There's a good cross-section of Kenosha advertising style here, from the 60s muscle cars and penny-pinching economy sedans to the Malaise Era favorites and into the Members Only 80s. When you're done here, you might enjoy our favorite VW ads, then continue your car-advertising overdose with the Datsun, Toyota, Renault, General Motors, British Leyland, Ford/Lincoln/Mercury, Honda, Citroën, and Chevrolet ads.

1979 Jeep Cherokee	1983 Jeep CJ-7	1987 Jeep Comanche
1976 Jeep CJ-5 Levis	1975 AMC Pacer	1969 AMC Rambler Rebel
1967 AMC Rebel	1967 AMC Ambassador Wagon	1981 AMC Eagle
1969 AMC Javelin	1969 AMC Ambassador	1969 AMC AMX
1973 AMC Gremlin	1979 AMC Spirit

The Spirit was built on the aging Gremlin chassis, and you could even get a not-so-quick AMX version. Still, we'd have taken the Spirit over the Chevette, if only for the possibility of getting a 304 V8 with a 4-speed.

Yesterday the forty-grand Fiero was jilted by a commitment-phobic 77% of you. Today, we've got a sure-fire, can't-miss money making scheme for you; one that involves track time, a Deliverance-style trek to California's back-woods, and a car that you can fix with a ball-peen hammer and a bungee cord.

The idea behind the 24 Hours of LeMons is an endurance race for cars costing less than $500 to obtain. This lets drivers of limited means get some track time, maintains close racing, and keeps a lot of crappy cars off the roads. Not only is there the circus-like atmosphere, and camaraderie of your fellow contestants to look forward to, but there's also money involved- should you manage to finish the race. The racer that completes the most laps, and suffers the fewest lap-adding penalties, takes home a cool $1,500. Win the Index of Effluency and you'll pocket another grand. If you manage the trifecta of these and the People's Choice Award, worth $500, you'll be $2,500 richer and have earned the respect and or derision of your peers.

In order to maximize these winnings, it's best to start with as low-priced a racer as possible, and - save for someone paying you to take a car off their hands - you can't get cheaper than. . . FREE. That's right, a poster on the LeMons forums is offering up a 1978 (?) AMC Spirit of indeterminate mobility, for just the effort of hauling it away. Not only that, but it comes with that claim of reassurance you seek in a used car ad- like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval- that it "ran when parked." Sure, it's got an automatic, and the big six under the hood is probably filled with squirrel scat. But that, and the fact that it's nothing more than a citified Gremlin don't matter, it's a freaking free car for pete's sake. This is a free spirit that'll run with the ‘Stangs, and run-over the ankle-biter miatas. Not only that, but the fabulously facial-haired justices Martin and Lieberman would raise unruly eyebrows in approval over your unconventional, but nut-scratchingly American choice of competitor. LeMons is a petri-dish of wackiness and you and your free spirit would only add to that culture.

So what do you say? Is FREE a Nice Price for the potential of milk-chugging beer swilling in the LeMons winner's circle? Or is dragging this free spirit out of its back-woods grave make you think $500 would only be the tip of the LeMonsberg?

You decide!

24 of LeMons Forums or go here if the ad disappears. Hat tip to Murilee Martin.

Yes, as the creators of the infamous Gremlin, the asymmetric Pacer, and the tape-stripe-tastic Spirit AMX, the American Motors Corporation will forever be remembered for making the worst American hatchbacks in history. But they're so ugly and quirky that they've actually moved full-circle and become lovable over the years. Well — at least the Gremlin and Pacer have. The world might need some more time to really appreciate the glory that is the louvered-rear, "rally-tuned" special that was the Spirit AMX. This 1980 model was the last car from AMC to wear the once-respected AMX badge. Underhood was a 4.2-liter inline six, which wasn't as bad as the hamster-powered four-banger in a Chevette, but not exactly a pavement-melter either. Be that as it may, have you ever seen a malaise-era compact look so badass? Didn't think so.

Images copyright: Mark Arnold / Jalopnik.com

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!

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