The American Motors Corporation did good business selling small, sensible cars bearing the Rambler brand during the late 1950s through early 1960s. Rambler sales peaked in the 1962 model year, after which competition from new compact and midsize offerings from the Detroit Big Three made life tougher for the not-so-big Kenosha outfit. During the middle 1960s, AMC battled for midsize sales against the likes of the Chevrolet Chevelle and Plymouth Belvedere with its Rambler Classic. Today we’ll admire the first AMC product in this series with a Classic 660 found in a yard located between Denver and Cheyenne.

The Classic began life as a 1961 model during George Romney’s reign at AMC, then got a complete redesign for 1963 and became bigger and more modern-looking. Unfortunately for AMC, Ford introduced the Fairlane as a 1962 model, while Chrysler was right there with brand-new B-Body midsize machinery at the same time. As if that wasn’t enough, GM stepped up with the Chevelle and its A-Body siblings for the 1964 model year.

AMC, by then without Romney (who had gone on to become governor of Michigan), completely redesigned the Classic for 1965 and it looked just as slick as its many rivals. The following year, the Rambler name entered a phase-out period that was completed when the final AMC Ramblers were sold as 1969 models (the last year for Rambler as a separate marque was 1968).

The 1965 Classic was a bit smaller than the Fairlane, Chevelle, and Belvedere, though somewhat bigger than the Commander from soon-to-be-gone Studebaker.

The ’65 Classic offered plenty of value per dollar; the list price for this car would have been $2287 (about $22,894 in 2024 dollars). Its most menacing sales rival was the Chevelle Malibu, which had an MSRP of $2299 ($23,105 in today’s money) with roughly similar equipment.

This car is a 660, which was the mid-priced trim level slotted between the 550 and 770. Rambler shoppers who wanted to pinch a penny until it screamed could get a zero-frills Rambler 550 two-door sedan for just $2142 ($21,443 after inflation), which just barely undercut the cheapest Ford Fairlane Six ($2183) and Chevelle 300 ($2156) two-door sedans. Studebaker would sell you a new Commander two-door for a mere $2125 that year, but found few takers for that deal.

The 1965 Classic’s light weight (curb weight of 2882 pounds for the 660 four-door) made it respectably quick even with a six-cylinder engine. This car was built with an AMC 232-cubic-incher rated at 145 horsepower. If you wanted a genuine factory hot rod Classic for ’65, a 327-cubic-inch V-8 (not related to Chevrolet’s 327) with 270 horses was available.

But back to the straight six: This incredibly successful engine family went on to serve American Motors and then Chrysler all the way through 2006, when the final 4.0-liter versions were bolted into Jeep Wranglers. The 232 was used in new AMC cars through 1979.

Automatic transmissions were very costly during the middle 1960s and the Classic didn’t get a four-on-the-floor manual transmission until 1966, so the thrifty original buyer of this car went with the base three-speed column-shift manual.

At least it has a factory AM radio, a $58.50 option ($586 now).

You had to pay extra to get a heater in the cheapest 1965 Studebakers, but a genuine Weather Eye heater/ventilation system was standard equipment in every 1965 Rambler Classic.

AMC sold more than 200,000 Classics for 1965, and the most popular version was the 660 sedan. I still find Classics regularly in car graveyards, so these cars aren’t particularly rare even today.

This one is just too rough and too common to be worth restoring, but some of its parts should live on in other Ramblers.

Its final parking space has it right next to another affordable American machine that deserved a better fate: A 1979 Dodge Aspen station wagon.

***

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If popularity hasn’t quite bred contempt for the Jeep CJ-5, it has seen this big-selling off-roader being unfairly overlooked in the gold rush for classic 4x4s. Where early Land Rovers, Range Rovers, Toyota Land Cruisers, and various other Jeep models have all attracted big interest and commensurate values, the CJ-5 has reassuringly just gotten on with things, as it has since it launched in 1954.

Over a life span of nearly 30 years, the CJ-5 evolved and adapted, and it also moved from being marketed and sold as a utilitarian workhorse to something more akin to the modern SUV. Even so, the CJ-5 never lost the basic functionality that was at the root of its appeal and abilities, and this is why it still makes for a great addition to any classic car line-up. It’s just so darned useful.

Conceived by Kaiser as a go-anywhere car for the masses, the CJ-5 was a development of the military-spec M-38A1 that had arrived in 1952. At its launch in October 1954, the CJ-5 benefitted from the M-38A1’s strong chassis, axles, brakes, suspension, transmission, and improved seating. It also came with the more rounded styling that set it apart from the earlier “flat fender” models that had been spawned by Jeeps of World War II. Other practical updates for this latest Jeep included a larger windshield and the option of a weatherproof top and doors. There was a new instrument display and a closing glovebox—hardly radical, but all small points that made the CJ-5 easier to live with.

At launch, the CJ-5 came with the trusty 134-cid 70-hp Hurricane F-head four-cylinder, coupled to a three-speed manual gearbox and Dana/Spicer two-speed transfer case. Optional after 1965 was Buick’s 155-hp 225-cid Dauntless V-6, which more than doubled the output of the Hurricane four. It didn’t take long for the buying public to take to this engine, and it quickly accounted for three quarters of all CJ-5 production. Rarest of the early CJ-5s of the ’60s were those powered by a 62-hp 192-cid Perkins diesel.

In February 1970, American Motors Corporation (AMC) acquired Jeep from Kaiser, and by 1972, the company’s changes to the CJ-5 were apparent. Primarily, AMC swapped in its 145-hp 232-cid straight-six for the Dauntless, with a 258-cid six optional (and standard by the end of the decade). In true go-big-or-go-home fashion, its 304-cid V-8 was also available, which necessitated modified bodywork and a small stretch in the wheelbase, taking it from 81 to 84 inches. Toward the end of its long life, the CJ-5 had one more engine under the hood, in the form of GM’s 151-cid Iron Duke four-cylinder.

Variations on the CJ-5 theme included a longer-wheelbase CJ-6, along with the two-wheel-drive DJ-5 often used by the United States Postal Service for mail delivery. There were also several special editions over the years—the Renegade, the Golden Eagle, the Levis Edition, etc.—all of which contributed to a total production of 603,303 CJ-5s.

What’s a CJ-5 Like to Drive?

Engine choice drives three distinct flavors of Jeep CJ-5, and which one suits your taste will depend on what you want to do with the car. Early and later four-cylinder Jeeps are, as one would expect, slower to accelerate and have a lower top speed, so if you want to head further afield, one of the bigger-engined versions will more suitable. However, the Hurricane motor works happily through its three-speed manual, and a 50-mph cruise or less is where it’s comfortable. Go for the later Iron Duke four and you gain an easy-shifting four-speed gearbox, which enables cruising at around 60 mph. If you do happen find a diesel model, its rarity makes it worth saving, but don’t expect anything other than sluggish performance.

The rugged four-cylinder engines also perform admirably off-road, thanks to the low-ratio transfer box that makes the most of their torque. However, the six-cylinder and V-8 engines offer a better all-around driving experience for anyone looking to use their Jeep on a regular basis and not just for Sunday runs. These models are able to keep pace with modern traffic and also offer more power for heading off the beaten path.

What all CJ-5s have in common is the way they drive. The steering doesn’t give much in the way of sporting sensation, of course, but it’s accurate enough and fends off kickback through the wheel when off-roading, at least when well greased and properly maintained. Jeep offered power steering as an option after AMC took over the company, and it’s worth having with the larger engines that added extra weight.

Enzo Ferrari might have described the Jeep as “America’s only true sports car,” but the handling is very much in the agricultural 4×4 camp. It can be hustled more than you’d think, and it’s generally better through corners with less lean and more grip than a contemporary Land Rover, but this is all relative and care is still needed on damp roads. In off-road situations, the nimble CJ-5 is superb and still offers go-anywhere ability to this day that few modern 4x4s can better. The suspension is neither too firm nor bouncy, but you know you’re driving a car designed for unmade tracks more than asphalt. Jeeps from 1977 gained front disc brakes, which make stopping more powerful and confidence-inspiring for drivers coming from newer cars.

You can fit four people into a CJ-5 with reasonable comfort. The driver has a great view all around, though the top does create a few blind spots when erected. A compromise is to drive with the doors fitted and the top off, or buy a bikini top to keep the worst of the rain and sun off while preserving the open feel of the cabin. In the back, there’s space for kids, and seat belts are a good upgrade if not already fitted. The same applies to a roll bar if not already equipped, which can be used to mount three-point belts for those in the front seats.

What Goes Wrong and What Should You Look for When Buying a CJ-5?

When shopping the CJ-5, your best bet may be to go for one that needs only modest work and some tidying, so that you won’t worry about driving as intended. Whether from the ’60s and equipped with the Hurricane four, or from the ’70s with either six- or eight-cylinder power, a CJ-5 in such condition (#3 Good) will set you back about $14,000–$17,000. Golden Eagles and Renegades in similar shape start at around $22,000, but when you encounter one in pristine shape, expect to pay double that.

Now, Jeeps rust. The good news is that the design of the CJ-5 makes it easier to check for corrosion than on many other classics of the same era. The rugged chassis should be your first port of call with a screwdriver or hammer to check the entire length of the frame and its outriggers, which are usually the first to succumb to rot, alongside the suspension mounts. If the chassis is completely shot to pieces, replacements are available—if you want to go down the restoration route.

The body is also prone to rust, and you should check the floors around the mounts where it fixes to the chassis. You should also look around the tops of the inner and outer wheel tubs, the rear arches, the tailgate, sills, and around the windshield where it joins the scuttle. As well as rust, it’s also advisable to look for cracks in the body and chassis metalwork, as they can fatigue through age and the stresses of off-road driving.

All of the engines found in the Jeep CJ-5 are tough, reliable, and long-lived, so any problems tend to be due to neglect, high mileage, and general wear. Look for smoke on start-up or any rattles, and check the engine for signs of oil and coolant leaks. The BorgWarner three- and four-speed manual gearboxes are typically stout, and a five-speed was offered in the last few years of production. If you want an automatic transmission, CJ also came with the reliable GM TH-400. The four-wheel-drive system in the CJ-5, with strong Dana axles and transfer cases, shouldn’t need anything other than regular servicing, unless the transfer case has been allowed to run low on oil and stretch its chain.

On a test drive, take the time to think how the steering feels. Lots of slop and the need for constant correction are almost certainly down to worn components in the steering linkage. This is also the time to be satisfied the clutch engages smoothly and the pedal doesn’t feel like the cable is snagging as it’s depressed.

The electrical system in the Jeep CJ-5 is quite simple and should not give trouble beyond corroded connections or wires that have gone brittle and broken with age. However, the ignition system for all CJ-5 engines is not the car’s strong suit, especially on AMC engines. Most should have been upgraded by now with more modern ignition, or you should budget for this important improvement.

Just as important is to make sure the Jeep has all of the correct trim and upholstery, especially if it’s one of the special-edition models, as these parts are now hard to track down. Thankfully, almost all mechanical, service, and body parts are available for the CJ-5 from specialists.

Which Is the Right CJ-5 for You?

If you have your heart set on a particular version of the Jeep CJ-5, such as a Golden Eagle or Renegade, your search might take a bit longer to find the right one. For buyers with a wider field of vision, condition is vital and then it’s down which engine will best suit your needs. Early CJs with the Hurricane four have plenty of the same character as the original wartime Jeeps, but their three-speed transmission can limit usability for longer drives. If you want a four-cylinder model with greater flexibility, don’t rule out the later AMC Jeeps with the Iron Duke and four-speed transmission.

Others will be drawn to the opposite end of the spectrum with the 304 V-8 engine. It sounds good and offers decent pace, though its power-sapped stock 150 hp means it’s not exactly rapid. How rapid do you want to be in a CJ-5, however? There are tuning options for this engine, though many Jeeps have been swapped with a larger engine—think small-block Chevys or the AMC 360—as an easier and more cost-effective route to increased power.

However, don’t rule out the six-cylinder units. The Dauntless V-6 is far less common than the Hurricane in earlier CJ-5s, but it suits the Jeep well with its revvy nature and ample power. All that said, you can’t go wrong with a CJ-5 equipped with one of the straight-sixes from the AMC era. They offer smooth, easy power and relaxed cruising, they sound good, and they are cheaper to run than the V-8.

***

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In May of 1954, a new car maker emerged with the blessings of both Hudson and Nash-Kelvinator stockholders. It was called the American Motors Corporation (AMC), and it created iconic vehicles that became beloved by legions of customers and fans. While AMC’s fire was officially extinguished in 1990 via merger with Chrysler, we recently asked members of the Hagerty Community about the perfect AMC vehicle to celebrate the company’s founding, a full 70 years ago as of 2024.

The answers did not disappoint, but before we get to their suggestions, let’s dive into the responses to my suggestion, which fell shockingly flat with the community: the Jeep brand.

Jeepers Creepers

@hyperv6: The Jeep is not really AMC. Jeep was really a Willys, not originally an AMC. Then it was a Chrysler and now Stellantis. Jeep is a brand of its own and never really represented the true AMC line. To use Jeep is like someone getting credit for a paper someone else wrote.

@J. Michael: Agree with @hyperv6 completely. The AMX is my pick, and Jeep ain’t AMC.

@Mike: Every company that has ever owned Jeep has went out of business. It will happen again—they’ve overpriced everything. Javelin and AMX represent the brand! Listen to a Wisconsin guy who repaired many a Hornet and Matador owned by the college and state in my work-study job at UW-Eau Claire in the late ’70s. Those cars were not the ideal, but they ran forever.

Jeepers Keepers?

@Dave: I had 2 “AMC” Jeeps, an ’81 CJ5 and an ’86 Cherokee Pioneer. Both were awesome vehicles.

@Paul: I have an 1983 Jeep Renegade. Mechanically a great 4×4, but on a quiet night you can hear it rusting away!

@DUB6: I’m a long-time Jeep guy, but honestly, I never owned one made by AMC. However, to be fair, when AMC bought Jeep, I think they saved that brand—or at least they kept it alive until Chrysler came along with the money.

Kaiser was losing ground drastically and it quite possibly could have killed Jeep had it stayed there. Of course, it could be argued that the Jeep purchase saved AMC. Either way, it was a big deal at the time, and quite controversial. I distinctly remember the Jeep crowd I hung with being all up-in-arms. (“What? Rambler is gonna build Jeeps?”) I’m giving some credit to American Motors for Jeep, but it’s perhaps not the “best” AMC to celebrate.

AMC AMX

@DUB6: If I just sit here and think, “What AMC vehicle made a big impression on me and that I think of as being connected to the brand,” I honestly come up with the AMX—followed CLOSELY by the Pacer! I reject the suggestion that the Pacer was ugly: It was a bit weird, yes, but it had some wonderfully advanced ideas designed into it. I only put it behind the AMX because back in the day, I was a performance-car guy.

@Loving AMC: The two-seat AMX, hands down.

@Joenumeruno: The AMX and Javelin were my favorites, but the American convertible and Ambassador with seats reclinable into beds (and with “Instant Overtake”) should get votes, too.

@Stuart: For me, hands down the AMX.

@Northern Rambler: 1972–73 Javelin AMX—401-cubic-inch, four-speed Hurst factory shifter, Fresh Plum metallic paint, and the Pierre Cardin interior. This low-production model boldly just screamed the ’70s in the waning days of the muscle-car era, and was the last of a limited production series of powerful and bold designs by AMC as it tried to compete with the Big Three. It showed AMC’s design versatility, and it was perhaps the most radical of the cars that they produced as alternatives to the more conservative—and economical—production cars that they had become known for.

@hyperv6: I would choose the AMX. This was the best car they ever did, and it represents AMC.

@Billy: For me it’s a toss-up between the Javelin and the AMX. My first car was an AM (American Motors before the C) Ambassador: two-door with a 343 four-barrel. It could fly! Not the prettiest, had a few girls turn me down because of the car. 

“You’re taking me out in that?”

Their loss. I wish I had that Ambassador back!

The Last Nashes

@keeton: No one is mentioning the early-mid ’50s Nash line, where the styling was done by Pininfarina. From 1954, you could have the Weather Eye air conditioning, which was the first modern in-dash integrated system (and not one of those clunky trunk-mounted systems everyone else was using).

The 1956 Ambassador could be had with the Packard V-8 and Ultramatic. These were quite distinctive in their day, but if you liked the Pacer, you would love these!

AMC Rebel + The Machine

@Jim: The Rebel Machine. I had one, and it was a true unicorn. And it was very rarely beaten in a street race, much to the chagrin of all the Big Three muscle-car drivers.

@Glenn: I never had one but was going to nominate it. This is a great-looking car with really clean lines and it had the performance to match. I would love to have one but these things are out of my reach.

AMC Javelin

@Cavedave: I owned a 1969 390 Javelin. I surprised a lot of GTOs, Mustangs, Cameras, and Chevelles. The car was very quick for its size and engine. I put my guardian angel through some real scares in there.

@Tom: My brother had a ’68 Javelin automatic with the 343 four-barrel. He bought a ’69 with a four-speed for $200 and put the manual tranny into the ’68 in our parent’s driveway. Man, that car flew!

@AS29: I have loved AMC since I was a little kid. Growing up and still living in Wisconsin I always felt more of a connection to the brand. I would go to car shows with my brother and dad and would always point out the AMC vehicles. My dad (a diehard Chevy guy) would always say I was crazy. He would say, “They made refrigerators!” I own a 69 AMX and it’s my one of my dream cars and I absolutely love it.

Since owning it I have converted my brother, who now owns a ’70 Javelin, and my dad, Mr. Chevy, wants a Rambler Rouge! Took them a while to come around! To answer the question the true unicorn and IMO the best AMC was the Javelin Trans Am.

AMC Rambler

Ronnie Schreiber: The 1961 Rambler, or any of the compact Ramblers, for the matter. They kept AMC alive long enough to make the Javelin, AMX, Rebel Machine, and other cars mentioned above.

@TeutonicScot: Both the Rebel Machine and the AMX would have to be at the front of this conversation, not to mention the SC/Rambler, but I think you can go back even further and mention the original 1957 Rebel and/or the 1955 Rambler as both being great examples of what AMC was capable of on an always tight budget. The Rebel was one of, if not the first, American car with a large-block V-8 in a mid-size car which would become the thing to do seven to 10 years later for everyone else, it was capable of 0–60 speeds in under 8 seconds which would be considered quick even 30 years later.

Arguments can be made that it was the first “muscle car” and included many features considered “de rigueur” for later performance cars.

AMC Pacer

@snailish: Pacer. Is this just real life? Is this just fantasy???

AMC Spirit

@Jake: I bought a brand-new AMC Spirit in 1980. I worked at Ford. For the same price I could have bought a Pinto—no thank you! The Spirit was a far better car. If AMC was still around, I would not hesitate to buy another one.

AMC Gremlin

@Michael: I grew up an AMC kid in Kenosha County. MydDad worked there from 1958 to 1988. My vote is for the Gremlin, there was nothing like it. (I’d also like to add the entire 1967 line. Redesigned cars with new V-8 engines.)

AMX/2 and AMX/3

@Don: Best by far was the AMX/3, a mid-engine Italian design that puts all others to shame. I have actually drove #1 many times—it was like driving a Ferrari!

@Jim: Rather than dwell on the models that fill their failed portfolio, while acknowledging the continued success of Jeep, I agree with Don and cast my vote for the lovely AMX III of 1970. A genuinely interesting beauty that could have been oh-so-special from the little guys in Kenosha. Alas, it was not to be.

@Woodrow: Don and Jim were close, but for my money it’s the AMX/2 of 1969. 

***

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The post According to You: The Best AMC to Celebrate the Brand’s 70th Anniversary appeared first on Hagerty Media.

There are some cars out there that, despite being out of production for many decades, are polarizing if mentioned amongst those who remember them. Pinto. Vega. Maverick (no, not the current popular trucklet). Gremlin. Hornet. And Pacer. Oh yes, the AMC Pacer, who could ever forget it?! “Party on, Wayne! Party on, Garth!” But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. So buckle up, we’re diving into AMC history today!

AMC, for those of you just joining us, was a result of Nash and Hudson merging in 1954. Initially both marques were offered, but the last real Hudsons were built in 1954, and the ’55–57 versions were “Hashes,” basically Nashes with different sheetmetal and interiors. Rambler was what really saved the new company’s bacon in the ’50s; by 1957 the last Nashes and Hudsons were built and Rambler was the primary focus.

As time went by, however, the plucky Wisconsin corporation started trying to more closely match its lineup with the Big Three, which resulted in myriad Classics, Ambassadors and Matadors appearing in showrooms. The Rambler name itself was retired for good after 1969 (the cars themselves became known as AMCs instead of Ramblers, starting in 1966); its replacement would be the all-new 1970 AMC Hornet—which, ironically, would be the foundation of most future AMC cars, all the way to the final 1988 AMC Eagle 4×4 station wagons.

By the early ’70s, the personal luxury car market was booming, but the all-new ’74 Matador Coupe failed to ignite, sales-wise. Perhaps it just wasn’t formal enough—though in later years it was offered with opera windows and tony Barcelona and Barcelona II luxury trim packages. So in 1975 AMC tried a different tack, with the “wide small car,” the Pacer.

It looked like nothing else on the road. And that more or less remains true today. The main selling factor was that although it was a small car, it was wide, thus providing “big car” room in a tidier package. It was appropriately quirky. Ample glass area was featured, and the passenger side door was four inches longer than the driver’s door. This was carried over to the Pacer wagons, which joined the two-door hatchback in the 1977 model year.

Sales of the 100-inch wheelbase hatchback was initially encouraging, as 72,158 were built. Many trim and decor options and packages were available, including the “X” package, which, like the Gremlin X, provided a sportier appearance designed to appeal to the younger set. Base price in 1975 was $3299 (about $19,152 today).

But here’s the rub: Most any new car will initially sell like gangbusters—at first. Only time will tell if any new model will carve out a niche for itself, or fall flat. With the Pacer, there was a lot of initial interest, but then it faded away. Just not right out of the gate.

In fact, sales increased in 1976 to the tune of 117,244 cars built. Base price bumped up slightly, to $3499 ($19,207). This healthy bump in its second year likely encouraged AMC to add the station wagon version, which appeared in 1977. Its base price was $3799 ($19,580); the hatchback now had an MSRP of $3649 ($18,807). But this was the year sales started to tank, despite the addition of the wagon. Only 20,265 hatchbacks and 37,999 wagons were sold for the year.

The 1978s had a new look up front with a more ornate grille and taller hood with a “power bulge.” This was done to make the AMC 304-cubic-inch V-8 available. It was an intriguing development. There were now four distinct models, the hatchback and the wagon, either with the venerable 258 six or 304 V-8, your choice.

But the availability of more oomph under the hood didn’t seem to help one whit. Sales that year were arguably catastrophic, with only 18,717 six-cylinder Pacers and 2514 V-8 models produced. I could find no individual breakouts by model or body style.  By this time the cheapest model was the six-cylinder hatchback at $4048 ($20,863). Priciest was the V-8 wagon, to the tune of $4443 ($22,900).

In 1979, AMC seemingly went full-zoot luxury on most of its models, including the Pacer. A New Limited model was added, surpassing even the previous top of the line DL version in comfort and convenience features and gadgets.

A most unusual model was the Pacer Limited Wagon. It was near Cadillac-like in its interior, with really snazzy leather and corduroy seating. As the ’79 brochure related, “The new Pacer Limited wagon offers even higher levels of appointments and conveniences. Standard are genuine leather seats with corduroy accents, luxury woodgrain steering wheel, and a host of power extras … an unmatched combination of big car room, ride, and comfort with excellent maneuverability.”

When I first spotted our featured car, I thought it could be a Limited—until I saw the non-leather interior. Though it too is pretty snazzy for a late-1970s small car. DLs had Caberfae corduroy seats in 1979, in ’80 it was Rochelle velour. But Limiteds added extra ribbed bright trim on the rocker panels, color-keyed styled wheel covers, and other niceties. But even the DL interior was a very nice place to be.

In the end, the Pacer just was not selling. Despite all the new extras and models, the bright, cheery pictures in the brochures, sales continued their drop. In 1979 only, 9201 six-cylinder models and 1014 V-8s were built. A Limited V-8 wagon, the most expensive model, was now up to $6589 ($28,347).

The 1980 model year was the end of the road for the Pacer. After Renault got a controlling interest in AMC starting in 1978, much of the model lineup was discontinued, starting with the Matador coupe, sedan, and wagon in 1978. The Gremlin disappeared after ’78, as well, but it returned in a fashion as the updated Spirit; the “Spirit Sedan” was basically the old Gremlin, albeit with a new nose and larger, non-triangular rear quarter windows.

As for the Pacer, it was only available as a DL or Limited, hatchback or wagon. Just 405 DL sedans and 1341 DL wagons were built. I could not find figures for the two Limited models. DL wagons like today’s featured example started at $5558 ($21,067).

I spotted this one in October, 2023—it was for sale in Boise, Idaho. As the ad relayed, “1980 AMC Pacer Wagon · DL · Wagon · Driven 27,900 miles Very nice original survivor 1980 AMC Pacer DL Wagon. A/C blows cold, radio, heat, defrost, windows, all work. Brand new old stock (NOS) front glass windshield just installed! I’m buying a truck so selling to help pay for the truck. I’m going to have it fully detailed soon and can get other pictures after that is completed.”

Hopefully, it went to a good home. Love them or hate them, surviving Pacers are seldom seen. And while I’d slightly prefer a Limited due to the extra-Broughamy features—especially those leather and corduroy seats—this was still a really nice car!

***

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Barrett-Jackson has been coming to Palm Beach (technically, West Palm Beach) at the South Florida Fairgrounds since the mid-2000s, making this the auction house’s most enduring auction that’s not in Arizona. B-J’s sale here consistently brings over 600 vehicles and dozens of vendors to the venue for a smaller version of the collector car fanfare we’re used to seeing in and around Scottsdale. This year, total sales were a solid $45M and average price was rather high at more than $74,000, but there were plenty of budget-friendly four-figure classics as well.

Indeed, Palm Beach usually offers a wide range of vehicles at a wide range of prices, and this year was no different, although offerings at the top end were less diverse. Five of the top 10 sales were a Ford GT of some sort, and eight of the top 10 were built after the year 2000. Only a 1966 Corvette restomod and the replica Dodge Daytona from Joe Dirt brought some American muscle into the top 10.

We examined some of the more interesting cars and significant sales in detail below.

Lot 692: 1972 DeTomaso Pantera

Sold for $176,000

Chassis no. THPNMB02424. Red over black vinyl. Visually maintained, largely original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 351/330hp, 5-speed, Campagnolo wheels, Becker Europa radio, power windows, air conditioning.

Condition: Represented with 1592 actual miles and its preservation is impressive. It shows careful ownership and only light age inside and out, although the paint does not look original.

Bottom line: An early Pantera that hasn’t been cut up or modified is already impressive, doubly so when it is as well preserved as this. The car has been to auction a few times, and bidders have always appropriately recognized its originality by paying a premium price for it. Its auction history also does a good job of tracing the market for these Italo-American sports cars over time. At Mecum Indy in 2014, it sold for $86,400. At Indy again six years later and in a hot 2020 market, it sold for $148,500. At Kissimmee 2022 and in an even hotter market, it brought $181,500, while in 2024 among softer but still high prices it took a small step back in price.

Lot 677: 1987 Buick Regal GNX

Sold for $156,200

Chassis no. 1G4GJ1174HP451735. Black over black and gray cloth. Unrestored original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 231/276hp, automatic, Goodyear Eagle tires.

Condition: Number 438 of 547 built. Showing 1309 miles and the tires are represented as original. Very well kept and preserved.

Bottom line: The GNX was one of the fastest and most desirable American cars of the 1980s. They’ve never really fallen out of favor, but it wasn’t until the last few years that they became six-figure modern collector cars. Way back in 2000, this one sold at RM’s Phoenix auction for just $30,800. Its odometer showed 534 miles and it was in essentially the same condition as it is today. It really is worth five times as much as it was 24 years ago.

Lot 745: 2005 Ford GT Twin-Turbo by Hefner Performance

Sold for $374,000

Chassis no. 1FAFP90SX5Y400061. Midnight Blue with white stripes over black.

Equipment: Twin-turbocharged, Ford Performance exhaust, shorty headers, Penske shocks, transmission oil cooler, removed rear bumper, 6-speed, painted calipers, McIntosh stereo, BBS wheels.

Condition: Paint shows some swirling and scratching but no major issues. Oddly, neither the mileage nor the horsepower numbers are represented.

Bottom line: This is an early production GT modified by an outfit in Florida, and although there are no dyno sheets, it is surely very fast. To drive, it’s probably a blast. As a collector car, though, the mods and the signs of use are knocks against it, and there are cleaner 2005-06 GTs to choose from that hit the auction block every month. Or even the same day, as the 597-mile car Barrett-Jackson sold 20 lots earlier than this brought $451,000.

Lot 440: 1990 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet by Gemballa

Sold for $110,000

Chassis no. WP0CB2965LS472097. Black over black leather. Original, #3+

Equipment: 3.6, 5-speed, whale tail, Gemballa wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport tires, white gauges, Pioneer stereo, carbon fiber dash.

Condition: Showing 75,514 miles. Some minor paint blemishes on the nose and mirrors. A few small cracks in the headlight covers. Clean wheels. Clean, straight top. Good interior with stretched upholstery on the driver’s side. Pretty understated for a Gemballa.

Bottom line: Uwe Gemballa founded a tuning company in 1981 and became a big name in modern coachbuilding, at least until he was murdered in South Africa in 2010. Gemballa-modified cars (mostly Porsches) are distinctive at best and ugly at worst, but they’ve never been boring, even if this is one of the more understated body kits they ever did. Body-kitted and tuned exotics like Gemballas, Koenigs, early AMGs, etc. were a bit passé for a while but collectors of a certain age are coming around to them. The bidders recognized this one for what it is, and that it isn’t just a 911 with a kit slapped on at the local body shop. Despite its use, the car sold for a big price. A regular 964-generation Carrera 4 cabriolet would never sell for this much, even in perfect condition.

Lot 356: 1979 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II

Sold for $27,500

Chassis no. SRK38123. Chestnut over biscuit leather. Visually maintained, largely underneath.

Equipment: Automatic, wheel covers, narrow whitewalls, power windows, air conditioning, original AM/FM.

Condition: Supposedly bought “nearly new” for talk show host Jack Paar as a gift from his wife. Represented with $30,000 worth of work over the past six months. Old repaint with a few blemishes but nothing serious. Lightly aged bumpers. Excellent interior. Tidy underneath. The recent mechanical work is very reassuring on any old Rolls-Royce, and the celebrity connection, while not super-relevant, is a nice bonus.

Bottom line: Jack Paar was a TV pioneer, but the number of people who really remember his tenure at The Tonight Show (1957-62) can’t be big. He also wasn’t known as a big car person (at least not the way later host Jay Leno is), and he owned this Rolls well past the peak of his career. The celebrity appeal here, then, is limited. The price, however, is on the high side for a Silver Shadow—one of the avenues to getting a true Spirit of Ecstasy on your hood. Credit the $30,000 worth of recent service, which isn’t usually lavished on affordable Rolls-Royces like this one.

Lot 675.1: 1999 Shelby Series 1

Sold for $165,000

Chassis no. 5CXSA1817XL000039. Silver with blue stripes over black and gray. Original, #2- condition.

Equipment: 244/320hp Oldsmobile V8, 6-speed, Nitto tires.

Condition: Some chips on the nose and dirt behind the headlight covers. Paint crack behind the left headlight. Very light wear on the driver’s seat. Showing 1360 miles and showing very light signs of age.

Bottom line: Despite its looks, the Series I wasn’t quite the Cobra successor it could have been, and people have been holding that against it ever since it came out. Original specifications called for a carbon-fiber body, Corvette transaxle, and 500 horsepower, but the reality was more modest. It got heavier, and the Olds V8 offered up less power, and the price climbed higher than anticipated. Objectively, it’s a great-looking car that’s plenty fast, but it’s always been undervalued relative to its rarity (249 built) and the famous name attached to it. Only in the past 10 years or so have prices really started to climb. In Palm Beach two years ago, this one sold for $126,500, which was on the modest side. The 2024 price is a better match for its mileage and condition.

Lot 788: 1961 Renault 4CV Jolly Beach Wagon

Sold for $36,300

Chassis no. 3607757. Cream yellow with yellow and white cloth top over wicker seats. Older restoration, #3+ condition.

Equipment: 747/21hp four-cylinder, 3-speed, hub caps.

Condition: Represented as one of 50 exported to the U.S. and Caribbean, and bought new by the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas. With the same family for the past 40 years and restored 10 years ago. Good paint. Light pitting on the chrome, including on the edges of the exterior grab bars. The wicker is all original and in solid shape aside from a few cracks. The dash and steering wheel are mostly clean, but the ignition around the keyhole is pitted. The top is a little dirty and aged. A perfect beach car with all the charm of a Fiat Jolly but for a lower cost.

Bottom line: Most of coachbuilder Ghia’s beach car, aka “Jolly”, bodies were on Fiats. The Italian cars are better known and more highly prized. Well-restored ones have sold for well over $100,000. But this Renault has all the charm and similar performance, or lack thereof, for a much lower cost. Are there cheaper ways to hit the beach in style? Certainly, but this is still so much charm and fun per dollar.

Lot 767.1: 2020 Porsche Boxster 718 Spyder

Sold for $126,500

Chassis no. WP0CC2A8XLS240606. Chalk with red top over red and gray. Original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 4.0/414hp, 6-speed, black wheels, red calipers, Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires.

Condition: Showing 8086 miles and no real age or wear.

Bottom line: Six figures for a Boxster just sounds wrong, but the 718 Spyder is not your hairdresser’s Boxster. Essentially an open version of the Cayman GT4, it has aero bits on the body, suspension bits and brakes from a 911 GT3, and a much more powerful engine than the base car. It can hit nearly 190 mph. A 2020 718 Spyder started at a little over $97K, so with options this has always been a six-figure car, and the fact that a high-performance Porsche didn’t depreciate after four years and 8000 miles isn’t really surprising.

Lot 370.1: 1970 AMC Rebel Machine

Sold for $69,300

Chassis no. A0M190Y171202. White, blue and red over black vinyl. Older restoration, #3+ condition.

Equipment: 390/340hp, 4-speed with Hurst T-handle shifter, limited-slip and Detroit Locker, Magnum 500-style wheels, BFG Radial T/A tires, high-back bucket seats, console.

Condition: Decent paint with some scratches and touch-ups on the nose and a spot of surface rust under one of the headlights. Decent chrome, but the rest of the brightwork is original and tired. Clean wheels and tires. Upholstery looks newer while the dash and switchgear looks original, and overall the interior looks good. Inconsistent presentation, but a rare piece of AMC muscle that always makes a statement, and a patriotic one at that.

Bottom line: The Rebel was a short-lived model, only lasting from 1967 to 1970, and for its final year Hurst developed a high-performance version called the Rebel Machine. Based on a Rebel SST, it had the most powerful engine available in an AMC product and was dressed up with red, white, and blue reflective stripes. For 2326 buyers, it was an economical way to get in on the peak of the muscle car craze. They’re still economical, at least relative to their style, performance, and rarity. This result is realistic for the condition of this example.

Lot 791.1: 1996 Nissan Skyline GT-R LM Limited

Sold for $105,600

Chassis no. BCNR33023215. Championship Blue over gray cloth. Original, #2- condition.

Equipment: RHD. 2568/276hp, 5-speed with aftermarket shift knob, alloy wheels, Brembo brakes, aftermarket radio, aftermarket exhaust.

Condition: One of 188 LM Limited GT-Rs. Showing 118,190 km (73,440 miles) but recently serviced and looks quite good with a recent detailing. The paint and wheels are blemish-free. It’s clean underneath and the interior looks great as well.

Bottom line: Built briefly in the spring of 1996, the LM Limited was built to celebrate Nissan’s efforts at Le Mans with the R33-generation GT-R, even though those efforts were unsuccessful after four tries at La Sarthe. All 188 cars got Championship Blue paint, special decals, a carbon spoiler blade, different cooling ducts, and a bonnet lip. This is one of the more valuable variants of the R33 (1995-98). The price here seems a bit modest given the mileage and condition, but this auction was also very light on JDM favorites and the right bidders may just not have been in the room.

Lot 731: 1966 Aston Martin DB6 Mk I Vantage Coupe

Sold for $238,700

Chassis no. DB62805R. Fiesta Red over gray leather. Older restoration, #3+ condition.

Equipment: RHD. 3995/325hp, 5-speed, wire wheels, Vredestein tires, wood rim steering wheel, radio.

Condition: Restored in the late 1990s in the UK by RS Williams. Good older paint and chrome. Tidy, visibly but lightly run engine. Lightly aged and wrinkled leather. Older paint. Grimy underbody. Lightly aged restoration on a well-equipped Aston.

Bottom line: This DB6 isn’t perfect and the RHD is a knock to its desirability, but it’s a genuine Vantage wearing a high-quality (if older) restoration by a well-known specialist. It sold for $240,00 on Bring a Trailer just a few months ago in February, with unanswered questions and a lien on the car putting off bidders there. A $240K sale price is very low, low enough that taking it straight to Barrett-Jackson for a flip probably seemed like easy money. But it wasn’t, and given the fee structure of Bring a Trailer vs. B-J, the seller actually lost quite a bit of money here.

Lot 742: 2022 Ford GT Alan Mann Heritage Edition

Sold for $1,292,500

Chassis no. 2FAGP9EW4NH200027. Alan Mann Red, gold and white over black. Original, #2 condition.

Equipment: 213/660hp V6, paddle-shift 7-speed.

Condition: 16 miles, looks new, and pretty much is.

Bottom line: Ford spun off 10 different special editions of the 2016-22 GT, many of them playing on the theme of “Heritage.” The Alan Mann version is a tribute to Alan Mann Racing, the English team that raced GT40s in the ’60s as well as other Ford products like the Falcon, Lotus Cortina, and Escort. Alan Mann also gave the Mustang its first race victory in 1964. Just 30 examples of this special edition GT were produced for 2022. There were seven different Heritage Edition GTs, and whereas base cars typically sell for just under $1M these days, somewhere around $1.2M is more the norm for the Heritage cars.

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Back in 1954, the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation merged with the Hudson Motor Car Company to form the fourth-largest automobile company in the United States. Once all the Wall Street types did their financial machinations to appease stockholders from both companies, a new company called American Motors Corporation (AMC) emerged in May of 1954.

That pivotal moment in American corporate history is quickly approaching its 70th anniversary, so now we wonder aloud about the best example of AMC engineering, design, and marketing gusto. If you don’t have the ideal AMC in your heart, here’s a cheat sheet to get you inspired.

My choice is pretty obvious, mostly because of its impact on America both then and now:

It wasn’t until 1970 that AMC made what was the most impressive, far-reaching, and impactful business decision of the company’s storied history. That’s when it added Jeep to its portfolio, and it might be the only legacy from AMC that modern-day American citizens in any city, state, or zip code across the country can recognize. We enthusiasts may love Javelins, Hornets, Matadors, Eagle 4x4s, and a precious few of us adore the Summit, but there can only be one winner in my mind.

I doubt anyone at AMC could even imagine Jeep’s long-term success, but they likely saw a glimmer of hope in the Civilian Jeep (CJ). AMC knew this brand had merit in its stable, and it was wise to buy it up from Kaiser Motors. So now I hand the reins to you, and every member of the Hagerty Community: What’s the Best AMC To Celebrate the Brand’s 70th Anniversary?

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For those among you who hate the idea of perfectly good cars being left to sit and rot, this episode of Barn Find Hunter may be a tough watch.

