@mightymoe That picture reminded me of the Chevette, another hunk of junk. We had an instrument man one time whose wife drove a Chevette. He was about 6' - 6" and weighed a good 260. I was behind him at a traffic light one time and watched as he just leaned up against the door, hung his arm out and rested his knuckles on the pavement.
Andy
70 purple gremlin
Knew a wild person who bought one new back then. She was from North Jersey and worked at one of the Catskill resorts in the summer. Think Dirty Dancing or first season of Amazing Miss Maisel show.
Friend and I made a visit to her on a Friday night. She stayed in an all female dorm. They partied hardy after work. She gave us refuge in the dorm for the weekend. It was analogous to being held hostage in a women's prison. Fond memories of that car.
It was comparable in price to a Corrola or VW bug. But had more interior room.
I was working in Hemphill Tx for about 6 weeks in the summer of 1979. One night me and a coworker wound up riding the dirt roads with two local girls, I think they were sisters, in a van that had the engine mounted behind the front seats. Every time someone gets to talking about odd vehicles, that is the one I think of. I don't remember what brand it was.
How's this for an ugly AMC Pacer?
I once owned an AMC Hornet that was also short on pulchritude.?ÿ I think it's color should have been called torched pumpkin.?ÿ This is as close a match as I could find.
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These.....although the more you stared at it, it seemed to get less ugly like when you were at the bar later than you should have been continuing to drink more?ÿ than you should have been.....
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@jitterboogie
Studebaker Avanti. I love that car in the 60s. One of the first Euro designs in the US. Also like the Buick Riviera a lot too.
My father in his mid-life crisis bought a Studebaker Golden Hawk. It had a Mercedes looking front end. Had little porthole windows in the rear. Kind of small for three kids in the backseat. Constant aggravation on trips. He got over it and got a big Buick Century then a bigger Oldsmobile.
But Avant was a cool car a wiki it.
Maybe not for rural use.
I got to see a lot of different cars while pumping gas at Bill's 66 when I was a kid.?ÿ There are at least two cars that stand out in my memories.?ÿ One is the hard-topped DeSoto Alan mentioned above.?ÿ The other was a later model Kaiser Special, looked something like a Buick but fancier.?ÿ
I remember the family that had the DeSoto because they lived just down the road.?ÿ All I can remember about the Kaiser is it was owned by an older gent that wore wire rimmed glasses and dressed like it was 1940.?ÿ The car was always spotless down to the windshield.
I saw my very first Corvette up close at Bill's station.?ÿ It was probably a '62, white with a red interior.?ÿ The driver wouldn't let me pump the gas.?ÿ He instead opted to pump it himself.?ÿ He even had his own shop rag to clean up any drips.?ÿ I thought he was a nut.
In 1970 as part of a side job of running errands for a neighbor, I had to drive a Nash Rambler station wagon, pink 4 door model with a huge engine with push-button gear control.
It was light weighted in the rear and would lose traction and spin around on a damp road.
Felt like a punishment just to drive the oddity to the market and around town to pick up orders and deliver them.
One day I met a tanker truck on a farm road and the impact caused by the turbulence of the wind threw the rear end off the road and struck a delineator post and put a crease in the back door. Had to do some rubber hammer work to get it back in shape before I took it back to the owner.
That was an ugly vehicle inside and outside.
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I don't know much about them other than they had to shift to the straight six at the last minute because GM halted their rotary program and left them engine less. AMC was never known for their mechanical prowess, so, how about some systematic problem created during shoehorning in the six? Easy to believe. I never could believe they sold any, but, people paid over invoice for PT Cruisers when they came out ...
The AMX was about as "prowess-ful" AMC could have possibly been. 😉
The Aussies sure loved them esp when they immortalized in the original Mad Max
I 1978 #7 Red Pacer. It had a Chrysler slant 6, solid lifters and lots of power with a spyder type intake manifold.
After the fire, I learned that the style of the intake was infamous for collecting all sorts of debris, oil and whatever in a cavity where when it got too hot would burn. It was also near impossible to clean out as it was under the cowl extending over the back of the motor that housed the retractable windshield wipers.
The first thing that was burnt into was the cable leading to the hood latch leaving no possible way to open the hood.
I loved the car as it was very roomy and had a fold-down rear seat leaving well enough room to camp and sleep in. It had rack and pinion steering drove and rode like a Caddilac and would take a sharp corner without losing traction.
It had a roof rack and did it look really odd when I put my 18ft Quatchata Canoe on top. It was several feet longer than the car.
With all the windows, there was no place to hide.
Fully loaded it cost $1,500 less than a stripped-down Chevy Nova with a straight six and 3 speed on the column with rubber floor covering.
In 1970 as part of a side job of running errands for a neighbor, I had to drive a Nash Rambler station wagon, pink 4 door model with a huge engine with push-button gear control...
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I drove a 4 door Nash about the same model in your pic as a delivery car when I worked at the local Rexall Drugstore.?ÿ This would have been '68 and '69.?ÿ I don't know how big the engine was but it was a beast.?ÿ It would smoke the tires from stop light to stop light...but it was ugly as a chicken's foot.
I also remember the speedo register numbers didn't have any zeros.?ÿ Instead of 20, 30, 40...it just read 2, 3, 4, etc.?ÿ It was also equipped with air-conditioning.?ÿ A car with A/C was something this cracker had never ever driven before...the girls loved it in the summer.
Seeing that Nash Rambler station wagon reminded me of the beast I drove sometimes for work about 1972.
Pictured is a 1960 Chevrolet panel van.?ÿ Change the color to government issue grey.?ÿ It might have been another year or two older than shown.
One of my grunt jobs was as student labor in college working at a USDA facility.?ÿ Several of us spent much of the summer months maintaining too many acres of lawn and shrubbery.?ÿ All grass clippings were bagged/swept and stuffed into that giant shell.?ÿ There was a cheap plywood block directly behind the seat to more or less prevent too much from getting into where we had to sit (a single bench seat).?ÿ The only thing worse than loading/packing/loading/packing until no more could fit in was the gawdawful drive in sweltering heat with that load of silage several miles to the nearest landfill to attempt to drag it all back out while dodging rats/seagulls/stench/trash trucks.
I like AMX's, .... hangs head in shame ... Something about a two seat pony car that has always attracted me, but, I own an Ariel Atom, so, that is just an updated version (kind of)
Have a buddy that bought a purple 70 Gremlin as soon as they hit the lot.
It had a small block 318ci V8 and 4 on the floor and was a great ride and would leave em in the dust when necessary.
In England possibly Australasia, Vauxhall also made a Chevette, which was fondly nicknamed the Vauxhall Shuvit.
