I’ve been an AMC fan since my adolescence in the mid-/late-1980s. I don’t know if perhaps it was because something of that make’s “underdog” aura tugged at my heartstrings, or perhaps because of either Javelin’s genuine hotness, but at some point, I stopped poking fun at the gawkier visual aspects of Gremlins and Pacers and started to find them intriguing. I use that last word in the most neutral sense possible and without any malice, whatsoever. I think the Pacer is a legitimately attractive car (I know I’m not alone in this), and I give props to Chief Designer Dick Teague for its slick (even if bulbous) shape.
Growing up in the hugely General Motors-centric town of Flint, Michigan, to have your family drive anything but a GM car seemed unfashionable and, dare I say, heretical. Naturally, my parents drove Chrysler products (three consecutive Plymouths) exclusively for over a decade before buying a Ford (an ’84 Tempo GL four-door sedan). So help you in those days if an import was your family’s primary source of transportation or, even worse, a “dorky” AMC.
The only American Motors products (that weren’t Renault-based) that seemed to escape this second- (or third-) tier stigma were the Eagle 4X4 wagons, which (inexplicably, when I think about it now) seemed to maintain something of a premium image. Around the dawn of my middle school years, other AMC passenger cars – Spirits, Concords, etc. – seemed by that point in the ’80s to have slid down the used car chain very quickly as vehicles of the very last resort, whereas Eagle wagons always seemed to have more nicely-dressed families in them, regardless of the car’s age.
Our featured, lime green Hornet two-door sedan is an ancestor (relative?) of the Eagle, and it appears to have a much different combination of, let’s say, gifts than the average Eagle wagon. There are certain allowances to be made when examining the originality of a forty-something year old car. For example, it’s very likely that it has been resprayed at least once. The front and rear bumpers were chrome (and not painted black) from the factory. And yet, I’m compelled to believe that this car left Kenosha in very much the same configuration as what we see here: green paint the color of a can of 7-Up, a white vinyl top, and dog dishes on steelies painted the same color as the body.
Not being an AMC expert but just a fan, it is this last feature that makes me think this Hornet started its life looking much like it does in these pictures. I’ll bet there’s a base, 100-hp 232-six under the hood of this 2,800-pound car. The combination of steel wheels with the contrasting vinyl top seems like the most “AMC” thing about this car. This juxtaposition seems to say of its original owner, “I want basic transportation, but I’m just a little fancy.” Yep. This is like your uncle who wears his Rolex, his one prized possession, even when he’s rocking his denim overalls from Sears. About 145,500 Hornets found buyers that year, as AMC’s most popular line for ’74. (The Gremlin wasn’t far behind, with roughly 132,000 units sold that year.)
The holidays can be hard, as not all family dynamics that resurface bring back warm and/or fuzzy memories of roasting chestnuts, open fires, etc. However, this Hornet served – to me, personally, anyway – as a reminder that each of us possesses our own, unique set of gifts, and through our expression of those gifts, we have our own story to tell that no one else ever could the way we do. Look at this Hornet, as it rolls, proudly, down the beautiful, red brick main thoroughfare of downtown Flint, Saginaw Street. It is clearly not a trailer queen.
Still, by its mere presence and unique set of (bold) external qualities, it commands your attention. It is no shrinking violet, this Hornet. It is expressing itself, in Nineties parlance. That green-and-white color scheme (perhaps its nickname is “Sparty” as a nod to Michigan State’s colors) is about as in-your-face as they come. May the sun ever glint off those dog dish hubcaps of this product of what was considered for years to be the last independent, American auto maker, here in this birthplace city of once Goliath-scaled General Motors. Little green Hornet, flaunt those gifts, knowing that you are the only “you” in probably the entire state of Michigan.
Downtown Flint, Michigan.
Wednesday, August 16, 2017.
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
-Dr. Suess.
I haven’t seen a Hornet (or any other AMC product) in quite a while, and the last line made me think of the classic Dr. Suess quote.
Dman63, as a kid who grew up on Dr. Seuss who remains a fan, I love that connection.
The more time marches on, the more I like these. This particular example is fantastic; the shape and proportions are just right and you wouldn’t think twice about driving it wherever.
Speaking of gifts, somebody along the way gifted this AMC with Mopar police wheels. Those slots along the inside perimeter is the giveaway. Mopar made these from either 1977 or 1978 until the Diplomat went away in 1989.
