Three years. Thirty-six months. Countless hours that I’ve wasted of nights and weekends creating drawings and renderings of cars, trucks, campers, buses, lawnmowers and God knows what else that, thankfully, never existed (it was over 200 of them when I last counted). As with many bad things, it’s Jason Torchinsky’s fault.
How did it all start? Well, after feeding obscure car facts to Jason at A Different Website about stupid things like Vega fake turn signals and Chrysler TC opera windows that catch the carpet on fire, he had asked me to help out at his new ill-conceived website endeavor. At the same time, my nine-year-old wanted me to draw cars with him, even though it was something I hadn’t had an interest in doing in over thirty years when I changed majors at school.
What exactly would I draw? Well, all I could think of was starting where I had left off; coming up with renderings of automobiles of an alternate reality future from the viewpoint of the late eighties. Naturally, as a true Autopian, my first thoughts went to a brand that died around the same time I had put the ellipse guides away: American Motors. Jason saw what I was doing and insisted on publishing it now that he answered to nobody except for David Tracy. Here’s the “ad” that he published:
My alternate 1987 reality was where American Motors was thriving as one of the Big 3 because, in another twist, Chrysler hadn’t been given loan guarantees by the U.S. government in 1978 and was allowed to go bankrupt and disappear. As you can see, I came up with rough drawings of a complete line of AMC cars and trucks, and over time I’ve gone into detail on many of them and proposed even more.
However, the one that appeared in the first rendering shown on this site is one that I never fleshed out. It’s been almost exactly three years, so with that anniversary upon us and the long-awaited AMC six-part documentary coming to PBS next month, why not do it now?
Kenosha Rising
Obviously, my initial goal was to visualize what a full lineup of cars would look like with American Motors at the height of their powers in a Chrysler-free world. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this “ad” would be an outline for me to dig deeper into a number of them to develop aspects like the mechanical specs and interior details; all things that as a real car designer you’d like never, ever get the opportunity to do yourself.
Going back to my fake ad above you can see that the lineup would include a variety of cars and things that would be categorized as “crossovers” today, even though that term didn’t exist. There would be Jeeps and Jeep-branded trucks in the lineup as well that are not shown here, some of which actually existed (like the Wrangler and XJ Cherokees) and others that I developed over the last few years like an SJX full-sized pickup, a small cabover FC truck, and even a tiny sub-compact Jeep(click on those titles if you’d like to read more).
In fact, the dealership I proposed would have had a big split down the middle with a more modernist, office-lobby look on the left side where you come in and rugged slate and hunting lodge look on the other with a fireplace, plants, and even a little koi pont to visually define Jeep and AMC car areas.
That’s a Land Rover-style test and display ramp on one side wall/roof of the dealership.
Anyway, going back to the cars and crossovers in the ad, I’ve already dug into the details of the mid-engined AMX sports car you can read about here:
I’ve also elaborated on the Jeep Wrangler-chassied Jeepster “off road sports coupe” with this odd post about a derelict example that might exist in this alternate reality today:
Yet what about the bread-and-butter sedans for AMC? To truly succeed (and where American Motors often missed the boat) they’ll need run-of-the-mill offerings that are truly competitive. Well, here’s the four-pronged attack (five prongs if you count the Americanized Renault Espace minivan to be sold as the Space Van). Let’s take a look at the ad again:
Essentially, you’d have a car for each market segment, which this chart below shows.
Note that there aren’t any Chrysler products, because in my alternate reality Jimmy Carter did not approve loan guarantees for Mopar in 1978 and they died forty-five years ago–maybe Iacocca would have ended up at the mirrored glass offices at American Center (it’s the Charter One building now, where 696 hits the Lodge in Southfield). From where they were in around 1980 (below) you can only imagine how far they could come in seven years with what was the smallest of the Big Three gone.
Jason analyzed my lineup three years ago, but the one car that appears big in the fake “advertisement” I made seems like the best one to elaborate on for today.
