when i had my 72 roadrunner. original equipped N96 hood, V21 V25 stripes, j45 hood pins, m81 m82 ft & r bumper guards, with a factory 400 motor.
i installed a big ci hemi in it.
it seems every car show i went to there was always at least 1, sometimes more, dipstick that told me i ruined such a rare car by installing a hemi in it. i should have installed a 400 motor instead.
my usual response was it's for sale for big $$$. i have the original matching #'s drivetrain at home. buy it, throw that crappy hemi away install the original motor back in.
they usually shut up and walked away.
See, my way of broaching that topic would be I'd read the fender tag and then ask the owner why he made the decision to change the engine. Every vehicle has a story! Maybe the original block was toast? Maybe the #'s engine was missing? Maybe the owner had a Hemi lying around. An engine really isn't all that difficult to swap. I guess where I'd differ is I'd use it as a conversation jumping off point.
Being the AMC guy at a car show seems to invite the incompetent. For instance, for a while I had two Hornet hatchbacks, one yellow, one blue. I overheard two women at a show a few years back when I brought JUST my blue one, they commented "Huh, it was Yellow Last year." Odd that they could recognize the body style of the car, but were completely ignorant to the amount of work that would be necessary to both repaint the exterior and change out the interior.
Blue Hornet was a 258 Six. Had one intelligent individual explain to me that it was a Chevrolet engine. I politely declined his information. When he reiterated his stance adding that his brother used to work for AMC, I politely remarked that his brother was an idiot and AMC should not have employed him.
Sometimes it's fun to let loose and give them a taste of their own medicine.
Even my friends who drive cars to shows for me have been accosted by ignorance. My yellow Hornet is an exercise in customization using factory parts. It has AMX door panels, custom upholstery, console from a Spirit, a 5 speed, a 4-barrel 304.... all sorts of things that didn't exist. We were just leaving a show, and my buddy was piloting the yellow Hornet had a man approach him and say "I had a car EXACTLY like this when I was younger!" To my buddy's credit, he looked at the man and simply said "No, you didn't" and we left.
The stunned look on the guys face was worth the price of admission.
