Gremlin Aberrations

By Al Koos
akoos@juno.com
Al would like for you to vist Alamo AMC's web site

Note: This article first appeared in the American Motoring, the official publication of the American Motors Owners Association, Volume 16, Number 2. It is reproduced here with the permission of the author, Al Koos.

Has everyone heard the story about the birth of the Gremlin? The way I heard it, one day in the late '60s Dick Teague was on a commercial airline flight to Detroit mulling over ideas for the "new wave" of subcompact cars that the Big Four were planning to compete with the VW Bug. He wanted AMC's entry into the market to be small enough to be a subcompact, while big enough to house a reasonable sized motor which would out-perform the ubiquitous Volkswagen. And, as always, AMC was interested in minimizing retooling and the like to hold the costs down.

Suddenly, he had an idea...what if he took the Javelin platform, and simply "chopped" it off as short as possible? That way the new car could retain the entire front half of the existing model while still looking quite different from the profile. Mr. Teague grabbed the nearest available piece of paper and sketched out the idea. That paper is what was submitted to the draftsman when they "mocked up" the proposal...and what was it that Mr. Teague wrote on? The air sickness bag!

The Javelin-based Gremlin built in full-scale as the AMX-GT, was first shown at the New York Intetnational Auto Show in April, 1968. The 97-inch wheelbase high-performance two-seater shared many components (including doors and front clip) with the two-seater AMX introduced a month earlier in February. After the success of the AMX, the AMX-GT concept was shelved. The basic body design was then switched to a "new" platform being developed at that time to replace the Rambler American, the 1970 Hornet. The Javelin front clip and doors were replaced by the Hornet components. The final car shared everything from the pillars forward with the Hornet except hood and grille.

The new Gremlin, introduced in April, 1970 was a huge success with young, first-time car buyers interested in economy. The original Gremlin was redesigned for 1974 (bumpers and grille), 1977 (new front clip and taillights), and 1979 when it metamorphised into the Spirit Sedan (and later the Eagle Kammback).

During the 70s, a lot of different experiments were done using the Gremlin as a platform. The 1972 Gremlin "Voyager" was one of the earlier aberrations, exhibited on the 1972 auto show circuit. Designed for sportsmen and the like, the major feature of the car was that the taillight panel pulled straight back, along with the luggage compartment floor, effectively creating a "drawer". I personally can't think of anything that this configurationn would be particularly useful for and apparently neither did AMC because the idea was forgotten.

Gremlins were used by many universities during the early 1970's for experiments with alternative fuel sources. Gremlins were converted to natural gas, hydrogen, and electric power.

A rather interesting "concept" Gremlin was built by the Coleman Products Corporation in Coleman, Wisconsin. In order to create a visible demonstration of the placement and function of electrical wiring harnesses in the vehicle, engineers built a Gremlin out of clear plexiglass! Although not driveable, the vehicle did feature working lights and other electrical features. Details like bumpers, wheels, seats, the dash, andall of the exterior lights were furnished by Kenosha.

Because any AMC V-8 fits readily into a Gremlin, many modified versions were created for racing. H.L. and Shirley Shahan used Gremlins for drag-racing exhibitions. I know of a Gremlin in the Detroit area that has a 390 nestled very nicely in the front end. Years ago I even read about a Gremlin with a Chrysler Hemi in it? Does anyone remember the "Hot Wheels" car of the early 70s that was a six-wheel Gremlin with an Allison V-12 aircraft engine?
Ed Note: Click to be taken to a site showing the Hot Wheels car! Please use the "back" button on your browser to return to this site.

During the mid-1970s, AMC toyed with some different concepts based on the Gremlin. Usually, these involved combining existing body pieces into weird combinations. The 1973 "Hornet" GT was essentially a Hornet Sportabout squeezed onto a Gremlin chassis. The Gremlin rear quarter panels and liftgate were replaced with those of a Sportabout. The result looked like a two-door Sportabout or a Gremlin with a Hornet taillight panel.

The 1974 Gremlin G/II was shown on the auto show circuit in 1974. It was essentially a Gremlin with a fastback rear clip on it, and little bulges in the rear quarter panels. Five years later the Gremlin G/T emerged as the 1979 Spirit Liftback, looking almost identical to the concept vehicle minus the bulges!

In the late '70s, there was a buzz around AMC that a four-door Gremlin was being planned. I think the idea would be rather redundant, being so close in concept to the standard Concord Wagon, but evidently the concept WAS built, this time becoming the Mexico-only American Lerma. More about this strange vehicle in an upcoming article.

The Spirit Liftback was intended to replace the Gremlin line for 1979, but AMC decided very late in the project to retain the "slant-back" as a separate Spirit model, the Sedan. I remember seeing the first prototype of the car in Kenosha in December, 1979. Spirit Liftbacks were already being mass-produced on the line, but the Sedan prototype was still in trim at that time. The Sedan was released to the public early in 1980, and was built until Spirit production ceased in 1982. Thus marked the end of the road for the funny-looking car that was truly an American phenomena.

(Note: Some of the information in this article is from the American Motors Family Album by John A. Conde.)

This was the AMX-GT shown at the New York International Auto Show. The front was basically an AMX and the rear became the basis for the Gremlin.