Jalopnik
With today's Engine of the Day being the AMC inline six, it seemed only good and proper that we have a Choose Your Eternity dilemma featuring a pair of vehicles powered by that fine powerplant. It's also good to have a couple of American cars, which I really can't use very often in this series because the stuff out of Detroit is too simple and parts obtainment is too easy to make for true hell. Not so with Kenosha products, though- even though the drivetrain parts are easy to find (thanks to the Jeep connection), the body and interior components are another story entirely. And today's trip into Hell isn't just about restoring an old AMC- it's about hot-rodding the six-cylinder engine so you get at least 300 reliable horsepower out of it. The road out of Hell is steep, you see, and you'll need plenty of power to climb out of the boiling sulfur!
When you see an American rear-drive car with a big fiberglass hood scoop, brightly-colored racing stripes, and rear tires so wide they protrude past the big plastic fender flares, you usually assume the presence of a V8 under the hood. How boring! But put a souped-up inline six in that same car and you've got something a bit different. Say, for example, this 1979 AMC Spirit, which can be purchased for the lure-to-Hell cheap price of just $2,800. It's already got some go-fast goodies on the engine (which is of unspecified displacement, though at least it's been bored 0.030" over). You might keep the intake and headers and drop in the good ol' 258 crank/rod combo into a common-as-dirt 4.0 Jeep block, giving you a ring-gear-shattering 280 cubes of inline torque! Thanks to the Jeep freaks, a bewildering array of camshaft options may be found, keeping you up late at night trying to puzzle out just the right combo for your Spirit. We don't know what kind of transmission is in this lil' red devil, but it goes without saying that you need a 4-speed for it, so you'll need to start shopping if the car comes with a slushbox.
Cool as the Spirit is, those Camaro owners won't be able to figure out what the hell it was that just smoked them at the dragstrip with just six cylinders. For AMC name recognition, you can't beat the Gremlin- why, even folks who wouldn't even recognize an AMX can slap an instant ID on the odd-looking shorty Hornet hatchback from deep in the heart of the Malaise Era. We've managed to find a genuine 1974 AMC Gremlin X for just 100 bucks more than the Spirit, which means it's your lucky day! Yes, for only 2,900 clams, or bones, you can head out to Kansas City and claim your own purple Gremlin X. Purple! Put on your darkest shades and take a peek at that two-tone interior- you know you must have this car! You get a 360 engine as part of the deal, but you'll be selling that off to buy some speed parts for the crazy inliner you'll be whomping together for this thing. It's been sitting for a while, so the brakes don't work, the carb gaskets are bad, and so on and so on. Oh, and there's rust. But don't picture yourself endlessly replacing rusty sheetmetal with impossible-to-find patch panels. Picture yourself rampaging around town in the baddest six-cylinder Gremlin X ever to burn 110 octane!
Comments
What's the difference here? Same chassis, similar engine, it just comes down to preference...
Just the fact that somebody thought it was a good idea to call a car "Gremlin"
Had to go with the Gremlin.
Sprint for hood scoop and stupid spoiler
Gremlin for the win!
Amc Spirt....owned an 81 4cyl. The thing had a 30 gallon gas tank....
Spirit, because it looks like a cartoon come to life.
The embarrassment I feel for liking the Gremlin is only overshadowed by my shame for singing along with Tony Olando And Dawn songs.
Oh golly, has to be the Gremlin. H-E-Double Toothpicks awaits whomever spends three grand on a grimace-colored gremlin. It's twenty four years old, and was out of date when new.
I'm guessing the X in the name refers to the porno-set two-tone interior. Ooh-la-la, shake it baby.
Spirit.
That's no mere hood scoop, it's a gaping hood maw.
Spirit. How many of those are left relative to Gremlins? I vote mighty, mighty few.
My unironic ironic choice is the Gremlin. The Spirit just looks on the bland side of silly. The Gremlin is bona fide weird.
I was swayed by the custom straight-off-a-boat-trailer taillights on the Spirit.
I'm more drawn to the blank canvas of the Gremlin than the heinous Spirit (in which I'd want to undo most of the work done to it before I could get started), so yeah, my hell looks like it was modded to meet the rad trends of 1988.
OMG!!! Price cut on the Spirit!
Still not gonna sway me.
@graverobber- Same great taste, new low price!: "It's twenty four years old, and was out of date when new." It's thirty four years old and was out of date when new.
Spirit comes pre-molested with unknown/unreliable mods. The Gremlin is just old and rusty. Had to vote for the Spirit.
Now days a turbo on the Gremlin.You can take me to Hell in one a I won't complain....Been There Done That.
@RalphieDC:
Considering the Gremlin's primary competition was the Vega and the Pinto, I think AMC's customers were willing to settle for "out of date" as opposed to "replace engine every 20k miles" or "stay off my rear, I'm explosive".
Plus, it was still more modern than the Beetle.
@selfhatingotaku: +1
As a Wisconsinite, I always thought the thing our state had the most to answer for was Joe McCarthy.
And then I learned about AMC.
@selfhatingotaku: Spirit Spirit Maybe you were thinking Chevy
I'm conflicted as they're both, IMO, equally hellish.
The only thing more unpleasant AND AMC might be a '76 PacerX which has a Ford 300 CID 6-cylinder in it. That combines the worst of multiple worlds.
