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Amc

jalopnik decides

Muscle Car Wars Of 1978: Hood Decals Strike Back

It's a Friday, and it's the week before our most patriotic of U.S. holidays. What better time to take a look back at the best of American muscle machinery? Aha, but there's a catch: We're only going to go back 30 years. That's right, 1978. The Malaise era was striking back with a new breed of muscle cars. While not as legendary as some of the "true" muscle iron of the '60s, these creations traded raw power for cocaine-fueled, taped-on vinyl style. In the middle of an infamous era, we give you three cars that represented the best of red-blooded American spirit. But only one will be declared most awesome, and that's for you to decide. More »

junkyard find

AMC Concord Crusher-Bound, In Spite Of Landau Roof

With the optional VW/Audi four-cylinder (same engine as the one in the Porsche 924) under the hood and its snazzy faux-convertible landau roof, you'd think this '78 Concord would be worth keeping on the road. Apparently not, as I spotted this very solid-looking AMC being prepared for a stint on the stands at a local self-service wrecking yard. After that, it'll be Crusher time.


classic ad watch

52 Highway MPG, Psilocybin Sold Separately: 1984 Renault Encore

The Renault Alliance won the 1983 Motor Trend Car of the Year Award, so buyers might have figured the hatchback version- named the Encore- would combine French build quality with the financial acumen of American Motors to produce one of the finest motor vehicles of all time. Well, unfortunately, the Kenosha-ized Renault 9 didn't live up to expectations, but it did get great gas mileage... at a time when gas was 95 cents a gallon and getting cheaper by the minute.

junkyard find

This American's Rambling Days Are Over

Remember that Rambler engine block that was so much fun to identify last week? That wasn't the only shot I got of the Crusher-bound '64 Rambler American; in fact, that wrecking yard currently has two Ramblers (in the Ford section). This one still has plenty of good pieces (well, it had them last week, when I took these photos), so let's hope that more than just the cylinder head gets rescued for use in surviving cars.


2008 orphan car show

AMC's Awesome Malaise Compacts

When we told you about the possibility of a new Chevy-branded compact car yesterday, the howls of lamentation quickly followed, as long-repressed memories of awful bowtie-badged compacts bubbled back into consciousness. But if you think those old Chevettes, Toyota-based Novas, and Citations were bad, you're forgetting about the real champion of awesomely awful American hatchbacks: AMC.

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choose your eternity

PCH, Six-Banger Kenosha Malaise Edition: Spirit or Gremlin?

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!
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down on the street bonus edition

1976 AMC Matador Brings A Taste Of Kenosha Malaise To Denver's Streets

We're being buried under a deluge of car photos from Kitt and EJacobs, our dog-walking, camera-wielding friends in Denver, so we'd better keep 'em coming if we're ever going to get caught up. Today we're going to look at a battered but proud Malaise Matador, courtesy of Kitt. We can't be sure that this car is equipped with today's Engine of the Day, but there's a good chance a torquey AMC 258 motivates this survivor; otherwise it has a 304, 360, or 401.


engine of the day

Engine of the Day: AMC Straight Six

How about an engine family that stayed in front-line service from 1964 through 2006, powering everything from the Rambler American to the AMC Gremlin to the Jeep Cherokee, with a few years of IHC Scouts thrown in for good measure? Starting with the 138-horspower Typhoon 232, the engine evolved into the 199, 258, and 4.0 engines used in just about everything AMC and Jeep made for decade after decade. You can even get one with Renault/Bendix fuel injection (but we don't recommend it). [Wikipedia, Novak Conversions]

found on craigslist

1982 AMC Eagle, Claimed Rust Free

Like the Minotaur or the Griffin, the idea of a rust free AMC Eagle is one of legend, impossibility, sillyness even. Though these tanks posing as cars were the forerunners to todays crossover, and sported big AMC I6's, all-wheel-drive, and seriously crazy ride characteristics, they were not known for their corrosion resistance. So how is this pristine, Cincinnati-area 1982 Eagle two door dressed in a fine shade of 80's brown in such good condition? Well it's been stored in a barn for the last 16 years, that's how. More »

novelties

NY Times Profiles Vagina-Equipped DeLorean Owner

Cue the sirens! This just in! There are female DeLorean owners out there and now there is officially proof because The New York Times decided to profile one Lauren J. Reilly, the owner of a completely stock 1981 DeLorean DMC-12. The 31-year-old advertising firm producer lives in Midtown Manhattan and milks the car for all the attention she can get from tourists and jaded onlookers. Reilly described owning a DeLorean as "5 percent being a rock star," which is debatably accurate. The design enthusiast decided on the DeLorean as a birthday present for herself after doing lots of research prior to buying a hers on eBay. Unfortunately the near legendary French V6 is performing exactly as the stereotype would suggest More »

retro

The AMC Eagle: Before Its Time, Dammit!

