The AMC Gremlin/Spirit: Comparing a Ford GT40 to the Hindenburg

Filed in archive American Independents , As We See Things , Romantic Notions on December 2, 2007

On the 50th anniversary of the Ford Edsel, TIME and Dan Neil, Pulitzer Prize-winning automotive critic and syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, looked at the 50 greatest lemons of the automotive industry. Perhaps not surprisingly AMC had some winners... uh, losers on the list, including the Pacer and the Gremlin. Personally I thought the Pacer was a neat bit of styling and an interesting concept although "the Wide Small Car" as it was advertised, didn't make much sense. If a car is wide, how can it be small? The Gremlin, however, made me laugh when I first saw it, for it was actually a Hornet with 18" of length chopped off the back. Ironically, the Gremlin was more successful than the Pacer.

In 1979 the Gremlin became the AMC Spirit, with updated styling plus a few mechanical tricks. AMC was perennially short of funds and so was I when, 10 years ago, I purchased the Spirit seen above, having given up a well-paying ad writer's career for survival as an Internet auto writer. You're entitled to ask why someone with years of experience testing cars plus a few years as a racer, would buy such a beast. Well, it was compact, came with a 6-cylinder inline-six (an engine configuration I've always liked), had a 5-speed manual, no rust or dents, leaked no oil, and was offered at a pauper's price. I even had visions of my Spirit as a future collector car. In truth, it was a pig to drive. The 4.2 liter six was smooth and had reasonable low-end torque but could barely keep up with a Vancouver trolley bus once on the move. As for the 5-speed, I joked that the throw to fifth gear was so far away that my right hand went out the passenger's window.

In spite of the boat-anchor six, the Spirit sat nose high, yet that didn't help during Vancouver's annual snow storm. There's a short, steep uphill joining Beach Avenue to Pacific Avenue, with a stoplight at Pacific before hanging a left. In spite of being reasonably capable with clutch and accelerator I'm always apprehensive, no matter what manual transmission vehicle I may be driving, when I get stuck on the uphill grade just as the light turns red. Which happened on that dark and snowy night. Thankfully I didn't slide into the car behind but it took two light changes and a great deal of embarrassment to get that beast up and around the corner. Incidentally, AMC's chief designer Richard Teague commented in a Motor Trend article that to compare the VW Beetle (which originated in the late 1930s) to the Gremlin in profile and body design was like "comparing a Ford GT40 to the Hindenburg".

[Lousy Backyard Photo: Philip Powell]