I can't believe this, but I remember the test-drive my folks took in a '76 Gremlin. What a heap! They also drove a '76 Rabbit and eventually settled on a '77 Datsun B-210 sedan, aka Bluebird. Of only my mother hadn't crashed and totalled (multiple endo's will do that) the '72 510 wagon...which was FREE! Was a replacement for the joke of a '66 Covair , which ran for about a week. The Datsun wagon needed a transmission, as the OEM auto had 1st and R. I cut my baby gearhead teeth on the conversion to manual in 1974... It stuck. I was a surprisingly helpful 6-yrear-old.
I have a sneaking hunch this would be more hellish than even imagined here. Having worked on -- and subsequently driven, however briefly -- these straight-sixes, I know they are great engines, and can produce great gobs of torque... but AMC seemed to have a sense of humour, moreso than even implied by looking at the Gremlin or Pacer.
There are minute differences between the various versions of this six, just minute enough to drive you absolutely fucking nuts. It's been too long, I can't remember all the details, but, for instance, the grandaddy of these, the 195.6cid six, had multiple different versions with differing heads and attachments. And non-interchangeable parts. Step up to the 232 (you mad, impulsive FOOL you!) and it mattered greatly whether it was the original "Typhoon" version or the later non-Typhoon version... and so on.
Let's face it. Step one would be to yank the engine and throw in a Jeep 4.0L... (or a 401... wait, that's against the rules...) so in that sense, does it matter about the car?
I'll take the Gremlin, because, DAMN, it's a Gremlin!
@RalphieDC: Thank you for that. I was trying to collate a deck for a presentation tomorrow and be witty at the same time. Have to give my boss the ultimatum: Jalopnik first, work second, okay?
By the way, I guess that two-tone porno Gremlin interior works:
Had to go with the Gremlin because my cousin had one with a 401 and a 3 speed. That car was scary fast at the age of 15 in 1985.
@graverobber- Same great taste, new low price!: <--Searched the internet for "gremlin porn"
ok.... gotta go with the gremlin....
My first car was a tan 77 gremlin X .
I put nearly 220,000 miles on it, rarely changed the oil, beat the living hell out of it, and it still refused to die.
aaaah... memories of doing donuts in the high school parking lot and jumping the Gremie over snowbanks after wrestling practice....
good times
@Mad_Science: You know, funny thing- I was actually trying to find a video clip from the Simpson's Treehouse of Horror where Bart says "There's a gremlin on the side of the bus!"
Couldn't find that, but this showed up and I thought, what the hell?
@graverobber- Same great taste, new low price!: No need to make up stories, we're not here to judge you.
(Perv)
Before today, I didn't think any car could look good in purple and white.
@graverobber- Same great taste, new low price!: Close enough?
@DannyBN: That'll do nicely, although if you don't mind, I'd rather look at the girl washing the orange one than Jonathan standing jauntily next to his pride and joy.
I am totally stumped on this one. Gremlin, I guess. Have "Purple People Eater" hand painted in yellow script along the flank--wait, it doesn't have a flank. Maybe a big old Vikes helmet on the hood?
Gremlin. You had me at purple. It really needs the motor from the Spirit, though. And a 4-speed. And duals with glasspacks.
@Pope Dearthair the Awesometh: "There are minute differences between the various versions of this six, just minute enough to drive you absolutely fucking nuts."
Which is exactly why "keep the intake and headers and drop in the good ol' 258 crank/rod combo into a common-as-dirt 4.0 Jeep block" won't work. On the 258 the intake and exhaust ports are all in a nice straight line. On the 4.0 the intake ports are centered about 1/2 an inch or so above the exhausts.
the heck with these ramblers....i want the girl washing the orange gremlin
Gotta vote for the Spirit, but only because it made me think "well, maybe." That's hellified if I ever saw it.
Have to vote for the Gremlin, as I almost died in one in 1978. Don't ask.
I had a 304v8 spirit. Basically a restyled Gremlin. AMC was umm leader of the pack in poor build quality in the mid-70's on, unfortunately, but luckily the chassis is a tune-up of the earlier American. THe "new" chassis started in '70, and is solid, stiff, light, and takes every motor AMC ever used from 121ci Audi 4, Iron Puke, 199/232/258, and all the V8's, 290 to 401.
For hacking on, you can't beat AMC -- parts interchange is spectacular, 1958-1988. Any brake system bolts onto any chassis. That damned Hornet/Gremlin chassis was in use from 1970 through the Concord in 88!
The Gremlin is iconic, but the Spirits can be made very nice looking with just a few mods, (like ditch all the f-ing beige plastic!). I used to SOLO II autocross one. ALl th AMX performance jun
Purple. Hatchback. You got me there.
The Spirit'd just be too easy; there's too much working car there.
@graverobber- Same great taste, new low price!: Don't be hatin' on Edna Krabapple. Total cougar, she is.
@DannyBN: Mauled by cougar, perhaps.
This is what I want. It's called the Cowboy. Is it a Grem la mino, a Gremchero or a Grempage
Here is the link to the original page. Scroll a bit down for it.
[www.arcticboy.com]
I'll take the Gremlin, so I can bomb along blaring out some Mogwai through the great new 5.1 logitec desk top speakers that I will install.
For me, it's not even close.
The gorgeous, successful, and perky Girl-Next-Door-Yet-Never-Attained (and st