This Hornet Wouldn’t Have Been Italian
What exactly is this thing called the “Calabrone” anyway? Well, with a name that translates to “Hornet” in Italian, it’s obvious that this is the spiritual successor to the AMC “mid-sized” model and a competitor for cars like the Chevy Citation replacement-Corsica and the Ford Tempo, as well as similar sized “foreign” products such as the Nissan Stanza and class-leading Honda Accord. Yes, I know the Eagle was really the Hornet/Concord successor, but that sized car was more of a Taurus competitor by 1987 (and I might elaborate more on the new Eagle later if you ask).
Ah, but this is AMC, so you just know that despite being a “mainstream” car, they won’t do a “normal” anything that would be offered in “typical” bodystyles. No, this would be something with an expansive lineup that could put the Japanese on notice with some good old AMC tricks. If you think “failure” when the name American Motors comes to mind, you’d better change that thought, since there are many things that the Kenosha car maker did that were truly successful.
First of all, in the late seventies, AMC was still selling the nearly-decade old Hornet. Lacking the funds to make an all-new car, they had a brilliant vision; dress up the old Hornet to look as fancy as possible. The body-colored hubcaps, vinyl roof, plush seats and even a glowing digital clock were things you’d typically have to buy a much larger, more expensive car to get.
These extras likely cost American Motors very little in parts and development, yet even to our jaded eyes today that thing looks dramatically fancier than the Hornet with a bunch of crap stuck onto it that it is.
Also, we laugh at the infamous Pacer, but the extra glass combined with a slightly wider and taller passenger compartment gave the controversial thing the feeling of a much bigger car inside.
Could the Calabrone use these same tactics to win buyers in the eighties? Let’s explore the lineup.
Calabrone Sedan
Obviously, we need a four-door sedan to be our big seller. I thought about a hatchback, but don’t forget that in 1987 that was sort of a dirty word. Maybe it was because a “five door” equated to an economy car then, but for whatever reason, people wanted trunks.
In the rough drawings below of a sedan with tan interior, notice the fancy, tufty contemporary-looking seats with side bolsters in cloth or leather follow the pattern of the old Concord by giving you a luxury-car feel. The dash and door panels emulate European cars with the lack of silly chrome trim and other such garbage. Center armrests front and rear, back seat headrests (not required back then) and abundant courtesy lights all cost rather little but add up to a very upscale environment for a small-to-mid-sized car. Not to mention the Pacer trick: the car is ever so slightly wider and taller than competitors to give an interior space advantage (without looking too strange).
This one has the optional “power pack” which most would likely come equipped with electric windows, central locks, and cruise control. Note that the control “pod” in front of the driver could possibly tilt adjust with the steering wheel like a Porsche 928 (hey, they stole the Pacer from AMC so we steal from them). Optional digital gauges on this example sit flanked by massive, oversized Fisher Price-style push buttons for various functions.
A Renault-sourced 2.2 liter SOHC four pumps through the front wheels via a five-speed manual transaxle or the four-speed automatic. McPherson struts up front are complemented by an independent setup in back; no beam axle for this AMC (but there’s still drum brakes in the rear).
The tall rear features an optional back window wiper and washer, even though it’s not a hatchback. A very eighties-looking full-width taillight panel is above the hidden backup lights. Yes, we’ve got the old AMC Concord trick of body-colored wheel covers to give the base model a Sunday-best look.
Calabrone Coupe
The two-door Calabrone has a cool party trick: it’s a pillarless hardtop with frameless windows that gives an expansive view out for all passengers, plus a great open-air environment with all the windows down. Plus, with such a setup that means we can make a convertible rather easily.
Additionally, there’s a 16 valve version called the XVI (like a Super Bowl number 16) with a rear spoiler and enhanced ground effects.
We’ll still offer fold-down rear seatbacks for full versatility, even if there’s no hatchback, as you can see in this grey interior example.
You can see the cushy front seat design in this scribbled view of a stick-equipped coupe, with the integrated adjustable headrests and prominent side bolsters for spirited motoring.
With the XVI I’d want analog gauges. There’s space on the tach for a boost gauge later if we want to add a Turbo XVI model to really spice up the dull-as-turnips market segment.
Calabrone SRV
If it’s 1987, you just know that we have to offer a tall station wagon in the vein of a larger Tercel SR5 or Nissan Stanza/Axxess and Civic Wagon (Shuttle).
