SS/AMX #8: AM"X"CITER
Blossomland Motors, Inc.
Benton Harbor, Michigan
Driver/Mechanic: Carl Starner
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Comments/History from Carl Starner:
The original owner's name was Bud Skelley. When the car was received , I was hired by Bud to do the wrench work along with Rick Ingles, who was the driver the first year. In the fall of 1969 Rick left the dealership and moved to Grand Rapids. At that time Bud was thinking of selling the car and asked me to get the car ready in the early spring to take to a strip in Indiana, which I did thinking he would try to sell the car . He asked me to drive the car at that meet. I drove the car and we won the event and turned our first run in the 10's. It was a 10.92. The next day the car was no longer for sale and I was put in the drivers seat . The car was run first with a Isky camshaft, Doug's headers, a 4:44 rear end, Cragar mags, and a T-10 transmission with a 264 low gear. In 1970 we switched to a Crane roller camshaft, a 5:00 rear gear, taller Goodyear slicks and did some modifications to the rear end housing. The car did not come with a dropout crossmember but we converted ours to one for faster engine maintenance. We changed the headers to JR's and did lots of playing with the length of the collectors, finding huge changes in mph and low end hp. These cars where a ball to drive...they launched so hard with the wheels in the air. One of the things that I remember most, people at the strip saying "What's that, a Rambler? What do they think they are going to do with that?" Then you would fire the engine, that got there attention, do a burn out, pull to the line and launch with the wheels in the air. The car was run through the 1970 season in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. Our best ET. was 10.82. Bud closed the dealership in the late fall and the car was sold. Thinking back I remember how much fun these cars where!!
Car currently located in Michigan