Jim Wangers has passed away, he did more than most with the car manufacturing companies and in drag racing than most car guys will recall - and worked with some incredibly iconic people, including Hefner, Hurst, DeLorean, and JFK Jr

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=wangers  if you didn't see these posts the 1st time around, his helping JFK Jr, helping AMC with the Hornet, helping Pontiac with the GTO, helped Hurst get the Pontiac contract in 1961, helped Needham get the Trans Ams for Smokey and the Bandit, and he won the 1960 Top Stock Eliminator at the nationals in 1960. That's some serious drag racing historic winning title, and I don't think anyone ever gave him his due respect for that.

He worked with Hefner at Esquire, I shit you not, before Heff went independent with Playboy, and Jim even owned a Chevy dealership in Milwaukee.

Since I've written several articles that cover all this before, if you want to read them, https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=wangers  I won't re-write them here.  

Hard to believe, that someone as accomplished and well liked as Jim doesn't have a Wikipedia page. 

James Wangersheim was born on June 26, 1926, growing up on Chicago's north-side, and as a child, he clipped car ads out of magazines, and decorated his bedroom with these automotive images of mechanized motivation. 

Following graduation with the class of '42 from High School, a year of study at the University of Illinois was completed before Uncle Sam called him to duty, he went into the Navy.

From 1944 through 1946, Jim's wartime service in the Navy found him aboard the U.S.S. Bunker Hill as a Radioman 3rd Class. Shipboard, he wrote to all the carmakers for his own copies of their latest sales brochures. The highly decorated ship and crew found themselves knocked out of the war by Japanese kamikaze attacks while supporting the invasion of Okinawa in April of 1945

For the best online biography of Jim Wangers: 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/60284fc3487274457fe4bf66/t/61893e3573a91d08e7db23d8/1636384315339/Promoting+Performance+-+Jim+Wangers+Story.pdf

Jim Wangers has finally retired.

He's 90.

He put it off as long as possible, but, he has finally run out of steam, and is getting R n R at last. No, he isn't dead. I'd say that simply.

It's been a long damn time since he began, and if you've met him any time in the past 10-20 years you're familiar with how he had no time limit on a story. 

the 1976-78 Hornet AMX had an optional hood decal

Optional for the Hornet AMX was a large hood decal that was right around the time of Smokey and the Bandit, so perhaps AMC was trying to benefit from the halo effect, or maybe Mr. Wangers was applying the same ideas to both cars (he advised on the modifications for the Trans Am used in the movie).

 Starting in about December 1976, AMC also made available a giant flaming hornet graphic on the hood and decklid that aped the Trans Am's "screaming chicken" decal.  AMC approached Jim Wangers of Motortown Corporation to create a more exciting version of the Hornet.

While most people know Wangers for his involvement in Pontiac product development, Wangers also managed to give the Hornet one last hurrah with the 1977 Hornet AMX.

Wangers had already dealt with AMC via Hurst with the SC/Rambler, Rebel Machine and S/S AMXs.

Later in his post-Pontiac days, Wangers started Motortown Corporation, a specialty shop similar to businesses like American Sunroof Corporation and Cars and Concepts that worked closely with the auto manufacturers to modify production vehicles for limited runs that the manufacturers couldn't be bothered with.

 At Motortown, Wangers embarked on a crusade of sorts to revive the muscle car, resulting in the limited-run specialty editions of production cars Volare Road Runner, the Dodge Aspen R/T, the Pontiac GTO Judge, the Ford Cobra II and the Pontiac Can-Am. Sometime in 1976, he set his sights on reviving the AMX.

When Motortown installed the flaming hornet graphic, they replaced the hornet badge on the hood with a bullseye badge similar to the bullseye badges on either base of the targa band. Some enthusiasts have suggested that the bullseye badges were included as a tribute to the Javelin, which wore similarly styled badges.

An appearance package was developed along with some suspension tuning, but unfortunately, the EPA certification requirements triggered by drivetrain upgrades prevented the possibility of a larger engine such as the 360, which would have been a drop-in replacement.

So the Hornet AMX debuted with either a 110 hp 258 c.i.d (4.2-liter) straight-six coupled with either a four-speed manual or an automatic with floor shift, or the 150 hp 304 c.i.d (5.0-liter) V8 with a Chrysler-sourced automatic.

How many Hornet AMXs AMC and Motortown built has been a matter of speculation for some time. Edrie Marquez, in his book, Amazing AMC Muscle, claimed that between 330 and 376 Hornet AMXs were built, but other sources claim a total of 5,207--broken down to 3,196 six-cylinders and 2,011 V-8s. Eddie Stakes of Planet Houston AMX believes the total is closer to 5,300, but noted that AMC never confirmed any production figures. Wangers wrote that those numbers were "lukewarm" and that the Hornet AMX "probably did more damage than good by infuriating anyone who had fond memories of the original AMX."

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classicautomotive-history-1977-amc-hornet-amx-the-long-slow-decline-of-the-amx/
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3169580/1977-amc-amx/
https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/mus/2011/07/The-AMX-is-Dead--Long-Live-the-AMX---1977-AMC-Hornet-AMX/3701061.html

Jim Wangers 85th Birthday Edition

Jim Wangers Edition of the GTO Judge at SEMA

Icons at SEMA 2009, Jim Wangers and George Barris, they are animated storytellers too!

Would you like to have Jim Wangers come to your car show?

http://sdpoci.com/NewsletterArchives/newsletter.pdf

At the Apr 22 show of D Mac's Auto Parts...

He brought the GeeTO Tiger! , his 69 Judge, and his one of a kind Grand Prix. Very cool.