🔍
AMC - Everything You Need to Know | Up to Speed - YouTube
Channel: Donut Media
[0]
(engine revving)
[3]
- It's the indecisive underdog
that couldn't figure out
[6]
what kind of car company it wanted to be.
[9]
While the big three was running Detroit,
[12]
this little indie outfit
quietly made (beep) cars
[16]
in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
[18]
Any Kingfish fans in the building?
[20]
Yeah dude, I love heading
out to Simmons Field,
[23]
grabbing a brew and a
brat at Uncle Mike's Pub,
[25]
don't cha know?
[26]
I do know.
[27]
And you know what else?
[28]
These guys made better cars
[30]
than their motor city competitors,
[32]
from sick muscle cars,
[33]
to the original all-wheel
drive crossovers,
[36]
to revolutionary hour-long T.V. dramas.
[39]
This is everything you need to know
[42]
to get up to speed on AMC.
[46]
(upbeat arcade music)
[48]
(horse whinnying)
[51]
(intense dramatic music)
[57]
- Hey James.
[60]
What are you doing?
[61]
- Trying to open this can of
NOS Energy Drink with my mind.
[65]
(rising intense dramatic music)
[71]
(can tab popping)
[74]
And that, is how you use your brainpower
[77]
to get your baby boy Nolan
[78]
to open your can of NOS Energy Drink.
[80]
Now, back to the show.
[83]
(intense dramatic music)
[84]
(electronic beeping)
[85]
American Motors formed in 1954,
[88]
when Hudson Motors and Nash-Kelvinator
[91]
did the fusion dance and joined forces.
[94]
Hudson made good cars,
but they couldn't afford
[97]
to redesign everything every year
[99]
like all the bigger
auto makers were doing.
[101]
Nash-Kelvinator made refrigerators.
[104]
And those little metropolitan cars.
[106]
So, it seemed like a good
idea for the two of them
[108]
to team up and make
smallish cars together.
[111]
It was a huge corporate merger,
[113]
I'm talking the biggest
[115]
in the history of history at this point.
[118]
(playful jazz music)
[120]
We definitely underestimated
how big of a story AMC has,
[125]
so if I miss anything
and you wanna know about
[127]
another AMC car, let me
know in the comments.
[131]
Anyway, after the merger
[133]
the two companies started
calling themselves
[136]
American Motors Corporation.
[139]
Fancy.
[140]
And for the first few years
[141]
their cars were badged and
sold as Hudson's and Nash's.
[144]
They started combining platforms
[146]
and they debuted a new
Hudson Hornet and a Wasp.
[149]
You know the Hornet from that
adorable cartoon car movie,
[151]
what was it called?
[152]
It had, it had all those cars with eyes.
[157]
Uh, Transformers?
[158]
No, no, uh, it was like, cars.
[161]
Uh, Herbie: Fully Loaded?
[163]
It's cars.
[164]
It's literally cars.
[165]
Uh, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?
[168]
Cars!
[169]
Why are you telling at me?
[170]
I don't know!
[171]
I don't know either!
[172]
I'm sorry!
[173]
Thank you!
[174]
Now back to the show?
[175]
Yeah, back to the show!
[177]
Apparently, they thought
people wanted cars
[180]
named after terrifying
bugs, like that movie...
[184]
Herbie: Fully Loaded?
[186]
(James shushing)
[187]
And I guess that people
were more okay with Hornets
[190]
than they were Wasps
[191]
because the Wasp was dead by 1956.
[193]
Have you guys ever had wasp honey?
[195]
It tastes like Sriracha.
[196]
You could buy a Rambler model
[197]
at either a Nash or a Hudson dealership.
[200]
Just like you could buy an identical Neons
[202]
at both Plymouth and Dodge dealerships.
[204]
The companies CEO George W. Romney,
[208]
yup,
[209]
Mitt Romney's dad,
[210]
realized this arrangement was dumb
[213]
and decided to brand all the
cars as Ramblers in 1958.
[216]
Except for the tiny metropolitan that
[219]
was imported from England.
[220]
That was deemed weird enough to stand
[221]
on its own as a Metropolitan.
