There is something incredibly unique about the idea of the AMC Gremlin. It was built to compete with compact cars, and the goal was to deliver a less expensive vehicle for the American public that was better on fuel. The competition at the time was intended to be imports like the Toyota Corolla and Volkswagen Beetle, but with a performance flair. It was laid out, as was typical of the time, in a front-engined-rear-wheel-drive configuration, and of course there was a V8 option.
With its relative compact size and lighter weight, as compared to contemporary muscle cars, the Gremlin obviously captured the attention of drag racers. Strip it to as light as possible, toss on a set of slicks out back and some skinnies up front, and crank the power, and you’re well on your way to going fast in the quarter mile.
This Super Stock racer was campaigned back in the early 1970s, and it’s powered by a de-stroked 354 cubic inch big zoomie beef boy to make it go vroom vroom fast. Unfortunately the listing doesn’t say exactly how much power this car makes, or what kinds of times it was capable of running then or now. But best of all, it’s red, white, and blue like the flag of the greatest country in the world; France.
These days the Gremmie is more of a show car than a racer, which is a slight bummer, but it’s pretty good at going to car shows. I mean, what kind of reaction would you have if you saw this ridiculous body on those significantly more ridiculous wheels and tires? I’d bulge my eyes out like a cartoon wolf that just saw a pretty cartoon lady wolf.
The car was restored around a decade ago by Sullivan Motorsports in Dallas, Texas. Based on the images presented here, it was a pretty good job. This looks better than most Gremlins did brand new, from what I can tell.
If you’re interested in buying this car for your own collection (hopefully to get it back to the race track) you can head over to the Mecum Auctions event in Indianapolis later this month. It’s pretty damn cool. There’s a whole lot of other AMC cars on offer, so if you want a whole bunch of them, just be sure to bring extra spending cash.