Originally Posted by Veloce
Okay, I'll defer to your good judgment. Maybe I was little overboard by saying the "same" styling. I've amended my post to read, "similar styling cues." BTW, my first new car was a Gremlin X with the Levi interior. I also had a Javelin (bought used and needed a back seat for the little one)-Hey, I even owned a snot green hornet for a couple of years. Was I an AMC groupie? You betcha!
Roll forward to today. I do love the Bugatti styling, but still can't afford it--I don't even know anyone in Ralph Lauren's group. The Crossfire, to me, is one of the greatest looking automobiles since AMC's days of the Gremlin/Javelin and art deco era of the Bugatti. Yet, it is now afforadable and sooooo kewl to drive.
Veloce, I wasn't knocking the Gremlin, I owned one also, and I probably put more miles on my old girlfriends 71 Gremlin X than she did. They were fun cars, and got a lot of looks and smiles when they first came out. But the AMX and the Gremlin were both "conceived" by the same guy (Richard Teague).
Actually, some of the Gremlins dimensions were very close to the Crossfires,
Wheel base....96" vs 94.5"
Track fr.........57.2" vs 58.3"
Track r..........56.6" vs 58.2"
Hight.............51.8" vs 51.0"
Ground clearance...5.0" vs 4.9"
Length..........161.3" vs 159.8"
When the Gremlin first came out, it could be had with no back seat as well.
But it's true competiton was of course the Pinto and Vega, which it completely "outclassed" with it's standard 6 cyl. engine.
Now if you had said the Gremlin had similar styling to another Sports car,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BMW-Z3-Coupé.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1974_Gremlin.jpg
I wouldn't have argued at all.
I too had a couple of Hornets, even ordered a 73 360 Hatchback X brand new, and I had a 69 390, 4spd Javelin. It's really interesting how many old AMC owners there are on this forum.