Nobody in their right mind would ever mess with General George S. Patton. He was the kind of man that would stride right into the thick of battle, his shiny helmet not once losing its gleam, all while asking you why you allowed your arm to get blown off. General Patton wouldn't mess with you in turn, would he?
Now I know that this isn't actually General Patton shilling for Renault, but rather the actor that portrayed him, George C. Scott. But close enough, right? I mean, who can deny the all-American appeal of the Alliance and the GTA, especially when the General that helped liberate France is the one doing the shilling?
While many may consider any Renault to be as French as a slice of runny Brie, the Alliance/GTA siblings were actually built in the Kenosha, Wisconsin AMC plant. Renault owned AMC at the time, and like any proper parent, it took every advantage of its child it could, even if that meant producing the 64 horsepower Alliance out of the same plant that once produced the mighty AMC AMX.
Unfortunately, that rapaciousness didn't extend to any of those classic V8 engines from AMC. Instead, even the GTA "performance" model had a maximum of 95 horsepower. Ninety-five. Yeah, I know it was the early 80s, but that's a flimsy excuse for such flimsy performance. Even though it only weighed one ton, a road test at the time clocked a 0-60 time of 10.2 seconds, though the "turbo" steering wheel and "turbo" seats probably helped.
Then again, that same road test called the car "dandy."
Just don't go around calling General Patton one of those.
Big H/t to Jagvar!