[224]
The first all-new car AMC
produced following the merger
[228]
was the Rambler Rebel in 1957.
[231]
It had a 255 HRSPR, 327 cubic
inch V8, and dual exhaust.
[237]
(engine rumbling)
[241]
There's not gonna be any
leaders in this episode Euros,
[245]
because, this is America,
and American car company.
[249]
With a 17 second quarter mile,
[252]
the Rebel was advertised
as the quickest 4-door
[255]
to hit 60 miles per,
in America at the time.
[258]
The Rebel was supposed to come
[259]
with this brand new
electronic fuel injection
[262]
called the Bendix Electrojector System.
[265]
But, it had some bad bugs
that couldn't be worked out
[268]
and the feature was
dropped before production.
[271]
With a name like Bendix,
it's probably for the best.
[274]
In 1958, they also launched
the Rambler American
[278]
Which was actually the 3
year old 1955 Nash Rambler.
[281]
That is the only time that an old car
[285]
was successfully reintroduced
and sold as a new car again.
[288]
Good job, Romney.
[290]
There were also a couple of big cars
[291]
called the Classic and the Ambassador.
[294]
♪ The brand new '61 Rambler Classic ♪
[296]
♪ The compact car most useful to you ♪
[299]
In 1959, AMC hired Dick Teague.
[305]
There's nothing funny about that.
[306]
(snorts quietly)
[307]
So, Dick Teague, talented
guy with a not funny name
[310]
had worked at GM, Packard, and Chrysler.
[312]
He was known for designing
incredibly good-looking cars
[315]
with tiny budgets,
[316]
something AMC really needed
[318]
because they were always broke.
[319]
You don't hear much
about these cars today,
[322]
but at the time,
[323]
Rambler was the best-selling
name plate in the state.
[327]
And remember, these guys are independent.
[329]
AMC was taking on the big three.
[332]
Around 1965, the company decided
[335]
to start changing direction a bit
[337]
and started making more large cars.
[339]
The 2 door Rambler Marlin was developed
[341]
to be a fancier, bigger
alternative to the Ford Mustang
[344]
or Plymouth Barracuda.
[345]
It had a really, really cool badge too.
[348]
You know I have a soft
spot for buff horses,
[351]
but that's one buff fish.
[354]
In 1966, they decided to move away
[356]
from the Rambler moniker altogether
[357]
and finally started badging cars
[359]
with their patriotic family
name, American Motors.
[362]
1968 was the start of AMC's glory years,
[365]
when they started making 2
of their best known models.
[368]
The Javelin and the AMX.
[370]
(engine revving)
[372]
(tires squealing)
[373]
Dick Teague
[376]
used his mad skills to
design the first-gen Javelin
[378]
as a sleek, semi-fastback coupe
everyone could appreciate.
[382]
AMC just didn't have the funds
to make multiple body styles
[386]
like you could get with
the Mustang and the Camaro.
[388]
But, they made up for it
by making a dang good car.
[392]
The Javelin was a roomier,
totally respectable,
[395]
and affordable competitor
in the pony car market.
[397]
And you can still get 'em for cheap.
[399]
(computer errors chiming)
[401]
It also had a really cool badge.
[402]
The closest thing we have
to a really cool badge now?
[405]
The stingray on the Corvette
[408]
and the stinger badge on the Kia Stinger.
[410]
Honestly, two coolest badges
in the game right now.
[413]
Fight me in the comments.
[414]
You can get a Javelin with a straight six
[416]
but the one that you wanted,
[418]
was the one with the V8, baby.
[419]
The appropriately named 'Go Package'
[422]
got you a 343 cubic inch V8,
[424]
making 280 Horse Powers.
[427]
(engine revving)
(tires squealing)
[431]
The AMX was released 6 months later,
[433]
along with the new 390 cubic inch V8
[436]
you could get in either car.
[437]
Making 315 HRSPRS.
[439]
(engine revving)
[440]
(tires squealing)
[442]
The AMX had only two seats
and one foot less sheet metal
[446]
between its front rear
wheels than the Javelin.