Tom Cotter travels to Pikeville, North Carolina, to visit the remains of Collier AMC, a dealership that opened in 1955 selling Nashes, then closed up shop in the early 1980s, with much of its inventory still in place. Tom is joined on the lot by its current owners, brothers Rob and Doug Collier. “Everything we see today is for sale,” Tom says.

About 200 cars sit in disrepair on the property, including a 1974 Javelin with a 360 V-8 and about 63,000 miles, which was gifted to Rob when he was 13. There’s a ’68 Ambassador V-8 that the service department converted to run on four cylinders; now it sits camouflaged in vegetation. There’s an Eagle SX4 with an Iron Duke 4-cylinder, dead paint, and a bush growing between the front seats—yours for under $1500. There’s a Chevy S-10, a Volvo 544, and a 1950 Nash, which you can identify by its covered fuel cap, different from the ’49, Rob explains.

Every car shown is covered in some combination of flaking paint, mildew, and pine needles. On one car, Rob shows off the inner rocker, which he explains was perforated at the factory to increase strength; the irony, however, is that the entire piece is now rusted away.

The men soon arrive at a 1976 Pacer wearing fiberglass fender flares and Team Highball livery, as raced in IMSA RS by Amos Johnson. It won’t see a track again. Perhaps rarest of all is a prototype Vignale AMX. “They sent two Rambler Americans to Vignale Coachworks in Italy,” Rob says, and they came back with an unusual rear-end treatment. Tom asks if a car like that will be restored, but Rob suspects it will instead be used as yard art.

Soon Tom and the brothers leave the lot to see a one-owner Ambassador tucked away in a barn for decades. Despite the dust and decay, the precision of the car’s opening/shutting passenger door is impressive. “Here’s a car that has been here for 61 years,” Tom says, “and it opens and slams like a fresh car.” Rob hints that the local mayor might include the car in the town museum.

“A collection of this many cars that are complete and haven’t been picked over, I think it’s really special,” says Rob Collier. “My daddy was soft-hearted toward cars. He didn’t like to see them torn up.” There is real honesty in the statement, but it’s also hard to imagine how he might have felt about seeing them this way.

The post The <em>Barn Find Hunter</em> Visits the AMC Dealership That Time Forgot appeared first on Hagerty Media.

AMC was founded on May 1, 1954, when Hudson Motor Car Company and Nash-Kelvinator Corporation merged to better compete and survive against the Big Three. The plan worked, to an extent: AMC outlived Studebaker, Packard, and Kaiser-Jeep, the latter of which survived the longest, making it to 1970 before it was acquired by AMC. In 1987 AMC itself was purchased by Chrysler, and today only Jeep survives.

Over the brand’s 33-year run, it built family haulers, sports cars, off-roaders, and innovative compacts with a fraction of the resources of the Big Three, and the models often punched above their weight in performance and style. To celebrate the brand’s 70th anniversary, we’ve picked 10 of our top AMC models to highlight, in roughly chronological order, along with picks of our favorite variant from each model.

AMC Ambassador

AMC’s full-size car was built in eight generations from 1958 to 1974 and could be had in a wide range of body styles, which often changed yearly, typical of its Big Three competition in that era. A rare sight at car shows, these big cruisers are bursting with style, as the Ambassador often served as the flagship model for AMC. In 1968, Ambassadors came equipped with standard air-conditioning while the feature was still optional across most of the industry, even on much more expensive models.

Our pick: While we love the funky, finned, ’50s four-door hardtop wagons, as well as the stylish two-door hardtops, we’ve got to go with the 1965–66 wagon. The interesting front-end treatment, with stacked headlights and horizontally mirrored grille, makes it look almost like a concept car. It was practically built for a Route 66 road trip. Besides, most of the rest of our picks are gonna be two-doors—we’ve got to be at least a little bit practical.

AMC Rambler American

Built over three very different generations, the Rambler began as an elegant, sleek compact that stood out from the larger cars that were then dominating the market; it practically looked like a European import. The third generation introduced V-8 power to make a compact muscle car, the SC/Rambler, that would take on the sportier variants of the Dodge Dart, Ford Falcon, and Chevy Nova.

Our pick: The SC/Rambler with its red, white, and blue paint scheme is an easy choice, but we’ll go with some of AMC’s later models when it comes to patriotic color schemes. For our favorite Rambler, we’re gonna cheat a bit and pick an IKA Torino, which is what you get when Pininfarina gives this AMC a makeover. Built and sold by Industrias Kaiser Argentina and later Renault, the South American models were made famous thanks to their racing prowess. We’ll be honest, we wouldn’t care if they never took a checkered flag; we’re just interested in the looks.

AMC Rambler Marlin

AMC’s midsize Rambler Classic spawned the fastback Rambler Marlin, whose sleek lines inspired Dodge to build the first-generation Charger. After just two years, Marlin moved to the larger Ambassador platform and kept the fastback design.

Our pick: We’re going to select the first-year Marlin, the 1965 model, which essentially serves as our favorite version of the Rambler Classic as well.

AMC Javelin

Whether it’s the rather understated early versions or the audacious, flared variants that came later, AMC’s take on the pony car is an attractive package. Like any good pony car, the Javelin was available with options to customize the style and performance, with several potent V-8 available. A blue, white, and red Javelin campaigned by Mark Donohue in 1971 brought the Trans Am championship to AMC for the first time, and in 1972, AMC nabbed driver George Follmer to repeat the performance.

Our pick: The one-year-only 1970 models featured a unique front end that is just different enough to notice from a distance. We’ll go with a 390 V-8 and a four-speed, in the red, white, and blue paint scheme that was the opposite orientation of the SCCA models.

AMC AMX

To create a two-door sports car and compete with Chevrolet’s Corvette, AMC shortened the Javelin and restyled it from the doors back. It’s a cost-cutting theme to which the company would return, but the AMX was arguably the best implementation of the strategy. AMC was proud to announce that the AMX started at less than $4000, the price of a loaded Mustang or Camaro. Production lasted from 1968 to 70, at which point “AMX” became an option package for the Javelin, then the Hornet, and eventually the Spirit.

Our pick: The AMX came standard with a V-8 and a four-speed with Hurst shifter, so pick your favorite AMC V-8, pick your favorite color, and go.

AMC Rebel

AMC’s mid-size follow-up, the Rambler Classic, filled a lot of roles as it was built in convertible, sedan, coupe, and wagon body styles. All of them look good, with interesting design cues like fenders and quarter panels with bulges to mimic the lines of their close-fitting bumpers, a design feature shared with the 1967–68 Ambassador.

Our pick: For style, it’s tough to beat the sleek looks of the 1967–69 hardtop, but we’ll still have to go with the 1970 Rebel Machine. It featured a 340-hp 390 V-8 that breathed through a sizable hood scoop and was available with a red, white, and blue paint scheme. It was loud, it was brash, and it was a solid performer thanks to a more powerful V-8 than even the AMX had. What’s not to love?

AMC Hornet

The compact Hornet sedan, successor to the Rambler American, was offered in two- and four-door variants when it debuted in 1970. A year later, it was joined by the Sportabout wagon, which AMC proudly claimed was “America’s only compact station wagon.” A sporty two-door hatchback joined the party in 1973. All of the body styles are rather attractive in their simplicity; perhaps that’s why we think they’ve aged so well. The muscular SC/360 version used a, you guessed it, 360 V-8 engine and was offered in muscle-car-appropriate colors and with a ram air induction system.

Our pick: While the most famous Hornet has to be the red hatchback from The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), the car that completed the miraculous corkscrew jump, we’ll take an earlier SC/360 model. How about a 1971 with the optional four-barrel, 285-hp engine with dual exhaust, four-speed manual, and 3.91:1 rear-axle ratio with Twin-Grip differential?

AMC Gremlin

AMC was used to being an underdog and doing a lot with a little. When it needed a more affordable, smaller car, it took the already compact Hornet, cut out 12 inches of wheelbase, and hacked off the rear to create the Gremlin. Sound familiar? Compared to the wonderfully proportioned AMX-GT concept that spawned the truncated subcompact, the Gremlin is a bit awkward. That doesn’t stop us from loving the odd little hatchback.

Our pick: Our initial thought was this wild, tracked Gremlin we spotted at SEMA in 2022, but how about something a bit more practical—a 1972 Gremlin X in Wild Plum? The 304 V-8 wasn’t a brutal powerhouse at the time, yet it was still punchy in the lightweight Gremlin. A modern tune-up with a decent cam and intake would make it a zippy runabout.

AMC Pacer

You can’t say that AMC was averse to taking risks. The Pacer offered unique, even strange styling with some practical benefits. The most oft-cited example is, of course, the passenger side door, which was longer than the driver’s to encourage rear-seat passengers to enter and exit on the curb side, where it was safer. The efficiently packaged interior offered fantastic visibility thanks to a greenhouse that used more window area. The car was also designed to be easy to repair.

Our pick: Our favorite Pacer has got to be the Mirthmobile, the only famous Pacer in existence. With a roof-mounted red rope licorice dispenser and a dash-mounted cup dispenser to go along with what appears to be an on-board water supply, it has tremendous road-trip potential.

AMC Eagle

These utilitarian sedans and wagons aren’t particularly eye-catching and would have blended in with plenty of their contemporaries if it weren’t for the fact that they rode a bit taller on their 4×4 suspensions. The drivetrain made them a precursor to the ubiquitous crossover and served to highlight AMC’s ambitious attempts to carve out new segments in the market. The Eagle sedans and wagons were based on the Concorde, the successor to the Hornet.

Our pick: The SX/4 three-door that was based on the smaller AMC Spirit is a rare sight today and would make for a fun rallycross-inspired toy.

Bonus:

XJ Jeep Cherokee

The XJ wasn’t branded as an AMC, but AMC was Jeep’s steward from 1970 to 1987 and the Cherokee was AMC’s largest contribution to the brand over that period, as most of the other models available were carryovers from Kaiser.

These boxy wagons weren’t the first compact SUV, although they set the stage for the future in several important ways. With lightweight unibody construction and a solid front axle with coil-spring suspension, the XJ Cherokee was maneuverable and capable off-road and had a decent ride on-road. Its quadra-link suspension made its way to the original Grand Cherokee in 1993 and TJ Wrangler in 1997. The Grand Cherokee was initially planned to replace the Cherokee, although strong sales kept the XJ in production until 2001 in the United States. Reskinned versions were on sale in China until 2014.

Our pick: A 1997–99 4.0-liter model to get the best of the upgrades that started in 1997 but the last of the high-pinion Dana 30 front axles.

This list had to be cut short, but we’ve managed to cover a pretty big swath of AMC’s lineup. Our favorites were biased toward the ’60s and ’70s, so let us know if we’ve overlooked your number-one AMC.

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Over 2000 vehicles are expected to change hands at the 2024 Arizona auctions at the end of the month. Most of them will be classic muscle cars, vintage trucks, resto-modded muscle cars, or resto-modded trucks (joking aside, there is quite a bit of interesting and high-dollar kit crossing the block this year, which you can read about here). One of the best parts about an auction event this big, though, is the unusual stuff that pops up in between all the mainstream collector vehicles. Scottsdale always brings out some weird and wonderful, and 2024 is no different. Here’s the stuff that caught our eye.

1989 Daimler DS420 Limousine

While Jaguars of the ’50s and ’60s had the whole “Grace, Space, Pace” thing down pat, their Daimler cousins sometimes struggled with that first one. Particularly the 1968-92 DS420, with its matronly body work and its awkward bustle-back trunk, never had much in the way of “Grace.” “Space” was never a problem with the DS420, though, and these English limousines have shuttled around important people for decades.

Including, in this car’s case, Queen Elizabeth II. She reportedly used it on her 50th Anniversary tour of New Zealand in 2002, following the car’s apparent six-figure restoration. It then sold to an owner in the U.S. who is a “devoted DS420 collector,” of all things.

Given Elizabeth’s 70-year reign, there are lots of cars out there with a Queen connection. Prices have been as varied as the vehicles themselves, but perhaps the latest and closest comp was a 1966 Vanden Plas Princess Limousine the Queen used on an official trip to Jamaica. It sold in 2022 for $110,000.

1957 Reliant Regal MkIII

That Daimler limo may have been fit for a queen, but the only thing regal about this Reliant is its name. Built by Reliant, the company best known for its budget three-wheeled Robin and nifty Scimitar sports estate, the Regal was one of the company’s first postwar models. It was also the follow-up to the similarly ironically named “Regent” and “Prince Regent.” Available as a saloon, van, estate or pickup, Regals also came with various engines, all of them tiny. To drive one, all you needed was a motorcycle license, which in Britain was a significantly cheaper way of motoring.

As a Mark III, this one has an ash-framed fiberglass body and a 747-cc side-valve four-cylinder churning out 16 eager horsepower. According to Bonhams there is currently no soft-top included with this tripod, but can you imagine driving it in the rain? For Scottsdale, it has a $10,000-$15,000 estimate.

1969 AMC AMX “Banacek”

Ever heard of a show called Banacek? I haven’t, but I have heard of George Barris, who turned his customizing skills to this AMC AMX two-seater for the 1970s detective series. What started as a standard 1969 390/315hp automatic AMX had its top chopped, windshield moved further back, and its bodywork lengthened with that massive schnoz. The rear is even cooler, with louvers that run all the way down the back window and just keep going, right until they run into the rear bumper. Chrome side pipes, Ram Air scoops, Cragar SS wheels, and tri-color Murano Pearl/Tangerine Candy/Copper paint complete the picture.

If you like oddball AMCs but want something a little less outrageous and expensive, there’s a ’72 Javelin SST Alabama State Police car crossing the block at the same auction.

1961 Panhard PL 17 Sedan

An unusual sight in this country, the Panhard PL 17 was a rather popular car in Europe. Similar to another French people’s car, the Citroën 2CV, the Panhard embraced a front-engine, front-wheel drive layout with its air-cooled parallel twin laid way out in the front of the chassis.

While aimed at the same kind of customers as the Volkswagen Beetle, the PL 17 never made the same kind of financial or cultural waves as the VW. Its 848-cc engine was both smaller and had half the cylinders of the VW, and it was never priced competitively, either. But the Panhard punched above its weight. With 50 horsepower from the top-spec Tigre engine (which this example reportedly has) it made more grunt than a 1192cc Type 1 Volkswagen, and despite their size and the unusual layout of their drivetrains, PL 17s took the top three places overall at the 1961 Monte Carlo Rally. Panhard’s flat-twin engine would also find success on track in small displacement classes, powering Deutsch-Bonnet’s (DB) race cars in Europe and Bill Devin’s earliest race cars here in the States. The PL 17 sedan on offer in Scottsdale has a $20,000-$30,000 presale estimate.

1971 Citroën Ami 8

Like the Panhard, this Citroën isn’t such an unusual sight on a cobblestone street in the French countryside, but it certainly is in the deserts of Arizona. The Ami (which, adorably, translates to “friend”) came about in 1961, and was loosely based on the 2CV. With France recovering well from the war, Citroën perceived a need in the French market for a car that was still affordable but larger, more practical and a little more powerful than its everyman 2CV.

Amis were built from 1961-78 and came in various body styles that included vans, estate wagons, fastbacks sedans and even an extra-odd notchback sedan with a steep, reverse-raked rear window. This one is a 1971 wagon model—one of the more conventional-appearing Ami body styles—that still doesn’t look like anything else on the road. It is represented as an older restoration with a 1998 engine rebuild and 2012 repaint. There is no presale estimate, and we don’t carry the Citroën Ami in the Hagerty Price Guide, but our colleagues in the UK do, at least in saloon form. They currently put a ’71 Ami at between £2000 and £10,000 (about $2500-$12,700).

1960 Hillman Minx IIIA Convertible

Looking a little bit like a ’56 Ford that shrank in the wash, this Hillman Minx is part of a family of mid-size family cars sold in various forms from 1931-70. Part of Britain’s Rootes Group, Hillman was sister-companies with Singer, Sunbeam and Humber, and cars built on the Minx’s platform included the Singer Gazelle, Sunbeam Rapier, and Humber 80. One version even sold in Japan, produced and sold there as the Isuzu Hillman Minx. A left-hand drive MkIIA convertible, the blue one on offer in Scottsdale has a very attainable $10K-$15K estimate.

2006 Hummer H1 Alpha

If you like the look of an H1 Hummer with its monster size and macho angles but the wheels are just a little too…round, then look no further. This one rides on custom Mattracks Tracks attached to upgraded suspension. And if an H1’s 300-hp turbodiesel just doesn’t do it for you, this one also spins its wheels tracks with 500hp thanks to a new turbo and exhaust. Other mods include (but are not limited to) all-LED lights, full WARN recovery accessory kit and 16,500-pound rear winch, brush guard, air lift hooks and bezels, and a windshield light bar hoop.

1952 Beechcraft Model 18

You at least need a driver’s license to actually use almost all the vehicles that Barrett-Jackson sells. Occasionally, you’ll also need a motorcycle license, or for certain car, even a racing license to use them as intended. This auction, however, is one of the rare occasions when you’ll need a pilot’s license.

Sold new by Kansas aircraft company Beechcraft to the Canadian military, this Beech 18 entered civilian use in the early 1960s and reportedly has a detailed history since. The most interesting parts of that history, though, start in the 1980s, with its use in movies and TV shows. It seems this thing was the go-to plane for production companies that needed a ’50s or ’60s aircraft in the background. The credits include episodes of Unsolved Mysteries and House, as well as the films Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight (1994), Terminal Velocity (1994), Man on the Moon (1999), All the Pretty Horses (2000), and even Ford v Ferrari (2019). It has also done commercials for Pepsi, Honda, and Bud Light.

Remarkably, this isn’t the first airplane offered in Scottsdale. Barrett-Jackson sold a 1929 Ford 4-AT-E in 2009 for $1.21M, a 1958 Cessna in 2016 for $66K, and a wild 1954 Taylor Aerocar in 2020 for $275K.

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Coffee, cream cheese, condos, and collector cars all got pricier at the beginning of this strange decade, but they didn’t all follow the same path to get there. (At least for the cars.) Though casual observation would suggest everything from Volkswagen GTIs to Ferrari F40s have skyrocketed only to settle slightly as inflation and the classic car market have begun to slow down, several cars in the Hagerty Price Guide have plotted a different trajectory.

We have reported on the frenzy of 2021–22 as well as the relative calm in more recent months. Prices for some cars, however, sat out the nearly universal appreciation only to gain steam after the peak of the pandemic boom. Some appear to be cases of the substitution effect, where appreciation for one car pulls up the values of a lesser model a few months later. Others are cases of a car being rare enough and sales seldom enough that they just didn’t pop up during the boom period. Either way, here are the late-to-the-party cars that experienced the most significant growth in value.

1952–56 Hudson Wasp

Generally, prices of postwar domestic cars have been sleepy relative to the rest of the market, and Hagerty’s index of 1950s American cars recorded the largest drop of any group we regularly report on this past quarter. The future for this segment of cars is uncertain, as younger enthusiasts haven’t warmed up to them and the potential exists for long-defunct brands like Packard, Studebaker, and Hudson to slowly fade from memory.

This year, however, Hudson’s 1952–56 Wasp experienced a price surge across most conditions and body styles, which include Convertible Brougham, Hollywood Hardtop, Sedan, and Club Coupe.

Does this mean that Hudsons and mid-’50s oddballs are the next thing? Hardly. A few sizable sales were just a bit late to the party, and it’s important to remember that although Wasps are up 25 percent from the beginning of 2022 to today, in pure dollar terms the increases weren’t huge and these are still inexpensive cars. The median #2 value for hardtop Wasps is under $20K.

1971–72 Ferrari 365 GTC/4

In Ferrari math, 2 + 2 = less money, and a four-seater model has long been the most affordable way to get a Prancing Horse on your keyring. Typically, the 2+2 cars are heftier, less overtly sporting, less attractive, and have less raucous engines than their closest two-seat counterparts.

Such is the case with the 365 GTC/4, which shares a similar chassis, engine, and body to the 365 GTB/4, a two-seater known to most enthusiasts simply as the Daytona. Typically, Daytonas have been worth well over twice as much money as GTCs, and today their condition #2 (“Excellent”) values sit at $665,000 and $295,000, respectively. Like most Enzo-era cars, both of these front-engined Ferraris saw a surge in price during the mid-2010s, followed by a drop during the slow market at the end of the decade, and finally a significant recovery upward during the pandemic frenzy. The GTC/4, however, just lagged behind its more desirable and higher-profile cousin by a few months and had less dramatic swings.

1969 American Motors SC/Rambler

There are a few reasons why the SC/Rambler is so cool, but the main one is that it’s the concept of a muscle car distilled to its purest form. It had the biggest AMC V-8 available smushed into the smallest and lightest body. Its sparse list of equipment kept both weight and price down, to the point that it was the only car you could buy for under three grand that came with over 300 hp and a 14-second quarter-mile time. The looks are delightfully campy: a red, white, and blue look-at-me-mobile with decals that say “AIR” with a massive arrow pointing into a mailbox-sized hood scoop.

And yet despite everything the SC/Rambler has going for it, the market for them remained remarkably quiet until well into 2022. Maybe it was the relative obscurity of the long-defunct AMC brand or the low production numbers relative to the well-known muscle from the Big Three, but either way, SC/Rambler prices did almost nothing from 2014 until the first half of 2022.

1990–94 Mitsubishi Eclipse

The first-generation Eclipse and the mechanically identical Eagle Talon and Plymouth Laser (all built at Chrysler/Mitsubishi’s Diamond Star Motors factory in Illinois) are three of the more recent additions to the Hagerty Price Guide. We only track the values of classic and modern collector cars, and until the last few years, these badge-engineered hatchback coupes were neither of those things.

But with interest in Japanese performance cars of the 1980s and 1990s growing by leaps and bounds during the late 2010s and early 2020s, it makes sense that people would start looking to more affordable choices like early Eclipses. Available with all-wheel drive, a 16-valve turbocharged engine, and a five-speed manual, it was a quick car in its day. It was cheap and tunable, too, which can be a deadly combination when it comes to longevity. Clean examples are hard to come by. Although condition #2 values were mostly flat until late last year, they’re up nearly 50 percent since then to a median of $19,900.

1952–55 Bentley R-Type Continental

Aside from having the best butt in the business, the Bentley R-Type Continental was the world’s fastest four-seater in its day, offering 120 mph while not losing any of the hand-built leather-and-wood English luxury that buyers expected from a Bentley. The Autocar called it “a modern magic carpet which annihilates great distances and delivers the occupants well-nigh as fresh as when they started.” Just 207 sold, most of them in right-hand drive for the home market.

The combination of the beauty, sophistication, and comfort of a Rolls-Royce/Bentley with the performance of a high-speed gran turismo has kept R-Type Continentals near the top of the postwar Rolls Royce/Bentley market for a very long time. The best examples became seven-figure cars a decade ago, but more recently prices were rather quiet from the late 2010s until 2022. In Amelia Island that year, a 1954 model with the desirable configuration of larger 4.9-liter engine, center-shift gearbox, and left-hand drive sold for $2.975M at Gooding’s auction, blowing past its estimate and the price guide values of the time. With cars this rare, a single sale can move the market significantly.

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AMC doesn’t get enough credit. The brand had a few models with questionable yet strangely appealing styling—Gremlin, Matador coupe, we’re looking at you—but many of their cars were absolutely stunning. On the powertrain front, their inline-six engines are renowned for their ruggedness, and the brand’s V-8 engines are nothing short of underrated. Always the odd manufacturer out given the Big Three’s presence, AMC managed to punch above its weight on several occasions. Few examples highlight that better than the Javelin Trans Am, a fine example of which is up for grabs at Mecum’s 2023 Dallas sale.

Not only did the 1970 model mark a one-year-only run of the 1970 Javelin twin-venturi grille, but just 100 copies of the 1970 Javelin Trans Am were built, and each of them was painted in red, white, and blue to honor the 1968 Trans Am entry of Peter Revson. This one was also equipped with a close-ratio four-speed manual transmission, a limited-slip rear axle with 3.91:1 gears, power steering, power brakes with front discs, and AMC’s Handling Package that included heavier-duty springs, sway bars, and shocks.

1970 was a big year for AMC. It was then that Penske Racing moved its Trans Am racing effort, along with ace driver Mark Donohue, from Chevrolet over to the scrappy, underdog AMC team. That same year, the SCCA, Trans Am’s sanctioning body, allowed manufacturers to use destroked versions of production engines to meet the maximum engine displacement of 5.0-liters, rather than selling 5.0-liter engines in homologation cars. Ford continued to offer a 302 in its production Mustangs, but other manufacturers in the series gave their road-race-flavored pony cars more cubes. For Chevrolet, that meant the end of the 302, with the 350-cubic-inch LT-1 taking over the reins in the 1970 Z/28. For Plymouth and Dodge, it meant that its 340 would be the basis of its Trans Am variants with the AAR ‘Cuda and Challenger T/A getting triple-carb versions of the engine. Both Pontiac and AMC, meanwhile, decided to let their V-8 engine families, with their wider bore spacing, go even bigger. Pontiac went with a nice, round 400 cubic inches, and AMC went with the biggest bore of any of them, equipping the racy red, white, and blue Javelin Trans Ams with a 390 V-8.

The big, 4.165-inch bores of the 390 were topped by newly developed cylinder heads that featured dogleg exhaust ports developed with help from cylinder head guru Larry Ofria. Rated at 325hp, they were capable of much more with the same kind of hot-rodding that worked on every other muscle car engine. As a result, the AMC 390s developed a solid reputation for power on the street and on the dragstrip. That reputation had big help though, from the tri-colored racers that were going wheel-to-wheel with the Big Three on road courses.

The AMC team proved to be tough competition for Ford and juggernaut Trans Am driver Parnelli Jones, who took the checkered flag in six of the 11 contests held across America and Canada during the 1970 Trans Am season. Mark Donohue won three of the five remaining races, giving AMC a second-place finish behind Ford in the manufacturer’s championship and proving that the Kenosha, Wisconsin, automaker could build a formidable race car and scrap with the big boys. The following year, behind a dominating performance from Donohue, AMC took the Trans Am championship. Donohue’s car, by the way, was painted in a similar fashion to the car Revson had raced in 1968, but with the colors in the scheme reversed.

The efficient lines of the 1970 AMC Javelin, understated compared to the brawny, flared curves of the final Javelins that debuted in 1971, are still enough to make a statement amongst the Mopars, Fords, and Chevys that are much more common at a typical car show. Add the patriotic Matador Red, Frost White, and Commodore Blue paint scheme, and these already rare sights become that much more of a standout. For such a low-production car to be this attractive and relatively affordable is even more rare. Whoever takes this car home will have a worthy cornerstone for their pony car collection.

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I’ve just watched Ridley Scott’s two-and-a-half-hour biographical crime drama House of Gucci for the third time, because I thought for sure I must be missing something. Those Gucci folks sure did love their cars; Fiats, Porsches, Lamborghinis, Maseratis, Bentleys, and Mercedes all play a starring role in the 2021 film. Do you know which car doesn’t have a starring role, or even a bit part, or even a mention by name? The AMC Hornet X Gucci Sportabout. It is nowhere. I can only guess that Scott didn’t want it stealing the limelight from his all-star cast. Or, possibly, Lady Gaga had a strict “NO GUCCI SPORTABOUT” clause in her contract.

Whatever the case, the film world is the poorer for it, because Gucci X Sportabouts are hot right now. Well, one of them is, at least: This 1973 Hornet just sold on Bring A Trailer for $23,100, a record for the model by a factor of two. Bidding opened at $500, then danced around three-figure territory until one person laid down the gauntlet and took it from $2000 to $15,000, serious money for what one might describe as a caricature on wheels.

The Hornet arrived in 1970 as a two-door coupe or four-door sedan, with either six-cylinder or V-8 power. The $2500 Sportabout wagon, with its single rear hatch door, appeared a year later as a practical do-anything-mobile aimed at the lady of the house. Meanwhile, over in Italy, Aldo Gucci was looking to expand the designer brand bearing his name. Obviously AMC was a natural fit, so in 1972, to absolutely crystallize its focus on women buyers, American Motors entered into the unlikeliest of unlikely partnerships. AMC zhuzhed up the 1972 Hornet with the new “Gucci X Sportabout.”

The $141.75 designer package added green carpeting and upholstery in trademark Gucci colors, with seats in green and ivory vinyl, accompanied by green and red stripes. The doors feature green vinyl with ivory inlays, and the headliner is awash in the fashion house’s double-G logo. A total of 4835 Gucci X Sportabouts were sold in 1972–73. This was just the start for AMC, though. The Kenosha carmaker then dove head first into designer-series models, and shortly after introduced a Javelin by Pierre Cardin, a Matador by Oleg Cassini, and the best of the lot, a series of Levi’s cars that included the Gremlin, the Hornet, and the Jeep, all trimmed with a blue denim-like material.

A few years later, Lincoln famously launched its own designer-series cars, with versions of the Continental Mk IV done by Givenchy, Pucci, Cartier, and Bill Blass. But not by Gucci, curiously, who, in the eyes of Lincoln execs, had perhaps devalued itself with America’s lowliest carmaker. Gucci would redeem itself in the eyes of Cadillac with 1978’s “Seville by Gucci.”

But back to this incredible green machine, which the seller acquired in 2022. The original 304-cubic-inch V-8 is said to have been replaced by the previous owner with a 360 V-8, and though true mileage is unknown, the odo shows 13,000 miles. The car is pretty clean, with great chome, clear glass, and nice paint. The door gaps and shutlines are pure ’70s domestic, of course, and overall this Hornet presents in solid #3/#3+ (Good) condition, with some small tears in the headliner, surface rust noted on the undercarriage, and unfortunate holes in the trim between the rear bumper and the car. Several BAT commenters note the rarity of that particular piece and offer up helpful suggestions for repair. Thankfully, the Gucciest interior bits of this Sportabout are relatively unscathed, and the new owner should be proud to show it off from Woodward Avenue to Rodeo Drive.

Five years ago, Mecum sold a regular—that is to say, non-Gucci—six-cylinder woodie Sportabout in period browns and beiges for $11,500, all the money in the world. That sale result aside, in this shape, any other Hornet Sportabout should bring about $5500. A #1 concours example might top $8000. So the seller here should be over the moon. Luxo-heritage has a price, apparently.

Besides, when have you ever seen another one so clean? Or just another one… at all? Certainly not in House of Gucci. Maybe it made the director’s cut.

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Gerald C. Meyers, former president and CEO of American Motors Corporation, died on June 19 at his home in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He was 94 years old.

In the winter of 2017, I remember driving to a 1980s industrial park outside Detroit to interview Meyers for The Last Independent Automaker, our documentary on the automaker. My co-producer had convinced the notoriously cagy Meyers to do it, and I remember feeling nervous as we hauled our equipment into the small office.

At 88 years old, Meyers was still imposing. He was tall, square jawed, and deadly serious, with a deep, baritone voice. His memories of dates and production numbers were fuzzy, but he lit up when discussing the people he’d worked with during his 20 years at American Motors—George Romney, Roy Abernethy, Roy Chapin, Dick Teague, Roy Lunn. Meyers seemed always to be on the front lines of whatever the company was doing.

He had a colorful résumé, including stints at Ford Motor Company, the U.S. Air Force, Chrysler Corporation, and AMC–where he oversaw numerous products and projects from 1962 to 1982.

Tired of bureaucracy at Chrysler, he came to American Motors with hopes of faster career advancement. Starting as director of purchasing, Meyers did the granular but important work of calculating which parts were cheaper to build in-house instead of buying from suppliers. From there, he advanced to director of manufacturing, where he ended up sitting next to head designer Dick Teague on the flight where the designer made the infamous barf bag sketch that would become the AMC Gremlin.

In 1969, chairman and CEO Roy Chapin Jr. assigned Meyers to investigate Kaiser Jeep’s Toledo facilities to see if American Motors should buy it. While it turned out to be one of the greatest decisions in automotive history, Meyers told us that he was staunchly against the purchase, at first.

“I didn’t know anything about Jeep. I didn’t think much of it. The volume wasn’t so wonderful and the vehicles looked kind of old to me,” he said during our 2017 interview. “But I went down, and I spent a week in the Jeep Toledo plant, talking to everybody I could get to listen.

The first thing that struck me when I walked in was how many people there were. The assembly lines were just crowded with people. A three-man job had ten men on it. A two-man job had four men on it. It was very inefficient, and the flow of material through the plant was archaic. There were parts all over the place, and the pace of the people who were building the cars was very slow.

And I said, ‘Roy, here’s what I think. I think it’s a disaster. You don’t want anything to do with it. It’s inefficient. It’s archaic. It’s absurd. And my recommendation is to forget it.’

Then they had a board meeting. Roy came out and said, ‘Gerry, come into my office. Now, sit down. We’re going to buy Jeep.’

I said, ‘You gotta be crazy! I’ve been down there, I did what you told me, I looked around. It’s a disaster! The costs are too high, it’s totally inefficient. The product is neglected. And I don’t know anything about the distribution organization, but the dealers are probably no good, either!’

He said, ‘Well, we just had a board meeting and we decided to buy it, and I’ve got something else to tell you. We’re going to put you in charge of it, and you’re going to make it work.’”

Meyers dutifully accepted the challenge, and his turnaround of Jeep helped lower costs and streamline production, as well as replace outdated powertrains with AMC’s in-house units. At the same time, his work on passenger-car manufacturing helped improve quality to the point where journalists were applauding AMC for building better cars than the Big Three. Meyers was promoted to VP of product engineering in 1972, putting him within reach of the CEO suite.

His record wasn’t all wins, however, as he was part of the board that signed off on the AMC Pacer’s development in 1971. It was supposed to be a modern, Wankel-powered urban commuter of the future, but the radical gamble didn’t pay off when GM canceled the rotary engine AMC had planned to buy. As a result, the Pacer ended up as an overweight, underpowered, economy car that wasn’t very economical, and its failure helped doom American Motors financially. A bright spot during this time came when Meyers helped engineer Roy Lunn get money to clandestinely develop the 4WD system that led to the revolutionary AMC Eagle.

As Meyers’ ambitions grew, so did an internal feud with marketing VP, Bill McNealy. Both wanted the company’s top job, and the battle turned ugly. Wrote Meyers years later, “McNealy and I carefully refrained from open hostilities, but alone with our people each of us moved with a vengeance to look good at our adversary’s expense. We learned first hand how destructive it is to an organization to select multiple heirs apparent, [with] the winner to be decided later.”

In 1977, at age 49, Meyers became CEO and president of AMC, making him one of the youngest leaders of any automaker. He beat McNealy for the job after selling AMC’s board of directors on his vision of the future. Knowing the company lacked the capital to design the all-new generation of fuel-efficient front-wheel-drive passenger cars that it would need to stay competitive, he recommended increasing profitable Jeep production and partnering with a foreign automaker to build new cars in the U.S.

“American Motors had been known for high fuel economy,” Meyers told me. “But we were not the fuel economy winners at that time. And we thought that one quick way to get onto the new wave, because of the price of fuel, would be to get smaller vehicles, and get them quickly. And that’s the reason I went over to France and made an offer to Renault.”

But even with the best of intentions, the Franco-American partnership struggled. After proclaiming that no stock would change hands, the 1979 oil crisis hit and the economy tanked, almost killing AMC. Renault was forced to buy 46 percent of American Motors to keep it afloat, which led to increasing French influence. Meyers developed an acrimonious relationship with Renault executive Jose Dedeurwaerder, who would eventually replace him.

“When Renault not only bought our company but decided to run our company, that was too much for me,” Meyers said in 2017. He left the American Motors Corporation suddenly in 1982, without publicly discussing the internal disputes. Years later, he candidly admitted, “By that time, my ego had gotten overcharged, and I felt if I can’t run this company, I’d better ought to leave it. And I did.”

After American Motors, Meyers found his second passion as a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, his alma mater. He also ran a consulting business and published When it Hits the Fan: Managing the Nine Crises of Business, a book filled with corporate crisis stories, including many from AMC.

Even when I met him six years ago, Meyers was still working hard and keeping busy, although his pace was slowing. We had to cut our interview short, leaving me with the perpetual filmmaker’s remorse of wanting more. There were so many questions I still had to ask, so many more stories I still wanted to hear.

It’s easy to reduce a CEO’s tenure to a chart of yearly profits and losses, sales increases and decreases. But it’s a lot harder to pass judgment on someone’s choices when you’re actually sitting across from them, as opposed to reading about them in a car magazine. People are human. They have bad luck and do the best they can with what they’ve got to work with.

Meyers’ record is filled with ups (the Jeep turnaround, Hornet, Eagle, XJ Cherokee) and downs (Pacer, Alliance, the Renault partnership). He worked hard and made some incredibly difficult choices—ones that likely kept AMC in business far longer than it would have lasted under somebody else.

I returned to that office park several months later in 2017 to borrow some photographs from his secretary. As I examined the dusty pictures, I saw a side of Gerry Meyers that I had missed during my interview.

There was pride in his chiseled face—joy, even. I saw his passion for the work. The automotive industry meant something to him. He was serious, but sentimental, too.

On the wall hung a letter from President Ronald Reagan, thanking Meyers for attending a meeting of auto executives at the White House. The president specifically enjoyed that Meyers had complimented the old Jeep CJ-6 he kept at his California ranch.  Although Meyers hadn’t pointed it out during my first visit, I doubt anyone from GM, Ford, or Chrysler received such a letter.

Car enthusiasts may never recognize Gerald C. Meyers in the same breath as Lee Iacocca, John Z. DeLorean, or even George Romney, but his impact remains important. Throughout his career, Meyers brought action and energy to American Motors. Although I am sad that he’s passed away, I’m thankful we had the chance to capture his story.

Joe Ligo is the producer and director of The Last Independent Automaker. You can learn more and support the documentary here.

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On a rainy day in 2015, I had the chance to test drive an AMC Eagle up the side of a small mountain in Pennsylvania. I’m not a skilled off-roader, but the car conquered the washed-out gravel roads and muddy two-tracks with ease. Not once did this 30 year-old station wagon get stuck or even spin its wheels.

When new, the Eagle was an interesting mix of an outdated body and an old engine coupled to a groundbreaking four-wheel-drive system. AMC fans love bragging that the Eagle was the first four-wheel-drive car and the first crossover SUV. In response, I can’t help thinking of an often misquoted but apt meme:

The Subaru Leone offered four-wheel-drive in 1972, the Jensen FF had it in 1966, and the GAZ M-72 had it way back in 1955. At best, the 1980 Eagle could be called the first American four-wheel-drive car. But if we accept that as true, how could the AMC also be the first crossover SUV? A car and a crossover are not the same.

Now, I don’t mean to start a big debate, but I consider a crossover to be a vehicle built on a car platform but with styling that mimics traditional truck-based SUVs. A crossover is not just a lifted car with all-wheel drive. By that metric, the Audi Allroad and Volvo Cross Country aren’t crossovers, because they share body panels with their wagon siblings, but the Audi Q5 and Volvo XC60 are crossovers.

The Eagle’s body panels were virtually identical to those of the AMC Concord, and it came in sedan, wagon, and hatchback forms. The AMC may be lifted, with four-wheel drive and a bunch of plastic cladding, but it still shares its body and interior with a line of passenger cars. I have long thought of the Eagle as a four-wheel-drive car, not a crossover.

That is, until I discovered the Eagle’s original 1977 product proposal.

After American Motors acquired Jeep from the Kaiser Corporation in 1970, it hired Roy Lunn to run Jeep engineering. A British expat who had worked on the Ferrari-beating Ford GT40, Lunn was tasked with updating Jeep’s outdated products, but he also looked into the feasibility of a four-wheel-drive passenger car. In 1972, he cobbled together an AMC Hornet with a Jeep Quadra-Trac drive system. The combination worked, but the Jeep system produced unacceptable levels of noise and vibration, exacerbated by the car’s unibody construction. With plenty of demand for existing AMCs and Jeeps, American Motors shelved the project.

