S300 Reissue

adorshki

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My thought exactly. "Look at this butt ugly guitar. Do you want to buy some? I wouldn't, but if you want to that would be cool. No judgement."
Fortunately I never worked at a Pontiac dealership.
Pontiac-Aztek1.jpg

Of course in another 20 years this might be a cult classic.
Being based on FWD architecture it'll never find a place in my heart, though.
 
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Nuuska

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If this is the "ugliestr" competition - here goes - Tesla

Tesla-Cybertruck-black-hero.jpg
 

GAD

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The guitars are terrifically ergonomic, though the ash ones can be heavy.
 

adorshki

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I'll see your Aztek and raise you a Pacer!

4294ebe8071df3dab34deffb679a9f5d

I don't believe the guitars had the neck-dive that the basses did!
Good to know.
And Pacers were at least RWD and still purtier than the Aztek.
At least the front end don't make it look like a monkfish.
gettyimages-499425441.jpg
If this is the "ugliestr" competition - here goes - Tesla
Tesla-Cybertruck-black-hero.jpg
Which Musk claims was actually inspired by the far cooler amphibious Lotus Esprit from "The Spy Who Loved me":
https://autoweek.com/article/wait-t...-100-storage-unit-score-elon-musk-bought-it-1
And which he just bought at auction for almost
727352e931831b4084ce39bd79bfcd2d.jpg

After it was bought at a storage auction for $100.00.
Let's hope the truck winds up in orbit around Jupiter and not the Lotus.
From the linked story:
"It's the Storage Wars dream scenario: You buy a storage unit, sight unseen, for $100, and some rich guy, in this case Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, buys the contents off you for almost a million bucks."
The Lotus however was far more beautiful.
-007-lotus-esprit-submarine-car-_1.jpg

Let's hope the truck winds up in orbit around Jupiter and not the Lotus.
PS regarding engineering,
Q:What's the difference between Elon Musk And John DeLorean?
A: When John DeLorean hit a Pontiac with a crowbar it didn't break.
hqdefault.jpg

hqdefault.jpg


Too bad they didn't think to revive that commercial using an Aztek.
"Too Ugly To Die" might have been just what it needed to create an instant cult following.
Come to think of it I'm off to pitch advertising slogan to Musk.
 

DThomasC

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I can't figure out why the Pacer tends to come up when talking about ugly cars. Something about them always appealed to me. They're not actually good looking, but they are interesting in a not-ugly way, which is the same way I have always felt about the S-300.

Monkfish are scary as hell to look at, but delicious.
 

The Guilds of Grot

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I can't figure out why the Pacer tends to come up when talking about ugly cars. Something about them always appealed to me. They're not actually good looking, but they are interesting in a not-ugly way, which is the same way I have always felt about the S-300.

How's this sit with you?

1978-AMC-Gremlin.jpg
 

adorshki

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How's this sit with you?

1978-AMC-Gremlin.jpg

What, you got sumpin' 'gainst AMC?
Yellow makes anything look good.
Well, almost anything...
050_tata_nano.jpg


Ok it's true the Gremlin was obviously a poorly-healed Hornet with a posteriorectomy, but at least its wheels were in decent proportion to its overall dimensions.
And it was RWD.
And you could get a V8.
Making them the darling of many a backyard drag racer.
11f56683ba5f33942576aa34a041a068.jpg

"V-8 in a roller skate"
:smile:
But you probably already knew that, right?
Funny thing, the more I look at 'em the more I dig the quirky lines.
Forgot the original concept car was actually based on the AMX which shows some suspiciously similar characteristics to some of Big Daddy Roth's '60's customs:
ccaf02a8cbb4bf31c01b3db2878fbb51.jpg

amc-amx-gt-concept.jpg
 
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DThomasC

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How's this sit with you?

