AMC Gremlin

This is who I am voting for president! After all ...her father, Al Bundy, said in reference to an AMC Gremlin, "Easy to push!"

AMC Regional Race and Car Show Great Success!

This 1,000 horsepower plus AMC powered Drag Car Rare Breed was at the AMC Regional Drag Race and Car Show at Cherokee County Drag Strip in Rusk Texas April 21, 2007. My '77 AMC Gremlin was there. Check it out!

I'm four time AMC Gremlin owner. Love these cars! Got to admire AMC (American Motors Corporation - now the Eagle Division of Chrysler Corporation that makes the Jeeps). AMC brought out the Gremlin as the first American car to compete with the VW Beetle. The Gremlin came out one year ahead of Ford Pinto and Chevy Vega. AMC had the guts to call their car "Gremlin" and introduced it to the public on April Fool's Day!

I've had a '72 Gremlin X that was my second car. I eventually modified the 258 six to have an aluminum Clifford intake with a Holley carb. It had Clifford 6=8 dual headers on it with Thrush straight through mufflers. It was loud, but it sure did run!

I ruined the 3 speed transmission and blew the differential, so those had to be changed to beefier stock. I found a t-10 four speed in a wrecked Javelin and put that in with a race clutch (see why the rear end blew) and man did that car ever run! I had a Hurst shifter with the white shift ball.

I currently have a '77 Gremlin that has the 232 six with automatic transmission and power steering. I've installed the Clifford aluminum intake on this car with a Holley 600 carburetor. I had to fabricate the dual headers for this car since Clifford no longer manufactures the headers for the Gremlin and when I contacted them about the possibility of the current headers being used in a Gremlin they couldn't say for sure if these would work without some conflict. It took all day, but I made up a set of headers that I was proud of. I installed this on the Gremlin with Heartthrob mufflers. Sounded absolutely fantastic at idle! But I have to admit the Heartthrob mufflers are louder that the old Thrush mufflers were. I may have to rethink the noise verses power output some.
Check out this video:
Six Cylinder Gremlin Exhaust System
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I also have a '72 Gremlin that needs a lot of work. This Gremlin has a 258 six that I will pull, overhaul with forged rods and pistons and stick into the '77 to replace the tired 232 that's in there now. Since both engines are identical externally, everything I've done with bolt up to the replacement engine just fine. I plan to hit this engine with some nitrous oxide which is the reason for the forged rods and pistons (don't want anything to break).

My previous '72 Gremlin that I modified to run was very impressive in it's acceleration. I could run off and leave the stock V-8 Gremlins, let off of the throttle to let them catch up to me, and then floor it and leave them again! And the engine was internally stock! It loved the extra carburetion and exhaust mods and considering it was lighter than the V-8 Gremlins I had an advantage in pounds per horsepower. I ran that car hard and never had an engine problem. Shocking when you think about how abusive I was on it. I mean I blew two differentials, one transmission and broke several U-joints and that engine never showed problems! In fact, I sold it to a friend when it had nearly 100,000 miles on it and he treated it worse than me blowing the T-10 four speed tranny to hell! I saw him have a fight with his wife and walk out to the car, start the motor and spin out so bad that when he hit dry pavement (he started spinning the wheels in the grass of his front lawn) the Gremlin spun around 360 degrees in the road and went off into a shallow ditch across the street from his house! After restarting the engine he revved it so hard that when he hit the pavement he left rubber marks on the street more than a block long! It was still smoking the tires after shifting to second gear and third gear too! Another friend riding in a my current car ('70 Mark Donohue Javelin), where we safely watched this told me, "And you sold that thing to him 'cause you thought it about shot! It never burned rubber like that when you had it!" I replied, "I wasn't crazy enough to do that!" He then replied, "Good point!"

So much for my first Gremlin. He never could get the engine to blow and finally pulled it out an replaced it with a 401 AMC V-8 from a wrecked police car. He died in an accident at the beach, so the Gremlin never saw the street again. At least I didn't think so. I received an e-mail on day from a guy who bought a Gremlin from Texas that had a police 401 in it. He said the guy he bought it from bought it from the widow of a guy who died before he could get it finished. He was wondering if it was my old Gremmy. Maybe it was. I wonder?