In 1976, Lunn learned about a viscous-coupling transfer drive developed by FF Developments and GKN and said to offer a quieter and smoother form of four-wheel drive. The Quadra-Trac system transferred power through a limited-slip center differential with a metal-on-metal connection. The FF-GKN viscous arrangement used a coupling that featured a series of discs spinning in a silicone-based fluid. Lunn hoped the technology would solve the four-wheel-drive Hornet’s issues with noise, harshness, and vibration.

Lunn quietly asked management for a million dollars to restart the project and build another prototype. The inquiry was a direct violation of company policy—American Motors believed new vehicle ideas were the job of product planners, not engineers. Lunn managed to get the money without getting fired, however, and immediately got to work with FF, GKN, and New Process Gear, the viscous technology’s American rights-holder. By June of 1977, FF had built a prototype four-wheel-drive Hornet in England and shipped it to the States. In July, Lunn presented his reworked idea to AMC’s board of directors.

Although he was an engineer, Lunn had noticed an increasing disconnect between the way Jeeps were marketed and the customers who actually bought them. Writing years later in a technical paper for the Society of Automotive Engineers, he said:

“It was evident that many consumers coming from the 2WD segments were buying the vehicles (Jeeps) for the security they offered for on-highway driving, although the only vehicles available were accented to off-road usage. This out-of-context purchase, particularly in high volumes, raises the question of whether there was a need for a new type of vehicle with a different balance of compromise accented to highway usage.”

In other words, “The commercials show people driving up mountains, but in real life, they only go to the grocery.”

In today’s world, as we drive around surrounded by mall-crawling SUVs, that conclusion seems obvious. But in the mid-1970s, automakers were slow to realize the trend. Then as now, most Jeep buyers weren’t hardcore off-roaders; they wanted extra traction “just in case” of rain, snow, or slush. Four-wheel-drive cars were rare. A Jeep Wagoneer or Cherokee might be overkill, but it was still more practical for a family than a pickup truck.

By 1977, AMC’s passenger-car sales and fortunes were sinking fast. Lunn’s product proposal, titled “8001 Plus Four,” was remarkably clear-eyed:

“American Motors has functioned most-profitably in situations where its products were unique in the marketplace. The current passenger-car decline is unquestionably partially due to a demand for larger vehicles; but our disproportionately low share of the small-car market is highly influenced by increasingly superior imports and domestic competition.

The ongoing product situation, particularly relating to emissions and fuel economy legislation, is also necessitating complete redesign of basic vehicles to meet a new market created by standards rather than customer demand or desire. AMC is not financially or creatively capable of being able to meet this changing situation in the main segments of the market. We have, therefore, to accept progressive annihilation or get back to where we started by finding unique slots in the marketplace which are legal on a continuing basis and are within our financial and creative capabilities. This product proposal relates to creating such a unique product as a natural combination of Jeep and Passenger Car factors.”

None of the above was earth-shattering; AMC was getting squeezed by imports in the compact market and by the Big Three in the full-size market. The company desperately needed a fresh product in a niche with less competition. As Lunn said, a four-wheel-drive car was “a natural combination,” and basing that vehicle off an existing design or designs would save AMC millions.

Here’s where it gets interesting: Lunn argued that AMC lacked the resources to meet upcoming government standards. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) rules were set to go into effect in 1978 and grow more strict every year after. Emissions and safety standards were increasing, too. But Lund had devised a clever way around that:

“A most important aspect of the proposal is the legal categorizing to meet safety, fuel economy, and emission standards. The specification content and package layout are designed such that the vehicle would be categorized as follows:

• Safety—multi-purpose
• Fuel Economy—non-passenger cars (starts in 1979 at 17.2 mpg)
• Emissions—Light truck

These categories have obvious and distinct advantages over passenger-car requirements. This will enable us to pursue a course of action which will require less change to our basic powertrains and maybe a lower level of [emissions] control equipment.”

Roy Lunn said it first: The Eagle is not a car! And it was the first vehicle to exploit the “SUV loophole.”

Hagerty video host Jason Cammisa has a detailed and entertaining description of that term, but the loophole is essentially an unintended consequence of various American automobile regulations passed in the 1960s and 1970s. The majority of Americans at the time drove “passenger cars” (sedans, station wagons, coupes, hatchbacks, etc.), so the government made fuel economy, emissions, and safety regulations for these vehicles considerably stricter than those for “light trucks” (pickups, SUVs, off-road vehicles).

Those regulations were partly the result of corporate lobbying and partly just well-intentioned policymaking. Their goal was to cut trucks a bit of slack in fuel use, because those vehicles made up a smaller part of the market and needed more powerful engines for towing and hauling. Regardless, as with all well-intentioned rules, people found a way to skirt them.

By meeting the class specifications of a light truck, a vehicle would have more lenient engineering requirements and lower development costs. As a result, trucks and SUVs would become more profitable to build, so automakers spent more money designing and marketing them.

Those regulations unintentionally created a self-reinforcing feedback loop that helped truck and SUV sales skyrocket. The trend continues today and has contributed to all kinds of issues, from increased pedestrian deaths to increased air pollution. This isn’t the place for a political discussion, but no matter how you slice it, it’s funny that the United States government puts a Subaru Crosstrek in the same category as a Ram 1500, when it’s really just a lifted Subaru Impreza hatchback.

Those rules made sense back when SUVs were actually based on truck chassis—and when they were primarily used for towing, hauling, and off-roading. But now, and even more so than in Roy Lunn’s time, the majority of SUV drivers never even scratch the surface of their vehicle’s ability. Instead, automakers continually push the envelope for which car-like vehicles can technically be classified as SUVs. By this metric, perhaps the AMC Eagle was the first crossover after all.

AMC’s board approved Roy Lunn’s proposal, and the Eagle, as planned, was classified by the government as a light truck. Although the prototype was based on a Hornet, the Hornet was revamped into a new model, the Concord, for 1978. As a result, when the Eagle debuted in 1980, it used Concord bodies, with minor changes like fender flares and a different grille. The advanced viscous-coupling drive system was an industry first, and it later made its way into several Jeep products, including the XJ-chassis Cherokee.

Who could blame AMC or Lunn for taking advantage of the loophole? No one could have predicted the crazy consequences these regulations would have on the automotive landscape. Ironically, I think Lunn saw the Eagle as a less wasteful alternative to other trucks and SUVs.

Compared to those, the AMC was smaller, more fuel-efficient, and easier to drive. It was supposed to convince people to trade in their gas-guzzling Wagoneers, not their family sedans.

In light of all this, I still hesitate to call the Eagle a crossover SUV, despite what the government says. The term crossover didn’t even exist at the time, and most AMC marketing cagily refers to the Eagle as a “vehicle,” “automobile,” or “sport machine,” although sometimes the word “car” slips through.

Regardless of semantics, Roy Lunn and American Motors should be commended for the creativity it took to develop and launch such a revolutionary vehicle on such a small budget. More importantly, Lunn should be remembered for engineering an incredible 4WD system that still holds up after 30 years, and there’s no debate about that.

Joe Ligo is the director/producer of the “The Last Independent Automaker,” a documentary TV series about the history of American Motors Corporation.

***

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Detroit public relations executive Jim Wangers, best known for his role as the godfather of the 1964 Pontiac GTO, passed away in his sleep on April 27, according to Hemmings.

Although Wangers was known as the marketing genius behind the GTO, he lent his expertise to a variety of Chevrolet and Pontiac models during his stint as an ad man, beginning in earnest in 1954 with the supercharged Kaiser flathead six-cylinder engine, which he proved was as potent as a V-8. From there he moved to General Motors, where he worked his magic with the 1955–57 Chevrolet milestone cars.

He also had a hand in the 1969 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am and GTO Judge. “We introduced the Trans Am and The Judge to the media simultaneously at Riverside. After the PR event, the cars went to local dealerships. The Judges disappeared, but we couldn’t give the Trans Ams away. The Trans Am didn’t really come into its own until the second-generation,” Wangers told Hemmings’ Jeff Koch in a 2018 profile. The second-generation Trans Am hit the market in 1970, and the rest was automotive history.

Wangers was responsible for one of the greatest automotive coups in history, when he helped talk Car and Driver magazine into doing a “comparison test” between the Pontiac GTO and the Ferrari GTO. The Pontiac did remarkably well, in no small part because Wangers stuck a 421-cubic-inch ringer engine in the Pontiac, which was considerably more powerful than stock. Those things happened back then, and it launched the GTO into the marketplace, accompanied by a helpful March ’64 Car and Driver cover line—“Tempest GTO: 0-to-100 mph in 11.8 sec.”

“The car really came alive when the March 1964 issue of Car and Driver appeared, with the controversial cover story featuring a performance comparison between the world’s two most famous GTOs, the new upstart from Pontiac against the legendary, world-class Ferrari,” Wangers wrote in his memoir Glory Days.

Wangers worked on a variety of other campaigns, including on the Monkees’ Monkeemobile, the AMC Rebel, and the Delorean, before he left the business and settled down as owner of a Chevrolet dealership. He auctioned off much of his collection with Mecum in 2019.

Jim Wangers was 96 years old.

***

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It’s two words composed of six letters and if you are of a certain age the term is synonymous with great racing: We are talking Trans-Am. Not the Pontiac, but the race series that gave the Poncho its name. Starting in 1966, Trans-Am events became a proving ground for muscle and pony cars as manufacturers attempted to ratify the “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” mantra. While the on-track action did indeed help sales figures, there is a whole lot more to the story. To discover the rest of the tale, Jay Leno gathered a trio of Trans-Am race cars and invited race announcer Mike Joy and racer Ken Epsman onto the show to discuss the history of the series and its cultural impact on the American automotive scene.

The Trans-Am series spooled up in 1966 thanks to John Bishop and the SCCA. The class was designed as a professional series for sedans and was governed by a rulebook that required the competing cars to have more similarities with showroom cars than with the high-powered racers people might have been used to during an era of high-downforce, wildly designed Can-Am cars and all sorts of experimentation in other racing disciplines. As current NASCAR commentator Mike Joy points out when chatting with Jay, teams could remove the carpet and headliner, but otherwise, the interior had to stay. That meant race cars with back seats and roll-up windows—things that are all but unimaginable in today’s competition machines.

Changes were more common under the hood, but not how you might expect. The displacement cap was set at 305 cubic inches (5 liters) for V-8 cars and 122 cubic inches (2 liters) for four-cylinder cars. Competitors had to get creative to squeeze extra juice out of their engines. The rulebook stated that as long as the displacement didn’t change, any part that had a manufacturer part number on it was fair game, so some of the top teams quickly began swapping heads, adjusting oiling systems, and more.

The series eventually split the two displacement classes into separate races held on the same weekend at the same track. The relatively stock nature of Trans-Am allowed amateur drivers to upgrade to a professional license and run with the factory-backed teams if they had a car that met the loose technical requirements. Thanks to exciting racing and perfect timing with manufacturer support, the Trans American Challenge Series took off and quickly became a household name.

What really helped with the name recognition was Pontiac’s introduction of the model bearing the name in 1969. Using the Trans-Am name came with a $5 per-car fee that Pontiac would pay to the SCCA. The car sold well, and that naming fee became the largest single source of income that the SCCA had. In fact, that revenue stream lasted far longer than the series did. In 1972, the largest stock-bodied race series in the U.S. changed the rulebook, and the cars that rumbled through every car person’s daydreams for six years were suddenly obsolete.

Although the series burned hot and fast, its long-tail impact eventually precipitated a race at Lime Rock Park in 1990 that featured 20 historic Trans-Am cars. The success of that race prompted similar events on the West Coast, helping return these cars to their nostalgia-soaked glory. Now, the thundering Camaros, Javelins, Mustangs, and Firebirds are staples of big motorsports reunion events like the Monterey Historics, where period-correct cars still run wheel-to-wheel, just like the old days. The cars might be a little older, but the racing is just as strong as ever. And we love that.

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Gremlin. For those of a certain age, the name will bring back lots of memories. The plucky little car that was built by a plucky little car company, the last of the independents, AMC. It was introduced on April 1, 1970. You can’t help but admire a company with a sense of humor.

Naturally, thrift was played up heavily in advertising. The inaugural ’70 model had an overall length of 161 inches, seated four, and had a base price of $1959 (about $15,031 today). There was even a cheapskate-special two-seater model for only $1879 ($14,418), touted as the lowest-priced car in America.

For comparison’s sake, a ’71 Pinto based at $1919 ($14,724), and the ’71 Vega was $2090 ($16,036). But upon its introduction, the Gremlin’s primary competitors were the Ford Maverick (no, not the pickup for you young guns, the compact car that replaced the Falcon), Volkswagen Beetle, Toyota Corolla, and Datsun 510.

For you numbers folks, 1971 Gremlin production was 76,908, Vega was 269,900, Maverick was 271,897, and Pinto was a whopping 352,402. Granted, Ford and GM had vastly superior cash reserves; in addition, a four-door was added to the Maverick line; and, as you may recall, the Vega came in sedan, hatchback, wagon, and even a panel truck. Ditto the Pinto with a wagon version.

But as the Gremlin was heavily based on the Hornet compact, I’ll bet the tooling was miniscule compared to the clean-sheet Ford and Chevy subcompacts. Plus, that pair had four-cylinder engines, while the Gremlin came standard with a 199-cubic-inch, inline six-cylinder engine, but that was 1970 only. Starting in ’71, the 232-cu-in version became standard. The 258 six was optional.

Not much changed on the Gremlin through the years, though the addition of the 304 V-8 in 1972 made for a pretty compelling mini-muscle car. The ’73s got away with a somewhat enlarged front bumper, but only for a year. The ’74s got the awkward, giant Federal bumpers front and rear, which did not improve things aesthetically.

The 1974–76 Gremlins had only minor changes to the grilles, colors, and the available stripes on the sporty X model. By 1976, the Gremlin was in its seventh model year, and other than the bumpers, not much had changed. But a refresh was in the works.

My friend Drew Beck, of the greater Madison, Wisconsin, area, had three Gremlins back then, a 1974 X, plus a ’77 and ’78, both of which had the Custom Trim package, which included extra trim and standard features. I asked him if he had any Gremlin memories. He said “about a zillion,” so I asked him to pick one.

“Saturday night racing … a 1974 Gremlin X with the 258 six will easily outrun a Porsche 914 in a straight line, but once things get curvy, the Porsche pulls away quickly. Very front-heavy cars, though that means burnouts are as easy as finding mosquitos in Wisconsin.” And yes, he’d love to find another one.

The 1977 Gremlins presented a fresh face to the world. The long, front overhang was no more, replaced with a brand new front clip that was much tidier, with an attractive eggcrate grille. The new front end would be shared with the facelifted Hornet in 1978, redubbed Concord and given a more aspirational-luxury look. But the Gremlin got it first.

One item touted for all 1977 AMCs was the “Buyer Protection Plan II,” which added a full 24-month, 24K-mile engine and drive train warranty. It also covered the entire car, except tires, for 12 months or 12K miles from the date of delivery. Now that doesn’t seem like much today, but at the time it was rather comprehensive. After doing very well, sales-wise, in the early 1970s, by ’76–77 AMC wasn’t doing so hot and was trying everything in its power to bump sales.

But we were talking about the Gremlin, weren’t we? In addition to the new nose, Gremlins got a facelifted back end as well, including new, repositioned taillights and a “shadow box” recess for the rear license plate. The rear hatchback glass was also enlarged for better visibility. Standard features included front disc brakes, AMC’s famous Weather Eye heater/defroster, color-keyed carpeting, carpeted cargo area, a parking brake warning light, two-speed wipers, and a “Luster-Guard” acrylic baked enamel paint job.

The Gremlin X remained the sporty version and added those amazing plaid bucket seats, full-length sport stripes with a matching rear deck stripe, “X” badging, sports steering wheel, Extra Quiet Insulation Package, and slotted, styled steel wheels with D70x14-inch blackwall tires. It was largely a decor package, though you could order the 258 six with a four-speed floor shift if you so desired, or floor- or column-mounted automatic transmission.

Our featured car was seen at the excellent Maple City Cruise Night in Monmouth, Illinois, earlier this year on August 5. I had only been at the show a few minutes when I came upon this immaculate example, resplendent in Alpine White with that oh-so-attention-getting blue plaid interior with bucket seats and center console. Believe it or not, the Gremlin came standard with a split-back bench seat, despite its small size! It was only the second car I photographed. But even though it was one of the first cars I saw, it remained among my top five favorite cars at the show.

And while the Gremlin nameplate only lasted one more model year, gaining the all-new Concord instrument panel in the process, the car itself became a Spirit in 1979, with the same basic body—albeit losing that oh-so-identifiable triangular rear quarter window for one with less of a blind spot.

And a much more boring name: the “Spirit Sedan.” But you could get a flossy Limited model with leather! Uptown Gremlin! Love it or hate it, the Gremlin had its fans, then and today. A quirky little car that was 3/5 Hornet—and more than the sum of its parts.

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Welcome back to the Hagerty Bull Market List, our annual deep dive into the collector cars (and bikes) climbing the value ranks. This vehicle is one of 11 chosen for the 2023 installment of the List. To see the other 10, click here. 

American Motors Corp. lost a reported $12.6 million in 1966 and saw a 12 percent decline in sales. One has to imagine that the Big Three never looked bigger to Kenosha, Wisconsin’s favorite automotive manufacturer. Holding less than 4 percent market share, AMC was a distant fourth, an inconsequential player to the suits in Detroit and by all accounts well on its way to extinction.

And then, like a Hollywood movie, in walked AMC’s hero, one Robert Beverley Evans, known for buying into sick companies and nursing them back to health. Evans knew it also wouldn’t hurt to get some AMCs racing and have a bit of “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” mojo working in Kenosha. The result of this influence was to take the upcoming 1968 Javelin and make a unique two-seat personal sports car from it. If nothing else, it would draw young buyers into AMC showrooms again. The AMX (American Motors eXperimental) project got the green light in September 1966, with styling derived from the 1966 Vignale-designed AMX I show car. The production car was designed by Dick Teague, and it was a stunner.

To lose the back seat, 12 inches were sliced from the Javelin, giving it a 97-inch wheelbase. The AMX interior was the same as the Javelin SST’s. Engine choices, unlike in the Javelin, were solely V-8s, with 290-, 343-, and 390-cubic-inch displacements, all paired with either a four-speed stick or an automatic. The AMX had the desired effect; here was a two-seat “sports car,” as was the Corvette, but some $2000 cheaper. It was never designed to be a direct competitor, but the public certainly drew parallels, and AMC wasn’t about to complain.

Every AMX received a serialized dash plaque, a brilliant nod to the “exclusivity” of the AMX. AMC advertised this by saying, “We’re even putting the production number on the dash for collectors …” These plaques inexplicably bore no correlation with the VIN of the car. In any event, the new AMX was the shot in the arm that AMC needed.

Of course, nothing is perfect. The trunnion-style front suspension of the 1968 and ’69 AMX was flawed, the ball joint–style setup that arrived with the facelifted ’70 an improvement. The short wheelbase, combined with diabolically quick power steering and a big V-8, proved challenging for many. And, of course, the AMX wasn’t immune to the traditional 1960s scourges of build quality and propensity to rust. Over the 3 years of two-seat AMX production, just 19,134 were built. The best sales year was ’69, the AMX’s first full year, with 8293 rolling out of showrooms.

The 1969 on these pages belongs to Dayna Cussler, and it’s equipped with the 343 and Shift Command Borg-Warner M-11B three-speed automatic. It also has factory power steering and brakes, plus air conditioning. On the inside, a pair of 1970 AMX high-back bucket seats have replaced the low-back originals, while on the outside, an aftermarket front chin spoiler and a rear decklid spoiler lifted from a Mark Donohue Javelin have been added, as well. It’s all very Wisconsin muscle car groovy, baby.

Never destined to have the cult following of the Ford Mustang or the Chevrolet Camaro, the stylish AMX is an underdog at an incredible value compared with any similar big-block muscle car. And as of late, the market is clearly taking another look at these two-seat renegades.

***

1969 AMC AMX

Highs: The lone two-seat American muscle car; stout powertrains; bang for the buck; never oversubscribed anywhere outside of an AMC meet.

Lows: Will always remain in the shadow of other muscle cars from the Big Three; proven rusters; spotty parts availability; hard to find a great one.

Price range: #1 – $52,800  #2 – $34,500  #3 – $22,500  #4 – $13,500

HAGERTY AUTO INTELLIGENCE SAYS:

The AMX is the other two-seat American performance car of the 1960s, and though its appreciation lags behind other muscle cars, younger enthusiasts are increasingly shopping for it. Appreciation since 2019 for the AMX was 28.8 percent, which is behind the ’67–69 Camaro (up 40.5 percent). However, interest from next-generation enthusiasts has nearly tripled since 2019, from a share of 13 percent to 38, suggesting further appreciation is likely.

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The post 2023 Bull Market Pick: 1968–70 AMC AMX appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Ambassador. What a great name for a luxury car. And in the late 1960s, it was independent AMC’s way of saying Brougham. The model name had been inherited from the Nash half of the Nash/Hudson merger that created American Motors in 1954; Nash Ambassadors had been the fancy model going all the way back to the late 1920s.

By the mid ’60s, however, it was a smooth, sleek—albeit bargain-priced—Wisconsin-built car available as a sedan, coupe, or station wagon. In today’s terms, it would have been considered a “near-luxury” car. But with the car’s vertically stacked headlamps and ample chrome trim, particularly on the flossier DPL and SST trim levels, AMC wanted you to think Cadillac-level Broughamage.

But the biggest news was that now each Ambassador model came with standard air conditioning. As the 1968 brochure extolled, “The only American car with air conditioning standard. Ambassador is the only car in America, and maybe the world, that has its own air conditioning at no extra cost. (And that goes for every Ambassador, regardless of price.)

“Because American Motors is convinced that air conditioning is the best thing going in a car. If you live or drive where summers are hot or winters are cold, you need it. But if you buy your car on a nice day, you may not think about it—until it’s too late on a baking road in bumper-to-bumper traffic.”

At least, that’s what my copy of the deluxe AMC full-line brochure said. But apparently AMC marketeers were a teensy bit too excited to fact check before the brochure was published. Whoops.

As my Chicago buddy and vintage brochure/Brougham guru Jim Smith said, “1968 ushered in the first year that AMC made factory installed air conditioning as standard equipment. The only other American car with standard air conditioning was the Cadillac limo.”

And apparently AMC either was told or figured out the very same fact, as evidenced by this ’68 ad with a Judge Smails-approved Rolls Silver Shadow.

But it was a great marketing coup for plucky little AMC. Let’s face it, most Ambassadors were likely ordered with A/C anyway, so why not make it standard and bombard magazines, newspapers, and factory literature with the fact that its top-of-the-line model had standard air? Little cost, big impression.

The 1968 Ambassadors were only slightly updated from their all-new 1967 forebears. Sadly, the convertible model available in ’67 was gone, never to return. Basic Ambassadors started at $2820 ($24,052 today) for the sedan and $2842 ($24,239) for the coupe. A total of 8788 sedans and 3360 coupes were built.

Next up were the DPL models, with the same sedan and coupe versions available, for $2920 ($24,239) and $2941 ($25,084), respectively. As one would expect, nicer upholstery and more chrome exterior trim were in evidence, and 13,265 sedans and 3696 coupes sold.

But for those Brougham fans who lusted after brocade upholstery, power everything, and chrome chrome chrome, only the top-of-the-line SST would do. Coupe, sedan, and wagon models were available.

Displaying much more luxury trim and comfort features, the SST models also had as standard equipment a V-8, something lacking on the nice (but not top dog) SST models—although they did, of course, have standard air conditioning!

Again quoting the brochure, “Could that SST stand for Sensational Straight Through? Look what’s included in the base price (besides air conditioning): a 290-cubic-inch V-8, choice of expensive upholstery, individually adjustable reclining seats, interior wood-look paneling, an electric clock that works, and a gismo that buzzes if you leave the headlights on after you turn the ignition off.

“Two 343 V-8s (two- or four-barrel), ‘shift-command’ transmissions (column or console), and four-on-the-floor are options.” SST sedans had a $3151 ($26,875) base price and weighed in at 3476 pounds; 13,387 were built. The SST two-door hardtop started at $3172 ($27,054); 7686 were sold.

This gorgeous example, finished in Calcutta Russet metallic, was spotted and shamelessly gawked at by yours truly at the 2018 Des Moines Concours d’Elegance in 2018. I’ve always loved AMCs, admire their plucky effort—despite near-overwhelming odds that favored the Big Three at the time—and I always smile whenever I see a Pacer, Matador coupe, or Gremlin at a show. At the time that I saw it, this car was owned by Emily Worthington of Des Moines and is equipped with the optional 343-cu-in V-8. The placard indicated that only essential repairs had been performed to keep it operating as originally intended.

I absolutely loved it … If you couldn’t tell already.

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If first impressions mean everything, and second and third impressions accurately confirm as much, then by now you know VanDerBrink Auctions’ place in the automotive community. No trailer queens here, just dozens upon dozens of vehicles, mostly project cars or parts cars that have been left to the mercy of the elements. And the Minnesota-based auction company is at it again—times two.

VanDerBrink will auction more than 250 cars and trucks on Saturday, October 15 when it disperses the Randy Milan Collection in Fort Collins, Colorado. Less than one week later, VanDerBrink will conclude an online-only auction of 80 cars from the Gary Kuchar “Car Crazy” Collection in Custer, South Dakota. Bidding ends on October 21.

Both collections have similar roots: Their owners once had big dreams, but they no longer have the time to make their treasures roadworthy, so they’re selling them to other mechanically inclined hopefuls.

Colorado’s Milan, like his father before him, has collected vehicles for more than five decades, never letting go of anything. Until now. Milan, who owned a towing company, has a special fondness for iconic Chevrolets, especially 1959 and ’60 Impalas, and there are nearly 100 ’59 and ’60 Chevrolets of all models. His collection also includes vehicles from Cadillac, Ford, Mercury, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick, as well as a vintage midget sprint car and a 1955 Chevrolet stock car.

Similarly, but on a smaller scale, South Dakota’s Kuchar tells Fox News that he’s been collecting and working on cars for most of his 84 years. A native of Nebraska, Kuchar headed to California after graduating high school and became a body man building custom cars. He continued looking for cars after he returned to Nebraska to take over the family farm when his father retired. “I especially like orphan cars from out-of-business companies,” he says. “Studebaker, Kaiser, things that are different.”

Kuchar moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1992 and brought along some of his cars, parking them in a nearby gorge. (That’s gorge, not garage, although Kuchar protected his more valuable automobiles in carports). He also continued to buy more and more cars. “Quite a few of them have been fixed,” Kuchar says, “but I’ve fallen behind on the others.” So it’s time to sell some.

With the help of Hagerty Senior Auction Editor Andrew Newton, we’ve selected a dozen interesting prospects that Newton says are “interesting and solid enough to restore—and you can’t say that about everything (in VanDerBrink’s lineup).”

The Milan Collection

1963 Studebaker GT Hawk

Hagerty #3 (Good) condition value: $10,800

This red Studebaker GT Hawk not only runs and drives, it’s arguably the best-looking car in the Fort Collins group. Powered by a 289-cubic-inch V-8 with automatic transmission, it has power steering and brakes. The interior features white bucket seats with red carpet, AM radio, clock, and dealer-added A/C, and the odometer reads 79,366 miles.

1958 Chevrolet (Bel Air) Impala Sport Coupe

Hagerty #4 (Fair) value: $28,300

With visible rust, particularly in the rear, and missing most of its exterior chrome and back seat, this 1958 Chevrolet Impala Sport Coupe might not get a second look from the uninitiated. Those in the know, however, will consider it viable since 1958 was the first year of the Impala, which was longer, lower, and wider than its predecessors. With its bold styling, including quad headlights and iconic rear end, the one-year-only 1958 body style paid GM dividends for years.

1958 Chevrolet (Bel Air) Impala Convertible

Hagerty #4 value: $56,300

In worst shape than the Impala above, this 1958 Impala convertible is worth a roll of the dice for the same reasons previously mentioned—and then some. The Impala convertible was the most expensive car in the ’58 Chevrolet model line and is highly sought after today. Bringing this one back will take a lot of time, effort, and money, but the satisfaction of saving it would be priceless.

Dodge Power Wagon 300 Tow Truck

Hagerty value: N/A

VanDerBrink doesn’t tell us the model year of this Dodge Power Wagon 300, and we can’t figure it out from the VIN because we can’t make out all the numbers and letters, but hey, doesn’t that just add to the fun? By comparing photos of this one to other Dodge trucks, we’re going to say it’s likely a 1971 model powered by a 318-cu-in V-8. And check out that heavy duty bumper up front. If you’re looking for a tow truck, this may be the answer, but you’ll have to do a bit of maintenance work inside and out to get it in working order. Nobody wants to call a tow truck to tow their tow truck.

1955 Chevrolet Vintage Race Car

Hagerty value: N/A

First, the bad news: this ’55 Chevy race car doesn’t run, and even if it did it doesn’t have a steering wheel. The good news is, it looks very solid (right down to the roll bars), so if you can get the 383 Stroker V-8 purring (and score a suitable steering wheel), it sure would be blast to return it to the track.

The Kuchar Collection

1934 DeSoto Air Flow 4-door Sedan

Hagerty value: N/A

Although the bare-bones auction description refers to this car as a “DeSoto Air Flow,” it’s actually a Chrysler Airflow, and it was a game changer. Ahead of its time in both engineering and design, it was also a sales flop, despite accolades from the media and Walter P. Chrysler himself, who said, “We had the horse and buggy. We had the automobile. Now we have the first real motor car in history.” This first-year 1934 model, an older restoration that is powered by a six-cylinder flathead engine, ran when it was parked five years ago. The odometer shows 29,525 miles, but VanDerBrink suggests the real number may be 129,525. Regardless, it’s an iconic automobile that should garner interest.

1971 AMC Javelin AMX

Hagerty #3 value: $24,200

Another older restoration that resided under a carport, this metallic green two-door fastback is the rarest of ’71 Javelins—an AMX with a 330-horsepower, 401-cu-in engine (with Edelbrock four-barrel carb), of which only 745 were made. It features a fiberglass hood, disc brakes, locker rear end, bucket seats, tachometer, clock, AM radio, and manual windows and locks. The muscle car also wears racing slicks in the rear, since it was used as a drag car in Salt Lake City before it was purchased and restored in South Dakota. The odometer shows 15,716 miles. We’re guessing at least two bidders will battle for this one.

Crazy 1930s Ford Rat Rod Truck

Hagerty value: N/A

Here’s something you don’t see every day. In fact, you’ve likely never seen one—Gary Kuchar designed and built it himself. Constructed mostly of Ford components, the rat rod truck has an elongated frame with three 225-cu-in six-cylinder engines and automatic transmission. The Frankenstein truck has the cab of a 1925 Ford pickup, the front end of a Dodge D-50 truck, a 9-inch Ford rear end, a gas tank from a tractor, and Ford spoked rims that were welded together to create 17-inch rims.

Here’s the thing, though: Kuchar never ran it or took it on the road, so who knows what you might be getting yourself into. One thing is for sure, if you’re the highest bidder and you succeed in getting it running, be prepared to answer a lot of questions at your next cars and coffee get-together.

1981 DeLorean DMC-12 Coupe

Hagerty #3 value: $46,600

You’ll also get plenty of attention in this car, not because no one has ever seen one before but because most people have (thanks, Back to the Future). The iconic stainless-steel creation of John Z. DeLorean, the DMC-12 has gullwing doors, turbine rims, and black/gray leather bucket seats, it is powered by a fuel-injected 161-cu-in V-6, and it shows only 21,564 miles. The car doesn’t run, but it did when it was parked—plus it has been sheltered. It might be worth taking a flyer on, even if it doesn’t fly like Doc Brown’s DeLorean did.

1961 Plymouth Fury Convertible

Hagerty #3 value: $31,100

The Fury’s design was radically overhauled for 1961, with all vertical styling cues dropped in favor of a flat look, with revised headlight eyebrows. This yellow convertible (with white top) is powered by a 318-cu-in V-8 that generated 230 hp when new and is mated to a push-button transmission. Among the car’s features are black carpet with a white vinyl split bench seat, power steering and brakes, and dual mirrors. The Fury, which was purchased in California and driven to South Dakota, ran when parked. VanDerBrink warns that it was overheating when Kuchar stopped driving it, so it may need a head or an overhaul, but once the Fury is up and running again, the new owner likely won’t miss an opportunity to add to its 45,345 miles.

1968 Jaguar XKE 2+2

Hagerty #4 value: $32,100 (minus 10 percent for automatic transmission)

Restoring this ’68 Jaguar Series 1.5 E-Type 2+2 is such a tall order that VanDerBrink suggests that it could also be deemed a parts car. Showing 92,801 miles, its 4.2-liter OHC six-cylinder engine (with dual Zenith carbs) no longer runs, and there’s plenty of additional work to do, both mechanical and cosmetic. Is it worth the challenge? Consider that Jaguar built approximately 5621 Series 1.5 E-Types from August 1967–July 1968, and only 1577 of them were 2+2 coupes. A fraction of those were built with a Borg-Warner three-speed automatic transmission, like this one. So that makes it rare … but does it make it desirable? That’s for you to decide, but Jag owners generally want to row the gears.

1957 Chrysler New Yorker

Hagerty #4 value: $19,700

This New Yorker is something of a train wreck, but there’s one good reason to consider buying it: The 392-cu-in HEMI V-8 under the hood. Not surprisingly, considering all the pine needles in the engine compartment, it doesn’t run. It also has some rust on the bottom, and the windshield is broken out. Get ready to roll up your sleeves, and just keep imagining what it might look like someday.

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I inherited my passion for cars from my dad, mostly thanks to a 1968 AMX X-code Go Pack 390 that he bought in 1972. It was his dream car, painted in Calcutta Russet with white stripes and optioned with power steering, power brakes with front discs, a three-speed auto, and factory air conditioning. Dad used a little black book to document every oil change and all maintenance.

Mom and Dad met, dated, and drove away from their wedding in this car. I remember Dad starting the AMX on occasion when I was young, but it scared me because it was so loud. As family life happened, however, the car was put on the back burner. Dad’s last noted oil change was in December 1975 at 16,666 miles.

We moved to a new house around 1990, and once the AMX was nestled under a cover in the garage, I never remember it moving again under its own power. Since Dad would never spend money on anything for himself, I gave him some cash for Christmas 2013, specifically bookmarked for the AMX. The next fall, he changed the oil in final preparation for starting the car, which then showed 17,050 miles. Unfortunately, he passed away unexpectedly in December 2014, at the age of 60. The water pump had been rebuilt and shipped back, but he hadn’t installed it yet, so he never heard it run again.

After he passed, I wanted to get the AMX restored, but it was cost-prohibitive. A local restorer fell in love with the car, and we sold it to him in summer 2016. He assumed it had 116,666 miles until he started working on it and realized every clip, seal, sticker, bracket, and more were clearly from the factory. He did the minimal amount of work to get it running, installed some new parts—brake lines, fuel system, exhaust, suspension components, carpet, headliner, seat covers—and drove it to local car shows. After about a year, however, he decided he didn’t want to paint or fully restore the car because of its originality. In what must be the most stand-up thing a person could do, he sold it back to us in May 2017 for only the cost of the parts he had replaced.

Four years after Dad died, Mom passed away suddenly of a stroke at age 64. Having the AMX back in the family means even more to me now. The car is not perfect, and the paint is clearly showing its age, but the engine still has never been opened. I have continued to add maintenance items and repair notes to the black book. The AMX is now parked in the garage next to my Honda S2000. Dad always told me cars were meant to be driven, so I drive the AMX monthly, and it now shows 19,033 original miles.

This article first appeared in Hagerty Drivers Club magazine. Click here to subscribe and join the club.

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The Ford Mustang, besides being an incredible sales success, is also a cultural icon. The 1965 Mustang burst into the scene in April of 1964 just days after the Plymouth Barracuda. Even though the cars were competitors, and each aimed at the same market, the Mustang stole the show. There’s a reason that compact, sporty, highly customizable vehicles are called pony cars and not fish cars: Ford’s Mustang shaped the market.

However, though it’s the archetypal pony car, the Mustang is definitely not the only one worthy of praise. Here are five pony cars from Hagerty Marketplace that would make for a great project car or weekend driver—and, as it happens, none are Mustangs.

1969 Mercury Cougar

Asking price: $8500

Mercury stepped into the pony-car market a couple of years after Ford paved the way with the Mustang. The more upscale Cougar eventually became a personal luxury car, with gradual moves toward that shift with each new generation, making the 1967–1970 models the closest in spirit to the Mustang and the rest of the pony-car class. As such, the first generation Cougar was nimble, sleek, and offered powerful V-8 options.

This car needs upholstery and bodywork to repair some front-end damage from a fender-bender, but besides the front seats, a lot of the interior still looks to be in good condition, and the body should be a solid candidate for restoration. Considering it shares a chassis with the first-gen Mustang, there’s no shortage of options when it comes to choosing parts for either a correct restoration or a restomod with a bit more handling prowess.

1985 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

Asking price: $11,900

Third-generation Camaros seem to be resurging in popularity as kids that loved them when they were in high school are now old enough to add one to their collection. It’s a familiar pattern that led to the incredible boom of muscle cars in decades past.

This 1985 Z28 has just 76,000 miles on the odometer and a complete, seemingly immaculate interior that’s a rare find in a vehicle of this vintage. It’s powered by the second most powerful engine offered in 1985, a TBI 5.0-liter V-8. 1985 marked the first time that port injection was available, and both inductions were available. The TPI was known for generating incredible low-speed torque; off-the-line acceleration was fantastic, thanks to the system’s long runners while the TBI engines could easily pass for a carbureted model .

1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am

Asking price: $13,000

One of the few pony cars that could challenge Mustang for popularity and pop-culture presence is the Pontiac Trans Am. The huge hood graphic, cast aluminum wheels, and shaker hood scoop are all iconic. Of course, a black and gold “Bandit” is likely the first example of a second-gen Trans Am that comes to your mind, but this candy red example also looks amazing with its gold wheels and red interior.

The short-deck 301 Pontiac V-8 was the least-powerful Trans Am engine option in 1979 when both Olds and Pontiac 6.6-liter V-8s were available. Unfortunately, the 301 used a unique head design with lackluster intake ports (only two per head) and it won’t accept the high-flowing factory or aftermarket intake-manifolds due to the port mismatch and lower deck height. The only consolation here is that, in terms of pony cars, the Trans Am’s least powerful offering in 1979 was more powerful than the Mustang’s top engine for 1979, although the Ford did have the advantage of its new, Fox-body platform. Even with its modest powerplant, this is a stunning car that brings so much ’70s style to the table.

1969 AMC Javelin

Asking price: $18,000

American Motors cars from the late ’60s and early ’70s are some of the most underrated designs of the era, in our opinion. Take this 290-powered Javelin SST. Early Javelins are more subtle than their aggressively flared successors, yet the elegance of their design doesn’t make them any less sporty. If you’d like an all-original AMC, this car looks quite complete.

If, however, you’d like to build a day two car with a hot-rodded engine and some Keystone Klassic wheels, well then, this is also a great choice. (In hot-rod lingo, a “day two” car is mildly modded with aftermarket wheels and bolt-on speed parts—the accessories that an enthusiastic owner would naturally install the day after buying the car new.) Just look at that yellow paint! A couple of weekends spent detailing and touching up the engine bay would make it a real head-turner at car shows, where it could make a big splash among the typical classics from the Big Three.

1970 Plymouth Barracuda

Asking price: $35,600

There’s good news and bad news about this beautiful ’70 Barracuda. The bad news: It’s not a Hemi four-speed convertible. The good news is that it’s not priced like a Hemi four-speed convertible.

