AMC club magazine keeps nostalgia flowing

American Motors Corp. was merged and phased out as a separate entity, but the image of AMC’s imprint, born in the 1950s, lingered for years to follow. Many salient facts and recollections of AMC are carried forth in the quarterly magazine

AmericanMotors (Ian Weber, editor, amonewslettereditor@gmail.com).

As 2022 swung into high gear, so did the magazine’s refiections of AMC. Tom Benvie’s ten-page article “Building an American Motors Car” is a grand example. Restorers welcomed the article, since knowing how cars were built at a particular factory (the one featured being in Kenosha, Wis.) adds to appreciation of the past and an understanding of how present surviving cars were built – even how they can be rebuilt by restorers. The article traced the construction steps through 34 ample pictures, many in full color. The informative text explained how those were the days of the Hornet, the AMX models and high hopes for the corporation. The result is walk through a nearly forgotten factory and era.

But all things come to an end. In that same issue was a four-page update on redevelopment plans for the “iconic” AMC plant (formerly for Kelvinator appliances) in Detroit. Once an active and sprawling facility, it has been plagued by abandonment and the removal of things valuable. It slipped into decline, seemingly beyond the point of return, flscally and actually. The plant has little choice but to give way to the future. If or when approved by the city council, the tear down and new development could begin late this year, with new usage possibly rising from the dust in 2023.