With a slightly stretched wheelbase, the SRV (Special Recreation Vehicle) version of the Calabrone would have a raised roof in back with a Vista Cruiser-style skylight over the second row, and an elevated “theater seating” style fold-away third row seat facing forwards. Admittedly, this would be a bit of tight space, but it would be one of the few mid-sized vehicles to offer seven passenger seating. This is not unlike the rare three-row Renault Medallion wagon that the dying AMC/Renault sold here in the US.
If you really need to carry six or seven on a regular basis, you’d be better off choosing the Space Van minivan anyway, but both that US-model Espace and this Calabrone SRV would offer all-wheel-drive options to live up to the Jeep sister brand’s reputation.
Renault Racine
Wait, what? We’re selling an American car overseas, or at least building one there? I think so. The Calabrone could be sold in Europe with minor tweaks as the Renault Racine. Pronounced RAH-seen, the name is actually an in-joke for my Chi-town and MKE homies who know that Racine (pronounced RAY-seen here) is the small Wisconsin town just north of the AMC plant in Kenosha in Wisconsin. In Europe, there are plenty of other powerplants that they could offer, including diesels that Americans wanted nothing to do with by 1987.
Why not? This thing is just weird enough to qualify as a French car.
Flight Of The Concord
Even if Chrysler weren’t around in 1987, American Motors would still be the number three American automaker of that Big 3 as well as facing ever-increasing competition from overseas. They’d have to find an edge to give them what the others didn’t have.
This pyramid-shaped thing is a bit different in many ways, but is there any reason that AMC should try to throw another forgettable car into the mid-sized mix? Why get a Tempo when you could buy something with a more spacious, fancier-looking interior? How about a high-revving European motor to combat the impressive powerplants from the Japanese?
Besides, the Calabrone would have had the main feature that it would have needed to go head-to-head with the Accord: flip-up headlights. Can you honestly say that there’s anything more important than that?
A Daydreaming Designer Imagines An AMC Sports Car Based On The Look Of The Pacer – The Autopian
What If The AMC Eagle Had Survived After 1988 In Argentina? – The Autopian
I was at EJS, not looking at my normal Internet haunts…
I LOVE the doors, fender, interchangeability with the Calabrone. The name screams AMC.
The only thing I think would change is that AMC would have done the “power pack” which would have power locks, A/C, digital radio with optional cassette deck, cruise control, and fuel injection (standard on the 2.5L for 1987).
It probably wouldn’t include power windows because they were not to be trusted in 1980s until the early 90s.
I asked why my dad had a 1987Olds Ciera with pretty much everything comfortable except for power windows, he gave me the answer. The dealer left it off their checkbox and they were unreliable.
If only. I would trade Dodge/Chrysler for AMC in a hearbeat.
I wonder about the minivan… since it was Chrysler that first built the minivan on a car platform in ’84. Ford’s Aerostar was a Ranger with a different body thrown on, and the Astro was a S-10 with a different body thrown on. Both were quick turn-around reactions to Chrysler’s success.
Supposedly it was Henry Ford II that didn’t want Sperlich/Iacocca’s minivan, thinking it would cannibalize big station wagon sales.
The Astro/Aerostar direction was all about towing and heavier duty use, that obviously about 85 to 90 percent of minivan owners didn’t care about. Ford was snakebit in the minivan department from the start.
And the Ford Carousel minivan Iacocca championed was itself going to be essentially a cut-down version of the full-size Econoline, still body on frame/RWD, but with a lowered roofline, shorter wheelbase, and more car-like exterior sheet metal. The Aerostar was almost a return to the original concept
I love your thinking.
There is something about that rear 3/4 shot of the Calabrone sedan (in blue) that looks awfully familiar. Even fully doctored, I recognized the base image that you used for that (as well as the Racine sedan).