Despite the publicity that all of the high-dollar ‘Cuda sales get, it’s cars like this 318-powered model that make us remember that some gorgeous Mopar pony cars that don’t break the bank. The burnt-orange paint shines brightly, and the black and white interior looks as it did when it rolled off the assembly line. E-body Barracudas are among the most revered Mopars of the muscle car era, and their sharp design leaves little to critique. This one is priced just above its #3 (Good, or daily-driver) value, which may be just right considering what looks like a solid restoration.

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An AMC collector once told me, “We have to stick together, because all our cars are rare!” While he makes a good point, and the American Motors community is well known for being tight-knit, even within AMC ownership there is a subtle hierarchy that ranges from rare to really, really rare.

However, “rare” can be difficult to define. Does it mean that only a few cars of a certain type were produced in-period, or that only a few remain today? AMC built far more Concords than AMXs, but I’d bet you a truckload of 401 engines that you’ll never find a car show where the former outnumber the latter. Most AMXs have survived; most Concords, sadly, have not.

Additionally, enthusiasts can really get into the weeds when deciding how esoteric they want to be when categorizing things. Anybody can claim their car is “1 of 1” if they divide by powertrain, paint color, interior color, seatbelt color, air conditioning, courtesy lights, et cetera. But even though your Javelin may be the only green example built on a Tuesday with air conditioning and without a radio, it isn’t necessarily a blue-chip collectible (though its certainly worth treasuring).

One of the best places to find the specialest of these special cars is the Kenosha Homecoming car show. Held once every three years in Kenosha, Wisconsin (the former home of American Motors Corporation’s largest assembly plant), it’s easily the world’s largest gathering of AMCs. After two years of COVID-19 delays—a five-year wait, in all, since the last gathering—participants and organizers alike were itching to get these cars out and show them off.

In search of interviews for my documentary series about the history of AMC, I traveled to Kenosha this July and found nearly 750 vehicles and 220 vendors converging in a park next to Lake Michigan. It was a celebration of all things American Motors. After surveying the field, I put together a compilation of some of the most uncommon cars in attendance.

I won’t pretend this is the definitive list of The Rarest AMCs of All Time (especially since there was no AMX/3 present), but this event was a fun chance to highlight some of the coolest cars American Motors built, especially ones people may not have heard of. Interestingly, this list contains no Javelins, as even rare editions like the Pierre Cardin or Mark Donahue Javelins still managed to outsell all the vehicles below.

1970 AMC Rebel “The Machine”: 1 of 2326

The Rebel Machine is easily one of the most desirable and recognizable cars ever built by American Motors, and most AMC shows host at least one. With a 390-cubic-inch V-8 making 340 horsepower, the Machine holds the title of AMC’s most powerful production vehicle. With a working hood scoop and upgraded suspension, these cars offered legitimate performance for the time. Their red, white, and blue exteriors make them hard to confuse with anything else—although, to its credit, Kenosha attracted some alternate-livery Machines this weekend, seen below in shades of blue and bronze.

Collectors debate exactly how many Machines were made, but the generally accepted answer is 2326. Of those, 1340 featured the red, white, and blue package and the rest were painted in other sporty colors. While the non-RWB cars may look slightly more sedate next to their patriotic counterparts, their owners can claim an even more exclusive variant of an already rare vehicle.

1969 American Motors Hurst SC/Rambler: 1 of 1512

Affectionately called the “SCRambler” (no relation to Jeep), the 1969 Hurst SC/Rambler served as a predecessor of sorts to the Rebel Machine. Working with Hurst Performance, American Motors created a textbook-perfect muscle car by bolting its biggest available engine into its smallest available body, resulting in an inexpensive, no-frills car designed for maximum speed. The company had offered a performance-minded Rambler since the mid-’60s with the V-8-powered Rambler American Rogue, but the Hurst SC/Rambler was even more of an athlete thanks to a 390 V-8 making 315 hp. Coupled exclusively to a four-speed manual, the cars had suspension upgrades, front disc brakes, a working hood scoop, and other performance goodies.

Advertising claimed a quarter mile in 14.3 seconds straight from the factory, although many didn’t stay stock for long. All were painted red, white, and blue, with two different layouts. The louder A-scheme features bold red flanks; the more modest B-scheme offers low running stripes.

Despite AMC’s planned run of 500 cars, the public clamored so loudly for the stout little Ramblers that final production reached 1512 units. Of those, it’s believed that the majority were A-scheme cars, making B-scheme models much less common. Either way, the SC/Rambler served as a fitting send-off to the Rambler name, which would be replaced by the AMC Hornet the following year. 

1957 Rambler Rebel: 1 of 1500

To avoid stoking argument over which vehicle can rightfully claim the title of the “first muscle car,” we’ll refer to the Rambler Rebel as “one of the first” and leave it at that. Regardless, after an engine-purchasing agreement with Studebaker-Packard turned sour, American Motors fast-tracked its own V-8 program, and the all-new motor debuted halfway through 1956 as a 250-cubic-inch design. For ’57, a larger, 327-cubic-inch variant followed, intended mostly for senior Nash and Hudson cars. In an out-of-character move for the conservative company, a few of those bigger engines found their way into the smaller Rambler bodies, creating the Rambler Rebel.

All were painted silver with copper side-spears, and each had a 327 V-8 making 255 hp. Sending power through either a three-speed manual with overdrive or a four-speed Hydramatic, these innocent sedans were devilishly fast. Magazine tests achieved 0-to-60mph in 7.5 seconds, making the Rambler Rebel the second-quickest American car sold in 1957 after the fuel-injected Corvette.

The Rebel almost got a fuel-injection system of its own (from Bendix), but last-minute engineering problems kept it from coming to market, and all the production Rebels ended up with four-barrel carburetors. The Rambler Rebel model returned for 1958–60 and again in ’66–67, but none of the reboots were quite as groundbreaking as those original 1500 built for ’57.

1971 AMC Hornet SC/360: 1 of 784

The AMC Hornet SC/360 followed in the footsteps of the Rebel and the SC/Rambler, with a similar strategy of “big motor, small car.” However, unlike its older brothers, the Hornet SC/360 didn’t come in red, white, and blue, and it didn’t come with AMC’s biggest engine.

Javelins, AMXs, Matadors and Ambassadors all offered a new 401-cubic-inch V-8, but the Hornet SC/360 tried to be slightly more pragmatic. Advertised as “a sensible alternative to the money-squeezing, insurance-strangling muscle cars of America,” the SC/360 tried to strike a balance between fast and frugal. Gas and insurance prices were on the rise, and AMC still had a lot of that old Rambler-era economy in its blood. Offering more customization than the Machine or Scrambler, the Hornet offered buyers a 360-cubic-inch V-8 with either a two- or four-barrel carb, making either 245 or 285 hp. Transmissions were a three-speed manual, three-speed auto, or four-speed manual (the last with the four-barrel only). Even the hood scoop had become an option.

With only 784 built, each was based on the two-door Hornet coupe. That rarity was on display at Kenosha, as only a handful made it to the show. And although it technically doesn’t count for this list, one imaginative owner even built their own Hornet SC/360 Sportabout station wagon, making it truly a 1-of-1 car.

1981–82 AMC Eagle/Concord Sundancer: 1 of 200(ish)

Not all rare AMCs are straight-line performance vehicles. You’d be hard-pressed to win a drag race in a Concord or an Eagle, but the ultra-rare “Sundancer” models certainly deserve a spot on this list. Built in Kenosha and shipped to Florida for conversion by the Griffith company, these are some of the oddest vehicles to ever wear the AMC badge.

When manufactures all but killed factory-built convertibles in the late 1970s, Jack Griffith had made a name for himself by chopping the tops of Toyota Celicas. His coachbuilt convertibles were popular enough to finance a second product, leading him to strike a deal with AMC. Since they shared essentially the same body, Griffith developed a convertible version of both the two-door bodies for AMC Concord and AMC Eagle.

Called the Sundancer, the unexpected collaboration resulted in some extra showroom traffic for AMC dealers but not a lot of sales, causing economic disaster for Griffith’s company. The production records didn’t survive, leading collectors to estimate that around 200 Sundancers were built between 1981 and 82. Two Eagle Sundancers made an appearance at Kenosha, but I didn’t see any Concord variants. All things considered, the targa-style roof does integrate nicely into the body, and with the Eagle’s pioneering 4WD system underneath, these off-road-ready coupes are pretty cool.

1971 Jeep Hurst Jeepster Commando: 1 of 103(?)

While technically not a Rambler or an AMC-branded product, this Jeep represents one of AMC’s earliest attempts to inject some pep into the brand, which had become part of the American Motors family after the company purchased it from Kaiser Industries in 1970. While AMC retooled for new models, its short-term solution was to bring its friends at Hurst into the picture.

With a similar red, white, and blue treatment as the SC/Rambler and the Rebel Machine, the Jeep Hurst Jeepster Commando looked like a wild performance SUV … except it didn’t have the grunt to match. Under the hood was a 225-cubic-inch, 160-hp V-6 manufactured by Jeep but originally developed by Buick. Other than wider tires, most of the Hurst Jeepster upgrades were purely cosmetic.

That said, this is a really cool-looking Jeep, and it certainly is rare. Despite plans for a 500-vehicle run, supposedly only 103 or so ever left the factory. It’s a shame it doesn’t have more power, but the Hurst Jeepster Commando’s rarity alone makes up for that. There was only one at Kenosha, and it was a gorgeous example of AMC-Jeep history.

1969 AMC Hurst S/S AMX: 1 of 52

You may have noticed that a lot of AMC’s rarest cars include the word “Hurst” in their names. Second only to the legendary AMX/3, the 1969 Hurst Super Stock AMX may be the rarest AMC performance car ever.

With only 52 examples ever built, these cars existed purely to prove to the NHRA that the factory-backed Super Stock AMXs racing professionally on drag strips were production models that the public could buy. Each of these homologation specials left the Kenosha plant as a fairly spartan AMX, devoid of creature comforts like radios, heaters, sound insulation, or other features. From there, the cars were modified and upgraded by Hurst Performance and sent to dealers.

AMC claimed the S/S AMXs only made 340 hp (officially tying it with the Rebel Machine as AMC’s most powerful engine), but most historians estimate the motors made well over 400 hp. In light of all the modifications, the cars carried high price tags and offered no factory warranty. Race cars often live dangerous lives, but at least 40 S/S AMXs are known to have survived. Of the few that made it to Kenosha, each had a unique personality and plenty of stories to tell.

1976 AMC Pacer State Farm Bicentennial Edition: 1 of 12

Ending on a Pacer might seem like a letdown (especially after the previous car), but this model’s backstory is too good to omit.

The United States was feeling especially patriotic in 1976, as the country was celebrating its 200th anniversary. Carmarkers jumped on the bandwagon with various “Spirit of ’76” special editions and trim packages, and AMC was no exception, offering a special stripe kit for Gremlins and Pacers. However, a group of Wisconsin-based State Farm Insurance agents took things a step further by special ordering one dozen AMC Pacers decked out in red and white paint with blue vinyl tops. Special bicentennial graphics were added, along with each agent’s name on the doors.

At the time, the Pacer was still considered a hot new car, and AMC was building and selling them as fast as it could. The State Farm Pacers were a hit with local communities, arriving just in time for the 4th of July. Eventually, most of the agents moved on to other cars but agent Joe Werwie kept driving his bicentennial Pacer for nearly 30 years before selling it in 2005. It’s become something of an icon over the decades, and it probably helped convince a couple of local AMC employees to change their insurance provider.

Honorable mentions

The aforementioned eight certainly weren’t the only cool cars in Kenosha. Honorable mentions for other rare vehicles include both four-speed- and Twin-Stick Marlins, a 1967 Ambassador convertible, 1956 Hudson Rambler, two Renault Alliance GTA convertibles, a 1917 Jeffrey pickup truck, and a 1978 Gremlin GT. Time would fail us to list the hundreds of other “more common” AMCs that would still be considered quite rare compared to the millions of contemporary Ford, GM, and Chrysler cars.

As I said before, this list is by no means exhaustive, and it’s also possible that with 740-plus cars at the show, there may have been some hidden gems I missed. Either way, the Kenosha History Center put on an excellent event, and I’m already looking forward to 2025.

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While researching the feature on fin cars published last week, I came upon this quote from 1955: “Cars that are 19 feet long and weighing 2 tons are used to run a 118-pound housewife three blocks to the drugstore for a 2-ounce package of bobby pins and lipstick.” The speaker was George Wilcken Romney, then the president of American Motors, which was about to kill off the Nash and Hudson brands in favor of a $50 million all-or-nothing bet on the compact Rambler. “People are getting smart,” he continued. “They know they don’t have to have cars with dinosaur dimensions to get around comfortably.”

Every trend sparks a counter-trend, and Romney wasn’t the first nor the last to try to mine gold by being where the mainstream wasn’t. However, in 1956, with AMC hemorrhaging $20 million in losses, Romney was selling the Rambler’s clean, compact austerity against an industry making bank on chrome broughams. Time magazine wrote that bus drivers pulling up to AMC’s bell tower–like headquarters at 14250 Plymouth Road in Detroit would shout, “All out for the old folks’ home!”

But Romney wasn’t your typical Ivy League boardroom suit. The grandson of a Mormon who had 30 children by four wives, Romney was born in 1907 in Chihuahua, Mexico, in a dusty desert colony established by Mormon ex-pats fleeing U.S. polygamy laws. When he was 5, rebels fighting for Pancho Villa rode into town and drove out all the Americans. The family fled to Los Angeles, then Salt Lake City; Romney’s father went broke five times in the process. George started working at the age of 12.

He was selected as a church missionary and sent to Great Britain at 19, spending two years bringing the Mormon gospel door to door and preaching from a soapbox in Hyde Park, London. Ever the entrepreneur, he teamed up with a redheaded socialist on another soapbox and the two agreed to loudly heckle each other, which proved the best way of drawing crowds. Back in America, Romney met a brunette knockout named Lenore Lafount and followed her everywhere—out on her dates with other men, to Washington, D.C., when her father took a government job, to New York where she studied acting, then out to LA where Lenore was offered a $50,000 contract with MGM. He’d probably be arrested as a stalker today, but Romney somehow persuaded Lenore to turn down Hollywood and instead marry him. He always called it his best sell job.

Romney came to AMC via its predecessor, Nash-Kelvinator, whose chairman, George W. Mason, had big plans for small cars but was running out of money. And time. Mason died suddenly in 1954, leaving Romney in charge. Romney’s lifestyle matched perfectly the smart, frill-free, unibody Rambler; he didn’t smoke, he didn’t drink, he didn’t swear, he stayed trim by playing sports with his kids (son Mitt is currently a senator from Utah), and he tithed 10 percent of his salary to the church.

Eventually, enough hard-bitten Yankee pragmatists caught on to what Romney (and some foreigners, like Volkswagen) was preaching, and Rambler sales took off. In 1960, dealers moved almost half a million units, bringing AMC revenue of over $1 billion. The Big Three were already rushing to catch up with their own compacts. Romney stayed through 1962, then ran for Michigan governor. The Cleveland Auto Dealers Association bestowed on him a trophy inscribed with the words: “To George Romney, critic, lecturer, anthropologist, white hunter of the American dinosaur.”

Where Romney left off, the Japanese were only too happy to step in, sticking small-car thorns into Detroit’s chiefs for decades. In the end, though, what seemed like the inevitable future in 1960 because of a rising population, crowding cities, and choking traffic remained only a niche. Sixty years later, the bestselling vehicle in America is the Ford F-150, versions of which are nearly 21 feet long and close to 6000 pounds. They don’t have tailfins, and they can do a lot more, but Romney’s “dinosaurs” are still with us.

The article first appeared in Hagerty Drivers Club magazine. Click here to subscribe to our magazine and join the club.

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Without a doubt, American Motors Corporation was forced to “think outside the box,” as former AMC designer Frank Pascoe tells us in the trailer for a new documentary about the defunct automaker. “We did some wild and crazy things there.” And Joe Ligo is ready to share the details.

Ligo’s still-in-production, six-part series, The Last Independent Automaker, is scheduled for a 2024 release. The Hagerty contributor and Emmy Award-winning producer unveiled his plans earlier this week.

“I think the story of American Motors is worth telling because it isn’t just about the cars.  It’s really a story about people,” says Ligo, who owns a 1972 AMC Ambassador. “It’s a story about bold leadership, big risks, very human mistakes, and very human failures.

“For every nation that has a car industry, that industry becomes a reflection of that country, and American Motors is a mirror of America. The cars people drove reflect what the country was going through, economically, politically, and culturally. Connecting all those dots through cars is fascinating. Combining that with the stories and memories that people shared with us really makes this a great story. The story of American Motors is too good of a story not to tell.”

Starting in 1954, independent American Motors Corporation went toe to toe with the Big Three for more than a quarter century. Among its best-known cars were the Rambler, Javelin, AMX, Matador, Gremlin, and Pacer. In 1979, despite an economic downturn, AMC announced a record $83.9 million profit on annual sales of $3.1 billion, but soaring energy prices, rising American unemployment, and the influx of imported economy cars eventually took their toll. Even an influx of cash from French carmaker Renault couldn’t save the company, and in 1986, American Motors reported a $91.3 million loss.

“There’s an old saying in the car business that the best way out of any problem is to sell more cars,” historian Patrick Foster says in the documentary trailer. “When they were building 300,000 cars a year, they were profitable. When they got down to 180,000, they were losing buckets of money.”

On March 9, 1987, Chrysler agreed to buy Renault’s share in American Motors, as well as all the remaining shares. Within a year, independent AMC was no more.

Former AMC engineer Dave Perrine says that some circumstances surrounding the automaker’s demise may never be answered. “I’m sure there were a lot of decisions made behind closed doors—where the carpets were thick, and the chairs were soft, and the cigar smoke’s heavy—that we never knew about.”

Ligo’s documentary will chronicle AMC’s rise and fall in six 30-minute episodes, which will be released on public television and streamed online.

According to the project’s Facebook page: “More than 30 former employees were interviewed, including designers, engineers, assembly line workers, salespeople, and two CEOs. Their memories, combined with hours of rare archive footage and thousands of historical photographs, bring to life the story of an iconic company during a period of rapid industry change.”

Among those interviewed for The Last Independent Automaker was U.S. Senator Mitt Romney, whose father, George Romney, served as AMC’s president from 1954–62 before becoming Michigan’s governor from 1963–69. Romney later served as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1969–73.

“Over and over again, we came across stories in our research that resonated today,” Ligo says. “Union workers worried about robots taking their jobs. Salespeople complained about inflation making it harder to sell cars. Engineers explained how high gas prices caused them to redesign cars to be more efficient. This was 40 or 50 years ago, and the same things are happening now. It’s still relevant.”

In addition to Ligo, who serves as producer and director, the documentary’s creative team includes Foster, an author of 34 books and more than 800 magazine articles, and Jimm Needle, who has created digital content for dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

Ligo says his interest in AMC dates back to his teenage years.

“Like most kids, I started getting interested in cars right before I was old enough to get my driver’s license, and there was just something about dead automotive brands that attracted me,” he says. “Looking through old library books at pictures of Kaisers, Packards, AMCs, and other cars that weren’t around anymore really got me interested in learning why they disappeared. And there was something about American Motors that just drew me to those cars. After I found out how friendly and welcoming the AMC community was, I became a lifelong fan.”

Judging from the documentary’s trailer, the film promises to be an engaging, no-holds-barred narrative with a few surprises along the way. To illustrate the story’s many twists and turns, Ligo uses a barrage of on-screen words to make his point. The Last Independent Automaker, we’re told, is “a story of … cars, design, technology, economics, unions, pollution, style, opportunity, business, innovation, lawsuits, money, luck, prejudice, lies, power, robots, betrayal, and assassination.”

“We were fighting long odds, trying to beat the big guys,” admits Michael Porter, who was a member of AMC’s marketing team.

To do that, the automaker had to do things differently, says designer Vince Geraci. “American Motors is unique—unique—never to be replicated again. That’s a one-timer.”

In the end, however, “We got screwed, that’s all,” says autoworker Dave Furlin.

To complete work on The Last Independent Automaker, Ligo has created a GoFundMe page and is almost halfway to his $10,000 target. “Our goal is to produce something everyone will want to watch,” Ligo says. “Not just car guys.”

For more information about the documentary, visit the project’s Facebook page or AmericanMotorsMovie.com.

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The AMC Gremlin has undergone some serious image rehabilitation in the last 20 years. Launched on April Fools’ Day, 1970, the Gremlin immediately became a successful part of American Motors’ lineup, outselling the Javelin, Ambassador, and even the Matador. Unfortunately, AMC failed to update the car frequently enough. By the mid ’70s it had become woefully outdated compared to the small-car competition like the Vega, Pinto, and Corolla.

AMC built a total of 671,475 Gremlins from 1970 to 1978, and some of the obvious features collectors look for are V-8 engines, manual transmissions, and the sporty “X” package. But perhaps the most desirable option out there is the Levi’s jeans interior.

Before we get to that denim delight, however, you may be asking “Wait a minute—people collect these things?” The lack of updates, combined with the inconsistent quality of all domestic economy cars of that era, caused the unique-looking Gremlin to become an object of ridicule in pop culture throughout the ’80s and ’90s. Movies, TV commercials, and “Top Ten Worst Car” chain emails constantly ragged on the little Gremlin. The messaging was clear: This was a dorky car driven only by losers.

Despite this, Gremlin values have actually risen in the collector market as of late, so much so that it’s hard to find a decent one today for under eight grand. True aficionados appreciate this is a unique car for its eye-catching—albeit, polarizing—style. And with the right powertrain they can be a lot of fun to drive, too. (Especially the Gremlin 401 XR.) Far from being the butt of jokes, Gremlins have become bonafide collectibles. Their quirkiness has become endearing, even cool.

I’ve learned a lot about American Motors in the last few years, as I’ve been interviewing former employees for a documentary series about the company. You can check out our trailer and learn more about our project, here:

Our crew has talked to a huge range of former AMC employees, from assembly line workers to two CEOs. While everybody has a story to tell, some one of my favorite anecdotes was learning about the very special Levi’s Gremlin.

Starting for ’73 and running until the model’s end, customers could order “seats of the pants” for their AMC Gremlin or Hornet, covered in a material that mimicked the look of Levi’s denim. The package came complete with metal buttons, copper-colored stitching, and a genuine Levi’s tag. It also included color coordinated door panels with real denim pockets, special blue trim, and a Levi’s logo on the fenders.

Eventually the Levi’s interior made its way into AMC’s Jeep division, where it showed up in Cherokees, J-series trucks, and the iconic CJ line. It also made a one-year appearance in the ’77 Pacer and ’78 (Concord) AMX. Jeeps used a slightly heavier material than passenger cars and offered both blue and tan versions; cars were blue only, except for ’78. In the final year, customers could get their pants seats in blue, black, tan, or berry.

All in all, the Levi’s interior was the kind of fun option that makes people nostalgic for a time when car companies were more creative and less risk-averse. It also was a sign of just how culturally powerful blue jeans had become by the 1970s. The Levi’s Gremlin was more than just AMC’s strategy to win over Pinto and Vega shoppers; it was a symbol of a changing America.

As explained in Riveted: the History of Jeans, prior to the 1950s, blue jeans were used primarily as work clothes. Either as bib overalls or trousers (also called “waist overalls”), denim was worn by farmers, ranchers, miners, factory workers, mechanics, or anybody else who did dirty, physical labor for a living. Occasionally wealthy urbanites wore jeans when pretending to be cowboys, but the clothes certainly weren’t common.

After WWII, returning veterans continued to wear jeans when they left the service, spreading the clothing’s popularity. Thanks to movie stars like James Dean and Marlon Brando, denim jeans became the new look for cool, rebellious youth. Naturally, uncool, un-youthful people hated this, and they did everything they could to stop teenagers from wearing jeans. Naturally, this only made jeans cooler.

To combat the image of making clothes only for young miscreants and old farmers, denim companies launched a promotional campaign to clean up the image of jeans. They were marketed as respectable clothes for active people. But it turned out cheery propaganda films were nothing compared to the marketing power of hippies and rock n’ roll.

The rapid growth of the middle class during the 1950s had created a new generation of teenagers with massive buying power: baby boomers. By the late ’60s, jeans had taken off as the clothing of choice for millions of boomers, and companies everywhere were eager to cash in. Rock stars wore jeans. Hippies wore jeans. Regular kids who wanted to look like rock stars and hippies could also wear jeans. The image of youth rebellion was distilled, commodified, packaged, and sold back to them in the form of jeans. That’s where American Motors entered the picture.

As the company regained its footing after a tumultuous end to the 1960s, new leadership looked to set AMC apart from its Big Three competition. One strategy included offering special designer interiors for their cars, touting well-known names in fashion. The AMC Hornet Sportabout wagon came first, with a Gucci edition for ’72 and ’73. Next followed the ’72-’73 Javelin, which offered a Pierre Cardin interior.

Both featured the names and influence of European fashion designers, giving AMC a dose of high culture to boast about. Next, VP of Marketing William McNealy wanted to do something decidedly more mainstream: a Levi’s jeans interior. After the agreement was hammered out, McNealy put AMC’s head of interior design, Vince Geraci, in charge of the project. During an interview with me, Geraci explained how they created the car that wore the pants:

“So, my wife Susie and I went to San Francisco to see the Levi people … and they say, ‘We would like to have the design work and the sewing style and the pleating and everything that goes in there. See if you can coordinate the same feel of the trousers and what we do. We’ll give you samplings and cuttings of all of the different Levi materials that we use.’”

The challenge for Geraci and his team was that they couldn’t use actual denim in the car. The material didn’t meet safety regulations for flame retardation and it couldn’t withstand the wear and abuse that a car seat goes through over the years.

“But we wanted to capture the feel of the material, the coloration of the material, and the details associated with Levi itself,” he explained. “The buttons, the orange stitching, and the little tag that says ‘Levi.’ And in doing that we brought back many cuttings of Levi material … and Louis Zolliker, who was fabric manager of the interior studio, she took a bunch home, and my wife took a bunch home. And we washed them to get that look that we liked. [We wanted] a little bit of wear but nothing significant, so it gives it that nice soft feel.”

After running the samples through the washing machine again and again, Geraci and Zolliker took their samples to work, and the stylists decided which ones they liked best.

“So in doing that, we finally came up with the look that we liked,” Geraci explained, “So we brought in Milliken & Company, who is one of the largest manufacturers of carpet and interior trim material for the Big Three.”

Zolliker became the point person and worked with Milliken designers to create a look-alike fabric that also met safety and durability standards for automotive use. The Levi’s interior was launched for 1973 as an option on the Gremlin and the new Hornet Hatchback. Both cars already appealed to teenage baby boomers with their unusual shapes, bright exterior colors, and low prices, and now they had a feature that no one else offered.

AMC created more designer interiors, including an Oleg Cassini Matador, as well as some “store-brand” fancy interiors like the Barcelona package for the Matador. Of all their special trims, Levi’s seems to be the most famous.

“After the program had gone and had been in other vehicles, [Millikan] said… that was the largest run of one color fabric they had ever made,” Geraci told me with a smile, proud to have contributed to the material’s success.

Despite its popularity, AMC Levi’s cars can be hard to find today. According to our valuation tools, a Levi’s interior can add 20 percent to the value of a Gremlin. Combined with the optional 304 V-8 and X package, it can make for a pretty special little car. Unfortunately, the fabric can wear out and get a little ratty, but there are reproduction options you can buy.

AMC’s venture into the world of designer interiors only lasted about a decade, but it created some very memorable models. The Levi’s package was an interesting confluence of marketing, pop culture, and design, all coming together at the right time. Reflecting on its success, Vince Geraci told me it was the kind of thing only AMC could pull off.

“When I ultimately went to Chrysler and I spoke to the people in interiors at Chrysler, they said, ‘You know, we really wanted to do a Levi’s interior also, but sales didn’t know if they could sell as many, and the dealers didn’t know if it was gonna be popular enough, and we didn’t know about the pricing, and we didn’t know about this and that …’ That’s the difference between American Motors and the rest of the industry… Here’s the contract, these are the people, get it done, and get it in a car. Period!”

Nearly fifty years after he worked on the design, Geraci recently became the proud owner of a Levi’s Gremlin. It’s a 1973 Gremlin X with the coveted factory 304 V-8 and a Levi’s interior. The car previously belonged to the late Gremlin collector Brain Moyer and had been lovingly restored by him. Although I haven’t seen it in person yet, I will be visiting Vince later this summer, and I know he’s thrilled to show his “car that wears the pants.”

Vince Geraci is just one of the many colorful employees who appear in our documentary series, The Last Independent Automaker. I can’t wait to share more AMC stories like his when our series debuts in 2024.

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It will soon become cool—hot?—to write letters again, even if the cost of a First Class stamp just rose to 60 cents. In a case of déjà vu, the United States Postal Service announced that next month it will release a series of five Pony Cars Forever stamps that are delightfully similar to the Muscle Cars Forever stamps it issued in 2013. We can’t wait.

Describing the stamps as a commemoration of “the heyday of the pony car era” and “featuring some of the most famous examples of these youth-oriented vehicles,” the USPS will host a first-day-of-issue event for the Pony Cars Forever stamps at the Great American Stamp Show on August 25 in Sacramento, California.

“Over the past six decades, fast and fun pony cars have become a uniquely American obsession,” a USPS press release says. “Since their emergence, these performance coupes and convertibles have brought a youthful spirit to the automotive world.”

In the mid-to-late 20th century, American automakers began catering to a segment of their customer base that was rapidly growing: younger drivers. These drivers craved sporty, affordable cars that looked and felt different from what was in their parents’ garages. Several manufacturers initially produced models that fit that description, but the pony car trend did not begin in earnest until 1964.

By the time of the 1970s energy crisis, sales of the once ubiquitous pony cars had begun to decline, but pony cars remain cultural icons. Clearly, we can’t get enough, even if they’re just stamps. Below are the five pony cars being commemorated by the USPS.

1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302

Designed by legendary Larry Shinoda, the Boss 302 was both stylish and aggressive. Powered by a 302-cubic-inch Windsor V-8 engine, of which it was named, it featured a blacked-out hood and deck lid and was easily identifiable by its black C-stripe that extended down the rocker and door.

1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

For 1969, the Camaro’s body panels were updated for a more expressive and muscular pony car look. The grille featured an angled “V” design, allowing the headlights to be more deeply inset, and the taillights were extended to a triple-lens setup. Under its double-striped hood was a 302-cu-in V-8 built for high-rpm power.

1969 AMC Javelin SST

Styled by Dick Teague, the Javelin represented AMC’s entry into the pony car wars. Top-of-the-line Javelins were badged as SSTs and included reclining bucket seats, wood-grain trim, body cladding, unique wheel covers, and a choice of 343- or 390-cu-in V-8.

1970 Dodge Challenger R/T

The 1970 Dodge Challenger was Dodge’s pony car answer to the Mustang and Camaro, and it finally appeared in the fall of 1969. The R/T version included a Rallye instrument panel, Rallye suspension with sway bar, and heavy-duty drum brakes. A 383-cu-in V-8 was standard, but two 440 V-8s were optional, as was the legendary 426 Hemi.

1967 Mercury Cougar XR-7 GT

The Cougar was the most successful model launch in the history of Mercury, with 150,893 built in 1967, of which 27,221 were XR-7s. Option prices included the GT performance package, which included the 390-cu-in V-8, heavy-duty suspension, dual exhaust, disc brakes, and air conditioning.

When issued, the 60-cent Pony Cars Forever stamps can be purchased through the Postal Store at usps.com/shopstamps.

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More than a half century before the mid-engine C8 Chevrolet Corvette, an American automaker made an exotic mid-engine sports car. It was powered by an American V-8 and sported Italian bodywork. No, I’m not talking about the Pantera that De Tomaso made for Ford, I’m talking about plucky little American Motors Corporation and its head designer Dick Teague’s pride and joy, the AMX/3, designed two years before the Pantera. While the AMX/3 never quite made it to serial production, six cars were built and at least from a mechanical standpoint it was fully engineered. It has a great story, perhaps one of Detroit’s greater tragedies, and like all great tragedies, the characters and cast were notable.

The story starts in 1962, when George Romney, who successfully positioned AMC as the maker of the economical compact Rambler in juxtaposition to the Big 3 automaker’s full lines and profitable big cars, resigned from the company to start a career in politics, running for governor of Michigan. Romney was replaced by Roy Abernethy, a physically large man who wasn’t fond of small cars. Abernethy abandoned Romney’s strategy and spent millions of dollars on AMC’s larger cars, trying to compete segment for segment with GM, Ford, and Chrysler. While some of that money was well spent on developing a modern V8 engine that could be made in both small- and large-block displacements, a lot of it was wasted on an all-new full-sized Ambassador and the disappointing midsize Marlin fastback.

The Marlin had a fastback roofline not unlike the very successful 1966 Dodge Charger. The problem was that while the Charger looked sleek, the Marlin looked a little awkward. That’s because Richard Teague had intended that roofline to go on a smaller car. Abernethy instead had it moved to the midsize platform, which resulted in odd proportions and not much in terms of sales success.

After just five years, Abernethy put a profitable company in the red, and likely planted the seeds of the company’s eventual demise by putting it in such a precarious financial situation.

The board stepped in, forced Abernethy into retirement and installed Roy D. Chapin Jr., whose father once ran Hudson, as chairman and Gerald C. Meyers, just 39 at the time, as VP of product development and manufacturing. Chapin and Meyers wanted a more youthful, performance-oriented image, using the Javelin pony car and related AMX two-seater already in development as a foundation. They went racing with Roger Penske and Mark Donohue, made the outrageous The Rebel Machine muscle car, and in May of 1967 they commissioned Richard Teague and his chief designer Bob Nixon to build a mid-engine sports car. The fiberglass ‘pushmobile’ concept they came up with was dubbed the AMX/2 and AMC’s management was impressed enough to go forward with the project. AMC forecast sales of about 1000 AMX/3 cars a year (some sources say 5000), undoubtedly the kind of halo car Chapin and Meyers were looking for.

Impressed as they were, though, AMC execs weren’t confident that Teague’s in-house team was up to the task so they insisted on a design competition between the team in Detroit and Italian Giorgetto Giugiaro, then a rising star in the automotive design world, having recently co-founded ItalDesign after working for Bertone. In the spring of 1968, Teague and Meyers met with Giugiaro at the Geneva Motor Show to give him the design brief.

Teague took the competition seriously, and decided to improve the design. What became the AMX/3 was designed by a team that included stylists Bob Nixon, Jack Kenitz, Eric Kugler, Dick Jones and Gary Guichard along with invaluable work by clay modelers Chuck Hosper, Keith Goodnough and Howard Clark. When they presented their fully developed fiberglass mockup, it put the relatively crude styrofoam concept ItalDesign submitted to shame, and the in-house AMX/3 was greenlighted for development. Small wonder as the AMX/3 is simply gorgeous.

That didn’t end Giugiaro’s involvement with the AMX/3 though.

From the outset, management at AMC knew that production of a limited edition sports car was going to have to be outsourced. The factory in Kenosha certainly wasn’t up to it.

At first Karmann was considered. The German firm already was assembling CKD (completely knocked down) kits of AMC Javelins for sale in Europe. AMC was also discussing other projects with BMW, then a much smaller company than it is now, but when AMC approached them about engineering the AMX/3, the Bavarian automaker declined, saying they didn’t have the needed two or three dozen engineers to spare for the project. In one version of the story, upon the recommendation of Renzo Carli, managing director of Pininfarina at the time, AMC gave the job to Giotto Bizzarrini in late 1968. Bizzarrini spent five years as Enzo Ferrari’s chief engineer at the peak of his racing teams success in the late 1950s and was one of the five Ferrari engineers who left Enzo in 1961 to start the ill-fated ATS racing team. Later he started his own firm, Bizzarrini SpA, whose bankruptcy made him available to work on the AMX/3.

As good of an engineer as Bizzarrini was, he was just one man, not 30 so additional contractors were brought in to meet the proposed start of testing in mid 1969. Additionally, Bizzarrini was an engine and suspension guy who didn’t have much experience designing unibody structures, as the AMX/3 was planned to be. So Giugiaro’s ItalDesign was brought in at least to develop and test the AMX/3’s unibody, and quite possibly do much of the production engineering, though who did what is unclear. For his part, Bizzarrini was proud of his work, saying. “I would have to say the AMX/3 was the best car I built in terms of mechanical components and roadholding.”

According to Salvatore Diamonte, whose Autocostruzioni SD did much of the fabrication work on the prototypes, it was Karmann that was supposed to build the cars, and they commissioned ItalDesign to manage the project, and ItalDesign in turn brought in Bizzarrini to design the chassis. In a 1983 interview, Diamonte said that he delivered two bodies to ItalDesign to work out the blueprints for stamping dies. Later he and Bizzarrini fitted mechanical parts and completed those two prototypes powered by 390 cubic inch AMC V8s. Other stock production AMC parts used included dashboard switchgear and AMC’s ubiquitous flush-mounted flip out exterior door handles.

Though BMW had originally declined to engineer the AMX/3 for American Motors, the two companies were still looking to cooperate. BMW was considering having the BMW 2002, then in high demand, produced in North America and AMC had production capacity available. In the spring of 1969, AMC and BMW inked a 1.5 million DM contract for the German company to test the AMX/3 prototypes and verify their performance, including a target top speed of 160 mph. At some point, however, BMW transitioned from simply testing the cars to developing them.

Prototype #1 proved to be a bit of a flexible flyer. Lower frame rails flexed so much that it affected suspension and steering geometry. Seams burst and welds broke. Improvements were made and prototype #2 proved to be 50% stiffer. When the brakes also proved to be on the soft side BMW brought in German brake manufacturer Alfred Teves (ATE) to replace the original Girling components with upgraded master cylinder, vacuum boosters, calipers and rotors. BMW also improved the hydraulic clutch operation and had Boysen GmbH develop a custom exhaust system to fit in the little bit of space available due to the short wheelbase and mid-engine configuration. For his part, Bizzarrini convinced his previous employer OTO Melara to develop a custom transaxle as the more commonly used ZF unit was too long to fit.

Overheating was also a problem as the AMX/3’s attractive front end didn’t allow for much airflow to the radiators, but in time the #2 car was successfully tested at speed at Monza in the spring of 1970. The AMX/3 was introduced to the press in Rome in March of that year, with a public introduction at the New York Auto show in April. Racer Mark Donohue put one of the prototypes through its paces at Michigan International Speedway.

A total of nine chassis were constructed, with six cars more or less completed at the time. There are differences between the six, reflecting the development process.

By the time the AMX/3 was introduced, though, it’s likely that AMC had already killed the project despite overwhelmingly positive response from the public and press. At a reported target price of $12,000 in the early 1970s, a couple thousand dollars more than the Pantera when it was introduced, it would have been a hard sell. With a limited run of just 1,000 units, later scaled down to a couple dozen cars a year, the financial case for the AMX/3 just wasn’t there. To give some context, even Ford Motor Company, with substantially more resources than little AMC, wasn’t able to keep the Pantera on the market for more than four years. selling just 5,500 units in that time frame.

AMC continued partial funding while Giotto Bizzarrini considered producing the AMX/3 as the Sciabola (Italian for sabre), with AMC supplying components, but none were ever built. “I just didn’t have the courage to proceed,” he said. By the time AMC pulled the plug, they had invested about $2 million, about $15 million in today’s dollars. While that wasn’t a huge sum by Big 3 standards, AMC didn’t have much cash to spare. By comparison, less than 10 years later, AMC spent about $6.5 million developing what many people consider to be the first crossover, the Eagle 4×4, which actually earned the company revenue, unlike the AMX/3 project.

