Rambler , the successful compact start by Nash in 1950 , became a freestanding make after enter larger four - threshold models for ' 55 and new styling for ' 56 . These and subsequent events reflect the alter fortunes of American Motors Corporation , founded in April 1954 with the Nash - Hudson amalgamation instigated by Nash president George Mason .
Mason had long dream of combining Nash with Hudson , then bringing in Studebaker and Packard to form a new company with the same economies of shell as the Big Three . Without this , he warn , none of these four self-employed person could survive over the long term .
As a halfway measuring , he persuaded Packard president James Nance to take over pain Studebaker , which was also accomplished in 1954 ( at Packard ’s ultimate risk ) . But when Mason die suddenly that October , so did his dreaming of a " Big Four . " His assistant , George Romney , became AMC president , wholly forgot about linking with S - atomic number 15 , and calculate the farm on Rambler to lift AMC from the financial yap delve by its parents .
It was really all Romney could do , but events worked in his favor . Rambler take a hop from military capability to strength , help like no other make by the flash economical recession of 1958 . By ten ’s end , AMC was make serious money and Rambler was firmly established as Detroit ’s best - selling covenant .
The 1957 Ramblers were continuations of the reskinned ' 56 simulation sell with Nash and Hudson badges . Besides new " R " hood medallions , cosmetic changes were limited to reshuffle clipping and a T - shaped lattice ornament to fill the void above the eggcrate subdivision . The big news was V-8 power : AMC ’s 250 - cid , 190 - bhp railway locomotive , introduced in ' 56 ( a derivative was bored out for 1957 ’s Modern AMC 327 ) .
V-8 Ramblers were available in four body way , each of these whole - expression four - threshold on the 108 - inch wheelbase bring out for ' 55 . Variations demand sedan and Cross Country post wagons with and without B - pillars – making Rambler the first in Detroit with hardtop police wagon . As before , all pop the question a choice of Super or Custom trimness . So did a parallel six - piston chamber crinkle hold the 195.6 - cid engine familiar from Nash days . However , that railway locomotive was tweaked quite a scrap , travel from 120 bhp to 125/135 . Sixes also include a damage - drawing card DeLuxe sedan at $ 1961 . Other ' 57 Ramblers sold in the gloomy - to - mid $ 2000s .
These were solid , reliable , smaller railway car that could be quite stylish with optional two - toning . As in the Nash era , exterior " continental " superfluous tires were available for sedans . Wagons bluster a roll - down tailgate window instead of a clumsy liftgate , something Ford and GM wagons did n’t have . Future AMC president Roy D. Chapin , Jr. , by and by recalled : " We just rolled with those cars . We could n’t get enough . " Indeed , of the roughly 119,000 cars AMC build up in calendar ' 57 , all but 7816 were Ramblers . The eternal rest , of line , were Nashes and Hudsons , which would not fall for ' 58 – at least not as they had been .
Romney liked to attack Detroit ’s " gas - guzzle dinosaur " while preach the small - is - secure virtues of Rambler . All the more surprising , then , that AMC had a performance Rambler for ' 57 , a special Custom Country Club four - door hardtop competently trademark Rebel . Arriving at midyear with flash bulb of anodized aluminum on its flanks , Rebel carried the same 255 - bhp 327 - cid V-8 as the final Nashes and Hudsons , but was much flying because it weighed importantly less than those cars . The extra major power made Rebel more of a manager than other Ramblers , so AMC included cockeyed Gabriel shocks , a front antiroll bar , heavy - duty springs , power guidance , and index bracken . carrying out was impressive by most any monetary standard , let alone for a Rambler . In one test at Daytona Beach , a Rebel compensate 0 - 60 mph – and 50 - 80 – in barely more than seven second gear . It might have been faster still with Bendix mechanically skillful fuel injection , but that promise option never materialized .
No matter . With 9.75:1 contraction , the Rebel drank exchange premium fuel and a fairish bit of it , which hardly conform to Rambler ’s economic system image . And at $ 2786 it was the costliest ' 57 Rambler , which was another probable factor that retain product to just 1500 units .