Never would have guessed they fit, but they obviously do.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/WVI-69-5812042?seid=srese1&cm_mmc=pla-google-_-shopping-_-srese1-_-Wheel-Vintiques&gclid=Cj0KCQiAjszhBRDgARIsAH8Kgvf7jvbZXQWToFQRqxONuWn-QNE_bQhik65lQmtiSS0CfbhhNwomDKkaAuL5EALw_wcB
The Mopar “cop car” wheels are a good way of putting slightly wider 15” wheels on your classic (if it uses Ford/Mopar/Studebaker 5×4.5 bolt pattern) if you can’t find tall, skinny tires (originals are something like 175-85-15, which nobody carries nowadays) it’s much easier to find 195-75-15 (or 205-70 if you don’t need them to look exactly like originals) Also, if you perform a disc brake conversion and your calipers don’t fit in your old wheels, these work great. And third, in Studebaker World, there’s a problem with original wheels cracking from the stress Radial tires put on the 50+ year old wheels, so guys use the “cop car” wheels to fit Radials on. Plus you can still use your full wheel covers with these, so it’s all good.
Good info. I’d wager that the normal 14″ steelies are easier to source, but maybe it’s harder to find affordable rubber that fits. So, it’s worth the effort to seek out the Mopar cop-car steelies to keep the OEM look, but also to use modern-sized tires.
That’s the trick with these CCs that aren’t in the category of being valuable collectable. Keeping one of them in tip-top OEM condition is actually much harder than the typical classic car with a strong repro part industry. Most simply try to get as close as they can with what they have to spend. That’s the reason I can understand and give some of these guys a pass when they use non-period aftermarket stuff like road and steering wheels, air cleaners, etc. for the things that tend to wear out over the years.
Wow. Jason, if you hadn’t mentioned that the hubcaps were Mopar sourced, I probably would never have noticed. I’m familiar with many AMC wheel cover designs, but looking at the ’74 brochure photo above, I can see the difference very clearly. Thanks for pointing that out.
Back when my buddy Greg and I were making a serious attempt at our local dirt track’s Street Stock division, we would scour the boneyards looking for these wheels. We ran mostly B-body Mopars, so these would fit no problem. Also, they were already reinforced which was one less thing for us to do. The rules stipulated we run DOT tires and some sort of “factory” wheels, so these police duty wheels were our choice.
I recognized them as soon as I saw this post, but didn’t have any time to comment until now. To be honest, AMC had some very attractive styled steel wheels back in the day and equally attractive alloy ones, too. Not that it matters, but I prefer the AMC wheels to the Mopar police duty ones.
Nice capture, Joseph. And pure poetry in your last paragraph!
The vinyl top and steelies with dog dishes are not only “just a little fancy” but are so in a way that stands out as remarkable where the opposite – a wheel upgrade, either luxury full covers or styled rally wheels, paired with a painted metal top would be utterly normal, simply the way the world has gone and was already starting to go when this Hornet was new. “Am I out of touch?…No, it’s the children who are wrong”.
Your first paragraph sums up my feelings for AMC products as well. My affinity for underdogs gave me an almost irresistible fondness for AMC cars, but for no describable reason other than they weren’t GM, Ford or Chrysler products. I guess in my ideal world I just longed for more than 3 viable domestic car manufacturers, just like I longed for more than two political parties, or more than one baseball team in my native City. Hornets, Concords, Pacers, etc. were intriguing just because they weren’t the same old thing that everyone else drove, and I felt then (like I do now) that I didn’t need any deeper reason to like something.
Regarding your hometown’s disdain for anything other than GM products, it seems like time heals all wounds. This Hornet undoubtedly survived many derisive glares when it was younger… but like you said, it now rolls proudly down Saginaw St. — looking like it owns the place.
About the only time I see AMC products any more are at show n shines or the odd Mopar show in the summers here. Nice encapsulation of this well preserved example.
A delightful way to begin a Monday morning. I love your take on this one.
The Hornet seemed to be about as mainstream as anything AMC ever built, and I liked its styling a lot.
I am older than you, so when someone says Green Hornet, I my mind goes in a different direction the short-lived 60s TV show. Why the Green Hornet’s car was black and not green is something I have never understood.
You beat me to it!
I had that thought as well. Even though I’m not old enough to remember the TV show (and I think it was a radio show decades before that) I am aware of it if for no other reason than the 2011 film.