[448]
That meant it was extra sporty.
[450]
AMX stood for American
Motors Experimental.
[454]
(yells aggressively)
[454]
(unified voices shouting)
(faint flute music)
[456]
Since no other US car companies
[457]
were making two-seater sports cars,
[459]
the AMX was actually
considered a direct competitor
[462]
to the 'Vette.
[463]
And the 'Vette didn't really
have another competitor.
[466]
It still doesn't.
[467]
We made a whole episode
of Wheelhouse about it,
[470]
I'll put the link in
the description below.
[472]
The Society of Automotive
Engineers even named
[475]
the AMX Best Engineered Car of the Year.
[478]
It featured cool new safety stuff
[479]
like 3-point seatbelts and
thinner, lighter safety glass
[483]
that shattered into tiny
little pieces in an accident
[485]
so your windshield didn't
slice your face off.
[489]
Neat!
[489]
AMC was keen on making
the AMX a performance hit
[493]
even before it went on sale.
[494]
The AMX broke over 100 land-speed records,
[498]
driven by racer Craig Breedlove.
[501]
Yes! That name rules.
[503]
(vehicle revving)
[507]
Famous drag racers Lou Downing
[508]
and Shirley "Drag-On Lady" Shahan
[511]
drove 'em at the Strip.
[512]
Yes! Cool names.
[513]
And AMX almost won an FCCA Championship.
[516]
And another came in 5th
in the Cannonball Run.
[519]
You can even rent one from Hertz.
[522]
Hey Nolan, can you come here?
[523]
- Hey James.
[524]
- Hey do you want a Hertz donut?
[526]
- Yes!
[526]
(fist punching)
[527]
Ow.
[528]
- Hertz, donut?
- [Nolan] Yeah.
[529]
- Penske racing did well with Mark Donohue
[532]
driving the Javelin Trans-Am well enough
[535]
that AMC homologated a special
edition Mark Donohue Javelin
[539]
to legally get a rear
spoiler onto the race cars.
[543]
To bump up the cars profiles
even more on the street,
[546]
AMC added the big bad, the
highlighter tone paint options
[550]
on the AMX and Javelin.
[552]
Big bad orange,
[553]
big bad blue,
[554]
and big bad green.
[555]
These are some of the rarest
and most collectible AMCs
[559]
in the world right now.
[561]
Everyone at AMC was so
stoked on the AMX and Javelin
[565]
that they went full force
[566]
and built a mid-engine concept car,
[569]
(yells loudly)
[570]
the stunning AMX/3
debuted in Italy in 1969.
[573]
The lucky folks who got to
drive the handmade prototype
[576]
said the performance was world-class.
[579]
The company brass authorized
production of thirty cars
[582]
as the brand's new flagship model.
[584]
But the cost to build
them kept getting heavier
[586]
for the small auto maker,
[587]
while the corporate piggy
bank kept getting lighter.
[589]
So,
[590]
(sighs heavily)
[592]
we didn't get that
mid-engine American supercar.
[595]
We did get some other sick,
super rare AMC muscle cars.
[600]
The '69 Hurst SC/Rambler was a sleeper
[603]
in every sense of the word.
[604]
Except for the red,
white, and blue paint job,
[607]
the big, old hood scoop
[608]
with the vacuum-operated butterfly valve,
[610]
and the fact that it's
really, really, really loud.
[614]
Colby?
[615]
(loud engine revving)
[619]
The regular Rambler was
never a performance car,
[621]
but this one had the
buff 390 cubic inch V8
[624]
pushing its compact body around.
[626]
AMC built around 1,200 of 'em.
[628]
And they turned out
[629]
to be the quickest cars
that the company ever built.
[632]
They were so quick,
[634]
that people started
calling them 'Scramblers'.
[636]
People are clever.
[638]
Then came the 1970 Rebel Machine.
[641]
The same big V8 went in
the AMC's mid-size 2 door.
[645]
Only this baby made 340 buff
horses and 430 TUERCKSPRS.
[650]
That was even more than the AMX.
[652]
The Cold Air package added
a big nostril-ed hood scoop
[655]
with a tachometer mounted on the hood,
[658]
facing the driver.
