I remember the Edsel in the shop on several occasions... I only wish that my Dad had taken some pics of it. (I remember wandering around the property one of the first times I was there and coming across the AMC vehicles in the weeds. I thought one of those would be a bargain to buy and get running; but, my Dad wasn't quite so impressed. He didn't budge. Also no pictures of those. Were those prepped by Holman-Moody, or was Stroppe involved at the time, too? If remember they were kind of medium blue/red.)
The Ramblers were leftovers from the American International Racers (AIR) effort at the '69 Baja 500. They only ran that race.
AIR was James Garner's outfit and after Garner had a lot of fun driving a Bronco for Stroppe in '68, he was able to put together a package with AMC for '69. There were 10 cars built and if I recall correctly, only 2 finished. One was driven by a guy named Walker Evans, who got a chance to drive after one of the other guys got sick. The other one was driven by Carl Jackson, who was one of Stroppe's drivers and was infamous for being fast and not breaking equipment. Rod Hall was another driver. 2 of the cars were converted to 4wd and the rest remained 2wd.
The AIR shop was in the Hemet, CA, area and a lot of the well-known fab guys went to work there when they opened - lured by the work and good wages.
Rambler decided after one race that they didn't want to support them anymore (Baja wasn't exactly a great advertising plug for selling Rambler sedans). The doors were locked on the shop and suddenly a bunch of guys were unemployed. Some went back to Stroppe's and somehow he ended up with the cars. I've seen pics of them at his facility in the past. One was donated to Chaffey College in SoCal and eventually raced a few times in later years. One of the 4wd cars (Carl Jackson's) still exists in very original condition.
A Rambler "AIR Tribute" car raced in NORRA last year. It was a nice looking car but I don't think he finished the first day. He was moving very slowly when we passed him.
Todd Z.