During this menstruation , economy imports were promptly climbing the sales charts , led by Volkswagen ’s already archaic Beetle . AMC take note the trend and replied with an unprecedented move for 1958 , a revival of the 100 - inch - wheelbase 1955 Rambler two - doorway saloon . Renamed Rambler American and wear down a young mesh - type wicket and full wheel openings , it offer DeLuxe , Super , and stripped " business organization " models at a low prices ranging from $ 1775 to $ 1874 . With those prices in a recession year , the American could n’t help but trade , and over 30,000 were file for the framework year .
For more on defunct American cars, see:
1958 Rambler Cars
Regular Ramblers were n’t ignored for ' 58 , receiving a complete reskin that made the ' 56 body seem a mo bulky on unchanged wheelbases . Little canted tailfins and dual head - lamps ( go from within the radiator grille back to the fender ) were new styling touches . Hardtop wagons were omit .
AMC also dramatize then - voguish pushbuttons for its optional Borg - Warner " Flash - atomic number 8 - Matic " self - break transmittance . Though V-8 cars were now call off Rebel , they retained the 250 engine , which was boosted to 215 bhp . Sixes , now with 127 or 138 bhp , rest nameless , and were again far more pop – no genuine surprisal .
What did surprisal observers was a newfangled 117 - in - wheelbase short letter call in Rambler Ambassador . AMC booklet incriminate you should think of it as a discrete make ( " Ambassador by Rambler " ) , but this was plainly the 108 - column inch - wheelbase political platform with nine special inches beforehand of the cowling , plus a standard four - barrel 327 V-8 with 270 bhp . Offerings comprised the usual four - doorway sedan , Country Club hardtop saloon , and pillared and pillarless Wagon in Super and Custom trimming .
Visually , these Ambassadors were nothing like their Nash forebears and everything like regular ' 58 Ramblers . The only remainder , other than the added duration , were nameplates , a exquisitely - checker grille , broad swathe of anodized aluminium on Customs , plusher interiors , and arguably better proportions . This is what the ' 58 Nash and Hudson would have been had those brands not been dropped at the last minute . In fact , the Vee’d front bumper safety of the ' 58 Ambassador was taken directly from the abortive Hudson , which had been all but locked up by late 1956 along with a more nearly identical Nash .
Interestingly , the ' 58 Ambassador most doubled full - size ' 57 Nash / Hudson mass , model - yr yield totaling 14,570 . Rarest of the strain – just 294 sum – was the Custom Cross Country hardtop estate car , the only such model in AMC ’s ' 58 line . Despite Ambassador ’s modest sales , Rambler ’s ' 58 sum of 162,182 was up 77 percent from ' 57 – a all right showing in a generally fatal industry class . The success ended four neat year of losses for AMC , which rack up a $ 26 million net profit on sale of $ 470 million .
This winning formula netted another $ 60 million profit on 1959 Rambler volume of intimately 375,000 – a fresh record for the freshman firm . Ramblers and Ambassadors have more complicated physical structure trim , plus a beltline that curved up gently at the rearward doors to coalesce more swimmingly with the finned wing . Ambassadors got a more flowery grillwork with a big " blow " horizontal bar . Powertrains were unchanged . Unlike most challenger , AMC had evidently decided the H.P. race was over .
Indisputably , the spate to compacts was on , and both Americans and the standard Ramblers had novel contention in Studebaker ’s pert ' 59 Lark . Perhaps anticipating this , AMC expand that twelvemonth ’s American line by reviving the former two - threshold 100 - inch - wheelbase wagon . Also offer up in DeLuxe and Super trimming , the compact hauler helped the minuscule Rambler rack up 91,000 model - year sale . The bigger Ramblers also did very well in 1959 ’s modest industrywide recovery . Ambassador took a satisfying saltation to 23,769 ; standards attracted over a quarter - million sales . The latter were again mostly sixes , as Rebel V-8s found just 16,399 customer .
1960, 1961, 1962 Rambler Cars
In all , AMC ’s 1957 - 59 sales carrying out was a singular comeback from nail - biting 1954 - 56 . And the good meter kept on peal . For 1960 , Rambler recorded about 450,000 sales – the highest one-year output ever summate by an self-governing manufacturer . Rambler ranked third in the 1961 output race despite mass that was 17 percent low .
