AMC Pacer - Pug Fugly

In the 70’s, AMC’s new way of thinking was the "AMC Philosophy of Difference". From this emerged a car that has come to be one of the largest automotive jokes around. Not that the car was a huge mechanical failure - it was just that it’s odd (or cute to some people) fugliness has gained it a reputation for being the car of losers, geeks and nerds since it’s inception.

It was apparently designed by placing four people in seats and designing the car around them to best accommodate their comfort and safety. This created a car that was only 100 inches long, but 80 inches wide. Theoretically this was the same concept that produced the Gremlin - a large car chassis shortened make and short but wide car. However, the Pacer’s body was refined in a wind tunnel to give it superior aerodynamics. But this happened to make it look like less of a half car like the Gremlin, but a gumdrop.

Other odd features: the passenger door was 4" longer than the driver's to let back seat passengers in more easily. Ford’s Windstar later adopted this idea, but the asymmetrical doors are more noticeable on this small, fishbowl like car. Engine choices were the same "fuel efficient" V6s of the Gremlin.

In 1977, a longer wheelbase wagon version of the Gremlin was added, which managed to look a little more awkward. Instead of a gumdrop it looked a little more like a time release pill. Sales were beginning to disappoint, and it was certain that AMC would not make the money off the Pacer to cover the tooling costs of creating it. Sales got lower every year since it’s introduction, and the wagon was an easy way of trying to create more sales.

Another last ditch effort was to transplant the 5.0L V8 from the Gremlin into the Pacer after people wishing for more power. However, it wouldn’t fit under the sleek hood of the Pacer. A new hood was made with a bulge for the V8, and front end styling was revised with a strange finicky grille with a pattern that mimicked that of Mercedes Benz’s of the era.

Production started in 1975 and 1980 was the final year of sale (although technically they were just 1979 models that weren’t sold in that model year). Although machincally and theoretically similar to the Gremlin, the Pacer had not nearly the fans or sales of it’s brother. Oddly enough - although they were claimed to be two difference cars, these engine/chassis/concept sharers also shared the "X" package, which offered similar stripe and rim packages.

As a last comment, I would like to refer to the posted (French) vintage advertisement of the Pacer. I love how the feces brown Pacer looks like it was just crapped out by the shocked and embarassed model. Either that or the pug fugly Pacer is humping her leg. Or that the Pacer just plain looks like a$$.

AMC Eagle Spirit Kammback

Due to inexplicable demand, the Gremlin bodystyle was brought back to life with the new generation of AMC Eagle/Concord bodies. Technically an evolution of the Gremlin anyway, the fastback Eagle Spirit liftback was modifed into the Spirit Kammback, which basically looked like the Spirit with a Gremlin back end tacked on. The Eagle/Concord front looked slightly better than the Gremlin but it's higher, chunky shape made the Kammback body look even more chopped off, although the rear quarter windows were larger.

Worse yet, it was available in 4 wheel drive, and looked even more awkward with the extra ground clearance.

AMC Gremlin

The name of this car is sufficient to describe it's fugliness.

The AMC Gremlin was introduced in early 1970 as a 1970-1/2 model. It was the result of a fast track program to bring the first modern, U.S.-built subcompact car to market. AMC was successful in beating both GM and Ford to the punch, since the Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto were introduced as 1971 models. However in doing this they cut corners which were the downfall of the car and it's semi-successor, the Pacer.

By 1970, AMC had become a car company that was trying to be all things to all people, instead of concentrating on the economy end of the market as had been done successfully during the late 1950s and early '60s. The trouble was, AMC was the smallest of the U.S. auto companies and could least afford the tremendous costs associated with developing new vehicles.

Perhaps the most significant car in AMC's 1970 line-up was the Hornet , which was basically a replacement for the successful Rambler American series. In many respects, the Hornet was a very up-to-date car, even though it used a number of mechanical pieces from the Rambler.

The Hornet would be the basis for several AMC vehicles through the years, including the Concord and the all-wheel-drive Eagle which carried the company through the 80's to it's death which may be featured later for their own brand of fugliness.

Within six months of its own introduction, the Hornet had already spawned the Gremlin - evidence that in order to beat Ford and Chev they may have sacrificed too much in means of development time and thinking. AMC's "distinctively-styled" subcompact's basic design was penned on the back of a Northwest Orient air sickness bag (appropriately enough) only about 18 months before the car was introduced.

The late designer, Richard Teague was responsible for the design. The end product combined many of the rear-end styling features of the 1967 AMX/GT show car with the more mundane front end hardware of the production Hornet. The result of these two styles created it's controversial looking rear end - it looks as if someone cut off the back of the car with a cleaver. Only accentuating this was smaller rear quarter windows, which must have made backing up fun.

There were two basic Gremlin models offered for 1970: a bare-bones, fixed window two-seater (targeted as an import-fighting price leader) and a four-seater, which added a flip-up rear window hatch. One of the Gremlin's major selling points was its powertrain. While the rest of the subcompact competition had to make do with four-cylinder motivation, the first year Gremlin came equipped with either of two in-line, six-cylinder engines: a 128 horsepower 199 cubic inch (3.3L) engine was standard, while a 145 horsepower, 232 (3.8L) cubic inch version was optional. The same engines offered in - shock - the Hornet.

Because of the extra cubes and torque provided by the large six-cylinder engines, Gremlin's performance was quite sprightly, especially in comparison with the rest of the subcompact competition. However, this made the car a bit of an oxymoron. This was meant to be a compact car which was born because of the oil crisis and Asian competition. Cutting the rear end off a large car to make a smaller (but still wide) one and using the same big engines does not a economy car make. To make matters worse (or better for the power hungry) the smaller engine was dropped in 1971.

Another thing that added to the Gremlin's "unique" look was the X package offered for the first time in 1971. This package consisted of special "spear" striping on the body sides, body color grille surround, larger 14" blackwall tires mounted on slotted alloy wheels (raised white letter tires were optional), space-saver spare tire, custom interior trim including bucket seats, "engine turned" instrument trim, and special "X" decals. The rear deck inset panel containing the taillights received a full width decal (same colour as the striping) as part of the "X" package.

'72 saw a V8 option for the "economy" car - a 304 cubic inch unit that made 150hp. '73 saw more changes to the exterior to comply with safety laws adding large and uglier bumpers. A "Levi's" edition was also added, which added classy demin seats and other demin interior accents. Although most of the changes made the car look worse and worse (like the larger taillights) the last front end was a slight emprovement. Last year of production was 1978, which oddly allowed a three year overlap of AMC dealerships offering both this and the Pacer.


Above information was found on allpar.com, and editted by myself for length and content.