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Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
I'm D.J. Rasmussen, O.K.s friend since junior high, possibly your neighbor & this websites maintainer, whom strives to get each episode's show notes written, the transcript proofed and the audio posted to the internet within a few hours of that days KMMR air time. NOTE: recently been publishing most new releases by 4:30PM.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the time we can spend together.
Wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, get your cup of coffee, glass iced tea bottle of water, tall cool glass of milk, whatever you wish, and let's see what's happening.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $6.04 a bushel. 550lb steer calf, I'm gonna quote them at $5.04 a pound. Butcher hog in Iowa 70ยข a pound, and a 100lb lamb that's fat in Billings will bring you $3.07 a pound. But, guys, there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:It's Jay and Joe's Motor Monday. Yes, sir. It is. The day we look at horsepower one Monday at a time. Okay? 1st, the Bible verse and then a car something from Deuteronomy 32:7 a verse you've heard before and a verse you will hear again.
OK Solberg:Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. Again, Deuteronomy 32:7
OK Solberg:Now I may not be your father, but I might well be your elder. And today, I'm gonna tell you about the days of old. Today, we again flashback to the year 1969. Wow.
OK Solberg:Have you ever thought of it, guys? 1969 was such a historic year. The moon landing, Woodstock, the Manson killings, who can forget Sugar Sugar by the Archies reached #1, and even the year that they did the lottery drawing for the draft or the selective service where each young man had his birthday tied to a number. And 1969 was the only year they made this car. Can you guess what it is?
OK Solberg:Now if you tuned in last week, we talked about AMC, American Motor Corporation, and we know it was formed by 2 struggling independent automakers when they combined efforts, and those two were Nash, Calvinator, and the Hudson Motorcar Company, and they made AMC.
OK Solberg:Last week, we talked about the Rambler American. And today, drum roll, please. Today, the Rambler Scrambler, AMC's one true muscle car. The 1969 AMC Hurst SC Scrambler, Rambler, or Scrambler is a high performance muscle car produced by American Motors Corporation in collaboration with Hurst Performance built to compete in drag racing.
OK Solberg:Oh, yes. It was. It featured a 390 cubic inch AMC V8 4-speed transmission and a signature red, white, and blue paint scheme. Now listen. With only 1,512 units produced.
OK Solberg:Listen to what else I found online. Folks often tend to remember car and driver as cynical and anti Detroit. Actually, that was all too often not the case. Here's my case in point. The AMC Hurst SC Rambler called the Scrambler.
OK Solberg:They were a lot more positive than I was at the time, the writer says. I saw this one trick pony for what it was, a classic PR mobile created for the sole purpose of trying to rehabilitate the image of Rambler cars as cars for spinster librarians and crotchety old men. They tell you that. I remember Melvin driving a Rambler. He wasn't a crotchety old man, but he was an old man.
OK Solberg:It was blatantly obvious that this Rambler wrapped in American colors and a hood scoop was trying desperately to outdo the madly successful Plymouth Roadrunner, which had just arrived in 1968. Well, the results were highly predictable. While Plymouth sold 85,000 Roadrunners in 1969, AMC sold all of their 1,512 Scramblers.
OK Solberg:Given the fact that its price, $2,998 undoubtedly didn't cover the cost to send Rambler Rogue Coupes to Hearst's facility to make the necessary modifications and the paint job, I suppose its production numbers were bound to be limited as AMC had only so much to lose on each one. But, hey, car and driver was sucked in.
OK Solberg:Although, they admit it, it's handling sucked. In a time when muscle car meant more chrome than courage and boldness came measured in cubic inches, a small company dared to do something just a little different. They called it the rambler scrambler, not built for decades, not refined through generations. No. This was a flash of inspiration here and gone before the world quite knew what it had seen.
OK Solberg:Only 1,512 were ever produced, and they were only produced in one year, 1969. A red, white, and blue declaration rolling down American roads, part patriot, part rebel in all attitude. It wasn't just paint. It was a personality. It wasn't just a car.
OK Solberg:It was a statement. Light on its feet, loud in its presence, and unapologetically unique, the Scrambler didn't follow the rules. No. It scribbled in the margins. And today, it stands not merely as a machine, but as a moment sealed in steel and stripes, a true collector's time capsule from an era when daring still fit inside a compact frame.
OK Solberg:Because sometimes the rarest things aren't the biggest or the fastest, just the ones bold enough to be different, if only for a little while. End of quote. Thanks to my good friend, Mike Lowney, for making me aware of the Rambler Scrambler.
OK Solberg:So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.