Though production for 1962 increased substantially , Rambler ran fifth that year as Pontiac and Olds swing by . The following class found Rambler dropping to eighth berth . output signal continued to be tidy , yet Rambler / AMC keep slipping : down to ninth for ' 65 and 10th by 1968 .
Two management changes greatly affected Rambler in this period . First , the hard - driving George Romney go forth in 1962 to make his successful run for the Michigan statehouse . His replacement , the ebullient Roy Abernethy , was far less loyal to reasonable economy cars , and began an challenging fashion model expansion that at long last show misguided .
Abernethy mistreat aside in 1966 for Roy D. Chapin , Jr. , who became circuit card chairperson the undermentioned year , with William V. Luneberg as president . This team tell further variegation , including new " make models " like the 1968 Javelin " ponycar . " They also kill the Rambler name after the final Americans of 1969 . That was probably saucy because by that clip , Rambler ’s sensible mental image had become more of a financial obligation than an plus .
The compact American returned for 1960 with no central change , but new Super and Custom four - door sedans helped annul model - twelvemonth bulk to 120,600 . Though prices were slenderly higher at $ 1781-$2235 , the American stay on one of the country ’s most - low-priced cable car . It also remained an anachronism with its ' 50s " Farina " styling and older cubic decimeter - capitulum six . But gross sales were more than goodly enough to rationalize a full restyle for 1961 .
Larger Ramblers were beautifully restyled for 1960 , gaining smoother lines , simple full - width grilles ( fine - checked on Ambassador , eggcrate on Six / Rebel ) , less - intrusive squish - back A - pillars ( replace perpendicular ) , shapelier quintuplet ( still mercifully minor ) , and new taillights .
embassador also rollick a " Scena - Ramic " windscreen curve at the top as well as the sides . A three - arse patrol wagon with a new left - hinge swinging - out tailboard was tote up to all three series . These variety were evidently well - consider , for AMC passed the billion - dollar target in net sales event for the first clip and earned a $ 48 - million profit .
The rebodied 1961 American was a rather rummy bit of work by AMC chief designer Edmund A. Anderson ( a veteran of Nash day ) . Boxy and truncated , it was three inches narrower and 5.2 inches shorter than the honest-to-god ' 55 - time of origin designing . Happily , the ancient six was modernize with an overhead - valve cylinder head ( in reality a mid-1960 change ) , which boosted optional bhp to 127 . existent physical structure trend plus a new convertible and four - door patrol wagon were scatter among the usual passementerie .
Posh " 400 " simulation were added for ' 62 , and Custom impress down to displace Super . Series were retitled for ' 63 – low - end 220 , midpriced 330 , and top - destruction 440 – and hardtop coupes arrived , the last a bench - seat 440 and bucket - seat 440H. Styling changed only in contingent each class . Though unfeigned economy car with fair interior space , the 1961 - 63 Americans were hardly beautiful .
The Six / Rebel became Rambler ’s Classic for ' 61 , announced by headlights move into a checkerboard grille beneath a low hood . V-8s depart for ' 62 , but two - room access sedans debuted , and all models tire out a more knotty grille and finless rearward fenders . An interesting ' 62 Classic option ( shared with American ) was " E - Stick , " a manual transmission with " robotic " clutch . Though it cost just $ 60 , it was too complex to trade really well .
Ambassador , meantime , underwent a big change . The ' 61s carried a doubtful facelift with pointy front - fender bottoms , hard hooded headlamp , and a raked reverse - trapezoid grille . Hardtop sedan chair and wagons were axed . return from 1960 as base power was a two - cask 250 - bhp " economy " reading of the 327 V-8 ; the 270 - bhp railway locomotive was now optional . The ' 62 model efficaciously replaced Classic V-8s , and were demoted to the same 108 - inch platform and hold near - identical styling .
All this reflected sluggish Ambassador sale , which were little - changed for 1960 at 23,798 but only 18,842 for ' 61 . The ' 62s fared much better at 36,171 . Like Classic , the ' 62 Ambassador offer fresh two - room access sedan , four - doors and Big Dipper invest six or eight in DeLuxe , Custom , and top - ledge " 400 " trimming ; the last came with an automatic transmission . Prices were $ 2300-$3000 .
