AMC: Funky, Interesting and Unique

A model poses with the four-passenger 1970 AMC Gremlin with rear lift-gate and roof-top luggage rack, a two-door subcompact car measuring only a fraction more than 161 inches in overall length and boasting an unusually short turning radius of 32 feet, 8 inches, Detroit, Michigan, February 12, 1970. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) /

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Side by side in red and white, an AMC Gremlin X and a Chevrolet Corvette brightened the Father’s Day car show at Channel Islands Harbor Sunday afternoon.Car show Grem And Corvette /

AMC Gremlin (1970-1978)

The Gremlin was a subcompact and was on the same page as the Ford Pinto and Chevy Vega for consumers in the Oil Embargo of 1973 and later models could give you 33 mpg on the highway. Its wheelbase, 96″, was two-inches longer than the Pinto. In a world of large American cars the Gremlin was tiny.

The first year was offered with the base 199ci inline-six engine that produced a factory-rated 128hp and you had the option of upgrading to a 232ci inline-six with a robust 145hp.

Car and Driver magazine timed a 232ci Gremlin from 0-60 mph in 11.9-seconds, not great numbers in our current era but not too bad for a subcompact in the 1970s and a faster than Ford Pinto, 0-60 mph in 13.5-seconds.

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