Fortunately, though the project was not a financial success, all six of the original AMX/3 cars still exist as do the AMX/2 and AMX/3 pushmobiles. A seventh chassis was finished with leftover parts and that still exists as well. Provenance of all the cars has been documented, though there are some discrepancies in the sources.

AMX/3 #1: Sent to BMW for testing in mid 1969. Later stripped of parts for other prototypes. Purchased by the Dawkins family in the 1970s, without a drivetrain or major components. Recently purchased by Michael Chetcuti and Kyle Evans of Northport, Michigan, family friends of the Dawkins. The car is currently undergoing a full restoration and refitting, which you can follow here.

AMX/3 #2: Monza test car assembled in 1969, tested at Monza in 1970. Sold to Jerry Werden in 1971 for $6,000 and has changed hands a number of times since then. Currently owned by Rick and David Biafora of Morgantown, Virginia. Apparently it was tagged as a 1967 model to get around DOT regulations at the time it was imported.

AMX/3 #3: This car was used at the Rome press introduction in March 1970. This was the only car of the six to be fully finished to presentation levels and the only one to be imported to the U.S. by AMC before the project was killed. It was revealed to the American media at the Waldorf hotel in Manhattan in early April, while the fiberglass pushmobile went on display the next day at the New York Auto Show. In 1978, Dick Teague bought number 3 from AMC, along with #1 and #5. Number three is still in the possession of Teague’s daughter Lisa and her husband Ray Scarpelli and it’s the red car in the photos accompanying this article.

AMX/3 #4: Painted teal-blue, this car was finished to show quality by Diomante and Bizzarrini for the Turn auto salon in the fall of 1970. Considered the production prototype, it was the first to have a revised body including four inch longer rear quarter panels, bigger fender flares, full side glass, semi-concealed windshield wipers with a raised cowl, and different hood vents for the radiator. It also lost the active, pop-up rear spoiler, a novel feature that wouldn’t show up on production cars for decades. Number 4 and number six had the smaller 360ci V-8 installed, possibly for budget reasons or because by then the 390 had ceased production but the 401 wasn’t yet available. Purchased for $9,000 by Jerry Werden and Bill Demichielli in 1971, according to one source it remained in Werden’s possession until his death in 2018 and was sold to an anonymous collector who bought it from the Werden trust in 2020. Hemmings, though, has Demichielli selling #4 in 1976, with it later passing into the possession of Walter Kirtland of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1989, who subsequently sold it to a German collector in 2014.

AMX/3 #5: Though it was constructed simultaneously with numbers 4 and 6, this car has the older body style and was assembled using leftover parts. After Teague bought it in 1978, he installed upside down 1979 Firebird taillights and had it painted Big Bad Yellow. Teague sold it to George Doughtie Jr, who described it as an “orphan car,” “not driveable,” and “rough, cobbled-up” with just 200 miles on the odometer when he bought it. Number 5 last changed hands in 2004 when it was purchased by Bernie and Joan Carl of Washington DC.

AMX/3 #6 was finished in late 1970 or early 1971 after AMC pulled the project funding but much of it was done when AMC was still paying for things, hoping that Bizzarrini would get the Sciabola going. Teague considered it the nicest of the six, “The fairest one of all. It is a real gem,” he told Automobile Quarterly in 1981. Painted red, and funded by OTO Melara it was displayed at the ’76 Turin show to promote the Sciabola project, expected to cost “at least $23,800” for “hand-built” examples according to a Bizzarrini interview at the time. At $122,000 in 2022 dollars, that sounds like a bargain considering one of the prototypes was advertised for sale in 2013 at $795,000. Number six remained in the possession of Salvatore Diomonte until earlier this year, when he was reported to have sold it to a Netherlands collector.

So that’s the story of the AMX/3. It could’ve been a contender and had an all-star cast behind it, but some things are just not meant to be. Fortunately, in addition to the story, we still have the cars.

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From a performance car enthusiast’s perspective, the mid-’70s and early-’80s didn’t have much going on. High-compression big blocks were a thing of the past, and burning rubber right off the showroom floor proved increasingly challenging. That didn’t keep American cars from looking the part, though. Despite the oil crisis, regulations, and insurance rates neutering cars for the better part of a decade, automakers didn’t stop building cars with all the appearances of being able to lay down long streaks of rubber at any impromptu stoplight drag race.

Gimmicks and graphics, decals and doodads ruled the day, and thanks to the facial hair fashions of the era, “mustache muscle” is the term we like to use.

Always attention-grabbing but rarely worth much money, mustache muscle has nevertheless gotten pulled up by the recent growth elsewhere in the classic car market. Several of them, including some of our favorites, have surprised us. Here they are.

1977–78 Ford Mustang II Cobra II/King Cobra

Ford’s OG pony spans six generations and counting, but the Mustang II is the one many people would rather forget. This compact, Pinto-based coupe didn’t even have a V-8 option when it debuted in 1974. Having gone from the likes of the Mach 1 and Boss 429 to this in just a few short years is as emblematic of American muscle’s quick demise as anything. To be fair, though, the Mustang II was the right car for the time, selling over a million units before the Fox-body came along in 1979.

Few Mustang IIs raced between stoplights, but there were at least a couple of peppy-looking V8 models to choose from. First came the Cobra II: available with either a V6 or 302/134hp V-8, it was, in the true spirit of mustache muscle, an appearance package. To trick people into thinking it was fast, the (fake) hood scoop, spoilers, quarter window louvers, stripes and Cobra graphics mimicked the original Shelby GT350 from the ’60s .

Next was the V-8-only King Cobra, introduced for the Mustang II’s final model year in 1978. The air dam, stripes, and a massive look-at-me Cobra decal on the hood aped Pontiac’s “screaming chicken” Trans Am styling cues, although it offered even less performance.

Nobody ever paid much attention to Mustang IIs as “classics,” but prices for the loud and proud Cobra models started to shoot up in late 2020—way up. Over the last three years, condition #2 (Excellent) values Cobra IIs with the six-cylinder engine are up 102 percent (to $19,600) and V8s are up 160 percent (to $30,700). King Cobras are up 110 percent (to $29,000). The most expensive ones we’ve seen were a ’76 Cobra II for $45,360 and a King Cobra for $36,300, both sold last year.

Quoted insurance values for Mustang IIs are up significantly as well over the same period and, surprisingly, they're popular with young car enthusiasts. These decal-driven pony cars date from Gen X's youth, but they're disproportionately more popular among Gen Z, who quotes 16 percent of Mustang IIs despite representing just 7 percent of the market.

1979–80 AMC Spirit AMX

Bearing little resemblance to the original '60s two-seat AMX or the baroque 1971-74 Javelin AMX, the Spirit-based AMX of 1970–80 was American Motors' last real go at a sporty car. AMC delivered on the era's expected tacked-on look-fast bits: the Spirit AMX sported a front air dam, rear spoiler, fender flares, side graphics, and a giant hood decal that looks like a temporary tattoo you'd buy from a vending machine. There were also some genuine driving enhancements: mild suspension modifications, quicker steering, and better brakes all gave the AMX better handling than the standard Spirit, and the eight-gauge dash, unique steering wheel, and bucket seats implied serious sporting intent. Press the accelerator, though, and you'd quickly discover the 125 lazy horses under the hood with the 304 cid V-8 (or 110 hp with the 258 cid six).

Despite the flame decal on the hood, the AMX didn't set any sales figures on fire. Just 3,600 Spirit AMXs left dealerships in 1979—Ford managed to sell over 10 times more Mustangs that year. Sadly, few Spirit AMXs have survived the ravages of time. One of them, likely the world's best, has been to auction several times over the last few years, selling for a then-staggering $24,200 at Spring Auburn in 2019, at Mecum Chattanooga last year for $31,350, and then for $35,750 in Kissimmee this January. That's the high-water mark, though. While these late AMX have gotten pricier in recent years, Hagerty Price Guide values still put condition #2 cars in the teens and #1 values at under $30,000.

1978–81 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28

1978 saw the third and final facelift for the second-generation Camaro, and top-mustache status in the lineup went to the Z/28. Adorned with fender louvers, hood scoop, spoilers, decals and optional T-tops, the Z/28 screamed for attention. A close-ratio M21 4-speed and dual exhaust attached to the tried and true 170-190-horsepower 350 V-8 did their best to provide some entertainment, if not outright speed.

Late second-gen Z prices have steadily increased over the last five years, but the most substantial bump has occurred in the last 18 months. Average condition #2 value for a 1978-81 Z/28 is up 79 percent since 2017 to $43,400 (about the cost of a brand-new, 455-hp Camaro 2SS), but driver-quality #3 cars can still be found in the mid- to high-$20,000 range. A fixture of high school parking lots through the 80s and early 90s, these stickered-and-scooped Z/28s are unsurprisingly most coveted by Gen Xers: they make up 38 percent of Z/28 quotes even though they constitute 32 percent of the collector car market.

1977 Pontiac Le Mans Can Am

Named after a then-popular racing series that Pontiac had no involvement with (see also: Trans Am), the one-year-only '77 Can Am came at a time when Pontiac sold a lot of Firebirds but had little else in the way of sporty offerings. The 455-cid V-8 ceased production the previous year, and the GTO was retired after 1974. This was not a good look for what was traditionally considered GM's performance division, so Pontiac cobbled together the LeMans Can Am in an effort to preserve its performance image across more models. Even though the Can Am had little in the way of driving excitement, ads for it encouraged potential buyers to "Remember the Goat," suggesting GTO-like intentions.

The $1214 Can Am Option Package included variable ratio power steering, power front disc brakes, sport mirrors, Grand Prix instrument panel, and an optional Safe-T-Track limited-slip. Most cars came with a 400/200hp Pontiac V-8, but California and high altitude cars came with the wheezier 403/185hp Oldsmobile engine. All Can Ams came in Cameo White with orange, red and yellow graphic accents, and attention-grabbers borrowed from the Trans Am included the standard shaker hood and optional snowflake wheels.

Unfortunately, the Can Am name would not last long. Motortown Corporation was responsible for adding the appearance items on the car, and the tooling used for creating the rear spoiler broke after only about 1,300 Can Ams were produced. Rather than find any kind of workaround, Pontiac threw up their hands and canceled the model.

Despite their loud appearance, Can Ams are a rare and obscure piece of mustache muscle lore. Perhaps because of that, they've nearly doubled in value over the last five years to a #2 value of $29,900. Even that might be conservative, as one sold back in February on Bring a Trailer for $48,300 and another just sold at Mecum Indy for $70,400.

1983–84 Oldsmobile Cutlass Hurst

If mustache muscle cars are about visual excess, then the interior of the 1983-84 Hurst/Olds absolutely nails it. With the famous "Lightning Rod" shifter, Oldsmobile answered a question nobody was asking:"what if my automatic had not one, but three shifters?" The Lightning Rod's first lever is used for most driving, but if the need for speed arises you can pull each of the other two levers back to hold the transmission in first. Then, pushing one of the auxiliary levers puts the car in second, and the other shifts into third. This drag-style box seems a tad silly for a car with just 180hp from its 307-cid V-8.

As for the rest of the Hurst/Olds, it leveraged the heritage of the original '60s version without offering big speed. The engine did at least get a specific cam, distributor, and valve springs, as well as a Rochester four-barrel carburetor for more oomph over the standard Cutlass. A limited-slip was also optional both years. The '83 versions are finished in two-tone black on top of silver with 15th anniversary decals and dash plaque, while '84 cars reversed the paint scheme with silver on top of black. Just 3,001 were built for 1983 and 3,500 left the factory in 1984.

Prices for the triple-shifter Olds haven't spiked like they have for other members of the mustache muscle club, but they saw a modest 15 percent bump with Hagerty's latest pricing update. $26,500 will fetch a 1983 car in #2 condition, and $25,800 should grab a #2 condition '84 model. Naturally, they're popular with Gen Xers, who remember when they were new, and make up 36 percent of insurance quotes. Surprisingly, though, Millennials represent 35 percent of quotes for this Oldsmobile even though they make up just 21 percent of the market. Maybe it's the Lightning Rod gimmick, or maybe the Hurst/Olds is a shoo-in for Radwood.

1977–78 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am

We can't think of a car more closely associated with a movie than Burt Reynolds' black and gold Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit. "Bandit era" has become the descriptor for late '70s Firebirds, and when we say "mustache muscle," Burt's upper lip is the one that comes to mind.

Of course, "screaming chicken" is another term associated with these cars, although the massive bird decal on the hood is more turkey or eagle-sized. T-tops, snowflake wheels, spoilers and bright interiors also draw your gaze, but the cars still had reasonably good performance for the era. Although Pontiac's 455 engine was no more, buyers could get a Trans Am with 400/200-hp or 400/220-hp Pontiac engines as well as a 403/185-hp Olds V-8. The WS6 Special Performance Package became available on Trans Ams in 1978 and featured wider wheels and tires as well as a beefier rear sway bar, making the car a competent handler for its time.

These are probably the most famous and most loved mustache muscle cars, and they're also the most valuable. Collectors have had their eyes on low-mile and restored Trans Ams for several years, but these cars have still gone up in value significantly over the past 24 months, with condition #2 values up around 18 percent. The #2 value for a standard 1977–78 Trans Am is $52,600, but cars equipped with the Special Edition Package (like the one in Smokey and the Bandit) are worth more than twice as much. An ex-Burt Reynolds car sold at auction in 2019 for $391,000.

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Ford Heritage Vault goes online, breaks the internet

Intake: The gifted archivists at Ford’s Heritage Vault, the same folks who gave us access to their Bronco and Lincoln historical treasures, officially launched a website to share their internal database with everyone. Their work is so admirable that, at the time of writing, Ford fans overwhelmed it and made it crash! When the site has recovered its breath, fordheritagevault.com will offer a blizzard of official photos and roughly 3500 brochures ranging from the Model T to Ford’s modern-day product portfolio. Much more content is planned from every corner of the Blue Oval universe, and all brochures are scanned as high-resolution PDFs that are downloadable (be patient, they are big!) and searchable. Speaking of, the search feature lets you find content by year, make, model, and color. All this goodness is free for non-commercial use, so go ahead and dress up your personal Facebook page with your favorite Ford.

Exhaust: Breaking the Internet is a great honor in this case, proving that fordheritagevault.com gives the people precisely what they want. Ford Heritage even worked with Ford’s Accessibility/User Interface team to ensure its content accommodates the needs of the visually impaired. While big holes still need to be filled (i.e. it uploaded Edsel but not Mercury), it plan on digitizing everything they reasonably can, including copies of Ford Times magazine. Don’t hold your breath on seeing your favorite TV spot or magazine advertisement, however, as those contain actors and/or music that need royalty payments for the privilege. Which is fine, as we are thrilled to see Ford’s vault open up for more people to enjoy. (Side note: Did you know Bette Midler sued Ford for a Mercury Sable TV spot? Now you do!)

Got $55K and want to race touring cars? Scoop Honda’s Civic Si FE1

Intake: Honda Performance Development (HPD), the Big H’s skunkworks team, has announced more details on its new Civic Si FE1 race car. The new racer, which is eligible for SRO Motorsport’s TC America (TCA) touring car class, will be available this November to interested customer teams. For an all-in price of $55,000 plus tax, you’ll get a Civic Si chassis that comes with an installed roll cage and a swathe of HPD developed and homologated parts including the suspension setup, fuel cell, Motec electronics packages, and Honda’s L15CA 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. HPD also breathed on the car’s six-speed manual transmission to make it stronger for the rigors of race duty. The car does away with some of the road-going versions accoutrements, including the sunroof, sound proofing, underbody coating, and seam sealer—all in the name of weigh savings and performance. Interested in getting your hands on one? Pre-orders are open now—just have a $25,000 deposit ready, with the remainder due upon completion of the car.

Exhaust: TC America features cars from marques like Toyota (GR86), Nissan (370Z), Mini (JCW Cooper), and BMW (M2), all structured around keeping costs relatively low. This is the second time Honda’s done a factory-built Civic racer for the TCA class. The first one had some significant success against the Mazda Global MX-5 Cup—but it was dogged with allegations of cheating on the part of the fastest teams, allegations that were confirmed by technical inspections in 2018. So this new effort will be under the microscope. Why buy this instead of a Mazda Global MX-5 Cup car? It’s twenty-five grand cheaper.

Gran Turismo: The Movie to hit theaters in 2023

Intake: A live-action film based on the Playstation hit racing game Gran Turismo is due to be released in August 2023, reports Deadline. The motor movie is to be helmed by Neill Blomkamp, who directed science-fiction capers District 9, Elysium, and Chappie, and is to be based on the true story of a teen gamer who competed in the sim’s GT Academy to win a seat in a real race car. GT Academy was sponsored by Nissan, and after passing through qualifying events driving Nismo cars online, competitors then battled in real life for a place at an intensive driver development program, ultimately winning a drive in a Nismo race car for the 24 Hours of Dubai. The competition ran annually from 2008 to 2016, and produced a number of professional drivers still racing today.

Exhaust: Next year will be a hot one for race fans at the movies with Brad Pitt’s Formula 1 movie also headed to production, directed by Top Gun: Maverick‘s Joseph Kosinski. Who will win the race for ticket sales?

Developer of AMC Headquarters site seeks $32.6M in brownfield tax credits

Intake: NorthPoint Development is seeking $32.6 million in brownfield tax increment financing for its costs to redevelop the former AMC Headquarters site on Detroit’s west side. According to the Detroit News, the Missouri-based company will invest $71 million to redevelop the 50-acre site at 14250 Plymouth Road. The Detroit City Council will discuss the issue on Thursday, June 16, and the matter could be referred to the full council for a vote as early as Tuesday. Site work would include demolition of the AMC complex, abatement, and preparation of the property for construction. The former AMC Headquarters was abandoned in 2010. Redevelopment options include buildings for warehouse or light assembly industrial tenants.

Exhaust: Another historic automotive building is about to meet its doom, and while we make no apologies for our love of beautiful architecture—like the AMC Headquarters’ brick administration building—the project is expected to create 350 permanent jobs and 100 temporary construction jobs. That’s a win for Detroit.

This feisty fan car is gunning for a Goodwood record

Intake: McMurty Automotive has its sights on smashing the outright record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Its Spéirling electric track car uses a fan to generate over 4000 pounds of downforce even at a standstill and will literally be sucked onto the asphalt of the British stately home’s driveway. The rear-driven racer has twin electric motors, a power-to-weight ratio of 1000 bhp/tonne (922 hp/ton) and is said to be able to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in less than 1.5 seconds. Top speed for the record run will be limited by gearing to 150 mph, but the production version will be faster. Built around a carbon-fiber monocoque, the single-seat closed cockpit car also features active ride height suspension and carbon ceramic brakes. Former F1 and IndyCar racer Max Chilton has been the development driver and will share driving duties with British hillclimb expert Alex Summers on the Goodwood hill between June 23 and 26.

Exhaust: The McMurty team will have to better 39.9 seconds up the 1.16-mile course to take the record away from the VW ID.R driven by Romain Dumas in 2019. With Ken Block also aiming to take the title at Pike’s Peak, VW and Dumas could lose out twice in just a matter of days.

Ferrari will still be making gas-only cars by 2030

Intake: Despite its Purosangue SUV, which is now due in September, a slew of hybrids, and its first electric models, Ferrari isn’t abandoning gas-only powertrains. The company just hosted its Capital Markets Day, in which it sketched out its product plans from 2022 through 2026, with a few gestures to 2030. As previously announced, the first all-electric Ferrari will debut in 2025. By 2023, Ferrari’s hoping that 40 percent of its sales will be EV; in the short term, through 2026, hybrid will carry the volume. The gas-only, V-12 Purosangue SUV is not supposed to dominate sales: Ferrari promises it will account for no more than 20 percent. As it continues to develop internal-combustion powertrains, the marque will also explore alternative fuels.

Exhaust: Investors—the target audience at a Capital Markets Day—have cast a skeptical eye on Ferrari’s slow embrace of electric-only powertrains, but from where we sit, the marque knows exactly which side its ciabatta is buttered. It’s not about to burn high-redline bridges for the sake of a greener brand image. While its “SUV” title is alarming, the Purosangue sounds like more of an FF or GTC4Lusso follow-up than an Italian Cayenne, in on-road orientation, silhouette, and target volume. Can Ferrari succeed in being all things to all customers, balancing the books while placating investors and keeping purists in the fold? We’re feeling bullish.

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On October 5, 1962, the high-water mark of American Motors Corporation was arguably reached with the release of the all-new Rambler Classic and the flossier Rambler Ambassador. 464,000 new Ramblers were built for the model year. Between 1958 and 1963, the Rambler lineup—in its mid-priced, family-friendly Classic and deluxe Ambassador lines—hit a sweet spot in the domestic market that it never really recaptured.

When the all-new 1963 Classic and Ambassador debuted, AMC was at the top of its game, with appealing, well-built, sensible cars. After that, save the brief spark of the AMX, Javelin, Hornet and Eagle, it was mostly downhill.

The entry-level Rambler—and also the least-changed from 1962—was the American. Sure, it was suitably creased and de-finned to look like a ’60s U.S. car. But it also was pretty obvious it was a new suit on the old ’58 American, which itself was a rehash of the 1953 Nash Rambler. When my mom was in high school, a friend had a convertible of this generation, a 1961–63 named Fred. Fred the Rambler was very reliable. He might not have been cool in the high-school parking lot in 1970, but that car kept ticking along. And hey, the top went down—an added bonus.

The all-new 1963 Ramblers appeared, as previously mentioned, in October ’62. Other than the American, the lineup was very fresh-looking. Classics were initially six-cylinder vehicles, with only the fancier Ambassador getting a V-8—at least until the V8 Classic appeared in February 1963.

One big, new selling point was the one-piece outer “Uniside” construction. A significant portion of the bodyside was now a single, stamped piece. Not only did this make the 1963 Ramblers easier (and no doubt, less expensive) to build, fewer assemblies and nuts and bolts resulted in a quieter, less rattle-prone car.

The Classic was initially available in 550, 660, and top-trim 770 models, all with six-cylinder power. A two-door sedan, four-door sedan, and four-door station wagon were available in all trim levels. The Ambassador was quite similar, but understandably plusher, with nicer seats, door cards, and additional chrome.

These attractive new cars were unfortunately not offered as a convertible, but that was right in step with AMC’s target market. Sensible, perhaps even frugal, middle-class families. At this time, American Motors was not really into racing, speed, or anything sporty. As period advertising put it: “The only race we care about is the human race.”

An eight-passenger station wagon was also offered in the mid-range 660 trim. A V8 Classic appeared a few months after the 1963’s introduction. All six-cylinder models and body styles were available with the V-8, and ran about $100 higher than comparable sixes.

Prior to the V8 Classic appearing, the only Rambler you could get with a V-8 engine was the top-of-the-line Ambassador. As in 1962, the Ambassador shared the very same body (1961 and earlier models had a stretched wheelbase completely ahead of the windshield—a treatment going back to the Nash days) but had more exterior chrome, plusher interiors, unique wheel covers, and the aforementioned V-8. An Ambassador 990 four-door ran about $300 above a Classic 770 sedan with the six, or $150 above a V8 Classic 770.

Of course, it being the early ’60s, the station wagon and suburbia were the reigning king and queen. Rambler was right there in the thick of things, as all three of their car lines offered station wagons. The American even offered them in two- and four-door versions, albeit for the last time this year.

The Classic 770 was an excellent suburban kid-hauler and grocery getter. It was practical, affordable, and looked modern; I imagine they were just part of the scenery in their day. Like today’s CR-Vs, Equinoxes, and Explorers, these Cross Countrys were once a common sight at elementary schools, grocery stores, and little league games. Quite unlikely to make enthusiasts stand up and take notice. No, those folks with sporting blood would have totally ignored Ramblers and their arch-rival Falcons, Valiants, and Chevy IIs. But in suburbia, these were gold.

Today, these wagons look pretty stylish. But that’s just because styling in 2022 has taken a back seat to comfort, regulations, fuel efficiency, coefficient of drag, the preferences of focus groups, and rules, rules, rules. It’s funny how many say the car companies should do this thing, that thing, or the other thing instead of what they are doing right now. Car companies aren’t nostalgic. If crossovers are what the public wants, crossovers the public gets. I may have loved the recently terminated Lincoln Continental, Lincoln MKZ, Cadillac XTS, CT6, and others, but at the end of the day, car companies build what sells. My opinion is immaterial unless I’m shelling out for a brand-new car. In their day, these Rambler Cross Countrys were about as exciting as a Camry LE or Traverse LT.

An example: I dare you to go to your local Ford, Toyota, or Chevy dealer and attempt to order a new Malibu, Camry, or Jetta in metallic mauve with a maroon and mauve interior. Can’t be done, son. No colors in new cars! Colors are forbidden! But I digress.

I can thank my dad for our featured car. I had gone for a long drive, just for the heck of it, back in April of 2013. Winter was over, and I wanted to get out of the darn house. Eventually, I arrived at my folks’ house. As I walked in the door, Dad said he saw a cool old Rambler on the way back from Jewel-Osco (it was Sunday, which was Steak Nite back then!). So it was back to the car to go seek it out.

There were folks at the house the Rambler was parked at when I pulled up, but they were just friends of the homeowner. They had no problem with my taking some pictures, fortunately.

I would have liked any ’63 Rambler, but the maroon-over-mauve paint and trim (Calais Coral and Concord Maroon, officially) were really attractive. I could picture Laura Petrie driving this through New Rochelle, though Rob probably would have had a little Triumph Spitfire or MGB.

Or maybe Jerry and Millie Helper would have had the Rambler, while Laura would drive a Buick Estate Wagon? After all, Rob was a big-shot writer for Alan Brady. Yes, I am a big fan of The Dick Van Dyke Show!

While the 1964 model was essentially the same, I’ve always liked the ’63s better, with that oh-so-Jet Age concave grille. This was really the last Rambler designed when AMC could actually afford it. The 1967 models, heavily pushed by Roy Abernethy, were also a redesign, but AMC couldn’t really afford the re-do, especially when the ’67s completely tanked in the market. But the ’63s did okay, and received Motor Trend’s Golden Calipers to boot.

As Ramblers typically appealed to more frugal types, the Classic 550 and 660 sold better than the bechromed, top-of-the-line 770. Still, they didn’t do too bad, with 35,281 four-doors, 5496 two-doors and 19,319 six-cylinder 770s being built. Sales of V-8-equipped 770s totaled 7869 four-doors, 1341 two-doors, and 4399 wagons, but this particular wagon appeared to be equipped with a six, judging from the lack of front-fender V-8 badging.

According to the for-sale sign, it was an unrestored, original car with just 54,000 miles on the clock. I have a soft spot for all the independents, but the ’60s Ramblers are a close second after Studebakers, and they are so seldom seen in 2022—even at car shows! It was a pleasure to check out this Cross Country. I hope it found a good home.

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Certain makes and models take a lot of flak from armchair enthusiasts, especially when they are perceived to be plain or boring. Corolla, Camry, Accord, Malibu—and more recently, Equinox, Explorer, and Pilot. But let’s face it, most folks don’t give a flip about their marque’s heritage, prowess in racing or “cool” appearance. Heck, most people aren’t enthusiasts. All they want is a comfy seat to haul them and their family to work, to school, on vacations and to the grocery store. To start, go and stop when it is supposed to. And in 1968, here was one option in basic transportation: the 1968 Rambler American.

It is basic—and I do mean basic—particularly in this entry-level 220 trim. When I was approaching driving age in the late 1990s, though I was pretty sure I’d be getting a Volvo, my first car ideally had to have power windows, power brakes, power steering, air conditioning, and an automatic transmission. In 2022, just try to find a new automobile that doesn’t have all that stuff-and more.

The 220 was available only as a two or four-door sedan, listed at $1946 and $2024, respectively. For comparison’s sake, the top-of-the-line Rogue two-door hardtop (comparable to the 440, but not marketed as such) had a base price of $2244.

The American 440 series was the top trim level for four-doors and offered the sole station wagon. I particularly like the wagon, which was almost like an American Volvo 145. Interiors were much nicer than the rather stark accommodations in our featured car today.

An American 440 four-door was much more livable for the extra $140 above the 220 sedan, with exterior chrome trim, full wheel covers, carpeting and plusher upholstery and door panels. While the body dated to 1964, the 440/Rogue was quite an attractive compact. But for those fine folks looking for basic transportation and nothing more …

… there was this! The American 220 four-door sedan included as standard equipment four wheels and tires, two bench seats, a steering wheel, and an engine. I kid.

Seriously, standard equipment list featured a Weather-Eye heater, front armrests, front seat foam cushions (presumably the rear seat used springs and/or horsehair) and a dome light. That’s all. Of course, many options could be added on, but that would defeat the whole point of purchasing a 220 vis-à-vis a 440 or Rogue.

No touch screens, no power windows/locks, no cruise control, heated steering wheel, or back-up camera. You have a seat and steering wheel and pedals. Oh, and doors and glass to keep rain, snow, and slush off of you. Although this car’s original owner did apparently check the box for the automatic transmission, no radio was installed.

The 1968 Americans were introduced along with all the other AMC cars on September 27, 1967. While the original 1964 version had tunneled front fenders and headlights—a styling cue later reused on the 1974–78 Matador coupe—a facelift in 1966 squared up the front clip and hood and would carry on to 1969 with only slight exterior changes.

1968 Americans received a new grille, relocated “American” nameplates and other minor trim changes. And like all other domestics, they received the newly-mandated side marker lights on the front and rear fenders.

The 220 most appealed to folks wanting simple transportation with no frills. The American may have been slightly dated compared to, say, a Valiant (redesigned for ’67) or Nova (brand-new in ’68), but it was reliable with its big Six and had no complicated engineering or accessories. And was still much more modern than the humble VW-not that that hurt sales of Beetles any. 16,595 220 four-doors and 53,824 220 two-doors were sold, making this sedan the less commonly seen variant, then and now.

Most of you know me as a big fan of Brougham Era luxocruisers and boxy Volvos, but the honest truth is I like pretty much anything. Even if it is a vehicle I would never own, I will pore all over an interesting vehicle in a parking lot or at a show. When I saw the tell-tale boxy shape of a ’60s Rambler from John Deere Road, way back in December 2013, I had to check it out.

I loved this car’s honesty. No pretentiousness here: simple lines, ample glass area, good room and space inside, and a true-blue straight six! And I really liked those dog-dish hubcaps. Salt eats cars where I live, so seeing any car pre-1975 outside of a car show is pretty rare. But a genuine Rambler is a true find in this day and age. I was thrilled to check it out and would happily ride in this back seat, just to experience riding in a Rambler. I wouldn’t even care that there was no armrest.

Here you can see that radio blanking plate I mentioned earlier. I also like the gauges on this car–rather uncommon to see round gauges on such a basic car. Strip speedometers were usually seen most all Detroit (or Kenosha, in this case) rolling stock back in the ’60s.

This was the last year the American was branded as the “American.” The 1969 model was little changed but was simply called “Rambler” rather than Rambler American. Come 1970, it would be replaced by the all-new AMC Hornet. Such a nice, honest little car, this American. I hope its owner keeps it just as it is—a car from a time when basic really meant basic.

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Ask the average person to name five American car companies: American Motors (AMC) isn’t likely to be on the list. Ask the average young person what they think about AMC, and they’ll probably start talking about movie-theater recliners. Too bad, because AMC is a carmaker worth remembering.

Formed in 1954 through what was then largest corporate merger in U.S. history, American Motors mostly paid the bills with smaller, lower-priced cars like the Rambler. And although money was always tight for the company from Kenosha, Wisconsin, it was the only American company standing against the Big Three in an era when Detroit was nearly all-powerful. AMC built one of the first true crossovers in the 1980 Eagle 4×4, and from 1970 until the buyout by Chrysler in 1987, AMC owned Jeep and oversaw some of Jeep’s greatest hits like the Scrambler CJ-8 and the original Grand Wagoneer. During the late ’60s and early ’70s, AMC also had a brief but memorable streak building performance cars.

It’s been over 30 years since the AMC brand went defunct, and the cars from Kenosha have generally possessed limited appeal, typically for people looking for an eccentric muscle car (or those who frequent Concours d’Lemons). Indeed, there aren’t many of the cars to go around. For every insurance quote that Hagerty gets for an AMC, we receive 70 for a Chevrolet. AMC values have also stayed lower and steadier than their Big Three rivals for years. For some, their affordability may be tempting, but parts are harder to find. Plus, AMCs haven’t generally been worth enough money to justify restoration, so pristine examples are rare.

Even so, with most classic cars appreciating over the past year, muscle cars included, the American Motors underdogs have been making more noise in the market. And with a big AMC collection set to cross the block at Mecum Indy next week, now seems like a good time to check in on what’s happening with the company’s most popular models.

1968–74 Javelin

Early AMC brochures didn’t have much to get excited about. Think “sensible,” not “sexy.” By the mid-1960s, though, the company needed an image boost. Enter the 1968 Javelin, a brash V-8 two-door built on a compact platform (from the Rambler American) and aimed squarely at the Mustang, Camaro, and Barracuda. AMC was several years late to the pony car party but, hey—better late than never.

Available with several V-8s ranging from a 290-cubic-inch/225 hp mill to a 401/330 one, the Javelin got a facelift in 1970 and a thorough redesign in 1971 that gave the car its famous front wheelarches and long hood. Motor Trend called it “blatantly big, bold and brassy.” On track Roger Penske’s Javelins won the Trans Am title in 1971 and 1972, and in the showroom the Javelin was a success … at least for AMC. About 55,000 Javelins sold in 1968. That was cause for celebration in Wisconsin, but the same year Chevrolet sold 235,000 Camaros and Ford moved 300,000 Mustangs.

Almost 50 years after the last Javelins left Kenosha, they’re still significantly cheaper than their rivals from Detroit. The median condition #2 (Excellent) value is up 16 percent over the past five years but still sits at just $21,800. #2 values only range from the mid-teens for later, 1973 through ’74 base V-8 models to the mid- to high-20s for the high-performance SST and Javelin AMX.

Desirable options include the popular “Go Package,” which wasn’t identical year-to-year but typically included heavy-duty suspension, dual exhaust, power front-disc brakes and an available limited-slip differential. (Add 10 to 30 percent for Go Package-equipped cars.) Starting in 1969, the “Big Bad” series of paint colors was introduced. (Add 25 percent to the price of a car with Big Bad paint.) The 1970 Javelin was also available with the Mark Donohue package, which was a special rear ducktail spoiler fitted to 2500 Javelin SSTs to homologate the spoiler for racing. (Plus 15 percent.) Even the nicest and most loaded Javelin, then, won’t break the bank—at least if you’re used to looking at household-name muscle cars.

1968–70 AMX

The second strike in AMC’s one-two performance punch in 1968 was the AMX. Though derived from the Javelin and powered by the same engines, the first-gen AMX was a distinct model. For one, AMC lopped a full foot from the Javelin’s greenhouse to make the new model a dedicated two-seater. This creative thinking made the AMX America’s only mass-produced two seater coupe other than the Corvette. The AMX was also a much cheaper option than America’s sports car, with a price of about $3500 compared to $4500 for the Vette. AMC played this up in a cheeky 1968 ad that sandwiched a new AMX between a 1957 C1 and a 1957 Ford Thunderbird, proclaiming “the first American sports car for under $3500 since 1957.”

After a short 1968 through 1970 production run, the AMX was discontinued as a separate model to become a performance package on the regular Javelin. The OG AMX remains one of only a handful of home-grown two-seaters.

Super-rare variants of the AMX, like the AMX SS built by Hurst for racing, or the AMX 500 Special, which was built for Southern California AMC dealers, are holy grail cars for the AMC faithful (one 500 Special sold for $94,600 last year), but for the most part AMXs aren’t expensive cars. As when new, these cars remain performance bargains. The median #2 value for a 1968–70 AMX is $33,600; #2 values range from $27,200 for a 1968 model with the 290/225 engine to $52,100 for a 1970 model with the 390/325 hp engine. Add 20 percent for cars equipped with the “Go Package,” 25 to 30 percent for “Big Bad” paint schemes, and dock 20 for an automatic transmission.

Like values for most muscle cars, AMX prices dipped sharply during the Great Recession. They haven’t recovered their pre-2009 levels, either. Even so, the last few years have seen renewed interest in these offbeat two-seaters, especially over the last 12 months, and they’ve had a more pronounced upswing than their four-seat Javelin stablemates. Over the last three years the median #2 value is up 23 percent. With the latest update of the Hagerty Price Guide, #2 values are up anywhere from 8 percent to 17 percent depending on engine. With the number of insurance quotes and quoted values also nosing upward, it’s clear that more eyes are on the AMX—but they aren’t exactly new eyes. Millennials and Gen Zers quote fewer than 10 percent of AMXs. The renewed interest in AMC’s short-lived sports car is likely coming from boomers who either had an AMX when they were younger or are looking for a more affordable or more interesting alternative to the Big Three classics.

1969 SC/Rambler

There are a few reasons why the SC/Rambler is so cool. It’s the concept of muscle car distilled to its purest form: The biggest V-8 available smashed into the smallest, lightest body in the lineup. Its sparse equipment didn’t simply keep the weight down; it also kept the SC/Rambler cheap. In 1969, this was the only car you could buy for under three grand that had over 300 hp and could pull 14-second quarter-miles. And just look at it. Is there anything more delightfully outrageous than a red, white, and blue look-at-me-mobile with decals that say “AIR” and a massive arrow pointing into a mailbox of a hood scoop?

Produced in conjunction with Hurst Performance Products, AMC’s smallest muscle car was based on a standard Rambler, which was endowed with a 390-cubic-inch/315 hp V-8 from the AMX, front sway bar, 3.54 limited-slip differential (called a “Twin-Grip” in AMC-speak), four-speed manual, heavy-duty brakes, and heavy-duty suspension. And so the Rambler became the SC/Rambler (the “SC” stands for “Super Car”). “With this car you could make life miserable for any GTO, Roadrunner, Cobra Jet or Mach 1,” ran a period ad. Indeed, the SC/Rambler, which was aimed at NHRA F-Stock drag racing, was both seriously fast and seriously affordable. Although AMC only planned to build around 500, the company ended up selling over 1500. About 80 percent of buyers chose the loud and proud “A” paint scheme with the decals, although a more conservative “B” scheme was available.

SC/Ramblers are the most valuable regular-production AMCs in the Hagerty Price Guide, but for four years their values didn’t move at all. Then, with the latest update of our pricing last month, #2 values jumped 12 percent to $62,200. About two-thirds of buyer interest comes from boomers, which makes sense given the SC/Rambler’s high price and its birth at the height of the muscle car era.

1970 Rebel Machine

The one-year-only 1970 Rebel Machine is larger and less outrageous than the SC/Rambler that came before it, but that’s kind of like saying that Canada is colder than Finland. The Machine is still a bold bruiser with a gaping hood scoop and a patriotic paint scheme that shouts Francis Scott Key’s best from a mile away.

Based on AMC’s midsize Rambler Rebel, which competed with the likes of the Chevrolet Chevelle and Ford Torino, the Machine was developed by Hurst and was essentially a Rebel SST with a 390/340 hp engine and four-speed manual as well as hood-mounted tach, heavy-duty suspension with taller springs from a station wagon, a 3.91 Twin-Grip differential, and power disc brakes. After a little over 2300 examples of the factory hot-rod sold in 1970, AMC discontinued the model but kept the “Machine” name going on the new-for-1971 Matador with an available “Machine Go package.”

Another muscle car that dipped majorly during the Great Recession, the Rebel Machine has come back in a big way, particularly in the past three years. Its #2 value, currently at $55,900, is up 40 percent over the last three years and 72 percent over the last 10 years.

1970–78 Gremlin

Humbly marketed as “the first American-built import,” the Gremlin was an economy car that shared the roads with such distinguished company as the Chevy Vega, Ford Pinto, and the onslaught of imports vying for the attention of newly fuel-conscious American drivers in the 1970s.