1963, 1964 Rambler Cars
Richard A. Teague had joined the AMC styling faculty by this time and would soon succeed Ed Anderson . But it was Anderson who determine the Classic that was namedMotor Trendmagazine ’s 1963 " Car of the Year . "
Featured was a wholly new 112 - inch - wheelbase unibody political platform – the first since ' 56 – with a lower silhouette , smoothly rounded flanks , and curved room access glass . One - art object " Uniside " doorway - bod social structure were a Detroit first that save up free weight , increased rigidity , and reduced squeaks and rattles . Though styling remained a bit chunky , these Ramblers had never see well .
They also run well thanks to a new 287 - cid rendering of the intimate 327 - cid V-8 . Rated at 198 bhp , the 287 would remain through 1966 . V-8 classic combined safe go with secure mileage ; even with " Flash - O - Matic " they could run 0 - 60 mph in about 10 seconds and return 16 - 20 mpg . Of course , the V-8s weighed more than six - piston chamber Ramblers , so understeer was pronounced .
Teague refined the ' 63 Classic once Anderson left , sacrifice ' 64 models untarnished steel rocker moldings and a bland grille that replace the concave design . Hardtops returned , but were now two - doors . Two- and four - room access saloon and pillared four - threshold estate car come back in 550 , 660 , and 770 trim ( replacing Deluxe , Custom , and 400 ) .
Hardtops comprised the terrace - backside 770 and bucket - tooshie Typhoon . The latter introduced a new myopic - stroke 232 - Criminal Investigation Command " Typhoon " six ( later " Torque Command " ) that began supervene upon the one-time 195.6 - cid unit throughout the AMC wrinkle . arrive with 145 bhp , the 232 spawned a destroked 128 - bhp 199 - Criminal Investigation Command version for ' 65 - fashion model 550s . The Typhoon itself was a year - only limited edition ( 2520 ramp up ) offer a mordant vinyl ceiling , Solar Yellow pigment , and a flashy all - vinyl Interior Department for $ 2509 .
A new Classic implied a new Ambassador , but the ' 63 again apportion Classic ’s wheelbase and styling ( save the usual extra chrome act ) . Series were retitled 800 , 880 , and 990 , each with the late three eubstance styles . 800s were a rugged sell and vanish for ' 64 . So did 880s , leaving just 990s in four - door sedan and paddy wagon body style , plus a Modern hardtop coupe with adapted styling a la Classic . Also listed was a sporty bucket - seat 990H hardtop with a standard 270 - bhp 327 V-8 .
Teague come after Anderson as AMC design chief on the strength of his pretty 1964 American . Ironically , this was a clever version of Anderson ’s Classic , with Unisides bowdlerise out front of the hood to give a 106 - in wheelbase . But that was still half a foot longer than American ’s old span , and Teague used it to produce a well - proportion compact car with only small brightwork . This styling was good enough to continue with only underage yearly change through 1969 and the end of the Rambler marque .
The ' 64 American argument double 1963 ’s , then thin for ' 66 , when the bucket - tail 440H became a Rogue . A convertible Rogue was added for ' 67 , only to vanish for ' 68 , when the roster express just a Rogue , two base - passementerie sedan , and the 440 as a four - threshold sedan and a wagon . six continued to overtop American sales , with new - generation 199- and 232 - cid locomotive engine delivering 128/145 bhp for 1967 . But that same year brought American ’s first V-8 alternative : a new 290 - cid small - block , derived from the 287 , in 200- and 225 - bhp line . V-8s proceed through Rambler ’s last stall , when American toll still start just timid of the magic $ 2000 mark .
1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969 Rambler Cars
All 1965 Ramblers were publicize as " The Sensible Spectaculars , " but that blurry logic implement primarily to a much - revise Classic and Ambassador . The former wore a Modern convex " dumbbell " grille , recontoured cowl , and a long , squared - up rearward deck of cards .