[659]
Around 2,300 of these were made.
[661]
And most of 'em were painted
in red, white, and blue.
[663]
By 1971, the muscle car market
was already in steep decline,
[667]
and so were AMC's profits.
[669]
But they didn't want to give
up on making performance cars.
[672]
Their answer was to raid the parts bin
[674]
to build the understated Hornet SC/360.
[678]
The Hornet was their new compact car,
[679]
so they dropped in an
existing 360 cubic inch V8,
[684]
then added a hood scoop,
and a little white stripe
[687]
to let people know
something was different.
[688]
AMC hoped to build 10,000 of these,
[690]
but things were so bad,
that they only made 784.
[694]
As a a guy who's owned a bunch of golfs,
[695]
I want one of these.
[696]
Around this time, AMC took
over production of Jeeps,
[699]
Including their military
and postal contracts,
[702]
that meant they also acquired
all of Jeep's profits,
[705]
which would help the
independent company stay afloat.
[708]
Meanwhile, the two-seater
AMX was killed off
[710]
and the second gen Javelin
debuted with bulging fenders
[713]
and even more muscle bound looks.
[715]
The AMX name became
[717]
a high-performance
Javelin package instead,
[719]
and Penske racing took the
updated car to back-to-back
[722]
Trans-Am Championships.
[724]
Trans-Am cars are by far my
favorite looking race cars
[728]
In 1971, the mid-size
Matador was introduced
[731]
with 2 door, 4 door,
and wagon body styles.
[734]
It was advertised as an all-new car,
[737]
but it was really a gussied up Rebel
[739]
with a bigger front end
[740]
and an Ambassador back end
[742]
The 2 door was called the "Flying Brick"
[745]
because it had terrible
aerodynamics for racing.
[747]
Even though the Matador
wasn't truly brand new
[750]
they were good cars, that
buyers tended to overlook.
[753]
And they still tend to overlook them,
[754]
there's a few on Craigslist right now.
[755]
I think they're pretty slick.
[756]
They look like cartoons.
[758]
Dick Teague.
[761]
(electronic beeping)
[762]
It's not funny.
[763]
It's not funny. What are you doing?
[765]
You're like...
[767]
34 years old, grow up.
[769]
Now back to the story!
[770]
Just do it.
[771]
Now back to the story!
[773]
You got it.
[774]
Okay, you got it.
[778]
Dick Teague
[779]
(snorts loudly)
[780]
Mister Teague and Mark Donohue redesigned
[782]
the frumpy 2 door "Flying Brick"
[784]
into a sleek and sexy
second gen Matador Coupe.
[787]
It looked so good, that it
won Best Styled Car for 1974
[791]
from Car and Driver.
[792]
Then, came the AMC
[794]
with possibly the
greatest name of all time,
[796]
the Gremlin.
[797]
It was America's first
domestic built sub compact car.
[801]
The backseat was optional
and only big enough for kids.
[804]
It was weirdly nose heavy
despite being rear-wheel drive,
[807]
but that's probably 'cause
it had a real flat butt.
[811]
Just like me.
[815]
(faint coughing)
[817]
In 1975, the Mirthmobile was introduced
[820]
as the first wide small car.
[822]
Did I say Mirthmobile? I meant Pacer.
[825]
Wayne's World was one of
my first favorite movies.
[827]
It looked like a fishbowl,
[828]
and was originally
designed to run a rotary.
[831]
Which AMC had contracted
to start building in 1973.
[834]
But rotaries hit the gas tank hard,
[837]
and the oil crisis put
the kibosh on that plan.
[840]
So instead, the Pacer used
a couple of inline 6 engines
[843]
and a couple of flames made it cool enough
[846]
to be Garth Algar's ride.
[847]
Again, Wayne's World reference.
[849]
I know a lot of you guys are too young,
[850]
but I love that movie.
[852]
You wanna be like big bro?
[853]
Watch Wayne's World.
[855]
In the late 70s,
[856]
things weren't going great for AMC.