1978-AMC-Gremlin.jpg

It sits OK. If cars were movies, then it would be no surprise that the Gremlin and the Pacer were both works of the same director. And, honestly, I give that director more credit than those responsible for the Ford Granada or Dodge Aspen
1st_generation_Ford_Granada_coupe_%28US%29_in_Hastings%2C_Minnesota.jpg

P9110067.jpg


I'm not saying I dream of driving a Pacer any more than I dream of living in a David Lynch movie. But, I'll take that over living in a Amy Heckerling movie any day (Look Who's Talking.)
 

adorshki

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It sits OK. If cars were movies, then it would be no surprise that the Gremlin and the Pacer were both works of the same director. And, honestly, I give that director more credit than those responsible for the Ford Granada or Dodge Aspen
1st_generation_Ford_Granada_coupe_%28US%29_in_Hastings%2C_Minnesota.jpg
Y'know I actually like that Granada as a coupe and sans the padded vinyl top, definitely a cut above some of the atrocities of the era, like the '80 Thunderbird:
001.jpg

One of the times where they're even worse in person. That top.......
:smile:
 
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GAD

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We had a Granada growing up. With a Landau roof, white exterior, and I swear green vinyl seats.
 

davismanLV

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I, also, always had a fondness for the AMC Pacer. Great visibility with all those windows and they had a cheesy kinda charm to them. My general impression is that if it's more aerodynamic in reverse, it's probably a bad idea....... :devilish:
 

The Guilds of Grot

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It sits OK. If cars were movies, then it would be no surprise that the Gremlin and the Pacer were both works of the same director. And, honestly, I give that director more credit than those responsible for the Ford Granada or Dodge Aspen
P9110067.jpg


I don't believe that is an Aspen. Maybe a Valiant, Dart, or Swinger.

Here is an Aspen. (Also sold as a Pymouth Volare.)

1977-dodge-aspen-D2P5JX.jpg
 

Prince of Darkness

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Yeah and actually Drumbob said even he thought it was ugly, and no slam intended on him but that feeling itself may have also colored how his potential customers responded to the pitch.
I rarely sold a car I didn't believe in to somebody who didn't already believe in it themselves.
Your note that it got good reactions might indicate that the Guild designers had good instincts about the market even if the established music retailing business didn't agree.
I got a suspicion it just might be attractive to today's market the same way the offset T-bird body is, I'd use sales of that for the litmus test of current market tastes.
For me if the ergonomics work I like it, but Grot's input's got me nervous.
I don't care how beautiful a car is, if it's got lousy ergonomics and/or engineering it flunks, I'll never voluntarily own it, same for guitars.

In my opinion, the S-300 has the best ergonomics of any guitar I have ever played. Either standing or sitting, it just balances perfectly. More so than Strat style guitars. I can well believe that the opposite would be true of the B-301 / B-302.
 

adorshki

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I don't believe that is an Aspen.
Right, but I didn't hold it against him as the Aspen was based on that shared Dart/Valiant platform, primarily a sheetmetal update.
Also couldn't remember where DThomas is but there's a lot of cases where Euro or Canadian models swapped designations from the American models, so thought maybe for him it was an Aspen.
Maybe a Valiant, Dart, or Swinger.
's got Dodge style hubcaps, and think the fender badge is Dodge, too, Plymouth's "Valiant" logo was in script font:
maxresdefault.jpg

Swinger was a package on a Dart but think it was only on coupes, so don't think it's a Swinger but probably a "Dart Custom":
73Dart_F34.jpg


Oh yeah, veering back on course:
In my opinion, the S-300 has the best ergonomics of any guitar I have ever played. Either standing or sitting, it just balances perfectly. More so than Strat style guitars.
Excellent!
Best of both worlds!
Styling that's proven itself timeless and ahead of the pack and awesome functionality!
Wish car makers could figure that one out today, modern cars are just chock-full of dysfunctional design....GRRRRRRR!
 
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DThomasC

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Right, but I didn't hold it against him as the Aspen was based on that shared Dart/Valiant platform, primarily a sheetmetal update.
Also couldn't remember where DThomas is but there's a lot of cases where Euro or Canadian models swapped designations from the American models, so thought maybe for him it was an Aspen.

I'm in NE US, so technically I was wrong. But in practical terms it makes no difference to me as , like you said, they're all basically the same car just spread out over a few years. I have nothing specifically bad to say about them; they were good practical mid-sized cars of the day. It's just that the styling was, to my eyes, boring. But they hardly cornered the market on boring. They're just one example.

The Pacer (to bring things back around) were not boring looking. Maybe a little clownish, but not boring and not ugly either IMHO.
 
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