If that were my car I’d totally get personalized plates that read GRNHRNT or something like that (although looking at it I’m not sure how easy that would be for people to decipher).
It bothered me that the car wasn’t given an update for the Seth Rogen movie, made in 2011 just when mid-00s Chrysler 300s were starting to get cheap. Especially since they wrecked a number of ’60s Imperials for it…
It’s funny that you all have mentioned that TV program, as my original plan for this draft was going to reference the show and liken the Hornet model to AMC’s “superhero”, with it’s basic platform in production for almost twenty years.
I took a different approach, though, when I realized I’ve never seen a full episode of “The Green Hornet”. LOL
On the radio show, the car was named Black Beauty. Green Beauty just doesn’t sound right – not to mention they didn’t have to rewrite all the scripts.
A nice find. In my head I can hear the chuffing idle and accelerating moo of a 232 six.
I know it’s early, but “accelerating moo” is my favorite phrase so far this year at Curbside Classic!
Thank you Joseph, for another very enjoyable story, with outstanding photos. I really appreciate, and relate to your down-to-earth candor, and stories of growing up. You are blessed with much wisdom. And it’s always nice to hear your views on life.
I will admit to being somewhat of a demanding critic of AMC when I was a kid growing up in the 70s. They were the underdog many of us cheered for, that we also wanted to succeed! As it was with our closest friends, we saved our most genuine opinions and thoughts with, many car fans took AMC to heart. If their cars showed character, it helped them win over many fans. I’ll admit, it was the sometimes ‘too quirky’ styling elements that had me saying, ‘Don’t be too dorky! If you want to succeed.’ However much I thought the Gremlin and Pacer were cool. I was nervous upon their launches, they were too polarizing. I kind of knew, without the Wankel engine, the Pacer would have to rely heavily on its styling to succeed. I found the ’74 Matador coupe so refreshingly styled, that I was really proud for AMC, launching such a unique and cool car. In spite of its fastback styling seeming obsolete compared to other carmakers more formal personal luxury models.
Congratulations to the owner of this Hornet. As it really is an automotive heirloom.
PS. I quite like the rustic and authentic cobblestone effect, and look of the brick roadway. I live in Canada, and have seen cities install similar brickwork for sidewalks, city courts, and some roads. Your pics appear to show what seems to affect them in northern climates. Cold weather and frost appears to cause the ground under the bricks to ‘heave’ from frozen and thawed water in the ground. Making the surface often very ‘wavy’ with broken and cracked bricks. Brick paved roads and sidewalks can look so elegant when new. Too bad they often reflect the effects of Mother Nature in time.
Thank you so much, Daniel.
Your observation of how you had hoped that AMC-specific quirks wouldn’t hurt sales, I remember reading somewhere that chief designer Richard Teague had said something to the effect that if their cars were more conventionally-styled, fewer people would have paid attention to them. Within that context, a lot of their risk moves (stylewise) make sense.
I remain a fan of the 1974 – ’78 Matador coupe. I’ve seen examples in the right colors and accessories that look like absolute knockouts. I’ve also seen examples with in the wrong colors w/ bad accessories that look hideous. It’s a bit like that “Gwen” character from that Seinfeld episode.
About the bricks of South Saginaw Street, this is one hallmark of downtown Flint that has remained constant for as long as I remember. The road was redone (don’t quote me on this) about 7 (?) years ago, and it brought such a beauty and luster back to the still-rebounding / improving downtown area.
I’m always so thrilled to make it back “home” at different times during the year that just the sound of cars rolling down those bricks (whether I’m a pedestrian or in a car myself) just makes me happy.
Beautiful essay!
The 4wd Eagles were common around here (low-rust land) until about 5 years ago. Now they’re gone, but the 1st-generation 4wd Subaru wagons that filled the same niche are still going strong.
My 1st gen Subaru wagon was the last one I ever saw in the flesh and that was in the nineties.
I remember reading somewhere that when people shopped for a new compact back in the day, when they looked at an AMC Hornet, they just saw a Nash Rambler. Sure seems plausible (and not neccessarily a bad thing), to me.
And when the Hornet was introduced (before the Gremlin came online), you could actually get one for $1995. Yeah, it would have been an ultra-stripped penalty box, but you still got a compact-size car with a six-cylinder engine and three-on-the-tree. Old tech, for sure, but still a better buy than an even more austere, early Maverick for the same price.
