Even as a Pacer enthusiest I know your probably thinkin' those words were never meant to be put together. In the early 90s fresh out of high school and working my first real job. I came in contact with a guy who bought old used cars to use for all sorts of fun projects. From demo derby , SCCA road races, drag racing, or just to tinker and customize.(usually a torch, saw or welder was involved.) When I first met him he was driving a 1974 Duster that he drag raced and autocrossed. He told me of a Pacer that he had that the rear had something fall across the hatch and insted of repairing it ,he cut it away. Making the car look like a minni El Camino. He also told me that he raced it on the local autocrosse track and that he would frequently embarass new 5.0 Mustang owners in it by connsistantly blowing thier doors off. I had to see this.
Well, I went with him to an event and sure enough. That little car had its way with just about every car it went up against. (Later on I would realize that was also due to his driving skill and competative nature.) after the event he told me that he had a couple more pacers out back. Well that was all she wrote for me I was hooked. I quickly bought one and cominsed to tinkerin. First the hatch came off just like his. Then I west a step further, Icut the roof away ,leaving the seat belt towers, so the car looked like a little roller skate. He evidently liked the look so his soon followed suit. Though he was a bit smarter, he tide the uni body together first before cutting.
We took the cars to the the next autocrosse. He placed about like he always did and I appeared to be out there just to have fun, not getting to caught up in the competativeness of the event.He soon came up with ideas to improve the Pacers. Like aeefing up the clutch assembly to his (mine was an automatic, another reason my car wouldnt compete with his.) My car was the first to get a suspention upgrade, welding the rear leafs together, not solid ,just enough to stiffen them up. We soon realized we shouldnt do this while the car is on a lift, bcause ounce we set it down it looked like the back half was ready for some 4 Wheelin and mudd boggin. We soon fixed it,gave his the same traetment and decided it was time to paint them. But in the way to keep with thier character. Flat purple with flat sea foam green scallopes for him and flat blue with flat red,orange, yellow flames on mine. Now off to the races.
We soon realized the upgrades worked, Iwas finaly getting a bit more competative and in my first bracket drag race with the new paint job I won first place. We went on for several years tinkerin , racin and even using the cars for our dailly drivers. But the abuse finally got to the little AMCs as I never did tie up the unibody rails and the flex in the car was so bad thedoors wouldnt shut (not that they ever shutted very well but.) The car was startig to cut front tires often and the tranny was on its last legs. So I sold the car back to him for next to nothing, hoping he would part it out and transplant anything of use to his. But his to was showing the wear and tare so he lost enterest in racing it and just used it as a transport untill the Pacer was replaced with another project.
out of all the fun things I remember doing with that little 1977 Canary Yellow 258 cid AMC Pacer Hatchback. The things Ill miss the most are the looks I got in it. From the, "What in the world is that thing?" to " Thats cool!" and to the man in the truck who rear ended the car in front of him,because he was staring at the pacer. Im still very sorry. Even though everyone had thier own opinion on the cars, they all had one thing in common. They were smiling, for what ever reason they were smiling because of that goofy car. I believe the world needs more of that. So heres to all of us who for whatever reason have fallen in love with these character filled cars. May we continue to give the Pacer the respect they deserve and have fun doing it along the way. Thanks.