How did I come to Vail?
In the Summer of 1975, Diana and I decided to do a road trip around the United States. While Diana had traveled extensively in Europe with her parents, she had never seen much of the majesty or vastness of the United States. We packed up our brand new American Motors Pacer (in Burgundy Red with the Navajo Red & White interior) and set out West on a northerly route out from our home in Philadelphia. The Pacer has pretty much been lost to time and history, and I doubt that there are many people today who were alive then that would remember the Pacer. It was produced from 1975 to 1980 and only a little over 350,000 were ever made in all configurations. It was a most unusual car with a unique jelly bean shape, but two characteristics made it a particularly bad choice for a round trip cross country jaunt of 8,000 miles in seven weeks. First, it was underpowered. The Pacer was originally intended to be powered by a short but powerful Wankel engine. When the promise of the Wankel was abandoned, AMC went with an inline 6 that was insufficient for the bulk of the Pacer. We were moving on the highway through the Rockies east of Denver at 5 MPH with the gas pedal floored. I felt certain that we wouldn’t make it to the top of the last hill, but we did and the car was able to drive (coast?) at normal speeds on the way down the Rockies. Second, the car had massive side, rear and front windshield glass areas. This made the car a huge solar oven on wheels. Traveling in summer through the badlands, deserts, etc. that are out west was quite an experience in such a car, a little like taking a sauna while in transit. But how does this all relate to skiing?
In the Summer of 1975, Diana and I decided to do a road trip around the United States. While Diana had traveled extensively in Europe with her parents, she had never seen much of the majesty or vastness of the United States. We packed up our brand new American Motors Pacer (in Burgundy Red with the Navajo Red & White interior) and set out West on a northerly route out from our home in Philadelphia.
The Pacer has pretty much been lost to time and history, and I doubt that there are many people today who were alive then that would remember the Pacer. It was produced from 1975 to 1980 and only a little over 350,000 were ever made in all configurations. It was a most unusual car with a unique jelly bean shape, but two characteristics made it a particularly bad choice for a round trip cross country jaunt of 8,000 miles in seven weeks. First, it was underpowered. The Pacer was originally intended to be powered by a short but powerful Wankel engine. When the promise of the Wankel was abandoned, AMC went with an inline 6 that was insufficient for the bulk of the Pacer.
We were moving on the highway through the Rockies east of Denver at 5 MPH with the gas pedal floored. I felt certain that we wouldn’t make it to the top of the last hill, but we did and the car was able to drive (coast?) at normal speeds on the way down the Rockies. Second, the car had massive side, rear and front windshield glass areas. This made the car a huge solar oven on wheels. Traveling in summer through the badlands, deserts, etc. that are out west was quite an experience in such a car, a little like taking a sauna while in transit. But how does this all relate to skiing?
Stay tuned for the answer …
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 3:31 am and is filed under Ira D. Riklis.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.