As a kid, I was very disdainful of AMC–I was too swayed by the “loser” image associated with their cars. Now, older and (slightly) wiser, I very much respect the scrappy spirit (pun intended) that the company deployed to survive in the marketplace far longer than anyone would have dreamed.
Of the U.S. compact cars, I really do think the Hornet was the best looking by far. Seeing this example reminds me once again of the simple, handsome lines. The Sportabout in particular was very nice, but the 2- and 4-doors looked great as well.
So while GM wins the crown for doing “less with more,” AMC is the exact opposite, doing the “most” with the very least.
Last week I saw a Lincoln MkIII in the same color scheme, which looked very wrong on the Lincoln. Not my favorite colors, but much more appropriate on a Hornet. BTW, are those slotted steel wheels in fact OEM base fitment?
The Hornet came out for the 1970 model year. The Javelin was discontinued after the 1974 model year. In 1974, AMC came out with the AMC Matador coupe. This was a fastback style that bombed in the marketplace. 1975 was the year the Pacer came out. It sold well its first year and not so well after that . All of the newly introduced AMC models of the mid 1970s bombed sales wise. The last model year of the Hornet was 1977. In 1978, AMC turned the Hornet into a small luxury compact like the Ford Granada and Dodge Aspen. They took the plain jane Hornet and renamed the car AMC Concord. You could still see the Hornet styling in the new Concord. The Concord was sold until the end of the 1983 model year. I had one and it was a nice car. AMC added 4 wheel drive to the Concord and called the car the AMC Eagle. The Eagle was sold from 1980 to 1988. So it is interesting that parts from a 1970 Hornet will still fit on a 1988 Eagle. A good long life for the Hornet body. I think that the Hornet underneath was based on the chassis of the 1964-69 Rambler. Someone please correctly if I am wrong.
Hornet/Concord had balljoint front end, much like Falcon/Maverick. Older Ramblers had various # of trunnions. Springs were also on upper control arm. Probably an update, rather than an expensive re-design.
The Hornet was an all new design, and was not an update of the ’64-69 American. It was an honest to goodness compact car, that put a car like the Maverick to shame. And then it grew into a small station wagon (Sportabout) and a very nicely proportioned Hatchback.
I’ve been the proud owner of a Hornet Hatchback X since the summer of 1977.
Really the substantial change between the Hornet and American besides the body was that front suspension change from trunnions to balljoints with relocated springs and shocks, which only required new front spring tower stampings, as evidenced by the otherwise carryover 1970 Javelins, which are most closely related to the Hornet underneath, and in the original 68-69 configuration related to the American itself.
AMC basically had two platforms used to the end, the wide one derived off the 63 Classic and the narrow one derived off the 64 American, and even those both were similarly configured other than the rear suspensions. The only truly all new AMC design after 1964 was the Pacer.
I will always remember the 1974 Hornet as the car James Bond drove through Bangkok traffic with J.W. Pepper as a passenger chasing Scaramanga’s 1974 Matador in “Man with the Golden Gun”. A stunt driver also did a 360 degree barrel roll late in the chase scene. I read somewhere that AMC products were never sold in Bangkok. Can anyone confirm this?
Glenn, I’ll have to defer to someone else regarding AMC’s being sold in Bangkok, but I have to say that watching that movie gave me a whole, new love for the Hornet hatchback – which I think is a great-looking car.
My mother bought a new 1974 Hornet Sportabout in the summer of ’74.
It was the darker pine green color.
Although not “loaded”, it did have the full wheel covers, an AM radio, a luggage rack, and the 304 V-8.
I was just knee-high back then but I don’t remember her having any problems with the car.
What being at the AMC dealer in Kenosha in ’74 did for me was start my love of new cars and collecting car brochures.
Thanks everyone, for reading and/or commenting. It was great over the holidays to sit down with pen and paper and draft a few pieces. I hope everyone’s new year is off to a good start. I feel like mine is. #newbeginnings
My Dad bought a new ’75 Hornet Sportabout wagon in medium blue / dinoc trim, 258 and AT. It was a good looking car on the outside but the interior plastics and dashboard especially had awful fit & finish. He was also looking at a Vega wagon and since I would be in the back seat I insisted he look at the Hornet. It was pretty reliable but did have an intermittent problem after a few years where it would just cut out at speed. You pulled over and then it might re-start right away or not. The dealer could never figure it out since it never repeated when they had it. I finally popped in a distributor from a pre-electronic ignition engine and it never happened again.