The base photo is one that I took of my 1992 Tempo GLS way back in the day. 🙂
https://i0.wp.com/www.curbsideclassic.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/TempoGLS06.jpg?w=1000&ssl=1
Aw, crap, I didn’t link it since it was so heavily modified and might confuse people. If I go back in the caption and add a link to that image would you be good with that? That thing is the Holy Grail there.
oh no… it’s all good. It definitely is heavily modified from the source. I don’t mind at all. Just for me, looking at it, it was soooo familiar. Rear shot, the angle, the angle of the front wheel, the background.. etc.
The GLS was a holy grail for sure. it also had a 5-speed manual behind the 3.0L V6. I loved that car.. one of the few I regret selling.
Thank you- I appreciate it! Great photo, and a cool car. Obligatory Sir Jackie tearing one up on the track:
https://youtu.be/MbCchib6ljI
I love everything about this.
The only thing more wild about an AMC that stuck around would be the changes that did and didn’t happen to Kenosha.
It would make Milwaukee look like Sheboygan. Imagine a big RenCen-looking building on Lake Michigan.
Trolley Dogs would be a regional chain!
Bjorn’s would be making suits for the suits!
Coins would…well, it would still be shut down.
I like the Racine stamp into the rear bumper. It was a design feature I really liked on Saturns.
I thought reanimation was a Jesus thing, but I guess a Bishop might do
The mid-engined AMX did exist, in a way, 15 years earlier as the Bizzarrini AMX/3 Spyder and variants. Only 9 were built before AMC pulled the plug. The photo is from the Autoworld museum in Brussels.
What we need is a 2025 Gremlin GTX (GT with All-wheel drive). Since this is AMC, it will probably be powered by a supercharged 7-cylinder inline 4.2 litre and making 444hp. The special editions come with plaid flannel seating.
AMC already had a coupe prototype of the Premier, named “Allure”. Dick Teague was working on an AWD Alliance. The Espace was in the process of getting NHTSA approval and the Alpine US spec prototypes were in final road testing in France. If they had held on, the Renault Megane would have been a massive improvement on the Medallion and the Renault Clio would have replaced the Alliance.
There are photos of the pre-production Espace and Alpine GTA for the US market.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a first gen Espace…windows for days.
I think the point of divergence is when George Romney decided to parlay his business success into a political career, resigning as CEO of American Motors to run for Governor of Michigan. At the time he did that, Rambler was the #3 selling brand in America, behind only Ford and Chevrolet, the Rambler Six was the #2 compact, behind only the Ford Falcon (at the time, the concept of midsize didn’t exist, anything smaller than full-size, which was called standard-size, was considered compact, so the Six was a compact and the American was an even more compact compact).
Chrysler Corp outsold AMC only because they had multiple brands, but Rambler was completely crushing Dodge and Plymouth individually. With Romney out of the picture, the company sort of gradually lost focus and started drifting away from what made it successful, I’d say by the mid 1970s, it was pretty much all over. The Pacer and Matador Coupe basically sucked up all the resources AMC had left, they really needed both of them to be enormous, sustainable hits to pay back the development costs and then some, but they weren’t. The Pacer sold encouragingly well its first year, then completely crashed once everyone who wanted one had one, and the company just couldn’t afford to do much in the way of substantial new product development on their own from then on, but it was over a decade’s worth of accumulated decisions that led to that point
Renault is really what kept them going. The Alliance was actually quite a success for them. They missed the rise of sport utilities at the end of the decade, and nobody even knew what the Eagle was until two decades later (Outback, etc.).
I would argue that the Eagle was their best known model, seeing as how Chrysler used it to become its own ‘brand’ after the purchase. It never sold well enough to buy them the time they needed, but cold climate sales were respectable. ~40k for the first few years, with sales dwindling down to ~15k for the remainder of the models existence. While the Carolla wagon sold ~50k in 1983, and Ford sold 20k Crown Vic wagons. So for a ‘specialty’ vehicle, I think they weren’t doing too bad.
The bummer is that they couldn’t get the XJ out a year or two sooner. Had they done that, or managed to hang on long enough for it to become the segment-defining juggernaut it was, they would still be with us.