They all laughed at the AMC Eagle back in the day; why would anyone want to buy a car with four-wheel-drive? And, of course, just about everything AMC did during the Late Malaise Era reeked of the panic swirling about Kenosha at the time, so car buyers could just picture the bash-to-fit frenzy of line workers running over to the Jeep assembly plant to swipe components to affix to Concord bodies. But these days everyone seems to want "command position" driver height and 4WD every bit as much as they want 16" diameter cupholders. Before its time! You still see a few of them around, though, and the Gray Lady has taken notice. [New York Times]

junkyard find

Scariest Shift Knob Ever: Renault Urine Sample Ball

You see some puzzling things in junked cars, but something about the interior of this Renault Alliance caught my eye as I scavenged for race car parts over the weekend. What the...? I thought as I peered into the 1983 Car Of The Year's Franco-Kenoshan interior. Some sort of leaky-looking plastic sphere, filled with a yellowish liquid and precariously duct-taped onto the shift lever...
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news

American Motors Corporation Is Back? No, Not Really

The guys all about the Rods that are quite Hot have an absolutely enthralling report in their April magazine that AMC is back and will be looking to:
"create a full-scale racing program to encompass NASCAR, Drag racing, IMSA, and reportedly, a highly modified Javelin for Pikes Peak this July... and possibly by 2010, at the Baja 1000, to celebrate the '67 baja run of Spence Murray and Ralph Poole, in a virtually stock Rambler."
So how the hell did this happen? More »

classic ad watch

It's Like Riding A Buffalo, Only Bouncier: 1983 Jeep CJ-7

You know what big-haired early-80s chicks really liked? No, we mean even more than cocaine. That's right, a macho dude who rides a buffalo to work! Thing is, sometimes you need a ride that doesn't leave bovine poop in the parking garage, and then there's the matter of getting Buffalo Crotch Scabies from bareback bison riding. That's when you go for the Jeep CJ, which is slightly more comfortable than the buffalo, yet nearly as macho.

classic ad watch

Made By a Company Older Than GM or Ford: 1982 Renault 18i

Remember the Renault 18i? Maybe if you live in Europe (where it was called the Renault 18, without the i) you do, but in North America these things disappeared without a trace. AMC had to sell Renaults as part of its deal with the French government; a fair number of Le Cars and Alliances limped off the showroom floors, but the other models (e.g., the Medallion) were bombs. Smell the desperation in this ad, especially the part at the end about the "10% rollback."

classic ad watch

A Hardtop For Cheapskates: 1967 AMC Rebel


Coil-spring seats! A six-banger engine! Molded acoustical headliner! A big gas tank! The hardhatted Kenosha gentleman in this ad wants you to know that the '67 AMC Rebel is the cheapest intermediate-sized hardtop in America. "Either we're charging too little, or the other guys are charging too much!" Now if only we could find an ad for the amazing '69 Rebel Machine...

choose your eternity

PCH, George W. Romney Edition: 1970 or 1973 AMX?

For reasons that no doubt made sense at the time, the utterly hopeless Cord triumphed over the absolutely impossible Lamborghini in yesterday's Choose Your Eternity poll. After those two high-ticket machines, I figured we should take a look at some good old American muscle, from the Golden Age of V8-powered rear-drive machines. The problem we run into with most of the Detroit muscle machines from the 1964-73 era (in terms of this series) is that it's just too easy to get parts for them, particularly for the likes of GM A- and F-bodies and Chrysler B- and E-bodies. But those guys in Detroit weren't the only ones building such cars; that's why we've packed up the Pink Pig (official vehicle of the Mobile PCH Spotters' Brigade) and headed right for Kenosha, Wisconsin, where the ghost of George Romney (yes, Mitt's father) pointed out a couple of fine AMC muscle monsters for today's matchup...
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down on the street

1988 Renault Medallion

You want rare cars in this series? How about this '88 Renault Medallion? After purchasing the wreckage of AMC in 1987, Chrysler decided to rebrand the Medallion as an Eagle partway through the '88 model year, so surviving Renault-branded examples are probably rarer than Hemi Superbirds (or '53 Packards, like the one that lives on the same block as this car). Based on that paragon of automotive build quality, the Renault 21, and tainted with the smell of death from obviously-doomed American Motors, sales of the Medallion started out poorly and went downhill fast from there.
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