My experience with the stock 258 made me consider using stock rods and pistons and putting some nitrous to it anyway. I mean, look how indestructible these engines are! But I've already run across two people who said that piston failure was something they had experience with the stock pistons using turbos, so I decided not to get cheap here. After all, if I get it right here I can sure have fun with it.

To check out my '77 Gremlin project with detailed pictures of what I've done so far click here:
77 Gremlin Car Project (Opens in a new window)

The Mark Donohue Javelin that I had when I sold my first Gremlin was built for power as I yanked the engine and had it balanced and blue printed. I worked for TRW at the time and they gave me a serious discount on performance parts, so this engine was built for power. I've also owned a Pierre Cardin '73 Javelin AMX, too. So I've experienced many AMC sports cars. I've also owned a couple of rotary engine Mazdas including a '82 RX-7 that I own now. I love those rotary engines! Can't believe how smooth they run and the develop great power when pushed beyond red line. They are great fun!

What's different about owning a Gremlin today is how younger people don't have a clue as to what they are. I get the, "What kind of car is that?" all of the time. I was at the auto parts store trying to find body moulding clips when a repairman for the electric company saw me come out. He was at the top of the electric pole, but came down as quickly as he could and ran up to me to ask what kind of car I was driving. He loved it, but said, "That's a Gremlin!" He was imagining something else I guess.

As you can tell by the Mazda RX-7, I own other cars too. Would love to get another Javelin. When you spin the wheels on a Javelin in the rain it is much easier to control the "drift" of the car than a Gremlin which can get away from you. I miss the precision of the handling of the Javelins and wouldn't mind finding another one. I also own several air-cooled Volkswagens which I enjoy driving around from time to time.

Is this for real? Gremlin ragtop? Hell yeah! Weren't very many made. Too bad. I sort of like it!

Most AMC people would call this the Spirit Kammback. Wrong! The Gremlin name was used in Mexico until 1982 and this is a Mexican AMC. It really is a 1981 Gremlin. Mexican version. This same car in the USA was called the Kammback.

This is an old AMC sales poster showing the VW Beetle and AMC Gremlin back to back.

This is a picture of my Beetle and Gremlin back to back mocking the original AMC sales poster.

Another AMC sales poster. I own both of these very cars and I'm here to tell you that it's hell going grocery shopping in a VW Beetle if you buy too much and have to stuff it in the car. The Gremlin is a lot better to load and unload groceries or items you picked up and the store. But at 1,800 pounds, the Beetle is the king of in town gas mileage! Manual transmission Gremlins were usually geared so high they got mileage similar to the Beetle on the highway. This Gremlin doesn't due to it's being a heavier automatic transmission Gremlin with a lower final drive ratio.

Here is an artist concept of the Gremlin as it could have looked. AMC tried to keep the price of the Gremlin low to compete with the lower priced Beetle, so this was never brought to reality.

This is an Javelin AMX concept car with the Kammback design.

Oh no! Tell me it ain't so! As cars age this is the main reason they disappear. Most people don't see the value of an old car unless someone waves lots of money in their face. By that time they've become rare.

Here's a link to a webpage that lists many instances of AMC Gremlins in movies (opens a new window). No, that wasn't a Gremlin in Wayne's World! It was an AMC Pacer! However, in The World According to Garth there was a Gremlin. Gremlins have been seen in lots of Hollywood movies from the movies Gremlins, Big Trouble in Little China, The Terminator (the car the Terminator smashes to bits with a big truck after Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn run out of gas abandoning it on the side of the road) to the 1974 movie Gone in 60 Seconds. There have been a lot of Gremlins seen on TV shows too. Check out this website if you get a chance:
Gremlins in Movies (Opens in a new window).

Check out these Videos!

Check out this 8 second Gremlin!
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Check out the wheelie this Gremlin does!
gremlin at byron drag strip
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Blown 350 SBC in a 75 Gremlin
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Check out this great AMC Gremlin website:

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