The Eagle was also the last model still being sold under the AMC brand, with the Pacer being dropped in 1980, and the Concord and Spirit both discontinued in 1984. When Chrysler needed a new nameplate to replace Renault in Jeep dealerships, Eagle was a natural choice, since the AMC name had retreated into the background with the cancellation of the Concord and Spirit in 1983 and increasing emphasis on Renault
I don’t know if they lost focus…
The first problem happened when Abernathy took over.
He read the tea leaves correctly and knew that:
The problem that they ran into is the first iteration of this with the Rambler Marlin Abernathy put his finger into the design language which caused it to have a terrible roof line. The AMC designers wanted a smaller car, Abernathy wanted a bigger car because he was a bigger guy.
From there, he didn’t constrain the sharing of platforms that Romney did. The Javelin/AMX would have not been developed, nor would the Pacer. Romney would have probably missed the boat on their V8 development which allowed the 304, 360, 390, and 401 to essentially be the same engine (they use the same block), which helped Jeep truck and large SUV sales. I think Romney would have not bought Jeep, which was Abernathy’s successor Roy Chapin Jr’s call after he fixed the issues left before him.
Although the evolution from the Rambler to the Hornet to the Gremlin to the Sportabout to the Eagle lineup probably would have occurred. With Romney still around, the AMC 2.5 would have probably happened faster.
Having been born in Kenosha, I object to you naming a car after Racine.
Kenosha would have been too obvious. You’d rather have Pleasant Prairie? I just had to drag my kid the Nike outlet there with nothing but a double brat from the Brat Stop to show for it.
That’s a good name for an SUV, I’ll give you that.
Look, if you passed up the goodies at the Mars Cheese Castle on your way home, that’s your own fault.
My disillusioned Mars-Cheese-Castle-working friend says you should stop at Woodmans instead to get the same cheese for half the price, you FIB.
I’ve gotten some killer Vans at that outlet for 15 bucks, I wouldn’t completely disavow it.
Geez, is EVERYONE from around these parts? We need another Chicago/MKE meetup soon. Gurnee Mills parking lot.
Just call it the Kansasville and confuse the hell outta everyone.
Nash did at least have a factory in Racine from 1924-1942, when they sold it to Massey-Harris, fits with Chrysler naming some of their cars after current or former plants – Windsor, Belvedere
So, did AMC join up with Mitsubishi then?
I mean, in the mid-80s the Big-3 all had deals with Japanese companies to import and rebadge their model. GM with Suzuki, Ford with Mazda, and Chrysler with Mitsubishi (aka Diamond-Star Motors).
So, would AMC have released the Eclipse, Starion, Mirage, etc as Captive Imports as well?
Would we still get a Eagle Talon?
That’s a good question. Being owned by Renault it’s hard to say how that would have shaken out, but any alliance would be possible; just not an Alliance.
The divergence point for this whacked-out timeline happens in the 50s, when Studebaker and Packard join up with Hudson and Nash. They keep the marque names, with Nash on the bottom, Studebaker next (with trucks and SUVs), then Hudson (vs Oldsmobile/Mercury), and Packard on top blowing Cadillac, Lincoln, AND the Germans out of the water. All hail Alfred P. Sloan.
Hey, it coulda happened.
George Mason really wanted Packard as AMC’s luxury brand, but didn’t have much interest in absorbing Studebaker, since their issues were pretty terminal by then, even before all the accounting fraud discovered after the S-P merger
The Studebaker Packard implosion is what gave Mercedes a toehold in the American market when they had cars sitting in the backs of Studebaker dealers when Studebaker went under.
I think I just had a flashback to a Pres Tech class critique circa 1992.
Were you in my class? We called it Viscom at CCS.
UW-Stout after an engineering degree at UW Madison. After realizing I didn’t want to be an engineer in my last semester at Madison, I figured I might as well get the most out of my UW system credits.
What’s a joke is that I learned all of the magic marker/pastel/colored pencil shit and then less than five years later I went Photoshop and 3D Max and never touched the stuff again!
I’m old enough to have gotten all the way to my last semester of college before touching a computer. My last semester, I took a Pro-E solid modeling class on a Silicon Graphics workstation. I even did an animation of my final design so I could who the various articulated pieces. Prior to that everything had been foam, bass-wood, Ren-Shape, for building models. It all took massive amounts of time but forced you to have your s*** together with an idea before committing.
