out the Enhanced Version on our Podcast page!

Pete Koziell, a Nash Car Club of America member, has co-produced a new documentary about the folks who crash cars for fun and not so much profit.

The movie is called Hell Drivers: America's Original Crash Test Dummies, and Pete plans to take it on the road through the film festival circuit this summer.

I checked out the web site. Although the film seems to be about modern hell drivers, I know that Pete has probably included historical footage of past hell drivers like Lucky Lee Lott (who wrecked Nashes for a living) and Aut Swenson (who destroyed Kaiser-Frazers).

You might love old cars, and you're good with a wrench. At Torq-O, we love orphan cars, but we're better with a video camera.

We've just posted a new video on YouTube that we think you'll like. It's a behind-the-scenes look at how we produced all of the media for our upcoming Gremlin/Pacer DVD. Watch below, and enjoy!

Production Update: this sucker is 90% done! I still have to create introductions for two of the movies on the DVD, but everything else is ready to go.

Bottom line: the DVD that all of you have been patiently waiting for will start shipping near the end of April.

Hot Rod did a bad, bad thing.

In its April 2008 issue, writer Steve Stanford gave us the scoop on "the biggest story of the year, and no one saw it coming." His six page article is stuffed with details about the resurgence of AMC. He even had illustrations of modernized AMC classics like the Javelin, the AMX, the Gremlin, the Pacer, the Ambassador, and even the Matador coupe as visual proof that the brand was coming back.

But then you get to the very bottom of the article where you learn that "...Hot Rod and Steve Stanford have been jacking with you-APRIL FOOLS!"

AMC fans have responded with all the humor of a Marine drill sergeant. Check out the responses on The AMC Forum. Over at the HotRod.com General Topics Forum, the response has ranged from "Chrysler are you listening? This is your chance to make a difference and make AMERICAN mean something! American Motors! Do it!" to "Do you know how many guys I have to tell that I'm a dumb ass - for not reading the fine print!"

To the editors at Hot Rod: look both ways before crossing the street. Some AMC fan might want to turn you into a hood ornament.