Named after a mythical creature that breaks machinery, the Gremlin was supposedly first sketched out by designer Dick Teague on the back of an airline barf bag. Even worse (or better?), the car’s official debut was on April Fool’s Day in 1970. The Gremlin seemed destined to be a four-wheeled punchline, but it was cheap and reasonably practical in a time when that’s exactly the kind of car Americans wanted. AMC sold over 670,000 Gremlins from 1970 through 1978.

How many of those are left? Well, not many. You’d have to be a special kind of person to be driving a Gremlin in 2022, but these little rolling doorstops do have a following. It’s a surprisingly young crowd, too. Maybe because Gremlins are cheap—or maybe because the youngest set relishes irony—but Gen Zers, who make up just 6 percent of the collector car market, account for 17 percent of insurance quotes for Gremlins. Millennials count for 22 percent, too. That’s unusual for a car this old, which few from either generation remember.

Although values remained essentially flat from 2017 until the beginning of last year, they shot up 17 percent over the last 12 months. Now, the median #2 value is $11,600. Gremlins with the “X” package (stripes and decals, body color front fascia, bucket seats, road wheels) are most desirable and add a 30 percent premium to Gremlins equipped with the available 304-cubic-inch V-8. Another kitschy ’70s option that can add 20 percent to the price of a Gremlin is the Levi’s package, which included spun nylon upholstery that looks like jeans.

1975–80 American Motors Pacer

Following in the Gremlin’s footsteps, the Pacer debuted in 1975 with an ad claiming: “When you buy any other car, all you end up with is today’s car. When you get a Pacer, you get a piece of tomorrow.” Even though it was blessed with some clever features, like a longer passenger’s side door to facilitate back-seat access, the Pacer is mostly remembered as a car from yesterday that wasn’t very good and got too hot thanks to those huge windows.

Aside from Garth’s light blue, flame-decaled ’76 Pacer from Wayne’s World (which sold for $71,500, over four times its condition #1 value and almost double what it sold for back in 2016), Pacers are still among the cheapest of cheap classics. That said, the median condition #2 value in the Hagerty Price Guide is up 13 percent over the past three years to a nice round $10,000. Add 15 to 20 percent for special models like the Bicentennial edition or Limited package as well as a hefty premium for the 304-cubic-inch V-8 that arrived in 1978.

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A Bonneville-veteran 1968 AMC Javelin is headed to Mecum’s Indianapolis sale, May 13–21. This car previously sold for $85,000 back in 2012, but Mecum has much higher expectations this time around, with an estimated sale price of $150,000-$175,000. What kind of pedigree does it take to warrant such a premium? Claiming a land speed record while being piloted by the first person to reach 500 mph and 600 mph on land certainly helps.

This car and two nearly identical siblings were built by AMC for a promotion with Car Craft magazine and Edelbrock. Nine entrants would be selected via mail-in entry to make up three, three-person teams that would tune and crew three specially-prepared 1968 Javelins. Craig Breedlove would then race them on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Just a few years prior, Breedlove had been in the midst of a land-speed-record spree with brothers Walt and Art Arfons, who each built and campaigned cars to claim the title of world’s fastest. Breedlove’s 600.601 mph record, set in 1965, was still holding in November 1968 when the “Javelin Speed Spectacular at Bonneville” was held. Breedlove drove each car across the salt and this one, the middle of the three, was the fastest, claiming the C/Production record with a flying mile speed of 161.733 mph.

Despite the listing claiming that the car is powered by a 304-cubic-inch V-8, the car’s emblems, number, and engine class say otherwise. The SCTA’s “C” engine class is for engine displacements from 306–372.99 cubic inches. AMC’s 304 V-8 would have competed in the D engine class, and it didn’t debut until 1970.

The SCTA’s “Production” class requires modifications for safety and allows lots of engine modification, but they’re strict on what’s allowed as far as aerodynamics. A vehicle’s factory spoilers and air dams can make a world of difference, and competitors have selected some interesting cars based on what slides through the air without becoming unstable at speed. One of the most successful cars in the Production class right now is a Chevy Monza campaigned by John Cohn and Bob Jucewic; it currently holds three records as high as 228.140 mph set back in 2008. The C/Pro record is currently held by Ed Voss, who piloted his 1973 Mustang fastback to a two-way average of 221.871 mph in 2020.

We’re not exactly sure what the AMC team did to squeeze extra power out of the AMC 343 V-8, but the sponsor lettering on the door gives us a pretty good idea. “Mondello Porting” points to cylinder head modifications by Joe Mondello, the southern California engine builder who became synonymous with high-performance Oldsmobile V-8s. There are also “Doug’s Headers” and “Crower Cams” which speak for themselves. Obvious upgrades in the engine bay include a beefy ignition system and cross-ram intake from Edelbrock, topped by a pair of Holley carburetors. That intake, Edelbock’s STR-11, is a sought-after piece and they’re in short supply today, with prices in the $3000 range.

Considering many of the most high-profile race cars of the muscle car era were road course or drag strip vehicles, this land speed promotion makes this Javelin a bit of an oddity. For the collector that values land speed racing royalty, however, it doesn’t get much cooler than Craig Breedlove, and AMC’s early Javelin is arguably the best-looking pony car the brand ever built. Combine that with one of the best paint schemes in racing and this might be the hottest AMC this side of a Mark Donohue-driven Trans Am Javelin.

But Donohoe’s Javelin never had a parachute on the back, that’s for sure.

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This lil’ red box may look like an overgrown Hot Wheels, but it’s actually a real-deal, crowd-pleasing concept car built by American Motors (AMC), with styling not by Mattel but by legendary designer Dick Teague. Back in the late 1970s, it showed off AMC’s design chops on tour and hinted at the future of the company. That future that sadly never came, but today, in 2022, the wacky and huge-windowed two-door van is for sale through the RM Sotheby’s “Sand Lots” sale. The online auction runs from May 25 – June 1.

AMC built the “AM Van” specifically for a traveling tour in 1977 dubbed “Concept 80”, a PR gimmick put on by America’s fourth-largest automaker. Concept 80 visited seven different cities and featured seven different concept cars. “Concept I” and “Concept II” offered obvious hints of the Gremlin and Pacer. A two-door hatchback called the “Grand Touring” was the sporty one of the bunch, and there was even an itty-bitty wedge-shaped electric hatch with pop-up headlights called the “Concept Electron.”

The big hit, however, was the AM Van. When AMC polled show-goers to find out which concept car was their favorite, the van got nearly a third of the overall vote.

Futuristic yet familiar, the AM Van has the face and curves of a Pacer, albeit stretched out a bit into the shape of a compact cargo-carrier. On top of that is more glass than the Shedd Aquarium.

Teague’s design team must have forgotten all notions of the word “subtlety” when shaping this little red hauler. The hilariously large sporty wheels wrapped in All-Terrain T/As, the fat fender flares, the shiny side pipes and the bright “Turbo” and “4×4” decals don’t hint at performance. More of a blood-curdling shout.

Designed with forced induction and four-wheel drive in mind, the AM Van would have been cutting-edge stuff in the late ’70s, and a four-wheel-drive AMC wouldn’t come until the Eagle 4×4 crossover of 1980. Seating is three abreast with cargo space in the rear but, alas, those orange decals write a check that this concept can’t cash. Underneath those fiberglass haunches sits merely a wooden frame with partial interior and no drivetrain. The concept does roll freely on those BFG tires, so it really is more like an overgrown toy car after all.

American Motors was never swimming in development dollars. It certainly wasn’t in 1977. Unfortunately, the “Concept 80” cars remained just that—concepts. Instead, a cash-strapped AMC went into the ’80s with revamped versions of the Gremlin and Hornet called the Spirit and Concord, respectively.

Would the AM Van have saved AMC (which merged into Chrysler in 1990) if the company had decided to add it to the lineup? Probably not, but it’s always fun to think about the what-ifs.

As for the one and only concept example, it has been in a well-known concept car collection for the past 35 years and remains in all-original condition, just as it left the AMC design studio in 1977. While there is no presale estimate for it at this auction, the AM Van was offered for sale on eBay back in 2017 with a $72,000 Buy It Now price, but it presumably attracted no takers.

Maybe that’s too much money for garage art, but then again, this oddball is more than just a giant Hot Wheels. It’s a piece of AMC history.

The post Is this funky AM Van the greatest AMC that never was? appeared first on Hagerty Media.

I was 19 years old in 2004, when I picked up my first Rambler after seeing it for sale on the side of the road in Homeland, California.

It was a 1969, and I traded it straight across for my partially operational Ford Bronco II. During the process of working on the Rambler, I had just rebuilt the carburetor and thought it would be cool to do a big burnout in reverse. Well, my friend happened to pull up behind me as I was doing that, and I smashed the whole rear of the car. In the end, I sold it for $500.

Throughout the years, I kept my eyes open for a replacement, and in 2018, I came across a 1968 Rambler. Going through a tough divorce, I purchased the car from a 95-year-old woman in El Segundo, California, to help keep my mind right. I planned to spend all the free time I had focusing on something positive—this new project.

My mission was to completely rebuild the car. In less than two years, I got my Rambler roadworthy. I had all the bodywork and paint done professionally, sticking close to the original paint scheme but with some added touches—I used BMW’s water-based two-stage Donington Grey metallic, which really stands out. I also tinted the windows and painted the window frames black to mimic a hard-top Rambler.

I had all the seats redone in tweed and replaced the vinyl floor with a carpet kit I found on eBay. I then added some American Racing wheels I picked up from a 1965 Ford Mustang. To top it all off, I have a 383 stroker motor waiting for the day the original 232 AMC six gives up—which might never happen, so I may have a running 232 for sale in the near future.

It has been a fun, therapeutic build, and I look forward to seeing some of you at upcoming Southern California car shows.

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Generally, I’m a “defensive driver.” Even more so, when I’m behind the wheel of my 1972 AMC Ambassador. But some incidents on the road are beyond our control, which was the case when a GMC pickup towing a Chevy Vega rear-ended me on the way from a car show. I had slowed down due to a delivery van blocking half the road on a blind curve when suddenly a horn blared, tires squealed, and I felt a sickening slam from behind as my car lurched forward.

Thankfully, the fellow who hit me was only going about 25 mph. Remembering my “car accident protocol,” I immediately started taking photos. The Ambassador’s rear bumper had crumpled like tinfoil, but at least nothing was leaking or on fire. The pickup driver and I exchanged insurance info, and the delivery driver took off before I could talk to her, probably to block the road somewhere else.

As we traded numbers, the other fellow looked at my car and said,

“Wow, you don’t see many of these around anymore. You’re gonna have a heck of a time getting parts for this thing!”

I was irritated because I knew he was right, and my frustration increased when I inspected the damage further. The bumper was pushed in pretty far, both taillight lenses were cracked, the left hand quarter panel extension had a kink in it, and the fairing underneath the bumper was bent. With some effort I pried the trunk open and found that the rear trunk wall had caved in slightly as well. On the bright side, all four doors still opened and closed, and I was able to carefully drive the car home.

AMC owners are well aware that parts can be hard to find, even for popular models like Javelins and AMXs. A small but dedicated number of enthusiasts work diligently to salvage and collect any AMC-related objects they can get their hands on, but finding parts specific to a big, boring 4-door sedan like mine could still be a challenge. Unlike a classic Mustang owner, I couldn’t just order a brand new bumper on Amazon and have it shipped to my house in a week. This job would require some networking.

I Know a Guy

My advice to anyone new to the classic car hobby is to find a mentor who can share their experience, wisdom, and contacts with you. For me, that was Homer. I jokingly referred to him as “the AMC whisperer.” He owns several American Motors cars in various conditions and stages of operation, and he previously replaced the transmission in my Ambassador. I figured if anybody could help me, he could.

After a quick call, things were looking up! Homer had a bumper rechromed several years ago that should fit my car, he found an NOS set of tail light lenses in his basement, and he had a rusted-out ‘73 Ambassador that I could snag taillight housings from, since mine were likely broken, too. While it wasn’t quite as easy as shopping online, within 48 hours of being rear-ended, I had almost all the parts I needed. But, there was a catch.

The Fine Print

Two days later, the insurance company sent an appraiser to inspect my car. At this point my Ambassador was bundled into my insurance for my daily drivers, as I didn’t want to spend extra money on a classic-specific policy. As I was about to learn, this was a foolish mistake.

The appraiser looked things over, consulted his little guidebook, and proclaimed that my car’s estimated value was only $1500. Therefore, since the car was worth less money than it would cost to repair, it would be totaled.

Distraught, I argued with him. He was perfectly polite but firm in his assessment, claiming they did all their appraisals “by the guidebook.”

Now, I’m aware collectors don’t go wild for old AMC sedans. But from years of online window shopping, I knew even the crummiest running and driving Ambassadors were worth at least $3,000, and pre-accident, mine was in decent shape. Even though I never viewed my car as an investment, it sounded like his “guide” was treating it like something you’d find on a cheap used car lot, not a collectible.

After he left, I fired off an angry email to my insurance agent, including what I paid for my car and classified ads for similarly-priced Ambassadors.

It turns out I had made a rookie mistake, by having a “Stated Value” insurance policy instead of an “Agreed Value” policy. Most daily drivers are covered by “Actual Cash Value” policies, which means after an accident, the car’s value is determined by NADA or other vehicle pricing guides.

Most classic car owners prefer “Agreed Value” policies, where the owner and the insurer agree on how much the car is worth from the beginning. That way if somebody decides their rusty Chevette is worth $80,000, the insurance company will insure it for that, no questions asked.

When I purchased my insurance, I thought “Stated Value” was the same thing as “Agreed Value”, but it’s not. In the case of an accident, a “Stated Value” policy determines my vehicle’s worth by comparing the dollar amount I chose versus the dollar amount in the guidebook, and then it pays out whichever one is lower. I’d made a horrible mistake.

However, my insurance agent must have really liked me, because she contacted the appraiser and told him to give my car a second chance. He later called to say his first appraisal was inaccurate, and that my Ambassador wouldn’t be totaled, after all. He told me good luck with the repairs and the money was on its way.

Better to be Pissed Off…

Unfortunately, a family of mice had gotten into Homer’s part supply and urinated all over his rechromed bumper. Nasty streaks lined the metal, it had nearly rusted through in one spot. As for the taillight housings, they were solid, but a bit grungy from spending 30 years on a car stored outside. The NOS tail light lenses were absolutely pristine, but it turned out they were from 1973, not 1972. I actually preferred the ‘73 design, so that was a win, at least

With a discount for the mouse-pee bumper, I wrote him a check and set about finding a place to redo the chrome for a second time. The rusty patch needed to be cleaned, filled, and smoothed over. Then, the bumper would be chemically stripped down to bare metal, before being electroplated in different vats of acid with multiple coatings of nickel, copper, and chromium. All the labor, hazardous chemicals, and expensive metals required meant this process would not be cheap.

My first call yielded a disconnected number from a shop that went out of business. My second gave me a $1,000 estimate and six week waiting list. My third gave me a $1,500 estimate and a six month waiting list. Finally, I found a small shop 90 minutes away that could do it in a few weeks.

I followed my GPS to a little house with a trailer out back. A man named Don answered the door and invited me inside his trailer, equipped with carpet, air-conditioning, cable TV, and a variety of metalworking tools. The actual plating was done off-site.

As if he were reading someone’s palm, Don took the bumper and pointed out minute details I had no idea existed. Apparently he could tell it had previously been dented, hammered out, and re-chromed. All of which were done poorly, in his opinion. Worried about repair costs, I told him it didn’t need to be perfect. My Ambassador was a “fifteen-footer” car, and I didn’t mind if the bumper was, too.

Annoyed, he replied that didn’t do shoddy work on purpose. He proceeded to show me a set of absolutely stunning 1960’s Corvette bumpers, which had come to him from a junkyard, perforated with rust. He softened a little and said he wouldn’t go too overboard on my bumper, but I could tell he thought less of me for not wanting every nick smoothed out. I braced for his final estimate but was shocked when he only asked for $700. I happily paid him half up front and left.

Truck Stop

After months of calls, appointments, and disappointments, it looked like I was in the home stretch. A friend who restored Studebakers recommended a local body shop, and they could take my car soon. All I needed was the bumper, which was taking longer than expected. Finally, Don called me in early November to say it was done.

He did a beautiful job, and I couldn’t help making faces in the new chrome’s mirror-finish. However, the week I was scheduled to see the body shop, the forecast called for snow, and the roads were promptly slathered with calcium chloride. Winter had come early, and there was no way I’d put the Ambassador anywhere near that corrosive cocktail of ice-melting chemicals.

So, I reluctantly tucked it away for a long winter nap. Finally, spring broke and I carefully drove the Ambassador to the shop. (The brake lights were cracked, but still functional.) Looking at the smashed bumper, caved-in trunk wall, kinked panel extension, bent valance, and more, the body guy said with confidence that he could fix the Ambassador. So I left him the keys and hoped he was right.

One anxious month later, I headed down to pick up my car. The new chrome looked sharp, the trunk opened and closed properly again, and the new paint matched the old pretty well. The guy mentioned something about the rear blinkers giving him some trouble, but supposedly they worked now. I should have paid more attention, but at this point it had been nearly a year since the accident, and I was just happy to have the car back in one piece.

Nothing but the Tail Lights

Unfortunately, my journey wasn’t over. The body shop did a nice job on the paint and sheet metal, but something was off. After a few days, I noticed that the rear bumper was crooked. Not only that, the taillights inside the rear bumper were crooked, and the plastic was rubbing against the chrome, scratching the plastic. Worse still, the brake lights and turn signals weren’t lighting correctly. Most distressingly, when I opened the truck, I realized that the shop had reused all the old hardware, meaning the Ambassador was put back together with rusty nuts and bolts.

I might not be able to electroplate metal or blend paint colors, but I was determined to fix this. My friend Alex and I tore off the bumper, detached the taillight housings, and unplugged the wires. After comparing the re-chromed bumper to the old one, we realized that the new bumper had been bent down slightly and the opening for the lenses was too small. Because the lenses didn’t fit, they were scraping against the metal.

Using some bar clamps, towels, and wood blocks, we rigged up a system to slowly bend the bumper back open. Next, we went to the hardware store and bought several pounds of nuts, bolts, washers, and lock washers to replace all the corroded hardware. For good measure, I shined up the rusty bumper brackets with a wire brush and spray painted them with rust encapsulator.

Onward we moved to the lights. I had a hunch that grounding might be the issue, but Alex suggested checking the bulbs. It turned out to be both. The bulbs weren’t burned out; they were worn out. Years of vibration had worn the contacts down to where they weren’t touching consistently.

After replacing the bulbs, I realized that the bulb sockets were grounded to the housings and the housings were grounded to the car. So I wire-brushed around the sockets, then brushed the metal where the housings bolted to the bumper. After every contact point was nice and shiny, there were no more grounding problems.

After removing our clamping apparatus, we successfully tested to make sure the lenses would now fit inside the bumper as intended. Next, the re-assembled the taillights, and smoothly reinstalled the re-bent, re-chromed, formerly peed-on bumper over top. The whole assembly still looked a bit crooked, but at least nothing was rubbing or scraping. From 15 feet away, it looked pretty good!

So, an entire year and a couple thousand dollars later, my Ambassador was finally, finally fixed. All of the lights worked, the new chrome sparkled, the trunk opened and shut easily, and even the paint looked pretty good. Alex and I celebrated by driving to a car show, where we ended up next to a 1977 Hornet AMX.

It’s Not What You Know…

From the moment the GMC truck had hit me I’d known that I was in for a world of frustration, but I had no idea it would take so long. In retrospect nothing was very difficult, but all the waiting was exasperating. The rear end still isn’t perfect, but I guess that means it matches the rest of my 50 year-old car. It’s better than it was, and that’s good enough for me.

The real lesson here is the importance of surrounding yourself with good people. During each step of the process, somebody helped me along. Homer helped me get parts. Don taught me about chrome plating. Alex helped me fix the bumper and the lights. Countless other friends from the AMC community provided insight and advice, making what could be a very painful experience at least a little easier.

Most importantly, my insurance agent helped save my car, after it was almost sent to a junkyard on a technicality. As it turned out, she also sells Hagerty insurance, so I finally bit the bullet and got a specific classic policy for the Ambassador. And I didn’t even have to change insurance agents.

Although I’m grateful that it was a relatively small accident, I’m hoping nothing like this ever happens to me again. But if it does; at least I’m better prepared. In the meantime I’ll be staying far away from anyone towing a Chevy Vega.

The post How a small fender-bender in my ’72 AMC turned into a big headache appeared first on Hagerty Media.

For more than a generation, journalists, editors, and producers of television news looking to illustrate “by-the-numbers pieces” on the dismal state of American manufacturing have flocked to Detroit’s ruins. Though neither the old Michigan Central train station nor the abandoned Packard plant on the city’s east side had anything to do with the post oil-crisis decline of the U.S. auto industry, they’ve been unjustly conscripted as poster children for domestic sector’s fall from glory.

Hope is on the horizon, however. Ford Motor Company is renovating the train depot to be part of a high-tech R&D campus and it looks like the huge Packard site will also finally be redeveloped. Lesser-known locales are also getting their chance: The latest candidate, as Detroit mayor Mike Duggan announced last month, is the former American Motors Corporation headquarters on Plymouth Road in Detroit’s west side. Abandoned for more than a decade, the complex will be the subject of a $66 million redevelopment plan.

While not as well known as some of Detroit’s other industrial hulks, the 56-acre site has a long automotive history. If you’re a fan of AMC cars or pre-Chrysler Jeep utility vehicles, there’s a very good chance that the cars and trucks you love were designed and engineered on Plymouth Road. The Javelin, AMX, Hornet, Gremlin, Rebel, AMX/3 supercar concept, George Romney’s compact Rambler, the Jeep CJ-7, and the original Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee were all developed at what originally was a Kelvinator facility.

In 1925, Kelvinator introduced the first completely self-contained home refrigerators, which were so successful that the company built a new factory and management building on Detroit’s Plymouth Road, starting construction in 1926. The building is fronted by administrative offices and an eight-story Art Deco tower that dominates the mostly residential neighborhood that grew up around the facility. A quote from Lord Kelvin—”I’ve thought of a better way”—once lay in bas-relief above the front entrance. Behind the office building lies a three-story factory with internal courtyards that admit natural lighting to the plant. Eventually the complex would comprise almost 2 million square feet of industrial and office space. In early 1937, the refrigerator company merged with the Nash automobile company, apparently a condition that Kelvinator CEO George Mason extracted from Charles Nash before Mason was hired to run the car company.

During WWII, as American manufacturers switched to military production and Detroit became known as the “Arsenal of Democracy,” the factory switched from making refrigerators to making Sikorsky R-6 helicopters for the U.S. Army. After the war, Mason could see the writing on the wall for America’s independent automakers and lobbied for a merger of Nash, Hudson, Studebaker, and Packard to create a conglomerate with the resources to compete with the Big Three—GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Personality conflicts between Mason and Packard’s James Nance prevented the mega merger but, in 1954, Mason did manage to merge Nash with Hudson to create the American Motors Corporation. At the time, it was largest corporate merger in American history. The Plymouth Road facility became AMC’s headquarters and the company’s primary design and engineering center. AMC would sell off its appliance division in 1968.

The building remained AMC’s nerve center until 1975, when the company built a new office tower in suburban Southfield and moved its headquarters there. According to Mayor Duggan, then-mayor Coleman Young was so angry about the move that he vowed that neither he nor the city of Detroit would ever buy another AMC product.

Though both management and AMC’s main design staff made the move, the Plymouth Road facility became the site of Jeep’s engineering offices. That’s where Roy Lunn engineered the original Cherokee, arguably the most durable American car or truck ever made, and created the original crossover vehicle, the AMC Eagle, by mounting a Jeep drivetrain beneath a Hornet station wagon. After Chrysler’s acquisition of American Motors in 1987, the AMC building was renamed the Jeep Truck and Engineering Center. That’s where the landmark 1994 Dodge Ram pickup truck and the original Jeep Grand Cherokee, two vehicles that have proven essential to Chrysler’s continued survival, were designed and developed.

The revitalized Chrysler Corp. built an all-new headquarters and engineering campus in Auburn Hills, Michigan, moving there from Highland Park in 1996. Over the next decade more and more work was transferred from Plymouth Road out to the Auburn Hills facility. In the wake of Chrysler’s 2009 bankruptcy and restructuring, all activity at the former AMC building ceased and the property was divested as part of the bankruptcy. The building was essentially abandoned in 2010 and since then it has been the target of graffiti taggers, vandals, scavengers, and industrial spelunkers. At some point, Lord Kelvin’s quote over the front door has been effaced, though the adjacent graphics honoring science and technology remain. Hopefully, those will be preserved during the demolition.

According to the announcement by Mayor Duggan, the redeveloped property will continue to be used by the automotive sector. NorthPoint Development, a Missouri based real estate firm, will be tearing down the original Kelvinator buildings and replacing them with two all-new structures totaling more than 720,000 square feet of Class A industrial space that the company plans on leasing to an as yet unidentified automotive-parts supplier.

The city of Detroit is selling the former AMC site and 26 adjacent residential lots for almost $5.9 million to NorthPoint and it is estimated that demolition and environmental remediation will cost approximately $10M, for which NorthPoint will be responsible, although that cost will be credited against the purchase price by a tax break from the city of Detroit.

Officials say that demolition and construction will employ about 150 people and, when completed, the new facility will create more than 300 permanent, full-time jobs. Mayor Duggan described the redevelopment of the site as a step to “erase the ruin porn from the city’s landscape.” The Detroit News reports that Duggan said: “I am convinced within a couple of years, you’re going to see a manufacturing facility employing 300 or 400 people to be a source of employment in this neighborhood instead of a source of embarrassment. Before we’re done, we’re going to have this same announcement at the Packard Plant and get rid of the rest of the blight in this city.”

The real estate sale and tax incentives have yet to be approved by Detroit’s City Council. The development plans also need the nod from the Detroit Land Bank Authority, which manages city-owned property, and from the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, which oversees remediation of industrial sites. Assuming that the city’s legislators and bureaucrats agree with the mayor, demolition could start later this year and new construction beginning in 2023, with occupancy ready the following year.

The post Historic American Motors’ headquarters site to undergo $66M redevelopment appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Welcome to What If? Quick Take, a new feature from imaginative illustrator Abimelec Arellano and Hagerty. While the cars shown in our regular What If? features are full 3D renderings and can appear in any number of images, the Quick Takes are off-the-cuff expressions of Abimelec’s imagination. Each one is accompanied by a short story. Enjoy! — Jack Baruth

Kristin didn’t recognize the number that was buzzing her iPhone, but she recognized the area code — North Carolina — and she was pretty sure she knew what had happened.

David was dead.

Her first love, her truest love, the gorgeous and talented boy who still appeared in her dreams just as he’d been when they were fifteen years old. From a needle, or a pill, or a bottle. She only needed to answer the phone to find out which. So she did.

“Kristin… it’s Michael. We…”

“I know,” she replied, to save him the pain. “David is gone.” She heard a sigh of relief that Michael caught in his throat before letting it go all the way, then,

“Who told you?”

“Nobody told me, Mikey. But we all knew it would happen. It was just a question of when. Can you tell me…”

“Kristin, he was sick for a long time. He’s been in and out of the hospital down here for more than a year. Something called… cardiomyopathy. From drinking. He’d been clean for a while. No needles, none of the hard stuff. He was sober, for a while. We talked a lot about it. Kristin, he wanted you to know. He wanted to call you. But he was ashamed. Because it was already too late. His heart had gotten weak from drinking so much, for so long. They tried a lot of different things, but… Kristin, at the end he asked for you to come. He asked if you would come to the funeral. He said…” and it was then that Michael finally broke into tears, a swelling crescendo of open grief that didn’t stop even when Kristin agreed to make the trip, over and over again, her Yes like a mantra, from monotone into pleading, until they were both silent and there was nothing left to say.

It was a Tuesday evening and the funeral was Saturday morning. She’d work a double tomorrow, clear her desk, head down first thing Thursday. Michael said there would be a party Friday evening, David’s friends but not his family, they’d washed their hands of him years ago.

Thirty-six hours later she was on the road in her new wagon, this AMC Eagle she’d bought in the middle of the pandemic because it made her feel safe somehow. The fellow she’d been dating at the time, this semi-moronic bulk of a divorced dad named Sean, told her it was just a Subaru, that AMC hadn’t done anything original since the Chrysler buyout had failed and the company had entered into an odd form of manufacturing partnership with several different companies.

“Made in Kenosha? Sure,” Sean had said, tapping the hood in a possessive manner that Kristin found unaccountably infuriating. “But when Uncle Sam bailed them out, part of the deal was that they’d license established car designs. It was super Communist, actually. And that was a time when people thought Communism was bad.” Maybe it was the smug, entitled way Sean delivered his verdict, or maybe that it was followed by yet another night of the worst intimacy she’d encountered in the past twenty-five mostly single years, but two weeks later she blocked him everywhere and refused to answer the door when he knocked. After three days he stopped knocking. Which was fine. He’d been terrible in every way that really mattered.

David, by contrast, had been the very best, though he was also the very first. As a precocious, overly tall and bold professor’s daughter who never got to spend two years in a row at the same school due to Dad’s brilliant academic career, she’d been all but invisible to the shouting and swaggering boys at their Triangle-area suburban high school. Invisible, to everyone but him. They were in drama class together. David was even taller than she was, even more willowy and ethereal, with a face that seemed made of rubber the way it could emote on command during a performance in a manner visible all the way to the cheap seats.

“I know something you don’t,” was the first thing he’d ever said to her, ten days after the start of the school year, before he’d even asked her name. Kristin had risen to the challenge with a fighter’s stance.

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“I know,” and he winked at her, “where to get high at this school.” Three nights later, on the roof of an abandoned mill, she smoked weed for the first time in her life, while David looked on with the proud but worried expression of a coach or teacher with an exceptionally talented student. They returned there again and again during that school year, learning how to touch each other in the space between conversations that seemed so profound and meaningful at the time but which she could no longer recall in any detail.

David was everything to her, but she was not everything to him. There were no other women, though she raged at him and accused him of a thousand infidelities on the phone line between her parents’ house and the shack where he lived with his grandmother. His love was different. It was a love of excess, an adoration of inebriation. He started the morning hung over, continued it drunk, and finished the night stoned. Things got worse and worse. By the middle of senior year he was missing too much school. They said he wouldn’t graduate.

Kristin formed an ad hoc intervention with the friends in their circle — Michael, a joker nicknamed Wonderbread, their good-time companion Freddie — and David swore he would improve. He did, for a month or so. Then it got worse. One night she touched him in the dark and felt fresh needle marks in the crook of his left arm. That was when she knew she had a choice: leave him, or follow him all the way down.

“Anywhere you go,” she sang in the strong voice that had fronted a half-dozen mostly worthless college bands, “I’ll follow you down.” The white fields of snowy Ohio had yielded to a mostly dead vista that said North Carolina in winter to her. She saw the glider field where she’d learned to fly, then recoiled from a physical pang of guilt; the older man who taught her to handle a glider had also been how she’d gotten over David. It felt dirty at the time, and worse now. Twenty years had passed since she had taken a tow airborne.

The drive had been so quick, her Eagle skimming fearlessly over the roads where even the pickup trucks had scattered and slid. She liked the AMC, which she’d nicknamed Sam. Sam the Eagle. The woodgrain hadn’t been her choice; stock was always low at the AMC dealer, supposedly because Subaru got their allocation built before the American company did. But she loved it now. It felt like home. Snug in her heated seat, the stereo blasting the Gin Blossoms and Cracker and PJ Harvey, she could feel the years disappear.

Lunch with Michael the next day put all of those years back, and then some. While Kristin listened patiently, Michael told her the full horrible story. How David had “used” until nobody could help or save him. How they’d lost track of him for a few years before he showed up at Wonderbread’s house, rail-thin and bleeding from sores on his face and body. “And then, after he got married…”

“Wait,” Kristin snapped, unashamed of what this revealed about her, “David got married?”

“Yes,” Michael replied. “This wonderful girl, he met her at the community theater. She got him clean, kept him that way for a while. They had plans. He was working, with his hands the way he liked, at the art co-op downtown, putting together wooden frames for the painters there. You didn’t get the wedding invite? It was five or six years ago.”

“No,” Kristin lied, thinking of the North-Carolina-postmarked envelopes she’d thrown away unopened for years.

“That’s odd. I just thought you didn’t care enough to come. Well, he had a big relapse and they separated. Lost his job, was living with Wonderbread again. After the election last year, he got clean and we thought it might stick. Said he finally felt like living in this country, despite the pandemic. But he was already having heart trouble. It got worse and it… it conquered him, I guess. Sally and I were with David at the end. He said she was the love of his life. But… he still asked for you.”

That evening, Kristin almost skipped the party; she’d found a bottle of Bulleit rye at a store and figured it would be better to drink it alone than confront this Sally person. But when Michael showed up at the hotel to pick her up she lost her nerve, or perhaps gained it. Once they walked into Wonderbread’s place it was like being home in a way that Ohio had never been. Her old crew. The old music. And somehow they could talk, and smile, and share stories, like David was there with them.

Walking into the kitchen, Kristin bumped into a chubby little blonde who impulsively hugged her then said, by way of explanation, “I’m Sally. You’re Kristin. I want you to know… David never stopped talking about you. Never stopped loving you.” Kristin shuddered violently enough for Sally to see, then responded with the most hurtful but true thing she didn’t really mean to say:

“Sally, I need a drink.” Half a bottle later, she was screaming at Wonderbread as loud as she could, something about how you all let him die without me. After that, there was nothing she remembered.

The next morning she woke up in a strange bed, undressed and disheveled. Michael was facing a floor-length mirror, fumbling with a cheap tie. “What happened?” she asked.

“Nothing you didn’t want at the time, and nothing that I hadn’t wanted for thirty years, but, Kristin…” His eyes were red and his hands looked weak, flaccid, directionless. She compared them to her memory of David’s long fingers, almost no taper to them. The hands of an artist. It should have been you, Michael, she thought. Then, a moment later: Or me.

“I had better go,” Kristin said, and Michael made no move to stop her. Downstairs, double-masked and bundled for the cold, she waited forty-five minutes for an Uber to take her back to the hotel. The funeral would start in less than an hour. She showered, dressed, did her makeup. Caught her reflection on the way out of the bathroom. For a moment she appeared to herself just as she’d been on that factory roof: young, beautiful, fearless. But in the next moment all she saw was someone not even worth staying alive for.

The AMC had lovely heated seats and by the time she was out of town the rest of the car was toasty warm, to the point that her mascara was running. The fifth time she saw a North Carolina area code on her phone she switched it off and put it in the center console. She turned on the satellite radio, turned it to her Nineties station. They wouldn’t forgive her for skipping the funeral, but David would. He had always known just when she was weak, and when she was strong. Hadn’t she, too, understood that about him? A new song came on and she picked it up, the clear contralto David had loved so much gradually gaining volume until it rattled the frameless windows:

Being with you, girl / is like being low
Hey, hey, hey / like being stoned

The post What If? Quick Take: 2022 AMC Eagle appeared first on Hagerty Media.

It’s tough to turn a five-minute TV sketch into a movie, let alone two full-length features. Wayne’s World managed to do just that thanks to Mike Myers and Dana Carvey going absolutely all-in on the comedy and making Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar into often-quoted fan favorites. The Blues Brothers is the only other movie based on characters from SNL that remains as iconic, and it, like Wayne’s World, had a pretty prominent car to share the screen with the headlining characters.

Now’s your chance to own Garth’s car. The 1976 AMC Pacer used in Wayne’s World will be up for auction at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale sale. Sorry, MacGruber, your Miata didn’t have what it takes to get you in the running.

The 1976 AMC Pacer owned by Garth Algar and known to the characters as the “Mirthmobile” makes several appearances in the 1992 film, including perhaps the movie’s most memorable scene in which members of Wayne and Garth’s band sing along and headbang to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. The car was originally yellow but was painted for the movie in its now-famous shade of baby blue. A few wisps of flames adorn the lower fender and door by way of decals. Inside, the car was modified for speakers, naturally, and the roof-mounted red-vine dispenser is still intact, as is the dash-mounted cup dispenser. Because this was the car used for filming, some remnants of cinema craft remain, including camera mounts on the rockers.

A restoration returned the Mirthmobile to its 1992 film-era glory, including a full repaint and reupholstery that’s probably as close as you’re gonna get to a “no-honk guarantee.” The interior props, however, are original. It still comes with mismatched wheels as well. In 2016, this same Mirthmobile was sold by Barrett-Jackson for $37,400. We’re curious to see how this sale will go, as this pint-sized two-door is probably the most famous film AMC with the exception, perhaps, of 007’s acrobatic Hornet.

The post Party on! <em>Wayne’s World</em> Mirthmobile is bound for Arizona Auction Week appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Ogle Honda’s new Civic Type R in its natural environment

Intake: Honda is teasing us all with a new set of photos showing the next-generation Civic Type R sedan on test at the Suzuka circuit in Japan. The car is still wrapped in a quirky, red-and-black camouflage but you can see the styling is somewhat toned down. Compared to the outgoing car, the new Type R has fewer air scoops and vents, though that exaggerated, hooped rear wing remains. Honda says the car will be introduced in 2022 as a 2023 model. You can expect facts, figures, and more images to appear over the coming months to keep the hype machine in motion.

Exhaust: The 2021 Type R is a tough act to follow. We previously described this car as “stunningly capable—a front-drive supercar, if there is a such a thing—that demands very little in the way of compromise as a daily driver.” If there was one area in which we felt the ’21 Type R could be improved it was styling, which doesn’t exactly suit everyone. Will this new, softer (and, dare we say, more mature) be a hot beverage for which the masses will thirst? We’ll find out when the camouflage comes off—and when pricing is announced. 

Former AMC headquarters will be razed as part of $66M project in Detroit

Intake: The Detroit City Council announced a plan to raze the former American Motors Corporation headquarters on the city’s west side. Mayor Mike Duggan has previously condemned the building as “nothing but an eyesore” and a “source of embarrassment.” According to the Detroit Free Press, Missouri-based NorthPoint Development will demolish and clean the 2,000,000-square-foot site at 14250 Plymouth Road and build a new 728,000 square-foot industrial space for an automotive parts supplier. The project will cost $66M and is expected to begin in late 2022.

Exhaust: Considering AMC moved its headquarters to nearby Southfield, Michigan, in 1975 and the Plymouth Road facility has been without a tenant since 2009, a decision to refurbish the complex or raze it was long overdue. Although the proposed demolition and new construction carries a hefty price tag, it’s good to know that the automotive industry will be alive and well at this location once again.

Max Verstappen is the 2021 Formula 1 World Champion … for now

Intake: Max Verstappen has become the first Dutch Formula 1 World Champion after a one-lap shootout between him and Sir Lewis Hamilton decided a 22-race season. Going into the final showdown in Abu Dhabi, the pair was tied on points, setting up a battle royale between the key protagonists which many feared would end in a collision. In the end, the race result was decided by something that even Netflix couldn’t have scripted.

Hamilton’s Mercedes-AMG looked comfortably faster in free practice, but Verstappen turned in a sensational qualifying lap to put him on pole for the race. As the lights went out, Hamilton got the better start, edging into the lead. At turn six Verstappen dived down the inside, forcing Hamilton to go off track to dodge another crash with the Dutchman. The British racing knight rejoined the circuit further ahead than he was before, but then backed off to avoid a penalty. For the rest of the race it looked like Hamilton and Mercedes had everything under control, electing to stay out on hard tires even when Verstappen pitted for fresher rubber under a virtual safety car. After Williams driver Nicholas Latifi hit the barrier in the closing stages of the race, and the Aston Martin safety car was called out while the track was cleared, it looked like the whole championship would end in a parade. Race director Michael Masi had other ideas, however. As the final lap approached he allowed the cars that separated Hamilton and Verstappen to overtake the safety car, which was then immediately brought in. That meant Verstappen had one lap to take the win and the title on much fresher, faster tires than Hamilton. The seven-times World Champion was effectively a sitting duck and the orange army supporting Verstappen had plenty to celebrate.