[858]
They replaced the Gremlin and Hornet
[860]
with the Spirit and the Concord.
[862]
But it had to recall over 300,000 cars
[864]
at a cost of 3 million dollars.
[867]
So they decided to partner with Renault,
[869]
and started selling Renault
5's as Le cars here in the US.
[873]
In exchange, Renault
got a 22.5 stake in AMC.
[876]
That helped spike sales
and profits back up
[878]
even though the economy was turning down.
[881]
But AMC was still building their own cars
[884]
in their inefficient
Kenosha, Wisconsin Plant.
[887]
For the 1980 year, they
launched AMC Eagle versions
[890]
of the Spirit and Concord
[892]
as their new 4-wheel drive line.
[894]
(engine revving)
(tires squealing)
[898]
- [Cameraman] Much Better.
[899]
- There was a coupe,
[899]
there was a hatchback,
[900]
there was a sedan,
[901]
there was a wagon.
[902]
So many sport-utility
crossovers to choose from.
[905]
You want a sick FWD-er no one else has?
[908]
Find yourself an old AMC Eagle, kids.
[910]
They're still cheap.
[912]
For some reason, things quickly
took a turn for the worse,
[914]
and sales plummeted.
[916]
Renault took a controlling
stake in the company,
[918]
which made American Motors
Corporation a lot less...
[923]
American.
[924]
The Spirit and the Concord
were done by the end of 1983.
[928]
AMC started building Renault
Alliance sedans in Kenosha,
[931]
in that year.
[933]
Surprisingly, the Alliance was
Motor Trends' Car of the Year
[936]
and at the top of Car and
Driver's Ten Best list.
[938]
It launched so successfully
that the dealer network
[941]
wasn't prepared to deal
with that kind of volume.
[945]
Then, the cars started to fall apart.
[950]
And they were done by 1987.
[953]
Luckily, AMC still owned Jeep.
[956]
The new Cherokee and Wagoneer
were really taking off,
[958]
as SUVs started to become a thing,
[960]
customers weren't buying
AMC cars anymore though.
[964]
They made an agreement to let Chrysler
[965]
use some of the empty
space at the Kenosha plant
[968]
for some extra cash.
[970]
AMC's workers were mad
about not getting raises,
[972]
and there were rumors that
they were sabotaging cars
[974]
on the line.
[975]
Then, the Pentagon got mad,
[976]
because they were still
making Jeeps for the military
[979]
but now they weren't
American, they were French.
[980]
But AMC couldn't kick
their French step-parents
[984]
out of the house,
[984]
and had to sale that profitable business.
[986]
AMC's longtime hero, Dick Teague
[990]
(electronic beeping)
[990]
You told yourself...
[992]
You would not laugh at
stuff like this anymore.
[995]
Dick Teague left the company.
[996]
- Some of the cars that
these kids are doing,
[998]
and you know a few years back,
[1001]
just a few years back,
[1002]
you look at those and say
[1003]
"God you're impossible,
[1004]
I'll never build anything like that,"
[1005]
so the future is just a, gosh, I just wish
[1008]
I could live to be a hundred years old.
[1010]
To see some of those things
that are gonna happen.
[1013]
- [James] Renault was having
their own problems at the time,
[1014]
including the assassination of their CEO
[1017]
by French anarchists.
[1018]
So, they weren't so confident
about their prospects
[1021]
in the US market anymore.
[1022]
The fact that the 3 companies were already
[1024]
making each others' cars in the same plant
[1027]
made it easy for Renault
to sell their AMC shares
[1030]
to Chrysler in 1987.
[1032]
And that, was the end of AMC.
[1035]
And , it really sucks that
AMC isn't around today,
[1037]
but, I think we should be
grateful that we had 'em at all.
[1042]
Dad.
[1043]
(dramatic retro music)
[1047]
(soft electronic music)
[1048]
- Uh, Gus. Uh, Johnson.
[1050]
- Tapes his mic to his finger.
[1052]
(men laughing)
[1059]
- This sucks.
[1061]
- It's so tight.
[1062]
(tape ripping)
[1064]
- I love a you.
[1066]
- He's very scared of this.
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