Admittedly, knowing those techniques helped with digital rendering (and the photoshop things I do here) since in the years before preset environments you had to get your materials and light sources right. The computer could still make terrible renderings.
I spent hundreds of hours at an early job setting lighting and materials on what should have been simple models in Form•Z. Building floor planes that had a gradient transparency so it didn’t have a harsh line at the point it ended.
The other major limitation was the rendering times. A fairly simple model could take 30 minutes to render with textures but no shadows, an hour with hard shadows, and then 2-3 hours with soft shadows. That meant you could only do 1-3 edits a day to test lighting. If I had a complicated rendering, I would need to wait for other people in the office to go home for the day so I could add their computers to an ad-hoc network to help with the process.
At that point, I was still doing a lot of hand sketching to create the design, and the computer was only used for a final rendering if needed. It was just too slow for anything else. Hell, even Photoshop at the time would take multiple minutes to add a drop shadow and had a limit of about 3 undos on my computer.
But that was also long enough ago that adding a drop shadow in Photoshop could take multiple minutes, and Zip disks were the newest, greatest storage method because they could hold 100 MB.
And you could get a ten pack of Zip disks at Microcenter where they’d come out to less than ten bucks a disk!
They were worth anything they wanted to charge! They were replacing Syquest disks which failed at a very high rate and were often found attached to the wall of the computer lab with drywall screws.
Oh man, I once had a small render farm in my bedroom to do this as a hobby! I mean it was only three computers, but it was very good at drowning out my roomates.
I feel a little bit proud to have actually owned an AMC vehicle: A 1966 AMC Rambler wagon. With hydraulics.
Doesn’t Calabrone sound like one of those Italian words that must be accompanied by flicking the back of your hand under your chin?
I sure hope so.
Or a salami but maybe you wouldn’t want to eat it…
The Japanese collaborations would have been interesting I guess Mitsubishi and maybe Nissian ? Maybe the Renault Mitsubishi Nissan tie up happens earlier and actually produces decent cars. I bet if amc has a successful truck line they wouldn’t have been allowed to fail. Maybe if they had tied up with the international auto division could have had something great.
there would not be a Minivan in our history without Chrysler. just saying. the Eagle Brand of Cars might have flourished, or more likely have never happened. It would be interesting to see if IH would have sold off the Scout and Pickup truck stuff to AMC to get a more fullsize pickup under the belt while also removing the Jeep CJ and Cherokee Competition?
There was a minivan without Chrysler. The Renault Espace (that I am using as the Space Van) was introduced at the same time. Also, the minivan was NOT Chrysler. It was from Hal Sperlich at Ford, who was fired from Ford almost exactly a year before Iacocca. Hal convinced Lido to go to Chrysler after he found work there. Supposedly Lee yelled at Hal:” If you had told me how fucked up this place was I never would have come here”.
Not sure how close we were to having an Americanized Espace but I’m sure it was talked about.
I like how your Jeepster concept is evocative of an even earlier “minivan” concept, the ’77 AM Van.
There are pictures I’ve seen of an Espace or clay model with sealed beam lights and side marker lights.
It made the rounds at some auto shows and some articles featured it too like this Popular Science piece.
I think Chrysler made it a household name though. Ford Kind of had to rethink it when Chrysler dug itself out of the hole of 1978 with K-cars and Minivans. Just saying, it might not have been a thing if not for Chrysler. Unless perhaps Iococa and Hal made it to AMC I suppose. Ford was still making plenty of wood paneled wagons and RWD vans, AMC held it’s hat on the AWD lifted wagons. It would have certainly been interesting to see what they would have done with a bit more money from sales, but I think the Alliance was so poorly made that the Espace if brought over would have floated like a lead balloon.
You’re right that there wouldn’t be minivans without Chrysler, but you’re thinking of the wrong minivans. The Renault Espace started as a Chrysler UK minivan concept then moved over to Simca, Chrysler’s French brand. When Chrysler sold their European operations to PSA, the Espace was sold to Renault. That car was a true minivan developed independently of what Chrysler was doing over here and since Renault owned AMC, it very well could have been imported had Chrysler gone under and the Caravan/Voyager never materialized.
