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mpc Pacer x it has a mile of glass but no class lol


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I am looking forward to this reissue. While we hated most of the '70s cars at the time (and with good reason) they stubbornly have become parts of our lives and histories. The skinned knuckles and putrid performance has been long since forgotten, along with the recurring service nightmares caused by these cars. Now, we seem to fondly remember the cars as being part of the best years of our lives.

Well put! With 20/20 hindsight we forget all the hassles and issues, and remember the good stuff!

Back in that era, I was responsible for buying cars and trucks for my company. Literally when I took delivery of a new executive car, I'd drive it for a week or two to shake it out before handing it over to the intended recipient. I had a brand new Buick drop a tranny on the NJ Turnpike and other crazy stories. The company let executives pick out their car, or I'd help them with suggestions. We had a VP whose personal car was an AMC Matador 2 door and he wanted a Honda Accord. Most of us thought he was crazy until we took delivery of the Honda and it had no defects whatsoever. We never had a problem with that one, or the '78 Toyota wagon I drove as my company car.

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My main memory of a Pacer is riding up to Higgins Lake in the back seat of one with the cutest girl in my class (Who was wearing a bikini) on a perfect summer day for a big picnic with all of our friends. (And getting baked by all of that glass, while Alice Cooper played on the 8 track).

I don't have any Pacer memories myself, but this one brought back a few similar memories of my own! Those are the kind of posts that really make me smile!

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Was looking at the pdf file of the instructions, that engine is 19 pieces, which is a pretty high parts count even by today's standards (and might be about a third of all the kit's entire contents). That's a lot of time and effort in the design process for a Pacer :D

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Was looking at the pdf file of the instructions, that engine is 19 pieces, which is a pretty high parts count even by today's standards (and might be about a third of all the kit's entire contents). That's a lot of time and effort in the design process for a Pacer :D

Those MPC 70s and 80s cars were done really nice. Throw away cars like the Chevy Cavalier, Ford EXP, and Dodge Omni all have excellent detail and go together well. And the good part is that many of them can still be bought cheap today.

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Owning 2 AMC's now and having owned MANY others......I am happy. True....a early model would be good....but in talking with R2 it may happen if we buy this one....like other 70's era kits sitting in the vault.

AMC was on the verge of breaking out......they had a mini van in the design stage that might mean we would have AMC today and NOT Chrysler !!!!

And what they did with no cash and using parts bin design is amazing! (Javelin used the same glass and door skins from 68 to 74 but you can't really tell!!!)

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There is just something very wrong about using a FWD car platform as the basis of a Jeep, IMO...(those were based on the same Mitsubishi derived platform as the Caliber). The new Cherokee is on the Alfa Romeo-based FWD platform derived used by the Dart.

Considering that the general public doesn't use these for anything rougher than the turnpike, they now produce cars that look like Jeeps. And the average person out there is happy. So be it.

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http://round2models.com/models/mpc/amc-pacer-x I was on round 2 website and saw this. Who has built it? I got to have one because it's like a pug dog so ugly but loveable in a way

I built this kit years ago as an annual issue liked it they also had a Pacer wagon kit...Thanks Round 2 for the new reissues coming out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  • 5 weeks later...

I built one of the 1976 issues of this kit, and used it to propose to my wife. It is a nice little kit with few issues for its age. I made a little video showing the construction, which should give you a sense of the parts available. You can check it out here:

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Great vid JM!

I turned 16 in '76 and got my 365 the same day and my license, I think, a week later. I was immediately the best driver in the world.

A not-very good buddie's mother had a new Pacer and somehow I ended up driving it with 4 others in it. There was a steep curving hill in my 'hood that at one time had tracks of some kind that had been paved over but some spots were peeled away.

I had that fishbowl up on 2 wheels. Everyone in the car thought I was the best driver in the world.

I knew I had just used up a cat's life.

Bob

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  • 1 month later...

Looks like this kit is out a bit early. At least one eBay seller has it listed as being in stock. Too bad they chose the '78 with the, um, less good looking hood. :(

The tall hood was done in 1978 to allow for a V8 engine. Irony is that MPC declined to upgrade the kit engine to a V8 so you still get the six that was in the previous years kit. Actually that's a good thing, the AMC six is quite useful to modelers.

I agree it's not as nice looking as the earlier model, but that's how the tool survives today. Round Two didn't make the investment to backdate the car... at least not yet! I can see future issues of the lower hood and since Tom Lowe has always been about TV and Movie memorabilia, the Wayne's World car. I'd actually be surprised if they didn't do that. The TV and movie hobby is much larger than ours and that one would pay for the tool changes.

I haven't looked at my kits, I do have copies of each version, but from my recent experience looking at Chevette kits, the only difference between the early 1977 Chevette and the 1980 era Bear Bait version is the hood and grill. If the Pacer goes the same way, I'm sure a resin solution will appear very shortly! Either way I'm happy to see the Pacer back!

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The tall hood was done in 1978 to allow for a V8 engine. Irony is that MPC declined to upgrade the kit engine to a V8 so you still get the six that was in the previous years kit. Actually that's a good thing, the AMC six is quite useful to modelers.

The 304 V8 was an option for the Pacer in 1978 and 1979. The raised hood not only allowed for the V8, but provided more of a sight line for drivers (apparently there were some complaints about that on the earlier models). A handful of 1980 Pacers were built, all with the 258 six. No 1980 AMC cars were offered with a V8.

The Levi's interior option wasn't available in AMC cars after 1978 (Jeeps may have had it longer), so MPC's Pacer kit would have been incorrect for '79 without an interior update. Too, the X package was renamed "Sport" during the '78 model year. MPC probably didn't update the kit beyond '78 for sales reasons.

More AMC trivia relating to Round 2 reissues: the '76 Gremlin kit depicts a pretty rare car. The V8 option for the Gremlin was dropped early in the '76 model year, with fewer than 1,000 '76 V8 Gremlins having been built. AMT announced a '77 Gremlin kit, but as with MPC's Pacer, the cost of updates (engine, front clip, bumpers, taillights) probably prevented AMT from going beyond 1976. AMT was getting away from annual kits anyhow ('77s were the last until Ertl rebranded MPC's annuals, with the elimination of the MPC brand).

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Gotta get me one of these this weekend.I see a v-8 and some slicks out back.Might even put a hemi in the back like the old hotwheel pacer had,with the headers comin' out the back window.

Woo Hoo now bring on the Chevettes please.

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I picked one up last Wednesday (8/28). Never thought to try it until now, but the grille is a good fit on the AMT wagon. The hood needs to be "shimmed" a bit at the sides, but matches up well also. So a '78-'80 wagon is workable...

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