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Hello All, I thought I might share a recent conversation I had with a couple of brothers and their adventures in an AMX. It all started when I read the book “Cannonball! World’s Greatest Outlaw Road Race” by auto-racer/author Brock Yates. Yates related in print his experiences in creating, promoting and participating in the infamous Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dashes in the 1970’s. He also listed the other participants and their cars (including an RV and an ambulance) for the individual Cannonballs. One of the cars running in the November 15, 1971 rally was a 1969 American Motors AMX owned by Ed Bruerton. Ed and his brother, Tom, finished the 2863 mile rally from the Red Ball Parking Garage in New York City to the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, California, in a time of 37 hours and 48 minutes. The winners that year were Brock Yates and professional racer Dan Gurney in a Ferrari Daytona in a time of 35 hours and 54 minutes. I thought to myself that coming in 1 hour and 54 minutes behind a Ferrari driven by a couple of professional racers wasn’t too bad for a couple of regular guys in a 90,000 mile AMX. The book sparked my interest and I wanted to learn more about this AMX’s participation in the storied rally. Through the magic of the internet I was able to learn that there was a pharmacist by the name of Tom Bruerton living in the Oakland area. With a little more digging I soon had a phone number. I called the number unsure if this Tom Bruerton was the same individual that I was seeking. When my telephone call was answered by a male voice I awkwardly inquired if the words “Cannonball Rally” had any special meaning. After a short pause the voice said, “I haven’t thought about that in some time”. Tom Bruerton told me that in 1971 he was a student in Berkley, California, and was living in a motor home. It was his brother Ed that had read a small one-inch article in a newspaper that was heralding the upcoming rally. Ed circled the article and wrote something along the lines of “do you want to do it?” and left it on the table for Tom to find. Tom didn’t take much convincing and after some communications with Brock Yates they were in. He and Ed were, in a way, veterans of the long haul having driven from California to Indianapolis and back several times over a single weekend just to attend the Indianapolis 500. Tom suggested that I call Ed and speak to him since the Cannonball AMX in question was still owned by Ed. Again, my next phone call requesting information on the Cannonball Rally and the Bruerton AMX was greeted with enthusiasm. Tom Bruerton was now living in Sandy, Utah and running an alarm business. Tom related that he had originally purchased his 1969 AMX new from an AMC dealership in Berkley, California in late 1968. The car was Hunter Green in color with the black Go-Pack stripes and associated equipment. The AMX had a 343 engine and a 4-speed transmission. Tom had ordered the AMX with 3:15 gears since from the beginning he intended to put a lot of highway miles on the car. After applying and being accepted to participate in the upcoming Cannonball Tom got married and went to Las Vegas (in the AMX) for his honeymoon. He had to cut his honeymoon short and return to Berkley once he learned of the scheduled start time for the 1971 Cannonball rally. Yates the rally organizer had purposely kept the starting time and date under wraps to avoid law enforcement scrutiny. After hurrying back to Berkley, Tom decided he needed an additional fuel tank to extend the range of the AMX between fuel stops. Money being tight, Tom used a cardboard box and copious amounts of fiberglass and resin to construct his own fuel cell for the trunk of the AMX. He used an industrial sized mayonnaise jar lid for the fuel cap so that during fuel stops two separate gas nozzles could be used to shorten the duration of the stops. Unfortunately, getting this “fuel cell” to initially seal was a constant battle. As a result, the trunk tank was not completed until just a few hours before the start of the rally while the brothers were in a New York City hotel room. Tom and Ed had driven the AMX from Berkley down to Los Angeles and from there across to New York taking their anticipated cross-country Cannonball route in reverse. They arrived just 2 hours prior to the 12 AM start of the rally. Since it was an elapsed time race and not a shotgun start the brothers decided to get a hotel room and get some rest (and finish their fuel cell setup) before starting their journey. As it turned out, the Bruerton brothers punched their ticket and pulled out of the Red Ball parking garage to start their leg of the Cannonball at 2PM on November 15th. One of the parking attendants questioned why someone would attempt such a cross-country run in a “clapped out” AMX. This start time was several hours behind most of the other competitors and caused the brothers to be slowed by the afternoon New York traffic. In fact, as Ed recalled, they did not exceed 100 mph until they reached Texas as a result of traffic, weather (snow in the northeast) and the various police agencies (they didn’t have one of those new fangled radar detectors). The run went without hiccups other than a small breakdown in Pennsylvania (Ed couldn’t remember what the breakdown was) and a single speeding ticket in California. Tom got the ticket in Barstow for going 95 in a 65 mph zone (the fine was a staggering $63). Both brothers admit that the officer actually did them a favor since they were actually going closer to 130 mph. The additional fuel capacity (50+ gallons) reduced the number of fuel stops for the trip to 3. In the end the AMX made the 2863 mile run to the Portofino Inn in L.A. in 37:48 which was good enough for the 5th fastest elapsed time. Not bad for a basically stock “clapped out” AMX. The story didn’t end here. The AMX ran in the Cannonball the following year and completed the run in 39:42 which was the 8th fastest time behind the winning 1992 Cadillac which had an elapsed time of 37.16. Then in the 80’s Ed ran the AMX in two of the famed 4-Ball Rally’s (Boston to San Diego). Additionally, the AMX has participated in several of the Silver State Road Races in Nevada obtaining a top speed in excess of 150 mph thanks to some 2:87 gearing. The AMX is now owned and cared for by Ed’s son, Dan Bruerton. It has been repainted (now black with yellow stripes) and has had the motor rebuilt several times but still looks much like any other AMX. In fact, there is a picture of this AMX in its current configuration on page 69 of the Muscle Car Color History, AMC Muscle Cars book if you are interested. Sorry for being so long winded, but I wanted to give the Bruerton brothers and their AMX story justice.
Blake |