A sofa bed appeared in the 770 serial , where Typhoon return , this time as the 770H. Engine choices widen with an optional 155 - bhp , 232 - cid six and Ambassador ’s two 327 V-8s . The 770H became a Rebel for ' 66 , when a light facelift featured new grilles and small-scale passementerie , a " crispy billet " hardtop cap , and a retread rear end for wagons .
Because the ' 64 Ambassador sold no substantially than the ' 63 , the premium Rambler reverted to its own longer 116 - inch wheelbase for 1965 . Also back was an 880/990 card that include a pillarless 990H. Standard major power was now the 155 - bhp 232 six . The base V-8 was that yr ’s new 287 , with optional 327s , as before . An out - sheetmetal redo bestow rectilinear lines remindful of the Classic , plus a Vee’d bilevel grille and vertically pile quad headlights . Ambassador also follow Classic in ' 65 by offering its first sofa bed , a 990 . automobile trunk quad improved on all nonwagon model , but rider room did n’t because the redundant wheelbase length was again ahead of the cowling . There were no huge alteration for ' 66 , when Ambassador became a disjoined AMC " make . "
Also new for ‘65 was the Classic-based Marlin, a fastback to battle Ford Mustang and Plymouth Barracuda in the burgeoning sporty compact wars. A sweeping pillarless roof tapered down and inward at the back, and elliptical rear side windows helped keep it light-looking. This treatment had been previewed on a 1964 show car called Tarpon, based on Teague’s new American, which carried it much better. Teague suggested a showroom version. Abernethy agreed, but insisted on besting rival 2+2s with a “3+3.” Thus was Marlin molded on the Classic instead – and suffered ungainly overall proportions from that car’s fairly stubby hood. This likely explains why the new image-maker sold none too well despite decent performance and a reasonable $3100 base price. Only 10,327 were produced for ‘65, after which Marlin sold with diminishing success as its own “make” for two more years.
Rebel replaced Classic for an all - new grouping of midsize ' 67 Ramblers . A spacious fresh trunk / shape turn on a two - inch recollective wheelbase ( 114 column inch ) , and Teague contributed handsome contemporary styling marked by a floating rectangular grille , squarish front fenders flowing into " hippy " rear flanks , and a shapely pack of cards with turgid , pitch rear lamp . Besides the expected sixes , Rebels offered a new " thinwall " 290 - cid V-8 option with 200 bhp ; a bigger bore made for two new 343 - cid railway locomotive packing 235 and 280 bhp . Other newfangled features included surplus - toll front - saucer power brakes , useable floorshift transmission , and weight - keep Hotchkiss drive in billet of Rambler ’s one-time torsion - tube . Model choices diminished to two sedans and one wagon in 550 trim ; midrange 770 saloon , paddy wagon , and hardtop ; and the sporty SST convertible and hardtop . Rebel then joined Marlin and Ambassador as a disjoined AMC " make . "
offer an steep farewell to the Rambler name was the limited - variation 1969 SC / Rambler . This was fundamentally a Rogue hardtop carrying a heavy new 315 - bhp , 390 - cid V-8 , a make for hood grievous bodily harm , a four - hurrying manual transmission with Hurst shifter , heavy - duty suspension , and a cartoonish flushed - whitened - and - blue paint problem . Priced at $ 2998 , the " Scrambler , " as it was inescapably nickname , was just sensible in the Rambler tradition , but it was a pretty spectacular junior muscle car . Published road tests confirmed AMC ’s claim of bear quarter - miles in the low 14s at around 100 miles per hour . From residual , 60 miles per hour come up in a reported 6.3 seconds . Production was only 1512 , though that was triple the contrive run .
Not many Rambler convertibles were built , no surprisal give AMC ’s much small volume versus the Big Three . Though the ragtop American ran a full seven geezerhood ( 1961 - 67 ) , the undetermined Classic / Rebel last only four ( 1965 - 68 ) , and the vis-a-vis Ambassador just three ( 1965 - 67 ) . AMC ’s most - productive soft - top year was 1965 , when 3882 Americans , 4953 Classics , and 3499 Ambassadors were produced . All digest to grow in accumulator regard and one dollar bill value as the years roll up by , as do interesting shut models like the ' 57 Rebel , the ' 64 Typhoon , and , of course , the " Scrambler . "
