Any Northeasterner into AMCs must have seen Bob Majeski’s 1958 Rambler Ambassador over the last 14 years: In the time that he’s owned it, Bob has put 34,000 miles on it driving it to pretty much every major AMC show in the region. Now Bob is counting on that familiarity to bring his car back to him after thieves took it in broad daylight over the weekend.
“I used to joke, ‘Why would anybody ever steal it?’” Bob said. “It’s pretty much the only one around, and nobody needs any parts from it. And yeah, it’s a beautiful car, but it’s a 1958 Rambler, so who’d want it?”
Nevertheless, after he came back from a drive with some friends, mapping out the weekend’s dust-off run for the Connecticut regions of the American Motors Owners Association and AMC Rambler Club, he found his Ambassador missing from where he left it earlier that afternoon in the parking lot of the All Seasons Inn and Suites in Smithfield, Rhode Island.
“I’m floored,” he said. “I can’t believe anybody would want to steal this car with AMXs and Javelins around it. All I can figure is that somebody thought they were stealing a ’57 Chevy and somebody opening a container in South America will be surprised when they see my car.”
Ordered as a dealer demonstration car, the Ambassador Custom Country Club four-door hardtop (chassis number V38666, one of about 1,300 built) came loaded with just about every option available except for power steering. That means it has the four-barrel 270hp 327-cu.in. V-8, Flash-O-Matic automatic transmission, Twin-Grip limited-slip differential, Weather-Eye, reclining seats, power steering, power brakes, and wide whitewall tires. Thirty years after selling it to make room for the 1959 models, the original dealer bought it back and then held on to it until his death. Bob, a co-founder of the Nash Car Club of America and a certified AMC nut who’s owned 13 Nashes and five or six AMCs, then bought the Ambassador from the dealer’s widow several years later.
At the time, it showed 51,000 miles, and all Bob’s really had to do to it in the years since is replace a few pieces of chrome trim, recondition almost the entire drivetrain, and put more miles on it. “It’s been a great road car,” he said. “In 2002, I took it to Kenosha, and the farthest I drove it was to the AMO national meet in Georgia (in 2005).”
Anybody with information on the whereabouts of Bob’s Ambassador should call Bob himself at 203-758-5758 or the Smithfield Police Department at 401-231-2500.
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