Exhaust: Despite taking its eighth consecutive manufacturers’ title, Mercedes immediately protested against the decisions made by race director Masi, and although these objections were dismissed at the circuit, the German giant has not given up and the drivers title could yet be decided in court. After a season full of drama this is an added twist that doesn’t make the sport look great but, if nothing else, will boost the ratings of Netflix’s next season of Drive to Survive.

Corvette assembly plant catches fire after being struck by tornado, pauses for a week

Intake: The tornado that swept through six states early Saturday morning is responsible for a fire at the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which will shut down C8 production for at least one week, according to Automotive News. Multiple sources reported a fire on the roof, and plant officials confirmed that the tornado caused damage to the roof and an employee entrance. According to a statement released over the weekend, Corvette Assembly has canceled second- and third-shift production until the week of December 20 as it works “to get tooling, equipment, and the facility space up to standard.” The UAW said the status of first-shift production was unknown. The nearby National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park sustained significant damage to the property and all events are “canceled until further notice.” On a positive note, the museum itself—no stranger to catastrophes—was spared from substantial harm, but it was without power and remained closed over the weekend.

Exhaust: We’re relieved to know that no one was injured inside any of the Corvette facilities. This production setback should be little cause for concern for order holders—the plant has recovered from worse delays in the past 18 months. Bowling Green, Kentucky, is synonymous with Corvette and is a must-see destination for fans of America’s Sports Car, so the community—and everyone affected by the tornado in all six states—will remain in our thoughts. 

Behold Ford’s new snorkel- and winch-toting Bronco Everglades

Intake: While there is already a plethora of off-road companies working on off-road essentials like a snorkel intake for the new Ford Bronco, Ford confirmed earlier this fall that it would also eventually offer the snorkel as a factory option with a new Bronco trim called the Everglades. BroncoNation posted the first photos of the Everglades model testing in partial camo, and sure enough, there’s a sweet-looking snorkel affixed to the passenger side of the windshield. There’s also a Warn winch, which like the snorkel will come installed from the factory. The snorkel will greatly bolster the Bronco’s existing 33.5 inches of water-fording capability (as measured with the Sasquatch package installed, which adds 35-inch tires). This Everglades trim—one of two Special Editions to come for the 2022 MY—will also use 35-inchers, but it’s not yet clear whether they will be available on the Everglades via the Sasquatch package or simply as standard equipment along with the snorkel and winch. In summer of 2022, all will be revealed.

Exhaust: Ford is making all the right moves with this Everglades Bronco. As automakers reach further and further into the aftermarket industry and grab accessories to install on their own factory lines, this package is both logical and exciting. As with most of these accessories, it’s not necessarily about what you’ll use a snorkel-equipped Bronco for on the regular, but what becomes possible should you find yourself needing to wade across a particularly gnarly stream. We’re also seriously digging that Eruption Green paint.

The post New Civic Type R speeds around Suzuka, tornado halts Corvette production, Bronco Everglades glimpsed appeared first on Hagerty Media.

You’ve seen the tarped silhouette before—the barn-cocooned, garaged-entombed remnants of a machine lost to time. Trees growing through the engine bay, saplings sprouted from the food stores of rodents. You’ve probably driven past one for years at one point or another in your life, some slowly eroding hulk that slides further into neglect each time you see it. It’s hard to watch the rust grow underneath bubbles of paint that are slowly detaching from the sheetmetal, the headliner forming wispy fabric stalactites. For a lot of gearheads, the degeneration of an abandoned project car can be almost infuriating to watch. 

The recovery of an abandoned project and its rescue from the clutches of doom is a universally appealing story, and the documentation of “barn find” vehicles has become an automotive niche in its own right. The process is a small win for everyone—classic cars are a finite resource, and any one that’s brought back to life to be enjoyed again is considered an act of preservation. There’s a popular view that people who hoard a car aren’t taking care of it. Letting it sit is considered by many to be an act of spite, a conscious attack on the machine’s well-being. These stalled projects have provoked some extreme reactions, too, with some risking prison time to rescue a vehicle from another’s neglectful clutches. 

The flipside became my own situation years ago while looking over the yellow 1970 Gremlin that was sitting in my garage. I had rescued it from behind a rental house in Venice Beach, but it was becoming increasingly clear that I couldn’t give it the restoration it required. Too many things ahead on the to-do list, changing priorities. The Gremmie, though, deserved more—preservation and stewardship. The owner of NHRA’s BB/GS record, and one of the earliest turbocharged combos in drag racing, the Sassy Gremlin had lived a brief but brutal period of dominance. Little remained of the original car other than the sheetmetal and glass. Supported by a four-linked Chevy truck axle up front with an Olds-Pontiac 9.3-inch axle on ladder bars in back, it had been carved up to house a 354 Hemi with a blower (and, later, a pair of Garrett turbos). The Gremlin never even turned street miles with its original engine; Paul Pittman, the owner, had Ricker Motors pull the driveline at the dealership when it was sold new. 

In 1972 the Sassy Gremlin would break the BB/GS record with the turbocharged Hemi during a match at Irwindale. Pittman had shattered the old 9.27-second record with a blistering 9.02 at 158 mph. It was such a slap in the face that the blower crowd mutinied the record out of BB/GS, a class that can be translated as an altered chassis with forced-induction, gasoline-fueled engines. As a compromise to the roots superchargers that defined the class to that point, the NHRA pushed the Sassy Gremlin into the newly created BB/GS-T class (T delineating the turbocharged engine within the “GS” gasoline/supercharged designation). While the car would eventually run 8.87 at 162 mph, rumor holds that Paul Pittman was unhappy with the decision to reclassify the car. He lost interest in developing it further and sold it to Carl Smith, minus the turbos. Smith raced the Gremlin for another decade, eventually swapping out the Hemi for a big-block Chevy before retiring it by 1987. 

But describing the next phase in the Gremmie’s life as “retirement” is a bit dishonest. It was shoved in the backyard, tucked behind a garage in Riverside, California, where it languished for nearly two decades before Smith passed away from the very same health issues that ended his NHRA racing. His death would be the only way the Sassy Gremlin would re-emerge into the public eye; Smith had resisted selling the car, according to family members, but it’s impossible to say exactly why he held onto it for so long. The Gremlin made it to Venice Beach as Smith’s estate was sold off, stuffed behind another garage by its next owner for nearly ten years until the car was practically worthless, which led to it ending up on Craigslist Free for me to find. Initially, I saw it as nothing more than a pile of parts to strip and sell—a set of Super Tricks could be seen peeping out in the photos and the piecemeal vintage parts could bring side money. Only through the means of its now-current owner, George Helmer, did I discover the car’s true legacy.

When I decided to finally sell the Gremlin, I had to be honest with myself on the reasons why I had stuffed it away for another couple years on top of all this. There were, naturally, some factors outside my control as to why the project didn’t kick off, but at this given moment, I was in charge of its future fate. 

Rarely, I feel, does anyone shove a car away with the wholesale knowledge that it’ll be the last thing they really do with it. While the very act of storing something is closer to purgatory than progress, few people knowingly set a project aside as their final act. It’s not like cars are in any way convenient or cheap to store. Even if you have the land or rented space, it’s still a luxury to have even more than enough room for a daily driver, much less something that serves no practical purpose. Even inaction is a committed action, and there’s a certain level of responsibility needed even when a car doesn’t actively demand your full attention. Smith had stowed the Gremlin, but he could’ve easily sold the car at any given moment after leaving the sport of drag racing. Did the car stay behind that garage in Riverside until his death because it was a manifestation of better health, something to return to when it all got better? An idol of a better time, a wishful alternative timeline in which the Gremlin was still turning out timeslips and paychecks? Hell, even if the car sat all this time, is that so wrong if it gave the man motivation to live another couple years?

I could keep putting effort into preserving it—my dry-kept garage had served the Gremlin better than the previous 30-odd years in the California sun—but what did the car truly deserve, and at what point was I being hopelessly selfish about time and resources? 

Ultimately, I felt a duty to pass the car along to someone who I knew was in the position to restore it, and had the care and knowledge to do so. The tipping point came from some sense of care, I told myself. It probably could’ve gone to a lesser-known buyer for more money, but I wasn’t interested in seeing the car become another manifestation of a static future. Most of the other suitors only hoped to resurrect the Sassy Gremlin; George Helmer had been actively searching for the car while making progress on other restorations. He wasn’t leveraging cars as a portal to the right moment, someday down the road—he was already and actively invested in his projects. Thankfully, he was also sensitive to my vision for the Gremlin. 

When I see another abandoned project car, I see another Mr. Smith and his backyard Gremlin—but imagining his story now gives me reason to pause. I see a car put away reluctantly, perhaps, falling into disrepair through originally good intentions. Whether that someone was trying to preserve that machine or its roots in a memory is entirely impossible to gauge from the curb, a judgement I hold back more these days. 

The post Why do people abandon projects? The answer may not be simple appeared first on Hagerty Media.

There are treasures found in long-forgotten barns, among the hallowed classifieds of Craigslist, and even in the up-and-coming pages of Facebook Marketplace. The supply is sufficient to stock an entire forum on the Hagerty Community, and that’s where we met David and his 1989 Eagle Summit. That’s right, an Eagle Summit. 

First, a primer on how this forgotten automobile came to be. Back in 1987, Chrysler did Renault a solid by purchasing its shares of American Motors Corp., a decision that likely stemmed from the 1986 assassination of Renault’s pro-AMC chairman Georges Besse by a far-left French terrorist group. Getting the legendary Jeep brand proved a brilliant long-term move for ChryCo, but contractual obligations with standalone AMC/Jeep dealerships ensured the need for a secondary product line that directly competed with Chrysler automobiles. Far from an auspicious start, but this is why Chrysler continued to make Renaults, and why the company spread its love affair with captive imports based on Mitsubishi designs to the formerly-AMC-now-Eagle brand. Behold the third generation Mitsubishi Mirage … so to speak.

David has a soft spot for these captive imports, and his affection dates back to his earliest automotive purchase: “I realize it’s not a Corvette or a muscle car, but it does connect me to the first car I ever bought brand-new.” Though the subject of the following images from Facebook Marketplace isn’t David’s original Eagle Summit, it’s already a significant car in his life.

Late last year David searched Facebook Marketplace on a whim, typed in Eagle Summit, and actually found one for sale in a stunning condition just a few hundred miles away. He bought it for a song, considering it’s a like-new car with only 41,000 miles on the clock. Nostalgia spurred the purchase, as his original Eagle Summit was the same model year (’89) and trim level (DL).

During his tenure as a young marine in Camp Pendleton, David was walking up Hill Street in Oceanside, California when he spotted a white Eagle Summit DL with grey seats and Midnight Blue carpeting at the local Jeep/Eagle dealership. Since the sister-ship Mitsubishi Mirage was often sold locally with black bumpers, the Eagle stood out to David: Even in baseline DL trim, it wore painted bumpers.

Over the years David grew to love his Eagle. It proved trustworthy, asking only a clutch and a timing belt servicing before he traded it in so that his wife could buy a new 1997 Mustang. While he didn’t regret the decision at the time, he never forgot about his Eagle, and that memory makes him truly appreciate the slice of history now in his possession.

David’s new Eagle has a story of its own, too. The original owner was a Californian who passed away in 1991, where it remained in his garage until 2018. That’s when a gentleman in Nevada named Tam purchased it. Because of complications with the purchase, Tam got a bonded title, which likely saved this endangered specimen from certain death. Shortly afterwards, Tam replaced the spark plugs, wires, and tires, slightly overfilled it with oil. (Luckily he didn’t drive it much, so no engine damage occurred.) Years later, David connected with Tam on Facebook Marketplace when the Eagle needed a new home. But it was not without months of waiting in anticipation, as Tam received no reasonable offers until David messaged him three months after his listing went live on Facebook Marketplace.

The only major problems were a handful of door dings (presumably from another car in the previous owner’s garage), signs of water ingress in the trunk, and a fair amount of dust on the dashboard. David quickly cleaned up the trunk and the interior, and—after speaking to yours truly—has plans to find a local paintless dent removal specialist to address the dings. He loves driving the Eagle, especially since this time capsule is also a time machine: Even the engine’s unique tone at idle takes him back to his first new car.

And while David’s original Eagle is long gone, its replacement now sits under a carport, protected with a car cover. The protections are welcome, since, according to marque forums, a resurgence in Eagle Summit ownership (yes, really) occurred thanks to its association with turbocharged Mitsubishis of the era. All it takes is a 4G63 swap, a lot of time, and a modest chunk of cash to run 11s in the quarter mile.

While aware of the potential to spank muscle cars in an Eagle Summit sedan (or in the more humiliating/desirable all-wheel drive wagon) David is only interested in enjoying his purchase as it came to his carport from Facebook Marketplace. The plan is to use the Eagle sparingly, saddling it with the stresses of daily commuting only upon occasion. Basic maintenance is in the Eagle’s future, since the vehicle still has its original belts and hoses. David’s confident the next repair bill will be modest, however, because even the CV joints still look like new!

I asked David about his friend’s reactions to his new Eagle, and the responses he relayed aren’t terribly shocking. The friend who was generous enough to store his original Eagle (back when the Marines shipped him overseas) didn’t even remember David’s first one. Other friends felt the new-to-him vehicle will be a money pit, but David’s confident in the Eagle’s condition and in the simplistic nature of its affordable Mitsubishi DNA.

I asked one final and somewhat obvious question to David: Is this 1989 Eagle Summit DL a forever car? His answer was priceless. “I think so, it’s a tie to a time in my life when I was relatively happy in my 20s. I had an overabundance of enthusiasm and hope for the future. While that wanes when you are in your 40s and 50s, and while I am not an unhappy person today, this connection to great times in my past is just so rewarding!”

The post Heeding the Eagle’s call and trekking to the Summit appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Hagerty readers and Hagerty Drivers Club members share their cherished collector and enthusiast vehicles with us via our contact email, tips@hagerty.com. We’re showcasing some of our favorite stories among these submissions. To have your car featured, send complete photography and your story of ownership to the above email address.

Today’s featured vehicle is a 1968 AMC AMX, specifically, one equipped with the four-barrel 390-cubic-inch engine, which made 315 horsepower, and the desirable Go Package. For 1968, on the AMX this meant a dual exhaust, an upgraded cooling system, beefier suspension, a limited-slip diff,  four-piston front brakes, Magnum 500 wheels, and racing stripes. AMC fans will also note that, as a 1968 model year car, this AMX is a true two-seater; subsequent model years saw the AMX hew closer to the Javelin, adopting a four-seat platform.

This Calcutta Russet example belongs to Chris Hook, and it’s been in the Hook family since 1972, when Hook’s father traded in his ’66 Chevy Impala and borrowed $500 from his father to buy the AMX. At the time, the car showed roughly 7500 miles. The AMX was his dream car, and he kept notes of every oil change and repair in a little black book, in dedicated gearhead fashion. Chris remembers the first time he heard his father start the car: “It scared me because it was so loud, but I quickly got over that.”

Chris’ father and mother met, dated, and drove away from their wedding in the AMX; thereafter, it fell victim to a familiar formula. The elder Hooks were too busy with family life to spend much time on the AMX, and it sat quietly in the garage under a cover for nearly 25 years. After his father’s sudden and unexpected passing, Chris had a renewed desire to restore the AMX. The only sticking point was cost. However, the car community, in a serendipitous way, came to the rescue as it often does: a local restorer fell in love with the car and bought it with the intent to restore it. Upon realizing that every clip, seal, sticker, and bracket were stock—and that the car had less than 20K miles on the odometer—he decided to do the bare minimum in deference to the car’s originality. He replaced only the perishable components—brake lines, fuel lines, fuel tank, and fuel pump—and did some minor interior refreshing on the carpet, headliner, and seat covers.

Then, “in what must be the most stand-up thing a guy could do,” Chris reflects, the restorer sold the AMX back to Chris and his family for only the cost of the parts. “The car gods must have been looking down on us,” Chris writes. The AMX now resides back at the Hook residence, sharing garage space with a 2000 Honda S2000, a ’99 Cherokee XJ, an ’88 Comanche Pioneer, and a 2019 Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400.

After his mother’s recent passing, Chris has found that that the AMX has taken on even more meaning. “The car is not perfect, and the paint is clearly showing its age,” he admits, but “having it back in the family means even more to me now.”

The post Rides from the Readers: 1968 AMC AMX appeared first on Hagerty Media.

“Is AMC finally getting its due recognition?” One often hears this refrain when a significant example from the marque surfaces in the automotive ether, and now is precisely that moment. Two upcoming auctions may yield new benchmarks for not just AMC muscle cars, but also everyday models like the Pacer and Rambler.

The RM Sotheby’s Open Roads auction, running online from April 21–29, will offer five AMCs from a single collection—including two that were previously in professional wrestler John Cena’s collection. One, a fully restored ’69 AMX 500 Special, is believed to be one of just 32 made. Also of note is a pre-sale estimate of $40,000-$50,000 for a ’72 Gremlin X V8. We looked at the rising collector interest in the AMC Gremlin last year, and it seems RM Sotheby’s is poised to test that thesis.

Just a few weeks later, running in-person and online May 14–22, Mecum’s Indy auction will offer 12 AMCs from the collection of Gary Duncan, a car dealer many Hagerty readers know for his JDM dealership, Duncan Imports. The dozen low-mile cars, all in unrestored condition, span the AMC gamut and cover mainly the brand’s mainstream offerings.

Consignors for both auctions say they’re selling now to take advantage of a hot market and rising interest in rare and low-mile AMCs.

“For those with an interest in AMC vehicles or those who just like unusual vehicles, this is a big deal,” said Mecum spokesman John Kraman. “This is the finest collection of AMCs we’ve ever had. I’m predicting buyers will meet sellers’ expectations.” Kraman cites rising interest and values for ’70s and ’80s cars, AMC rarity, and the condition of the cars offered as reasons to expect a strong outcome for the sale.

“AMC performance cars have been strong for a long time, but getting into more pedestrian models—wagons, Pacers—is breaking new ground from a collector’s viewpoint. It’s so rare to see these models in this original condition.”

RM Sotheby’s Open Roads Auction

1969 AMX 500 Special

The 1968–1970 AMX was pretty special in its own right, a short-wheelbase, two-seat Javelin variant that was pitched as a sports car. The 500 Special was built for Southern California AMC dealers to mark the AMX’s role as a pace car at the now defunct Riverside International Raceway. The car offered by RM Sotheby’s, which professional wrestler John Cena had fully restored when he owned it, has a pre-sale estimate of $100,000-$120,000.

Some sources say the true number made is no more than 32, one for each dealer, while other sources suggest it could be fewer. In any case, all were painted Big Bad Green and powered by the 315-horsepower 390-cu-in V-8 and automatic transmission, which were optional for the AMX. The cars were fully equipped with saddle leather upholstery, air conditioning, power brakes, power steering, tilt steering wheel, Rally wheels, tinted windows, light group, visibility group, and more. The hood wore “500 Special” badges, and there was a commemorative brass plaque on the dash.

As for the “500 Special” name, it could pertain to the 500-mile NASCAR race held at Riverside annually. In 1969, the race was sponsored by Motor Trend, but it’s likely that many still referred to it as the Riverside 500. The Trans-Am race at Riverside that year, in which two Javelins finished sixth and seventh, was 100 laps (254 miles).

1971 Hornet SC/360

Long the unsung hero of AMC muscle, the 1971 Hornet SC/360 took on the Plymouth Duster 340 and Dodge Demon 340 as a budget muscle car. It failed to catch on, however, and just 784 were made. This SC/360, also formerly from Cena’s collection, has a pre-sale estimate: $40,000-$50,000. It has been resprayed but is said to be otherwise unrestored.

The SC/360 paired AMC’s 360 two-barrel V-8, rated for 245 hp (gross), with a three-speed manual transmission. Most buyers (578 in total) opted for the Go Package, with which this car came equipped. It included AMC’s 285-horsepower 360 four-barrel, dual exhausts, and functional ram-air hood scoop. The upgrade also allowed an optional four-speed stick.

The 3300-pound SC/360 was quick. Motor Trend clocked a 15-second quarter-mile at 94 mph in the four-barrel version, which was competitive with the Duster/Demon 340. Yet, the Mopars sold 23,000 combined for 1971; the SC/360 simply lacked the performance image. Likely the advertising budget, too.

1972 AMC Gremlin X V-8

The 1972 Gremlin X offered by RM Sotheby’s has a startling pre-sale estimate of $40,000-$50,000. It is described as original except for some Day 2 dress up and engine mods, including Cragar wheels, an Edelbrock intake and carb and dual exhausts, and shows 28,000 miles. The Gremlin already out-powered its competition with standard and optional six-cylinder engines, and in 1972 added the optional 304 cu-in V-8 with two barrel carburetor, good for 150 net horsepower.

The popular “X” package, which cost $319, dressed up the Gremlin with muscle car-style slotted wheels, white-letter tires, body side stripes and graphics, a blackout grille and bucket seats. With the V-8 and three-speed manual transmission, as this car has, the 2900-pound Gremlin could do 0–60 mph in about 9 seconds and the quarter-mile in 16.8. That was quicker than some base-engine V-8 pony cars, including that year’s Javelin AMX, which had the 304 standard. For 1972 only, V-8-equipped Gremlins featured “torque links”—a kind of traction bar to control wheel hop.

The consignor bought this Gremlin from the original owner, who special-ordered it from a dealer in Virginia and kept extensive documentation over the decades he owned it.

1974 Javelin AMX 360 Go Package

After ending the two-seat AMX, AMC moved the badge to a performance-oriented version of the redesigned 1971 Javelin. The new AMX featured the 360 two-barrel engine standard and 360 and 401 four-barrel engines in Go Package options. For ’72, the standard AMX engine became the 304 two-barrel. The AMX stood apart from the standard Javelin with a flush-mounted mesh grille with large round parking lamps. Inside, the Javelin has faux engine-turned dash trim.

The ’74 360 Go Package included dual exhausts, T-stripe on the hood, flat black painted rear panel, Rally-Pac instruments, Handling Package, heavy-duty engine cooling, twin-grip differential, power disc brakes, and 15-inch slotted steel wheels with white-letter Goodyear Polyglas tires and space-saver spare. The ’74 Go Package did not have the cowl-induction hood included from 1971–1973, but the 360 was still a strong performer, with 220 hp and 315 lb-ft of torque. This car has the desirable four-speed.

The consignor bought this Javelin AMX about three years ago from a man who had restored it with his son. The restoration appears exceptional, and some would say Javelins didn’t leave the factory this good.

1979 Spirit AMX

If the idea of a $40,000+ Gremlin seems mind-blowing, then what would you say to a 1979 Spirit, the Gremlin’s successor, estimated to bring $30,000-$35,000? This is the AMX, the sporty version of the Spirit that was offered only for 1979 and 1980. As a bonus, this ’79 has the one-year-only 304 V-8 option and apparently every factory option, including air conditioning, sunroof, power door locks, and auxiliary gauges.

With spoilers, louvers, fender flares and flame-like decal on the hood, AMX’s styling package was certainly not for introverts but was in line with period trends. If performance was not exactly in the classic AMX spirit (pardon the pun), there was racing provenance—at the Nürburgring.

In 1979, AMC teamed up with BF Goodrich to field a two-car team in the Nürburgring 24 Hours with V-8 AMC Spirits running on the tire maker’s street radials. Among the drivers were actor/racer James Brolin and Lynn St. James. The Spirits won first and second in class and 25th and 43rd overall in a race where simply finishing is a feat. Go AMC!

Mecum Indy: The AMC Collection

Mecum’s AMC Collection focuses on the brand’s workaday models, with a 1968 Javelin representing the sporty side. Some of the cars show very low miles, including a 1980 Pacer DL with just 1844 miles from new and a 1963 Rambler Ambassador 880 with 8202 miles.

Duncan acquired the cars over time from various collectors, auctions and dealers. He’s got an emotional connection to the brand; his father was a Studebaker dealer, then sold it to work for a Rambler dealer in 1963, and eventually bought a Ford franchise. Also a car dealer, Duncan got an AMC franchise in 1979, which converted to Chrysler when the company bought AMC.

“These are among the best AMCs in the country,” he told Hagerty. “I hate to sell them, but these cars are generational and the market is as hot as I’ve ever seen it.”

1963 Rambler American 440H

This two-door was the last of the original American series and shows just 45,839 miles. It has the old Nash/AMC six with the unique Twin Stick—a three-speed manual with a second lever to operate the Borg-Warner electric overdrive. The car is said to be unrestored and looks jaunty in its white over ivory exterior and gold and ivory interior.

1963 Rambler Ambassador 880

Named Motor Trend’s Car of the Year, the ’63 Rambler slotted in between compacts and midsize models. Trims ranged from basic up to the top-line Ambassador 990. This slightly lower 880 model, unrestored with just 8202 miles, has the AMC 327 cu-in V-8, automatic transmission, dual exhausts, power steering, Weather Eye heating and ventilating system, and Twin Comfort Lounge reclining front seats. The plastic seat covers recall a time when car owners seemed willing to sacrifice comfort for potentially better resale value from having pristine seats. This car rides on new tires and has the four originals in the trunk.

1965 Rambler Classic 770 Convertible

Now this looks like a great parade car. The triple-white ’65 Rambler Classic 770 convertible, unrestored with 14,743 miles, sports the then-new Typhoon 232 cu. in. inline six with automatic transmission. AMC’s famous Weather Eye heating and ventilating system is augmented by air conditioning. The spoke wheel covers were an AMC dealer-added accessory.

1967 Rambler Rogue Convertible

As if having one of the 921 Rogue compact convertibles made for 1967 isn’t special enough, this unrestored example one has just 15,854 miles. It’s got the 232 inline-six and automatic, and it looks dashing in red with a black top and red convertible boot.

1968 Javelin SST

AMC joined the pony car derby with the 1968 Javelin, and like its competition it offered a bewildering array of options for personalization. This is the upgraded SST model, unrestored with 44,644 miles. It was optioned with the 280-hp 343 cu-in, four-barrel V-8, teamed with the automatic transmission. The car looks quite sporty in gold with black stripe and Rally wheels.

1972 Gremlin X

This green Gremlin X is said to be unrestored with 39,016 miles but has some period-correct upgrades, including a four-barrel carburetor and factory air conditioning unit, plus trim items added from other AMC cars. Ian Webb, of the American Motors Owners Association, identified for Hagerty the rocker panel trim as from a 1970 AMX and console and shifter from a 1971 Javelin. Being familiar with this Gremlin for many years, he estimates the features were added perhaps 30 or so years ago.

“I should say that all the upgrades to this car are very tasteful, and in my opinion make it a desirable car,” Webb said. The ’72 is widely regarded as the most collectible year for Gremlin; first year V-8, only year you got factory torque links, and last year for the non-5-mph bumpers. This car also has factory air and power disc brakes which make it even cooler.”

1977 AMC Matador Wagon

Showing off AMC’s penchant for occasional creative interior design, this 1977 Matador long roof has a distinctive gray and black upholstery. The light blue exterior with faux wood trim is very, very 1970s. It’s got the 304 V-8, automatic, rear-facing third-row seat, slotted wheels, and shows 65,864 miles.

1980 Pacer DL Sedan and Wagon

Hold the Wayne’s World jokes; Pacers are getting warm, perhaps even toasty. The light blue example offered by Mecum appears exceptional. It’s a well optioned DL model with the 258 inline-six, automatic, air, power door locks, power brakes, and power steering. With 1884 miles, it looks like a new car.

Some prefer the Pacer wagon design to the “fishbowl” sedan, both for its style and practicality. The unrestored example at Mecum shows 15,270 km (13,276 miles) and has the 258 six-cylinder, automatic, air conditioning, power windows, and roof rack. The seats look mighty comfy and the red interior is not something you’d see today.

Eagles

No AMC collection could be complete without at least one Eagle, the four-wheel-drive car that inadvertently predicted today’s crossover/SUV trend. This collection offers a pair, a 1985 sedan with 34,124 miles and a 1986 Limited wagon with 51,238 miles and featuring power windows and power seats.

We’ll no doubt keep seeing AMCs pleasing crowds at Concours d’Lemons shows, but looking at the cars in these two collections, it’s not impossible to imagine AMCs one day turning up at more serious concours events down the road.

The post Springtime for AMC? Pristine examples could elevate the brand’s station appeared first on Hagerty Media.

If you’re an AMC owner and get tired of questions like “Why did they install a Chevy engine in an AMC?”, this story is for you. Ditto Studebaker folks who must deal with people asking about the Ford 289 in their Lark.

It wasn’t only Independents who used engines that shared displacements with a mill from another manufacturer, of course. General Motors had several 350- and 455-cubic-inch blocks over the years, though they didn’t always measure exactly as advertised, as we recently laid out in this article. Here are six engines that shared similar dimensions yet hailed from different manufacturers. We even tossed in a special Mopar example that has long confused enthusiasts.

327

Chevrolet’s 327, which powered the most pedestrian and the most sporting of Bow Ties, is legendary. However, the Chevy was preceded by Rambler’s 327, which debuted in 1957 in the celebrated Rebel. In the Rebel, the 327 put out 255 hp with mechanical lifters, a Carter four-barrel carburetor, and 9.5:1 compression. (A Bendix-developed electronic fuel-injected unit upped the rating to 288 horses but never reached production.)

The Rambler 327 also was available in swan-song Nash and Hudson models but, though it still made 255 hp, featured hydraulic lifters and slightly lower (a half-point less) compression. Alas, the limited-edition Rebel lasted but one year, though the 327 would continue to play the role of AMC’s big gun, powering American Motors’ senior Ambassador models through 1966; for 1965–66, the 327 was also available in mid-size Classic and Marlin models. Kaiser-Jeep also adopted it for several years. Peak horsepower during this era was 270 thanks to a Holley four-barrel and 9.7:1 compression.

In contrast to its Rambler counterpart, Chevrolet’s 327 was a solid middle-of-the-road offering for most of the decade. Debuting for the 1962 model year in full-size and Corvette models, the 327 evolved from the 283 and, in Chevy’s engine hierarchy, sat just below the big-blocks. It came in 250- and 300-horse variants, both of which used four-barrel carbs. In its final appearance in 1969, the 327 was only available in 235-horse, two-barrel guise.

The 327 truly shone in the Corvette. In addition to the 250- and 300-horse pair, Chevrolet also offered 340- or 360-hp versions, the latter sporting fuel injection. Horsepower peaked in 1965 with the 375-horse Fuelie, but the 1965–68 L79 with 350 horses was a popular compromise between horsepower and drivability.

The L79 was also available in the 1965–68 Chevelle (strangely skipping the ’66 model year) and the 1966–68 Chevy II, though the lesser, four-barrel versions were available too.

352

The styling worn by Packard’s all-new 1951 series’ quickly became outdated, and the brand’s dependence on its straight-eight was similarly out of touch with the times. When the redesigned 1955 models hit the streets, they signified more than just redemption—though history would prove that the vehicles arrived too late to save the company. The V-8 available in 1955 Clippers Customs and senior Packards measured 352 cu-in and was rated at 245–275 horsepower; the highest-rated versions used dual-quad carbs for ’55. The 352 also appeared in the 1956 Clipper, Nash Ambassador, and Studebaker Golden Hawk.

Worthy of the best Packard tradition, the over-engineered 352 featured, according to Mac’s Motor City Garage, “a beefy cast crankshaft with six counterweights, fully machined combustion chambers with generous squish/quench area, and symmetrical cylinder heads with siamesed exhaust ports.”

In contrast, Ford’s 352 began as a solid big-block in the all-new FE series but settled into an unremarkable offering though 1966. When it first appeared in 1958, the 352 produced 300 hp; in 1960, Ford offered a 352 with NASCAR in mind: 10.6:1 compression, an aluminum intake, mechanical lifters, and 360 hp. However, a succession of 390, 406, and 427 upgrades through 1963 relegated the 352 to a popular-yet-ho-hum big-block in the low/mid-200-hp range until 1966.

289

Studebaker’s 1951 232 V-8 has a burly reputation, which is ironic given that its engineers drew their inspiration for the 232 from Cadillac’s high-compression, lightweight 1949 OHV V-8. (Studebaker engineers were even allowed to visit Caddy’s production facilities.) The 232 boasted a forged crankshaft, large main bearings, mechanical lifters, and a gear-driven camshaft. By 1956, Studebaker had bored and stroked the mill to create the 289, which offered between 195 and 225 horsepower. In 1957–58, the Golden Hawk featured a supercharged 289 with 275 horses. Not until 1963, however, did Studebaker truly give the 289 an injection of performance: The 240-horse R1 (standard in the Avanti) with 10.25 compression, and the supercharged 289-horse R2, with 9.0 compression. These engines, as well as the more pedestrian 289s, lasted until Studebaker abandoned South Bend for Canada, but not before it set several speed records.

In contrast, Ford’s modern, thin-wall 289 weighed approximately 150 pounds less than Studebaker’s. It appeared in the spring of 1963 after debuting as a 221 for the 1962 Fairlane. With 8.7 compression and a two-barrel carburetor, the 289 was rated at 195 hp, though it rose to fame as the 271-horse 289 High-Performance introduced midyear for the ’63 Fairlane. This engine, available for Ford and Mercury compacts and the Mustang through 1967, featured 10.5 compression, mechanical lifters, screw-in rocker-arm studs, cast-iron headers, and dual-point ignition. The 289 (mostly in two-barrel form) enjoyed widespread popularity in compact, mid-size, and pony-car Fords and Mercurys, plus full-size Fords, though 1968. The 289’s high point was the 306-horse 1965–67 Shelby GT350, with an optional supercharger adding another 80 or so horses in 1966–67.

Bonus round: 383

OK, so these two engines are not technically “brothers from another mother.” The Chrysler Corporation offered two big-blocks with identical displacements that hailed from similar-yet-different series. The first 383 to appear was in 1959–60 when Chrysler replaced the first-generation Hemi. As part of the RB (raised block) series, the 383 appeared only in lower-line U.S.-spec Chrysler models, with either 305 or 325 horsepower depending on carburetion. After that, Chrysler used the 361 and B-series 383 for lesser Chryslers.

That B-series 383 became the evergreen big-block that powered many Mopars throughout the decade and was later made famous by the 1968 Plymouth Road Runner. Compared to the RB 383, the B-series 383 featured a different 4.25 x 3.38 bore and stroke and lacked the raised block. It first appeared as one of two D-500 options for 1959 Dodges (with 320–345 horsepower, the highest-rated boasting dual quads). Ram induction appeared the following year yielding 330 hp, a configuration which was also available on the ’60 DeSoto and ’61 “Sonoramic Commando” Plymouth. A 343-horse cross-ram version of the 383 was available for Dodges and Plymouths in 1962, and then there was little effort to pump up the 383 until the Road Runner in ’68. After 1971, the 383 was replaced by the 400.

Can you think of other engines from different OEMs that shared similar dimensions? Post them in the community below, and we’ll perhaps gather enough examples for another iteration of this engine-geek investigation.

The post V-8 pairs that share displacements but not manufacturers appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Military collectors express their inner patriot in a variety of ways, but it’s safe to assume that a machine both bodied in and powered from aluminum is not top of mind. What AMC’s Mighty Mite proves is that there always is/was a tool for every job, even in a realm that’s measured in tons and enamored with the security of hardened steel. Today, weighing in at roughly 1700 pounds, this restored Mighty Mite (M-422A1) on Bring a Trailer is one of the more practical ways that an average Joe can enjoy something olive green without the need for a new pole barn or chiropractor.

If you’re wondering why the U.S. military would ever pursue a design in material that’s basically paper mâché (by the standards of war), you’re not alone. Truth be told, the beginning of the Mighty Mite, or its basic concept, actually dates back roughly 20 years earlier, just after WWII, under a much different title, MARCO MM-100. The evolving strategy at the time focused on air travel and moving small 4×4 machines in the skies. Not only would a vehicle’s design need to be lightweight but also maneuverable while maintaining a comfortable ergonomic standard for its operators once deployed.

Ironically, motivated mainly by weight savings and availability, the MM-100 sourced Porsche air-cooled flat-four engines, that made 44 hp at 4200 rpm. With a tiny German heart under the hood, the resulting little monster tipped scales at right around 1500 pounds, with a length of 96 inches tip to tail. As legend has it (in phenomenal detail here), a MARCO exec remarked, “It looks like a mite, but a Mighty Mite!” The name stuck.

Seemingly, the U.S. Marine Corps was hot for the MARCO MM-100 but ultimately stalled. Why, you may ask? It turns out a Porsche flat-four and its lack of bald eagle DNA didn’t sit right with the brass, giving it reason to hem and haw; a purgatorial barrier that proved too steep to surmount. It became evident that MARCO needed help, and the newly formed American Motors Corporation (1954) had the answer.

When Nash and Hudson merged into AMC, it married two established halves, each with their own projects well underway. One of those developments was an aluminum air-cooled V-4 engine that mustered 50 hp, originally intended for Nash’s econo cars. As AMC began to take shape, the little V-4 stagnated into irrelevance as the new company’s civilian products outgrew a use for the little engine’s displacement. By this time MARCO’s MM-100 venture was at the end of its rope financially, and coincidentally AMC, wanting to increase its footprint in commercial markets, threw the Mighty Mite a lifeline by acquiring the project. It now possessed the right American optics and engine to earn a development contract and carry through to production.

With AMC’s resources, the Mighty Mite had renewed life and purpose in the eyes of the USMC, which specifically targeted the vehicle for its objectives; namely, in lock-step with the ability to be cable-lifted and deployed by a H-19 Sikorsky ’copter in Vietnam. The original M-422 version grew by 200 pounds as small upgrades piled into the design. Total weight now at 1700 pounds, the Mighty Mite still maintained its integrity as an air-liftable 4×4 auto. Bear in mind, as the design of the Mighty Mite hit puberty, so did aeronautics technology and aircrafts; a little more weight would be of marginal issue so long as the capacity math all added up. The final iteration of the Mighty Mite is the M-422A1 (our listing’s example). It elongates the original M-422 by 6 inches, furthering the wheelbase out to 71 inches (109 total). The USMC was sold already, but the M-422A1 was by far the more useful, with an expanded rear carrying capacity. But there were vulnerabilities. More specifically, the trade-off of a lightweight vehicle meant lightweight protections from both incoming enemy fire and hazards of the jungle. Were Mighty Mites able to land into tight spots? Absolutely. Were they always able to get out of them? No.

The Mighty Mite met its end quickly once the lifting capacities in aeronautics grew exponentially. In 1959, the Bell UH-1 Iroquis (“Huey”) helicopter came onto the scene and with it a lift capacity that dwarfed the former Sikorsky. Relatively speaking, from that point on, the armed forces no longer needed to compromise on weight restrictions. The Mighty Mite found itself on the outside looking in. And unfortunately for its future prospects, AMC ultimately decided the Mighty Mite wasn’t worth the trouble for civilian development.

From a military collector’s standpoint, there’s a lot to like about the Mighty Mite. For one, everything is heftable. You’re not deadlifting the wheel and tire of a 5-ton 6×6. Getting the vehicle off the ground can be done in a driveway. And covered storage is as easy, since Mighty Mites possess a small footprint. On the other hand, consider it’s a bespoke made machine, one manufactured around a very specific set of requirements. Parts (at least interchangeable ones) can’t be found in abundance, like your more common mil-spec Willys or AM General jeeps. As a result, it’s not uncommon for barn finds to uncover a pair together, one to run and one to pull from. The aluminum V-4 engines themselves are delicate creatures, fine with the correct care, but nothing guarantees that the prior owner(s) haven’t slipped up in this regard. Granted, with the strong USMC connection, many of the Mighty Mites out there are veteran owned and loved, and the resources and community support around them might surprise you, given their total production petered out just shy of 4000 units.

