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Posts Tagged “

Gremlin

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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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1:15 PM on Tue Jun 3 2008
By Mark Arnold
2,062 views, 45 comments

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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5:20 PM on Thu Apr 24 2008
By Murilee Martin
2,076 views, 49 comments

Latest by n/a: @Mike the Dog: Actually, the crank and piston rods from the AMC 258 will directly fit into a Jeep 4.0, effectively making it a 4.6 stroker. The only thing you will have to do is add a 1CM spacer to more »

novelties

The Ten Strangest Special Edition Cars

What do Frank Sinatra, Levi's Jeans and Don Knotts have in common? Special edition cars. When a trend gets too popular and a car company gets too desperate, they find ways to merge the two into a steaming pile of car crap — otherwise known as a trendy special edition. We thought we knew them all, but when we asked you about your favorite trendy special edition car we got quite the mix. Below are the ten weirdest responses we received, complete with a poll so you can help us select the strangest special car of them all. More »

Feature

1:00 PM on Wed Mar 26 2008
By Matt Hardigree
12,030 views, 142 comments

Latest by gurneyflap: How about the Marlboro GMC Syclone, cuz god knows a turbo all-wheel-drive truck and cigarettes go together. more »

question of the day

What's Your Favorite Special Edition Trend Car?

Automakers love to tie their cars to other companies, sports teams and trends. There was a time when you couldn't walk three feet without bumping into an Eddie Bauer Edition Explorer or an L.L. Bean Subaru Outback. We're personally fond of the Jeans Edition VW, which is just that much cooler than the Warriors in Pink Mustangs. And this isn't just an American experience, even French newspapers have custom Renaults. More »

11:40 AM on Mon Mar 24 2008
By Matt Hardigree
2,585 views, 149 comments

retro

Time Magazine: We Gotcher 50 Worst Cars Of All Time!


Since we don't really consider Time Magazine the definitive source for things automotive, we aren't surprised at the wrongness of some of their (well, actually Pulitzer-winning writer Dan Neil's) choices. The Model T? The Fuller Dymaxion? The '71 Imperial? There's something to piss off all of us here, though admittedly they did include such citrusy favorites as the execrable V8-6-4 Caddy and the breathtakingly unreliable Triumph TR-7. In any case, you get a list of a bunch of interesting cars- just the thing for a Monday morning. [Time]

10:30 AM on Mon Sep 10 2007
By Murilee Martin
3,380 views, 75 comments

Latest by n/a: And what was the point of Time running that article? more »

choose your eternity

Project Car Hell: 510 Wagon Or Famous Gremlin?

Yesterday, we had our closest Choose Your Eternity poll yet, with the '58 Rambler just barely edging out the Buick-chassis '54 Packard by a couple of percentage points. Today we've decided to take a break from the 50s stuff and look at a couple of low-cost-of-admission project cars hailing from the Malaise Era.
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5:30 PM on Fri Jul 27 2007
By Murilee Martin
3,477 views, 44 comments

novelty

Required Gremlin Gear: The Penthouse Sleeper

Consider yourself warned: Stay away from Arcticboy's AMC website! You will be sucked into a vortex of AMCness from which escape is impossible, and you will emerge hours or days later, blinking as though in unaccustomed daylight and unable to tolerate a life sorely lacking in Hornets, Matadors, or Gremlins. And even if you do have an AMC, you probably don't have the incredible Penthouse Sleeper option, which added a sort of TR7-garage-shaped tent to the roof of one's Hornet or Gremlin. By comparison, the Aztek's wretched tent looks like something a carny crank dealer would rig up behind the Tilt-A-Whirl. – Murilee Martin More »

10:22 AM on Tue Mar 6 2007
By Murilee Martin
325 views, 9 comments

Latest by jconli1: Javewagon! more »

ad watch

Classic Ad Watch: Even Better Than A Pinto, And $104 Cheaper!

Bucket seats... 6-cylinder engine... a wide hatch... back in '77, the choice was clear: Gremlin ber Pinto! But what about the Bobcat? – Murilee Martin More »

2:10 PM on Tue Feb 27 2007
By Murilee Martin
539 views, 5 comments

clips

Crazed Gremlin!

While the AMC Gremlin in stock form beat Ford Pinto with two extra cylinders under the hood, no one beats Wisconsin's own Brian Ambrosini when it comes to wheelstanding Gremlin mayhem. Mr. Ambrosini reminds us that while turbochargers are bitchen, sometimes there is no replacement for displacement. A little nitrous oxide evidently doesn't hurt either. – Mike Bumbeck More »

3:22 PM on Fri Feb 23 2007
By Mike Bumbeck
914 views, 9 comments

retro

Turbo Gremlin!

Back in late 1970, Clarence Milstead purchased a 1971 AMC Gremlin. As time went on, he began tinkering with the six-cylinder Kammback hatch until the fateful day he saw an XR4Ti in a junkyard, yanked its turbocharger and plumbed it in, using a carburetor bonnet scavenged from a Mitsubishi-built Chrylser Hemi 4-cylinder. What fully awesome cars used the Hemi 4? That's right kids, the Conquest and its Starions! As time's gone on Milstead's continued to widdle with the Gremmie, converting the front drums to discs and dropping the final-drive ratio to 3.55. We'd be proud to drive this car. We'd be even prouder to say we built it ourselves. – Davey G. Johnson More »

5:00 PM on Wed Feb 21 2007
By Davey G. Johnson
1,246 views, 11 comments

Latest by SpudMills: Gremlins is cool. more »

custom cars/hot rods

Rumble Seats, No Running Boards: The Gremlinamino!

There may be no vehicle more classical Northern Contra Costa/Southern Solano than this, even if it is actually from Kenosha. It reminds us of an old Aaron Cometbus-penned Cleveland Bound Death Sentence anthem that goes, "What about the nights drinking down at Passout/Tasha found a hundred dollars laying on the sidewalk/Split three ways/Enough for two bags of speed and five hundred copies of my motherfuckin' fanzine." Which, when sung by Paddy Costello of Dillinger Four makes so much sense that you'll wanna whack yourself over the head with the cylinder head from an AMC 401, smoke crystal and make out under the stars 'til the cows come home. [Thanks to Bob for the tip.] More »

2:02 AM on Thu Jun 15 2006
By Davey G. Johnson
168 views, 5 comments

Latest by bigkens: Best one ever. Two classics melded into one, like "Hooked on Classics"! more »

retro

The Kids of Today Should Defend Themselves Against the '70s: AMC's Spirit of '76

We were born in 1975, which meant that as a small child AMC's then- current lineup seemed interesting and futuristic to us. We also remember thinking Porsche 914s were strange-looking, yet kind of cool. Now generally remembered as the nadir of automotive design (along with the Vega, Pinto and Aspen/Volar twins), we still have a lingering affection for the '70s AMC products. Except for the Matador. Not even James Bond could make the Matador cool. More »

12:17 PM on Tue Aug 16 2005
By Davey G. Johnson
495 views