It's this kind of thing that makes it hard to keep Thanksgiving dinner down. We aren't frequent viewers of Pimp My Ride, so we really only catch the show's work via the occasional eBay auction. Frankly, in the few cars we've caught we thought we had seen everything. But no. Not in the least. Latest challenger in the Heavyweight Pimp of the World competition is this: a 1976 Pacer X with a starry-orange-fade-to-yellow paint job and yellow and white shag interior.
Channeling the spirit of Austin Powers, but without his superb taste, the transformation includes a custom 8-track player and the requisite multiple LCD screens. The buyer did at least pull the white shag carpeting off the headliner and replaced it with the stock headliner. (But the shag is included if you want to put it back.) Nevertheless, he left the yellow wing on the car. We'd rather not say anything else about the car right now, because we're starting to feel a little nauseous.
Check out more pics and get the complete skinny at eBay. And proving that the spirit of salesmanship never dies, the listing begins with the words, "Here's your chance to own..." A fine chance, indeed.
Thanks for the tip, Peter!
[Source: eBay]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Will @ Nov 25th 2007 8:49AM
I've seen MUCH worse from Pimp My Ride. Minus the blingy stars and the stupid wing, I think this would actually be pretty cool.
Airhab @ Nov 26th 2007 11:02AM
No this is the worst PMR car Ever.
Gary @ Nov 25th 2007 9:36AM
I agree, Will. Minus the wing and the shag (and a bit more subdued paint job) this would be an awesome ride. I've always loved the Pacer and always thought that it was unfairly maligned in recent years. Compared to any American or Japanese car at the time, it was light years ahead of its time.
A Gupta @ Nov 25th 2007 10:27AM
I think I remember that episode. Wasn't it a girl who got that Pacer pimped?
VP @ Nov 25th 2007 10:38AM
Yep, it's got a fruit juice maker in the back.
solbeam @ Nov 25th 2007 11:04AM
Winning bid: US $6,101.09
all the stuff pimp my ride put into this car should be worth more... sold separately?
Azrael4h @ Nov 25th 2007 1:21PM
The tastes of the people who ran that show were certainly questionable, but they didn't go to rich people's houses and rebuild already half-completed projects like Overhaulin' does. Nearly all of the people they redid the cars for were dirt poor, and all of the cars were POSes at best. The army discharge who's truck had been stripped while he was away in Iraq was my favorite, as well as the college girl whose Firebird they redid.
The hands down best one was when they got an old Ford something-or-other. It was actually tow halves of separate cars that had been literally glued together. They replaced it with a new Scion cardboard box, which they then pimped.
So I like that show. They suck as designers, as the cars come out questionable at best. But it's not "Rich guy gets his already nearly complete running project redid for free" like Overhaulin'.
That One Person @ Nov 25th 2007 6:53PM
I may not have watched every episode of Overhaulin but from the ones I did see (I did like the Ford pickup episode) those people were far from rich. They looked more like average Joes.
Sure they weren't poor college students like the owners on PMR. But PMR catered to a different crowd. I mean, just look at the two shows. Overhaulin rebuilt cars that were cool and in the end actually had some class to them. PMR put huge stereos, juice makers, useless lights into their vehicles...you know, the crap 16 year olds love.
What teenager wants to watch some 40 year old's old school muscle car which the owner started to restore with his sick or dead father be totally redone?
Cody...Dodge used a 3spd auto in the Neon up until 2001 or so. But yeah, 3spd manuals were ancient in the mid 70s.
Azrael4h @ Nov 25th 2007 7:59PM
Used to they did do the 'average joe' kind of peoples' cars. Then they stopped, wanting only running, partially complete projects that could easily be rebuilt. Every time I watch it now, the person who owns the car has a $500,000+ house, and if they weren't so stupid with their money (like buying a $500,000 house with 4,000 square feet when they could do with a quarter that) they could have done a better job with the car than Foose did.
At best, the ones on Overhaulin' were not even lower middle class. The were strictly middle class. Not the poor, living in their mom's basements people who couldn't afford a decent set of tires, much less to restore their ride.
bryan @ Nov 25th 2007 8:45PM
ford tourus i believe "they" was lol
iQuack @ Nov 25th 2007 1:38PM
The Pacer was cute, but ridiculous. It was originally designed to use a Wankel-design rotary engine to be built by GM, I think.
Unfortunately, the energy "crisis" of the early '70s temporarily killed the thirsty rotary engine, so AMC had to stuff its old, in-line 6 into the car. Half of the engine was buried under the Pacer's enormous windshield and protruded into the center of the firewall under the dashboard.
The Pacer's chassis was a shortened AMC Ambassador, so the car was wide, and because the rear seat was positioned between the rear wheels, there was room for only 2 people in the back seat. So, the Pacer was a wide and heavy 4 passenger car with lousy gas mileage.
A friend of mine was dating a nice, young woman who had a Pacer which I drove once--it had a 3 speed manual transmission. I think the shift lever was on the floor, not the column. It drove OK--clunky like most American stick-shifts of the past with the clutch engaging right at the top of its travel.
Anyway, the Pacer never made sense except that the world is perhaps a more interesting place because there were a few Pacers in it. Oh, and my friend and the nice, young woman were eventually married and remain so.
Cody Peterson @ Nov 25th 2007 2:19PM
"3 speed manual"
Pimp My Ride Response: " That's Ballin' "
Wasn't 4 Speeds more or so that era (if not, even earlier than that... to me, 3 speed just seems 1950's-ish...)
iQuack @ Nov 25th 2007 2:24PM
It was 1950-60-ish.
The inline 6 and Rambler trans in that thing were old enough to vote!
Stuka @ Nov 25th 2007 3:08PM
Nice thing about the pacer is an AMC V8 bolts right up with a quick change of the motor mounts. They use the same bolt pattern. So take a 304/360/401! and slap it in. Swapping out the standard 3sp for a T10 4sp or a WCT5 is good to do at the same time. They turn into real quick cars when you put 300-350hp under the hood.
Blake @ Nov 25th 2007 4:42PM
Remove that spoiler and paint it all yellow and what you have is probably the nicest Pacer on the road. The buyer got an amazing deal on this.
Vince Burlapp @ Nov 25th 2007 6:17PM
I want this one so bad....
Gary Blomquist @ Nov 25th 2007 8:00PM
What a desecration of stylist Richard Teague's AMC Pacer, that GM, royally screwed, when they "boinged" AMC by last-minute dropping their Wankel Engine development.
I still think GM helped to kill AMC as a viable, independent U.S.A. number 4 automaker when they forced AMC to shoe-horn in their 258 CID inline Pushrod 6 into the Pacer's engine compartment that was designed specifically for the GM Wankel.
AMC had to add that terrible raised hump on the hood for the inline 6. The Pacer's whole theme was "Modern people mover of the future" with the Wankel as the powerplant. It would have been one of the most innovative vehicles of sometime.
Often wonder if GM didn't set-up AMC for the "kill".
Anyway, in some ways, I'm glad the Pacer lives on in some kind of mystique.