There’s a special place in everyone’s heart for a small four-speed 4×4 with limited-slip front and rear differentials. All the more when that little rig is clearly well-cared-for and ready for its next adventure. I’ll admit, while Mighty Mite is a damn fine name, a part of me still wishes the Brits hadn’t already lay claim to the Flying Flea.

Something about an “AMC Flying Flea” just has a special ring to it.

The post AMC’s rare Mighty Mite is a forgotten military flyweight appeared first on Hagerty Media.

The January Auctions were very different this year. Some longstanding sales didn’t take place at all. Even so, it was a very busy month with 2239 vehicles sold between Mecum Kissimmee (the world’s largest collector car auction), Mecum’s “Muscle Car City” auction, and the four auctions usually held live in the Scottsdale, Arizona area. (These pressed on in modified form, the manner of which varied from house to house.)

We watched and we analyzed. As always, the results brought with them some interesting surprises. Some cars defied middling expectations with huge prices, while others flew under the radar at bargain prices. Frankly, however, between the consistent, surprisingly strong bidding in Kissimmee, the more focused high-dollar consignment lists in Scottsdale, and the absence of Barrett-Jackson’s and Russo and Steele’s auctions in Scottsdale this year, bargain pickings weren’t as plentiful in 2021 as they have been in the past. Here are six of the cars that snuck their way through a strong bidding atmosphere.

1965 Oldsmobile Starfire Convertible

Sold for $14,300, Mecum Kissimmee, Lot L53.1

#3-condition (Good) value: $27,400

A period ad boasted that the Starfire “sparkles with distinction,” but this one crossed the block early in the week and apparently didn’t sparkle enough to start a bidding war. As a ’65 model it lacks the nifty brushed aluminum side trim of the earlier Starfires, but it does have the new-for-1965 425-cubic-inch Rocket V-8, which puts out 370 hp and 470 lb-ft of torque. It was Olds’ most powerful engine that year, offering more oomph even than the 442. Starfires also came with leather bucket seats and power everything.

This one shows some wear and tear but nothing that would be cause for alarm. And at this price, the style, rarity, and cubic inches per dollar make it a savvy buy.

2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06

Sold for $29,700, Mecum Kissimmee, Lot W124.1

#3-condition (Good) value: $33,500

The C6 Z06 was a bargain even when it was new, besting six-figure supercars while carrying a base price under 70 grand. It’s still one of the quicker cars on the road, even though its design is now 15 years old, so it’s a bit of mystery why Z06s are as affordable as they are. The buyer of this 37,000-mile Velocity Yellow car got a solid deal; this kind of price would ordinarily buy a car with higher miles finished in a less desirable color.

1967 Cadillac Eldorado

Sold for $7280, Bonhams Scottsdale, Lot 133

#3-condition (Good) value: $13,900

A California car with five decades of single-family ownership, this Cadillac sat for a few years but was recently put back on the road. It appears quite well preserved, too. Barely 7 grand for a ’67 Eldorado is essentially project car money, and this Caddy is in better shape than that.

1969 American Motors Hurst SC/Rambler

Sold for $44,000, Mecum Kissimmee, Lot F132

#2-condition (Excellent) value: $55,500

Following a tried-and-true formula, AMC and Hurst took a big, powerful engine and crammed it into a small, light car, creating the SC/Rambler. The one-year-only model, aimed at drag racing, was also one of the wildest-looking cars to come out of an era full of wild-looking cars. Most of the 1512 SC/Ramblers built came with the outrageous “A” paint scheme that featured bold striping and vibrant graphics, but this car with the “B” paint scheme isn’t exactly subtle—and it’s rarer.

Mecum’s SC/Rambler is a restored car with no major issues to speak of, but it nonetheless sold for driver-quality money. Most bidders must have been keeping their powder dry for the next lot of the auction, another restored SC/Rambler in the poppin’ “A” paint scheme, which sold for $55,000 (about condition #2 money).

1956 Jaguar XK 140 MC Fixed-Head Coupe

Sold for $64,960, Worldwide Scottsdale, Lot 9

#3-condition (Good) value: $81,900

The MC (called the “SE” in the U.K.) was the top-of-the-range version of the XK 140, and it came with a 210-hp XK engine fitted with the cylinder head from Jaguar’s Le Mans-winning C-Type. This one is also a gleaming former Jaguar Clubs North America (JCNA) show car. One big knock against it: the Borg Warner automatic surely turns some people off, but that only goes part of the way in explaining this modest price, which leaves the new owner plenty of money left over to toss in a period correct four-speed or one of the popular modern five-speed swaps.

1969 Pontiac Grand Prix Model SJ

Sold for $16,500, Mecum Kissimmee, Lot W74

#3-condition (Good) value: $20,300

Pontiac redesigned the Grand Prix in 1969 with a mile-long hood and even more prominent beak. The exterior may be an acquired taste, but the cockpit’s bucket seats, floor-mounted shifter, and wraparound gauge cluster makes for a sporty feel. With the 370-hp 428 in the range-topping SJ, there’s some verve under the hood, too.

These intermediate-sized Pontiacs certainly don’t have the following (or the value) of a GTO, but the price on this Model SJ was still a surprise. It looks like a solid driver but sold for less than what we’d consider decent driver money, especially given that in the same week another 1969 Grand Prix SJ sold for $34,100. Even though it was a nicer car, it wasn’t 75 percent nicer.

Think there are some other good deals we missed from January’s big auctions? Tell us about it below.

Like this article? Check out Hagerty Insider, our website devoted to tracking trends in the collector vehicle market.

The post 6 slick bargains from the 2021 January Auctions appeared first on Hagerty Media.

When AMC senior manager Frank Lipare opened his garage door in Manhasset, Long Island, to reveal a wide-shouldered, blue AMX, teenage Joseph Belfiore was dumbstruck. It was the mid-1970s, and he had sought out Lipare for advice regarding hopping up his own 1970 AMX. The homebuilt race car before him was the meanest piece of American Motors machinery he’d ever seen. Little did Belfiore know that, decades later, he’d buy Lipare’s car—not once, but twice—and spend eight years restoring it in his own garage.

Lipare and a few other managers built out this specific AMX for SCCA competition in 1970. American Motors Corporation never backed its employees’ road-racing campaign, so the car’s 1970–75 career was an amateur effort of the most honest sort. New York’s Jocko Maggiacomo worked his magic on the car’s V-8 (it’s unclear whether the car originally had the 343- or the 390-cubic-inch engine). Lipare and co. enlisted another Long Island shop, this one specializing in bodywork, to fabricate the car’s bulging fiberglass fenders. The stripped, rollcaged AMX spent most of its five-year road-racing career in the Northeast, at Bridgehampton Race Circuit in New York and Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.

Though the team disbanded in 1975, Lipare couldn’t stay away from the race track for long. Roughly a year later, he and the AMX hit the club racing circuit, revisiting tracks familiar to both of them—Bridgehampton and Lime Rock. Belfiore met Lipare during this phase of the car’s life. The younger man even tagged along to a few track days.

Belfiore’s own AMC obsession began with a street-spec silver 1970 AMX (above). He convinced his father to buy him the silver car when he was in high school. He still had his car in 1982 when he received a phone call from Lipare offering him its racing counterpart. Lipare wanted $10,000, but Belfiore didn’t have it. Six months later, Lipare called again. “How much you got?”

Belfiore couldn’t let this chance slip. He sold his AMX, called up his father and brother-in-law, and bought Lipare’s AMX for $6500.

“I bring it home, it’s race-ready—tires, window net. I made it streetable—headlights, wipers.” He put DOT-legal tires on it and took the AMX street-racing. Instead of the stock cross-ram intake, Belfiore ran a Torker unit and a Holley 850 carb. “Even in road-race trim with the 3.54 [rear] it was a total beast.”

Belfiore loved the attention the racing veteran brought on the streets. “I used to get pulled over by the police, they’d ask, ‘what is this?'”

“Then I did something really stupid,” he says. “I got married.” He sold the AMX in 1987 to a guy who, after “torturing” the car, dumped it in a storage garage. The buyer only contacted Belfiore about the beleaguered AMX when his father, who owned the building in which the AMX sat, decided to sell the facility. Belfiore agreed to shelter the car—”it was a mess”—in 2002, and it sat for ten more years, until Belfiore finally bought the car. “I thought, this car, as bad as it is, has got to be resurrected—I’m gonna do it.”

Thus started an eight-year-long, mostly at-home restoration project. Belfiore’s goal was “to get the beast back on the street again.” He decided on a few modern updates—a power-steering system, MSD electronic ignition, and disc brakes all around—but he wanted to preserve the car’s road-racing roots. Though he left paintwork to a professional shop, Belfiore’s shop was well-equipped for such an extensive restoration. Frank Lipare passed away in 1988 leaving no documented history for the car, but thanks to his tutelage, Belfiore had the AMC know-how to do the AMX justice.

Some seasons, Belfiore made rapid progress. Other times, progress slowed to a shuffle. In April of 2017, the AMX ran for the first time—for 10 minutes, when it shut off with no spark. A month later, Belfiore broke his fibula on a fishing trip. A plate, eight screws, and four months later, he was tackling a cracked oil pan.

In November of 2019, the AMX ran smoothly, had zero leaks and functional brakes, and was on the trailer to the paint shop. After rebuilding the carburetors this September, Belfiore says the project is 95 percent done—he’s fitting some interior clamps and perfecting a belt attachment section of the rollcage.

What Belfiore hadn’t anticipated, however, was the enthusiastic—and helpful—audience the AMX would garner. In 2012, he started a thread on theamcforum.com. Today, it’s a 56-page chronicle of his struggles, his triumphs, and the AMC community’s assistance. One person helped him find the rear window louvers. Another sourced the black C stripe. Still another provided meticulous measurements of the exact location of the AMX decal on the rear quarter panel—thanks to the flared fenders, the factory indentation on Belfiore’s AMX was gone—so Belfiore could fit a pair of AMX decals, carefully patterned after the originals, in their proper place.

Today, the AMX sits proud. It wears a new steel rear bumper, to replace the fiberglass original, and the body is painted in an early-2010s Porsche silver. Under the hood sits a 390-cu-in engine, kept cool by an L88 Corvette radiator and topped with a set of Holley 600 double-barrel carburetors. To make the car more streetable, Belfiore chose a tamer cam than the one he used on the 390 in his street-racing days. The engine’s headers are a custom affair made by Offenhauser for the car’s SCCA days. A set of custom side pipes help tame the monster’s roar enough for residential jaunts.

The powerplant is mated to a Kevlar clutch and a T-10 four-speed gearbox, and the rear end is a Dana 60 paired with 3.54 alloy axles. Vintage Hurst Airheart four-piston calipers clamp down on 12-inch vented brake rotors at all four corners. Belfiore sourced the front suspension from Control Freaks, and ordered 18-inch wheels from Centerline to which he fit Pirelli P Zero rubber.

“It’s really the coolest AMX on the planet,” Belfiore says. “There’s a lot of restored AMXs that are 100-point show cars—and that’s great, I respect it. Mine, being modified and having that kind of history—it really has brought a lot of attention.

“The AMC enthusiasts—they love the car. I’m not gonna race it, just gonna take it to shows and stuff. It’s part of my history.”

The post This unique AMX SCCA veteran is ready to rumble appeared first on Hagerty Media.

The Gremlin was AMC’s shortcut into the subcompact market. By chopping down the Hornet into a hatchback, AMC was able to offer a lighter, more affordable car while saving on the development of a unique platform or front sheetmetal. The resulting car wasn’t as striking as the Javelin-based AMX-GT show car, but we have to admit that it is charming. The Gremlin’s only become more appealing since.

This outrageously bold Gremlin, available on Bring a Trailer, reminds us that the tiny platform can still pack an abundance of style and even a V-8 engine.

The listing notes, “The car is believed to have been refinished at some point in the 1980s.” That much is self-evident. The paint job—with its fabulous, contrasting stripes and “Gremlin” lettering that looks like it came straight off a ColecoVision game cartridge—leaves no doubt. The graphics are pretty much perfect, and seem to have survived quite nicely. There is some troubling rust bubbling underneath the paint at the bottom of the driver door, though. As much trouble as it would be to match those fabulous graphics, we’d have to address that.

Inside, the trim shows some wear and tear, particularly around the A-pillar trim. The vinyl on the seats is splitting, but the dash looks solid and the door panels appear remarkably intact. That’s lucky because, unfortunately, AMC parts are generally scarcer than their Big Three counterparts.

The undercarriage photos show this survivor to have been well preserved, but the original powertrain is gone. In its place sit a mild Chevy 350 V-8 and Turbo 350 transmission. The engine breathes in through an Edelbrock four-barrel and Edelbrock Performer EPS intake and out through a set of headers. A video provided in the listing shows that the Gremlin starts easily and seems quite tame.

Despite its manual valve-body transmission, however, this Gremlin is no drag racer. In fact, the gears in the AMC 20 rear are reported to be 3.31:1, perfectly suited to cruise, which is exactly what we’d do if we found ourselves in possession of such a head-turner. There’s also the fact that the fuel cell is mounted in the cargo area, which would get you booted from tech inspection straight away.

What say you? Cruise it as-is, or swap in an AMC small-block? A 360 from a junkyard Jeep would work nicely, don’t you think?

The post This 1973 Gremlin perfectly captures the ’80s appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Station wagons are in many ways the unsung heroes of the automotive hobby. Vintage longroofs possess a unique, nostalgic appeal: You’re far more likely to have grown up with a brick-shaped Volvo or lozenge-like Roadmaster in your family driveway than a Ferrari Daytona. Station wagons do “understated cool” superbly, but their ranks also include some truly exotic stuff, like Audi’s absurd RS 6 Avant, headed to U.S. shores for the first time this year. No matter your budget, wagons are eminently practical and inclusive; you can pack in your family, friends, and even the dog if you don’t care too much about the carpet.

From four figures to six, Hagerty’s Brad Phillips and Colin Comer rounded up 9 of their favorite wagons for your enjoyment in a recent livestream. The theme was inspired by the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, Phillips says. And really, any list of longroofs that starts with that “damn fine automobile” is bound to impress.

1981–87 AMC Eagle

We take for granted the winter chops of today’s SUVs and their modern tires, but back in the 1980s, there wasn’t a hefty, all-wheel-drive family hauler in most garages. American Motors tackled this mucky, icy situation by building the AMC Eagle wagon—essentially an AMC Hornet up top and Jeep underneath. The torquey straight-six, 15-inch tires, and four-wheel-drive transformed winter driving for those acclimated to a low, rear-wheel-drive estate.

The Eagle wagon was also one of the first vehicles you could shift into four-wheel-drive on the fly: simply yank the Selec-Trac lever, and the vacuum-shift mechanism took care of things. Most of these weird, lifted wagons can be had for less than $10K, and the model has its own collector subset of enthusiasts. After Chrysler took over AMC in 1987, what would have been the 1988 AMC Eagle wagon was simply the Eagle. Production totaled in the hundreds, making 1988 Eagles very rare indeed.

1979–85 Mercedes-Benz S123 wagon

“These wagons will outlive us all,” Phillips declares. “Every time I see one, I think of some Nantucket family’s old country estate conveyance passed down to two generations of kids.” These German wagons aren’t vulnerable to much except rust, if properly maintained. Upkeep is straightforward, Comer points out, given the analog construction of most early 1980s cars. These aren’t simply boring, reliable haulers, either; the 123-generation wagons boast the first turbodiesel powerplant ever put into a mass-produced passenger car (rather than a truck). Snag one of the earliest turbodiesel wagons—they debuted in October of 1980—and you’ll have bragging rights to a true, though little-known, “first” in the automotive community.

1948 Ford Marmon-Herrington Super Deluxe Station Wagon

“Everybody loves a woody wagon,” says Comer. “Take a woody wagon with all the best parts of a vintage four-wheel-drive truck … that’s kinda what a Marmon-Herrington-converted Ford or Mercury is.” In the early years of wood-paneled wagons, those who needed off-road capability could turn to aftermarket manufacturers to convert their two-wheel-drive vehicle into a four-wheel-drive one. Marmon-Harrington did factory-supported conversions for Fords and Mercurys, and Napco took care of GMC and Chevy vehicles.

This stunning example is a 1948 Marmon-Herrington converted Super Deluxe Station Wagon; its meticulously restored condition and drivetrain conversion earned it a $200K+ presale estimate at RM Sotheby’s 2020 Scottsdale auction. Comer admits these wagons ride horribly and are extremely slow, but says they’re worth a lot of money for good reason: Marmon-Herrington-converted wagons were essentially vintage SUVs before the era of factory-produced SUVs.

1973–91 Chevrolet Suburban

Yes, the modern Chevrolet Suburban is more of an SUV or a truck than a wagon, but Brad defends his pick by citing 1970s Chevy advertising, which hailed the Suburban as a “superwagon.” Naturally, he was hooked. The wagon above is the Phillips’ 1977 model, a trailoring special with a big-block engine, 3.73 gears, and a 14,000-pound towing capacity. “It was a monster,” Phillips recalls. He bought it with dreams of cross-country family road trips, but after a trek down the Blue Ridge Parkway, realized that the weak ’70s air conditioning left rear passengers sweltering in the summer heat.

Comer has Suburban stories of his own. In 2018, he bought the cheapest car at the champagne-infused Monterey Car Week: a $1925 1998 Chevrolet Suburban. Want the details? Check out his story here.

2006–2008 Dodge SRT8 Magnum

Dodge’s SRT8 Magnum was essentially the factory-hot-rodded version of the Magnum wagon: its 6.1-liter V-8 churned out 425 hp and sent that muscle to the rear wheels for some serious burnout potential. Red doesn’t suit it, in Comer’s book; he’d have one murdered out in black. And why not do a Hellcat swap, too? 425 hp was big in 2006, but times have changed. “A Hellcat would just bolt in,” he says.

Still, Comer points out that Dodge thought out this muscle wagon, equipping it with the brakes and suspension to handle the beastly V-8 power. The one ergonomic downside, both he and Phillips point out, is visibility—the high beltline and narrow windows gives the driver a gunship view.

1967 Ford Country Squire

Phillips gets a bit enthusiastic when the Barn Find Hunter’s 1967 Ford Country Squire appears on the screen. “Tell me that’s not the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. Look at the prow on the front of this, all that cargo capacity!” Tom Cotter’s patina’d woody also boasts a unique drivetrain: a 428-cubic-inch V-8 mated to a four-speed and breathing out of a dual exhaust. Cotter sold the wagon for nearly $50K on Bring a Trailer back in May of 2020.

“Even without the 428, the Ford Country Squire does it for me,” Phillips says. “It just screams family adventure.” This Country Squire hails from a day in which, unlike our own, Ford was happy to put whatever engine and transmission combo you might desire into a variety of models. A Q-code V-8 and a luggage rack? Why not?

1994–96 Buick Roadmaster

Known as “Shamu” by wagon enthusiasts, the 1994–96 LT1-powered Buick Roadmaster is a crowd favorite and even earned itself a spot on our 2019 Bull Market List. It’s got big horsepower, torque, and rides “like you’re floating on a cloud,” Comer says. His wife has one as a daily driver; Comer says he bought the iron-block beast for $6500 and hasn’t had a minute of mechanical drama from it in five years. “It holds more than my F-150 in the back, too,” he recounts. Among the loads the trusty Roadmaster has hauled: 4×8-foot sheets of plywood, a refrigerator, and two mattresses (not all simultaneously, of course.) Plus, this luxurious wagon even has a sun roof and a roof rack.

2021 Audi RS 6 Avant

The Roadmaster is an accessible, every-day hero, but Audi’s RS 6 Avant represents another end of the wagon spectrum: the high-performance, high-dollar import. Audi’s bringing the box-flared, hot-rodded four-wheel-drive wagon to U.S. shores for the first time ever, and charging a pretty penny too: the 590-hp longroof starts at $110,000. Comer admits it’s above his pay grade, but he can’t deny its appeal. “It’s a menacing-looking vehicle. If Batman had a family, he’d drive something that looked this mean.”

2008 HSV ClubSport R8 Tourer

The CTS-V wagon’s reputation is well-established in the U.S., and, especially in the case of the stick-shift models, its collectibility is undeniable. (Check out the most recent sale record.) However, maybe you want something a bit … weirder. Welcome to CTS-V Sport Wagon’s Australian cousin, the Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) Clubsport R8 Tourer. Thunder comes courtesy of a familiar 6.2-liter LSA V-8 and you’ll be treated to a generous dose of right-hand-drive funkiness. “It’s like the Mad Max version of the CTS-V,” says Phillips.

If you’re willing to wrangle shipping logistics and wait around until it’s eligible for import under the 25-year rule, this a particularly poignant time to be honoring this monster wagon: in February of 2020, GM pulled the plug on its Holden subsidiary in Australia, which includes the HSV performance sub-brand. Think an Australian offshoot of an American brand is irrelevant? Think again. “We owe so much to these European arms of domestic manufacturers to help co-develop these products that are really cool,” Comer says. (Check out this C8 Holden test mule, for one.)

The post 9 of our all-time favorite wagons appeared first on Hagerty Media.

There are some wonderful collective nouns used to describe groups of various animals. For example, a “murder” of crows or a “tower” of giraffes. They’re not official names, true, but language is adaptable, and if enough people adopt a word, then the term can stick. Plus, new collective nouns can be fun, and I envy those that get to coin new examples.

In that vein, I thought I’d come up with some of my own nouns that describe groups of certain cars. After all, plenty of vehicles are named after animals, so the extrapolation seems logical. Let’s begin with a few collective terms that have already been established in the literary community and can be carried over directly to automobiles.

Take note, Corvette owners—an assembly of stingrays is a “fever.” Yeah, that’s apparently a real thing. To be fair, the natural history experts didn’t have much to say about Sting Rays. When you’ve got a collection of Marlins or Barracudas, it’s a school. Almost any grouping of birds—be they Hudson Hawks, Studebaker Larks, Corbin Sparrows, or Nissan Bluebirds—is a flock, unless those birds are Ford Falcons, which makes it a cast, or AMC Eagles, which makes the gathering an aerie or convocation.

When you find multiple Vipers and/or Cobras in one location, it’s a den or a pit. A swarm can describe any mass of Dodge Super Bees or Hudson Wasps or Hornets. A group of foxes is a skulk, so I suppose the same applies to Audi/VW Foxes and all of Ford Motor Company’s numerous Fox-body models. However, that only partially accounts for Ford’s pony cars. Round up any combination of Ford Mustangs, of any generation, and it’s a band, a stable, or simply a herd. The same goes for Ford’s Maverick, or Pinto, as well as Dodge/Mitsubishi Colt, or Hyundai Pony. If they’re driving, I suppose it’s a stampede. Impalas can join in as well.

Now that most of the accepted or commonly used collective nouns for animals are out of the way, may I humbly suggest the following:

While Broncos and Torinos can also stampede, may I propose “rodeo”? Let’s add GMC Caballeros while we’re at it.

Going back to Corvettes for a second, how about we evoke the nautical origin of their name and call them an “armada” or “flotilla”?

Multiple Plymouth Arrows in close proximity is a “quiver,” of course. If you’re talking about Ford Galaxies it’s a “cluster.” Round up several Plymouth Furys in one place and it’s a “rage,” perhaps?

When you corral more than two Corvairs it’s a “flip” or a “Nader.” The latter term, however, is not to be confused with a plurality of Cadillac Cimarrons, which is a “nadir.”

An assembly of Rogues—AMC, Nissan, or otherwise—is a “rabble.” It just seems appropriate.

Several Fiestas, back-to-back, is a “bender”.

A pair of first-gen Camaro Z/28s or 5.0-liter Mustangs is a “three-oh-twosome.” Similarly, four AMC Javelins are a “three-oh-foursome.” I won’t apologize for either of those. You can’t make me.

A group of parked Subaru wagons is either a “trailhead” or a “cylinder head repair shop.”

There is no name for a group of Toyota Highlanders, because there can be only one.

What have I forgotten? Feel free to share your suggestions.

The post What do you call a group of Corvettes? Collective car nouns, real and imagined appeared first on Hagerty Media.

We love to trace the myriad ways that cars (and trucks!) permeate our culture and our lives. When we’re not documenting our own adventures or analyzing the collector market or swapping an engine in the garage, we’re digging through the never-ending treasure trove of automotive movies. Though we’ve unearthed some obscure titles in recent months, our own Brad Phillips and Colin Comer decided to spend some time debating the all-time greats movie cars in a recent livestream.

Cars can be escape vehicles, personal champions (rather bloodthirsty ones, in Christine’s case), or symbols for causes—just take a glance at 1976’s Gumball Rally protesting the national 55-mph speed limit. They recreate days gone by for those who never lived through them: some of our favorite flicks conjure up the muscle car days of air shocks and Cragar wheels, showing what these cars looked like rolling down the road, not simply sitting on a concours lawn.

Our obsession with movie cars even follows them off-set. What happened to the hero car? Was it smashed, sold, replicated a thousand times? Did a mysterious curse seem to dog its tracks? Our picks below have triggered all these questions and more. Dig into this list and see whether your on-screen automotive hero made the list. If you’re left wanting more, check out the full-length, hour-long livestream for more cars than we could cram into this list!

Christine

This first candidate makes both Comer and Phillip’s lists. “How magical would it be to buy a cruddy old car and have it restore itself in front of your eyes?” says Comer. “You wouldn’t have to do any body work or paint work or anything!” It’s abundantly clear this sinister, nasty car only likes one person in the world—the guy driving it—but a car defending its owner against their enemies has a certain ring of justice and camaraderie to it.

However, the spooky factor managed to follow the actual hero car of Christine off the set. “They gave the car away in a contest after the movie was over,” Comer says, “and the guy who won it had all this mysterious, bad stuff happen in his house.” The same day the two-door Fury parked in his driveway, the new owner’s water heater exploded.

It’s just a car, though …

The AMC Pacer in Wayne’s World

On a more lighthearted note, we present the AMC Pacer from the wonderfully wacky 1990s flick Wayne’s World. We love to have fun with cheap, funky cars—just check out the Concours d’Lemons the next time we all get to congregate at a major concours. Even the craptastic “Mirthmobile” has a spot in our hearts, and this flame-decaled Pacer was type-cast for the escapades of Wayne and Garth. They don’t need a Countach and a country club, like one less-wholesome owner on this list; they just hop in a Pacer and cruise around at night, eating red rope licorice and headbanging to Bohemian Rhapsody. We approve entirely.

The Devil’s Mercedes-Benz 600 SWB

Mercedes Benz 600s were owned by a cadre of terrible people, prompting Comer and Phillips to speculate on what percentage of these imposing saloons had bulletproof glass installed to protect the dictators and mobsters they so frequently carried. The Witches of Eastwick, sadly, does little to redeem that portrait of 600 owners, but the car itself is magnificent. It packs a 6.3-liter motor and a load of presence, and with Jack Nicholson as the Devil himself behind the wheel, it’s positively menacing.

Despite its spark-filled antics in at the hands of the Devil, this car has been to several historic rallies and currently resides at the Petersen Museum. “It still exists, it’s well-worn, and it’s so cool to see it out there in the real world,” Phillips says.

The Wagon Queen Family Truckster

You think you hate it now—wait ’til you drive it!

While some of these movies depict dream-worthy scenarios (and a few nightmarish ones), Vacation keeps things real. Sometimes painfully so, from the envious glance at a passing Ferrari to an infinitely frustrating used-car dealership experience.

The Wagon Queen Family Truckster spawned a flock of replicas, including one example built by a family who then recreated the movie in a journey across America. The family’s last name? Griswold, of course.

The 427 Cobra in The Gumball Rally (1976)

“It was hard to pick between a split-bumper Camaro and a Ferrari Daytona Spyder,” Comer admits, “but I couldn’t stray from the 427 Cobra.” For Comer, The Gumball Rally ranks among the greatest car films of all time. That’s not an empty claim, either—Comer’s owned the very car shown in this screenshot. “This is still how it looks today—same color and everything,” he says. The Gumball Cobra’s current owner is a friend of Comer’s, and, since the 427’s nose got slightly banged during the water shots in L.A., it’s missing its proper fog lights. The Cobra has an advocate in Comer, however, who says he’s bugging his friend to put the correct “dragon” lights right in the nose. Appropriate fog lights aside, we think that owner’s a pretty lucky guy …

John Wick’s 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1

“You’ll notice I say Mach 1, not Boss 429,” Phillips points out when introducing John Wick’s Mustang. Though a Russian mobster does refer to the action hero’s beloved ride as a Boss 429, Phillips insists that this was a deliberate mistake written into the script, one that John Wick simply does not deign to correct. (Russian mobsters, you know.) We’ve noticed some anachronisms about this car’s exterior before—our best guess is that it’s a Mach 1 dressed up to look like a Boss 429.

In either case, the car’s persona is boosted by the actor who drives it—Keanu Reeves is a genuine gearhead. Motorcycles are his particular passion, and he’s owned everything from a Kawasaki 600 Enduro and a Suzuki GSX-R750 to a Harley Shovelhead and a Moto Guzzi.

“As a lover of automotive history and preservation … I’m realizing none of my picks got out of any film unscathed,” Phillips says. However, he and Comer agree that, while Wick’s Mustang takes a lot of abuse, it’s portrayed as a loyal companion that gets him out of many scrapes.

Jordan Belfort’s 1989 25th Anniversary Countach

“This movie is absolutely deplorable and depraved and one of my favorite films ever created,” Phillips says of 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street. While we roundly condemn the anti-hero’s behavior while driving—or should we say, smashing—this 1989 25th Anniversary Edition Lamborghini Countach, we can have a laugh or two at the movie’s expense. Phillips says he liked the early Countaches so much and thought these 25th Anniversary cars were so aesthetically over-wrought, that he was happy for such a garish example to be the victim of Jordan Belfort’s exceedingly impaired judgment.

Fun fact: This an actual Countach, not a stunt car, but the production crew was very careful not to total it. Though we don’t know its current whereabouts, the spaceframe wasn’t damaged and it could have been restored. Got any clues? Let us know!

The post 7 of our favorite movie cars appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Days after I’d posted a story lamenting the fact that AMC’s groundbreaking Eagle is harder to find on the used market than I’d hoped, I got a call from just the person I needed. George Parsons owns and operates Montana Overland and the vast inventory of Jeep Ranch, which has kept some of America’s favorite 4x4s on the road for 30 years.

The Jeep Ranch has been in Montana for 27 years, which coincides roughly with George’s full-time investment in the Jeep parts business. Before that, George, who runs the ranch with his son Chad, had lived in Florida. George told us that he and Chad had initially concentrated on the wagons and pickups built by Willys that expanded the Jeep brand shortly after WWII. Their collection of Willys eventually expanded to include those vehicles’ Kaiser successors, the Wagoneer and Gladiator/J-Series pickups. AMC’s unibody SUVs joined the mix soon afterward, with XJ Cherokees and ZJ Grand Cherokees arriving at the ranch in droves as they, too, developed a following.

“We go all the way back to 1947. The newest thing we’ve got is an ’05 Jeep Liberty,” George told us. On the other end of the availability spectrum, the Parsons simply can’t find enough inventory to be viable when it comes to Commandos, Jeepsters, and forward-control Jeeps. It seems those vehicles spend more time on display than they do in use; George notes that there’s much less demand for parts: “They don’t wreck ’em fast enough around here.”

What about Eagles, though? George was in the process of acquiring another low-mileage AMC wagon to add to their aviary, which includes more than a dozen of the innovative, all-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive runabouts. “We’ve got 12 that we know of,” he says. “Because I keep buying them, we lose count.” However, those dozen-or-so Eagles are in the minority, when it comes to cargo-haulers: “We have in excess of 350 wagon and pickups,” George says.

The Eagles that George shared with us were all of the four-door variety, but we also love the rakish two-doors.

After all this time in the used-Jeep and Jeep-parts businesses, George says he’s considering selling off all the trucks and SUVs so that someone else can help keep them on the road. There’s enough inventory to split Willys pickups/wagons, the Gladiator pickups and Wagoneers, and the XJs and ZJ into separate businesses.

In the meantime, George says that sales have been pretty good recently: “Everyone’s working on their Jeeps because they’re stuck at home.” Getting a vintage Jeep back up and running certainly seems like a worthy use of time to us. After all, there are few better ways to social distance than taking your Jeep off-road.

The post AMC Eagles abound at Montana’s Jeep Ranch appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In the 1980s, American Motors built some of the hottest 4x4s family haulers on the market. The AMC Eagle is not one of them. While it has the same 258-cubic-inch inline-six that was used as the base engine in the 1986 Grand Wagoneer, and impressive wood paneling and cushy brown leather interior were just an option check away, the AMC Eagle hasn’t yet reached the collectible status of the classic Brooks Stevens SUV. Shame.

Nevertheless, since last year when the Hagerty Drivers Club magazine staff gathered three unlikely off-roaders together for a romp in the desert, I’ve seen several nicely preserved examples hit the market. (It’s unlikely this is a cause-and-effect scenario, more like the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon calling my attention back to these unusual precursors to the modern crossover.) I began to wonder if there were more well-preserved Eagles out there than people might expect. Almost every other wagon from that era got tossed aside in the 33 years after AMC got swallowed up by Chrysler. Yet I swear I’ve spotted quite a few decent examples of the 4×4 wagon for sale over the past year.

An online search for AMC Eagles for sale landed me at the website of Worldwide Vintage Autos in Denver, Colorado. Some of their previously sold inventory can come up in searches elsewhere, and that includes a lot of Eagles. That might lead you to believe, as I did, that they’re an AMC Eagle emporium. If only such a place existed!

It turns out that Worldwide Vintage Autos isn’t the land of oddball AMCs I’d dreamed it to be. I called to learn that they only have two Eagles in stock at the moment and they only sell a couple a year. Further, they don’t seem to be particularly hot sellers. They tend to sit on the showroom floor for a couple of months before being picked up.

The Eagle now, as it did when it was new, is overshadowed by bigger, burlier, truck-based SUVs that grab all the attention. Collectors prefer the International Scout, Ford Bronco, Chevy Blazer, and of course Jeep’s own Cherokee and Grand Wagoneer. Even Worldwide’s inventory can attest to that. Still, someone out there has to also appreciate a groundbreaking car that’s two-thirds as cool for half the price. It’s definitely not setting the collector car market on fire, but a worthy collectible nonetheless. You may want to snap them up while you still can.

The post The AMC Eagle is still not as cool as we’d hoped appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Plenty of cars from the ’60s and ’70s offer beautiful designs and gutsy power plants but don’t neatly fall into the muscle car category. In the past, we’ve offered up some more affordable, midsize alternatives to the typical muscle car. This time, let’s delve into some of my favorite full-size cars from the era. Sure, they were bigger and heavier than their drag strip–hero counterparts, but they brought some big V-8 power to bear.

These cars were often the premier models in their showrooms. They featured a plusher interior and often prioritized a smoother ride. While their rowdier muscle car brethren featured some of the same power plants in smaller, lighter packages and dominated the drag strip, these cars were built for the highway and are still perfectly suited for weekend cruising or road-trip duty.

Whether totally stock, lightly resto-modded, or fully customized, here are six full-size hardtops that are overdue for some adulation. Translation: When you can find them, these fantastic cars are often a bargain.

1970 Ford Thunderbird

How have these cars flown under the radar for so long? From the front three-quarter view they look long and low, with a jutting grille that resembles the mid-size Mercury Cyclone. However, its rear three-quarter view is among the best of any car built during the decade. The roof is so low it looks chopped, and the taillights frame the car perfectly.

Barrett-Jackson sold a customized 1970 Thunderbird at its 2019 Las Vegas sale—the purple car you see above—that had the front of a 1967 Thunderbird seamlessly grafted on. The hidden headlights were a fantastic addition, but even in stock form they look amazing. The custom version, absolutely regal in metallic purple, went for $55,000. A well-preserved model will cost much less.

Power came from a 360-hp 429-cubic-inch V-8, and while a Boss 429 would be killer, the Thunderbird’s engine bay should be a bit more accommodating of the massive engine than the Mustang’s.

1969–70 Buick Wildcat

We’ve sung the praises of the Buick Wildcat before, but here’s the chorus one more time: The Wildcat offers up a lot of the performance of the Impala SS, without the premium price that comes with the collectibility of the “SS” badge. It brings fantastic looks, solid big-block power plants, and smooth cruising. The only problem is that they don’t come up for sale as often as their more popular B-body platform mates.

That said, because Wildcats have the benefit of riding on GM’s long-lived B-body chassis, OEM brake and suspension upgrades are simple and affordable. Spindles and calipers for big disc brakes can be found on junkyard ’90s Caprice cop cars or Impalas. Rear axle brake upgrades are just as simple.

The 1969 models with Buick’s 360-hp, 430-cubic-inch V-8, or 1970 models with the 370-hp 455, are still affordable and look every bit as good as their Chevrolet counterparts.

1969 Pontiac Bonneville

The Pontiac Bonneville could be ordered with a more formal roofline, like the one found on the Grand Prix, but with the more traditional lines of the LeMans. The result is an upscale car without the polarizing nose of the Grand Prix. (That look would come to the Bonneville the following year.) I also love the rear view of the Bonneville, with taillights that almost drape over the rear of the car, as they would a year later with the Thunderbird.

Pretty much everything I mentioned about the Wildcat applies to the Bonneville, as it also rides on GM’s B-body chassis. The difference is that the Bonneville got Pontiac’s potent 390-hp 428-cubic-inch V-8. What’s not to love about this pavement-pounding full-size?

1970 Mercury Marauder

Mercury’s take on the personal luxury coupe for 1970 seemed a bit more forward-thinking than its Ford Thunderbird counterpart. Its squared-off leading edge was more formal and anticipated the look of future American cars, yet it boasted a sporty fastback roofline. The overall package is a perfect amalgam of luxury and sportiness. Bonus points for hidden headlights.

Under the hood was Ford’s familiar 429, again in 360-hp trim. That’s modest power by today’s metrics, but even full-size cars of that era weren’t terribly heavy. Bump the displacement to 460 cubes or more, add a roller cam, massage the cylinder heads a bit, and you’d have all the makings of a sleeper.

1972 Plymouth Gran Fury

Mopar’s C-bodies adopted “fuselage styling” in 1969. Dozens of unique Plymouth, Dodge, and Chrysler coupes, sedans, and wagons adopted this look, with varying success. Overall, the 1969–73 C-bodies have aged nicely. The Chrysler 300, particularly the 1970 Hurst variant, is a standout. Unfortunately, its 375-hp 440 big-block comes with a premium. They’re rare and pricey.

In contrast, the 1972 Plymouth Gran Fury is a relative bargain. Its massive, full-width chrome bumper was divided into two openings. It looks like it could eat a 1970 Coronet and spit out its slant six in disgust. Not subtle or understated—exactly why the Gran Fury rules.

1968 AMC Ambassador

Last but not least, we have the AMC Ambassador. Perhaps the most overlooked full-size on this list, the Ambassador has gorgeous lines and offers up a 390-cubic-inch V-8 engine. I just love the bulges in the fenders and quarter panels that match the bumpers, and the stacked taillights that almost mirror the headlights. The next-generation Ambassador, with its beautiful roofline, deserves an honorable mention, as well. It, too, had 390 power initially, giving way for the 401.

You won’t have trouble rebuilding or hot-rodding an AMC V-8 to keep up with any of the other V-8s on this list, but an Ambassador might prove trickier to restore. It still sounds like a worthwhile endeavor, especially for an AMC loyalist.

***

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