Just Cool Cars: This '75 AMC Pacer outpaces them all

SEASIDE, Calif. -- When it comes to cars that get no respect, the AMC Pacer has to be at the top of the list. But with a V-8 engine out of Chevrolet Corvette, this one certainly commands attention.

Give American Motors credit: creating the Pacer from scratch was a bold move,  basically the reinvention of the small car for the 1970s. Maybe too bold, detractors would say.

The Pacer seemed almost as wide as it is long (an exaggeration), had expanses of window glass (not an exaggeration) and one side door longer than the other.

A friend of mine long ago characterized her Pacer as being akin to a pregnant roller skate. But you won't hear Chris Denove of Camarillo, Calif., talking smack about the Pacer. He is mighty proud of his 1975 model.

It was, after all, "my high school dream car." It was a small car that didn't feel cramped, he explained.

Denove didn't hold back when it came to fulfilling that dream years later. He sweated the details, like an ostrich-skin interior. The drawback -- well, one of the drawbacks -- is that the Pacer had an engine that was neither powerful nor fuel efficient, a bad combination.

Denove, who was showing off the car at the Concours d'LeMons that's held in Seaside every summer, fixed that problem. He installed the 350-horsepower V-8 from a Chevrolet Corvette in place of the original motor.

Now, "it's like an absolute slot car," he says.  And one that earned its share of street cred.