That’s true. As you said, the Espace was from Matra, once connected to Simca/Chrysler, and Chrysler sold off their operations in 1978 to PSA.
I think with the advent of large, transverse FWD platforms, the minivan would’ve happened somewhere else. Maybe a little later, but it would’ve happened.
Don’t make Jason get into the comments and go on and on about the VW Bus and the DKW Schnellaster.
My alternate reality for AMC involves them *not* buying Jeep from Kaiser and instead using that money to develop good cars for the 1970s and beyond that aren’t just “Rehashes of old Nashs”.
Well, AMC did use some leftover cash money to develop *one* good car for the 1970s. The ’70 Hornet was not a Nash… it was almost entirely new, and it was profitable fairly quickly. Everything after that (aside from the Pacer, of course) was a rehash of the Hornet.
You may be right. I don’t know the timeline exactly, but I’d bet the Hornet/Gremlin were already at the pre-production stage by the time AMC bought Jeep. You’re right about the Pacer, but they also spent a *lot* of money on the foolish development of the Matador coupe, and mostly all for naught.
Seriously, these guys had NO money. EVER. The Gremlin, for example, was done with $5 million in tooling and around $12 million total; the kind of dollars that GM or Ford would use for some minor refreshes.
The Hornet project more or less occurred alongside negotiations between Kaiser and AMC. The Hornet prototypes showed up in 1966 while formal discussions between the companies started in 1967. Kaiser had already been buying AMC engines for its vehicles and AMC felt it needed a truck line.
The Matador was an interesting mistake that AMC sort of repeated from the ’60s when it spent far too much on the Marlin, a car that was positioned poorly in the market and didn’t appeal to the buyers AMC wanted (Mustang). The Matador sold far better than the Marlin (I think), but it was basically a last gasp–sales of AMCs in general plummeted dramatically in 1975.
I think the 2 door Matador was a fresh design, wasn’t it? It seems to get a bad rap for being too costly and overall a sales failure at time when 2 door Personal Luxury barges were pretty popular.
Considering the entirety of Chrysler’s early 90s renaissance was built off of stuff they bought from Renault for pennies on the dollar (not just Jeep but the management team and engineers Renault had put in AMC and multiple state of the art factories in North America), I imagine if Georges Besse hadn’t been assassinated just before signing off on a full takeover of AMC the hypothetical above is probably the more likely scenario than Chrysler being able to limp along through the 1990s to be stripmined by Mercedes without it.
It does raise the question of where the Chrysler assets would go after failing in 1978. Suppliers would need new customers; plants would new need operators; workers would need jobs.
It’s possible that Chrysler, instead of AMC, would have attracted the attention of Renault, which would have seen a strategic value in acquiring a brand with far more European connection (Chrysler Europe having been bought up by Peugeot in ’78) than AMC did. And Chrysler, despite its difficulties, had a more developed manufacturing, supplier, and dealer base than AMC.
With Renault occupied by Chrysler, AMC would have had to find a new savior. Maybe one of the Japanese heavy industry players would have been interested. Mitsubishi would be obvious, having lost the Chrysler and eventual DSM timeline. But Subaru would be wacky: imagine a 4-door Eagle BRAT. Or a boxer-six-powered Wrangler.
Subaru had a similar sensibility, and a convergent evolution towards making everything AWD.
A boxer engined AWD Pacer? I have an overwhelming desire to have one. Really that would be awesome.
This. XJ, ZJ, LH etc. AMC assets allowed Chrysler to pivot past the K-car era. It’s a shame the quality of the Alliance, Encore, Medallion were all so crummy. They were nice cars with a few interesting features. Also, there was a Premier-based coupe (“Allure”) that could have been nice.
Oh yeah, DaimlerChrysler, “merger of equals.”
‘Tis a shame you were too late to the party to actually save AMC!
Calabrone is just too close to being a portmanteau of Calzone and Jabroni. Though I could go for a ham calzone right now…
and why not a grilled Calabrone?
That’s just silly, the Calabrone has no grille.