But the most important feature of the Ambassador to a teenage boy using mom’s car on Saturday night, was that the front bench seat folded back down flat.
Another thing I recall from the time was hearing that AMC did not make their own engine blocks but bought them from Ford. I don’t know if that is true or not.
I have owned or driven just about ever model of AMC automobile made from the early 60s to the day they merged with Chrysler Corp,even worked in the bodyshop of a AMC/Jeep dealership. All the major mechanical parts of the car (motor,transmission and electical systems) were sourced from the parts bins of the other big 3 automakers. Engines from Ford,GM and International Harvester. Automatic transmissions from Chrysler and GM. AC Delco (GM) alternaters and Prestolite (Ford) starters, the list goes on. All in all they were not bad little cars,fun to drive (especialy the Rebel,Javalin and AMX) reliable and easy to work on and a good value for the price. Still wish I had my 67 Rambler Rebel SST with the 343 cubic inch V-8,4 barrel Holly carb and 4 on the floor standard transmission,smoked my fair share of Mustangs and Cameros with that car or the 74 Gremlin the everyone in the famly took turns driving into the ground,this car was the one you could count on to start and get you where you were going every time rain or shine.
Slight hijack: Back in the mid-80s my friend had a used Pacer. I distinctly remember the temperature controls had a setting named “Desert.” Am I recalling right? Was that standard in AMC cars?
Although, modifications aside, the Gremlin X came with a 304 V8 stock, and the original Gremlin was a 6. When “Car Talk” did their “worst cars of the millenium” and had Gremlin on the list, there were several comments from people remembering horrible performance. Those people were probably referring to the later 4 cylinder models. With the 6, it was easily faster than the 4 cylinder Vegas and Pintos it was intended to compete with. Never mind the 401 - the stock V8 was more than the little roller skate could use, and it was fast - at least in a straight line. The handling is best not discussed. The Grem was actually a decent little car for an economy subcompact, much more maligned than it deserved - I tried to buy a good used one in the early 70s, and couldn’t find one without an awful lot of miles on it. That, in itself, said something.
AMC always had a certain amount of panache. I remember the Levis Gremlin - “The car that wears the pants” (blue upholstery complete with orange stitching, brass rivets and a red Levis label). They had commercials featuring a spokeslady extolling the Gremlin’s virtues, when some fat cigar smoking guy wanders onto the set asking “Hey, toots, where’s the rest of your car?”.
And an ohc 4 from VW.
We also had a '65 Rambler American. I had talked my mother into buying a 65 Mustang 2+2, but Ford wouldn’t give her any trade-in on the old '60 Rambler, so she went back to AMC. I was devastated, of course. My sister-in-law drove an AMC Eagle with 4WD for many years and loved the car. I thought it was ugly, as it had this look of being higher in the front than in the rear.
My second Gremlin was a Gremlin X. That car could definitely get up and move. I actually liked it very well and was greatly saddened when it finally went on to glory.
I guess that a firm as small as AMC was, had great difficulty adapting to the new world of autombiles in the 1980’s (improved crash resistance, lowered emissions, etc.).
Still, perhaps the USA would have been better served if we had a large number of smaller car companies, than (basically) 3 huge firms. GM proved not to be good company-they would up making some crappy vehicles.
From the posts, it appears that AMC was a pretty scrappy firm, tht managed to hold on long past the times of Packard, Studebaker, Kaiser, etc.-its a shame they died.
A kid at my high school mounted oil cans above the rear wheels in his Gremlin, which he operated from the driver’s seat, so that he could smoke his tires. Sortta sad creepy guy.
What engine did AMC use from International Harvester? I’m aware of IH using the AMC 401 in pick-ups and Travelalls for a while. IH also used the AMC 6-cyl in Scouts.
Google up SC/Rambler and AMC Rebel Machine for more AMC muscle cars.
The AMC Matador gets my vote for ugliest American car of the century.
According to the " engines used by AMC ’ at the bottom of this site:
AMC supplied motors to IH, not the other way around.
As a human being that used to sit in the back of an AMX, I have to qualify that statement with a “maybe”. My dad had one, and as sub-teen age kids, we used to ride on the back seat. Calling it a seat is generous, as it had kind of a ledge back there. You could sit on it, but then you had to sit bend over so that your head didn’t bang into the steeply sloped back window. It was much more comfortable to sit on the floor.
Well, let’s not confuse the Javelin with the AMX. The AMX was a Javelin shortened 14 inches, into a two-seater. That explains the lack of a rear seat in ToC’s story. A Javelin would have had a rear seat, with actual legroom.
I have an 82 AMC Spirit. Perhaps the only car they made that looks remotely “normal”.
Its built like a brick shit house. I rebuilt the engine at 250,000 miles. Upon taking it apart, I realized it didnt remotely need it. The doors and back hatch are so heavy one person can barely lift them when removed from the car.
The motor for the **windshield wipers **is the size of starters on a modern compact car for gods sake. The starter for this little car is the size of probably most behemoth SUV’s these days.
The body has been mostly paint free for well over a decade. Even still, in that length of time, the rust never made it all the way through the bare, rusty metal.
Take a tough assed jeep, a massive 4.2 ! liter in line 6 cylinder engine with a solid cast iron block and head, drop a compact car body made with thick, heavy steel on it, and you have my car.
I just repainted it to finally put the rust at bay and am in the process of putting it all back together.
Its a fricking tank.
Since its been noted that there is an abundance of AMCs in the former HQ of Wisconsin, we should also talk about American Motors’ Mexican cousin…VAM.
Vehiculos Automores Mexicanos took AMC designs and manufactured/assembled Mexican market vehicles…including the Lerma:
a mix-n-match car made of Concord and Spirit components.