75’s had the absolutely awful Prestolite electronic ignition. Otherwise, the cars were fairly bulletproof, and the 232/258 absolutely was.
My family had a 1973 AMC Gremlin, which shared the Hornet’s dashboard and door panels. Even as a young boy I realized that the interior was poorly assembled (particularly the dashboard) and made of very cheap materials.
Bought a 78 Concord when the Olds Lemon I had died a well deserved death. The AMC had a 258 and an automatic and was superior in just about every way. Took it to Guam and left it there in late 1981. As said above it was just a fancied up Hornet and I liked it.
I started driving with a Studebaker and have had oddball taste ever since.
Good story. Thanks for sharing.
The Hornet always seemed smaller than the Nova/Maverick/Dart. Was that the case? I suppose I could look up exterior dimensions, but with the Nova and Dart, there was room for four people, particularly if they were children. The Hornet is very cleanly styled and looked decent and contemporary all the way up to its demise as the Concord in 1983. It had good sightlines, no fussy vent windows, nice clean sides, what detail there is is well done, the grille and headlamps are clean and simple but look sculpted enough, and don’t have the “we gave up halfway through a five martini lunch” look like the Colonnade Malibu and some Fords had.
The Gremlin/Spirit never had room for even children in the back seat. I really liked the styling of the Pacer as a kid and wanted one. What AMC did, due to budget constraints, was take the big heavy pieces of the Matador and its ilk and wrap shiny new trimmer bodies around them, which made them very overweight. The Gremlin/Spirit ended up being small, cramped, and thirsty, and still sold.
AMC sold a lot of cars as postal/phone company/fleet cars, so that probably affected their image, as well as leftover Rambler think. They never seemed “Fresh” or desireable, and the Pacer was quite expensive- rivaling a decently equipped Regal or Cutlass in price.
The Hornet is smaller in exterior dimensions from the Dart and Nova but has more interior volume and rear seat room than all of them.
I can believe that the Hornet had more back seat room than a Chevrolet Nova, but a Dodge Dart as well?
My grandmother had a 1973 Dart four-door sedan, and my great-uncle had a 1974 AMC Hornet four-door sedan. The Dart’s back seat seemed much roomier than that of the Hornet.
Here’s a competition comparison from the C&D magazine test, the Dart isn’t listed but the Valiant does have more hip room which probably contributes to the roomier feel, I bet the Dart was less claustrophobic in back too, compared to the Hornets chunky C pillars. According to automobile-catalog the Dart 4-door is listed at 35.9” for rear legroom, better than the competition and only a little shy of the Hornet.
Thank you for the information.
One thing I remember is that my grandmother’s Dart had a lower rear seat cushion of “normal” length, while the Hornet’s seemed shorter. The Dart’s rear seat was much more comfortable than the Hornet’s.
GM used this trick with its post-1974 X-cars (the rear-wheel-drive versions). They had abbreviated lower rear seat cushions.
That was a big problem with the Pacer. AMC initially touted it as the “first wide small car.” But its price (and gas mileage) were comparable to several intermediates from the competition.
So was it a small car…or a different type of intermediate? Even AMC didn’t seem to be sure.
By late 1976, many potential buyers weren’t sure, either. Pacer sales were strong until halfway through 1976. Then they began to tail off dramatically. The arrival of the wagon for the 1977 model year helped some, but that was not enough to save Pacer sales in the long run.
I wear my Rolex every chance I get. It’s just disguised as an Armitron. And more accurate.
The Hornet 2-door was featured in the real original of Elon’s skate-tunnel system. As always, Elon steals old ideas and screws them up.
Oh my goodness, your photos look exactly like my original car! It was the very first car I bought for high school, a 1974 AMC Hornet. The owner had just rebuilt the engine and was wanting to sell it because he no longer could drive it because of family matters. I worked so hard all summer to buy a car and remember he gave it to me for $500. I loved that thing; it was my pride, and I named him Tanks. There was something about being in a vehicle that sturdy– I felt safe at that age. I learned to drive in crazy cities of Oregon and on backcountry roads. The only thing about it was in the winter, man oh man, the car would get cold and seemed to freeze inside while in summer it baked and actual hornets would try to make a nest in the door. Man, I miss the car, it was an amazing first car!
Elizabeth, “Tanks” is such a great name for an AMC Hornet like this one! Thank you for sharing your firsthand account with yours. 🙂