AMC Gremlin

Although not being a muscle car, the AMC Gremlin (also American Motors Gremlin [1]) is an American subcompact automobile introduced in 1970 engineered and manufactured and marketed in a single, two-door body style in America (1970-1978) by American Motors Corporation (AMC) — as well as in Mexico (1974-1978) by AMC's Vehículos Automotores Mexicanos (VAM) subsidiary. Featuring a shortened Hornet platform and bodywork with a pronounced, almost vertical tail, the Gremlin was classified an economy car by 1970s U.S. standards and competed with the Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto, as well as imported cars that included the Volkswagen Beetle and Toyota Corolla.[5][6] The small domestic automaker marketed the Gremlin as "the first American-built import".[7]

The Gremlin reached a total production of 671,475 over a single generation — and was superseded by a restyled variant, the AMC Spirit. The idea for the Gremlin began in 1966 when design chief at American Motors, Richard A. Teague, and stylist Bob Nixon discussed the possibility of a shortened version of AMC's compact car.[8] On an airline flight, Teague's solution, which he said he sketched on an air sickness bag,[9] was to truncate the tail of a Javelin. Bob Nixon joined AMC as a 23-year-old and did the first formal design sketches in 1967 for the car that was to be the Gremlin. Ford and General Motors were to launch new subcompact cars for 1971, but AMC did not have the financial resources to compete with an entirely new design.[11][12] Teague's idea of using the pony car Javelin resulted in the AMX-GT concept, first shown at the New York International Auto Show in April 1968.[13] This version did not go into production, but the AMX name was used from 1968 to 1970 on a shortened, two-seat sports car built from the Javelin. Instead, Bob Nixon, AMC's future Chief of Design, designed the new subcompact based on the automaker's Hornet model, a compact car. The design reduced the wheelbase from 108 to 96 inches (2,743 to 2,438 mm) and the overall length from 179 to 161 in (4,547 to 4,089 mm), making the Gremlin two inches (50 mm) longer than the Volkswagen Beetle and shorter than the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega.

Capitalizing on AMC's advantage as a small car producer, the Gremlin was introduced on April 1, 1970, (April Fool's Day) and was rated a good buy at an economical price.[14] The April 6, 1970, cover of Newsweek magazine featured a red Gremlin for its article, "Detroit Fights Back: The Gremlin". The car was available as a "base" two-passenger version with no rear seat and a fixed rear window, at a suggested retail price of $1,879, and as a four-seat hatchback with an opening rear window, at $1,959 (US$12,345 in 2017 dollars. The Gremlin was discontinued in 1978, being replaced with the AMC Spirit the following year.

Hot Wheels Variations

Hot Wheels made 3 variations of the AMC Gremlin : Gremlin Grinder, Open Fire, and Greased Gremlin.