This is a compilation of more than three-dozen articles from auto buff magazines such as Car and Driver, Motor Trend, Road Test and Car Life. The republished stories are largely road tests of a representative mix of American Motors’ cars. One can gain a fairly nuanced sense of AMC’s rise and fall from the articles.
The main weakness of the book is that it did not include any road tests from Consumer Reports, which tended to offer more positive reviews of Ramblers in the late-50s and early-60s than the more performance-oriented magazines.
AMC Rambler Limited Edition Extra: 1956-1969
- R. M. Clarke, 2004
- Brooklands Books, Surrey, UK
“For several good reasons the new Rambler is the most interesting of the 1956 cars. First of all it shares with the Lincoln and Continental Mark II the distinction of being a really new car; not just an off-year face lift with a power boost thrown in for good measure. Next, Rambler is the only really new car among the 16 makes that account for 96 per cent of the 8 millions-plus 1956 cars that are expected to be sold. Finally, Rambler is the first car since the introduction of Studebaker Champion in 1939, to offer potentially serious competition to the low-priced ‘Big Three,’ (Ford Chevrolet and Plymouth). In performance, interior room, handling ease, roadability, riding comfort and economy the Rambler either equals or surpasses the other cars in the low price group — at a lower price.”
— Car Life, April 1956 (p. 4)
“It should be obvious by now that we don’t think the Rambler’s performance measures up to its good looks. Nobody at American Motors is going to lose any sleep over this, because they haven’t the slightest wish to sell cars to people like us anyway. Our advice to Mr. Abernethy is that if the Rambler American is an example of the kind of product that results from racing-celibacy, he’d better get himself a crash helmet and see if there’s still time to enter Le Mans — the experience would be good for him.”
— Car and Driver, April 1964 (p. 62)
“If, just if, you were to do away with the nutty paint job and substitute a Sebring Silver, change the head rests, relocate the outside mirrors, put a decent looking air scoop on the hood, and take the blue stripe off the wheels — the SC Rambler might just be the ultimate Q-ship. Think it over — it now only takes three grand to get into the quick league.”
— Road Test, May 1969 (p. 123)
I several books from this series, and the collection covers all of the American marques – even Kaiser and Packard.
None of them reprint tests from Consumer Reports. The magazine refuses to let any manufacturer tout a good test result in its ad campaigns…perhaps it also refuses to allow its tests to be reprinted in any medium, or charges a very high fee to any publication that wishes to do so.
Yeah, that’s what I had assumed. I wouldn’t go anywhere near reposting pages from Consumer Reports, but that’s not a universally held view here in the wild west of the web.