It’s Independence Day weekend, and there’s no better way to celebrate with The ClassicCars.com Journal than to read about cars painted red, white, and blue! And what brand is more American than American Motors?
The company from Kenosha was formed by the merger of Hudson and Nash. Though they both disappeared in 1957, the Rambler brand continued on, even out-flanking Plymouth and achieving number three in sales. Rambler began rebranding itself as American Motors Corporation for 1966, with the Rambler name continuing for the American compact through 1969. The brand colors were, naturally, red, white, and blue, and these colors were used on several cars to gain visibility in the youth market. Here are three.
1968 Craig Breedlove’s Bonneville Speed Spectacular Javelin
Somewhat of a ringer on this list, as these vehicles were not quite production cars. The Javelin was a new 1968 model created to compete in the pony car market. Land speed racer Craig Breedlove drove one decked out in red/white/blue livery to a new C-Production class record of 161.733 mph at Bonneville Salt Flats.
It was one of three cars/teams entered in a competition sponsored by Car Craft and AMC—a publicity/marketing stunt of sorts to bring attention to the fact that yes, Virginia, that Rambler company was building fast cars for the youth market. Honorable mention goes to the 1969 SS/AMX, which were built in Frost White but many were raced in red/white/blue.
1969 Rambler SC/Rambler
Created with help from Hurst Performance, the idea was to cram a 390 V8 under the hood of the Rambler Rogue two-door hardtop (the 290 was the biggest engine available from the factory). Bold, pop-art graphics on the hood—inspired by a rejected Hurst/Olds proposal—pointed air to the intake of the scoop. Hood pins were a touch from the street that was just starting to appear as a factory option in the industry.
The 315-horse 390 was hooked to a Borg-Warner close-ratio four-speed backed by 3.54 gears with Twin-Grip differential. Two paint schemes were available, one less boisterous than the other, but both featuring brilliant red and blue on a white body.
1970 Rebel “The Machine”
After leaving Pontiac’s ad agency, Jim Wangers worked for Hurst as a consultant. He helped AMC evolve a stillborn Rebel concept from several years before into the red/white/blue Rebel Machine. Though available in any color after the first thousand were built, it’s the signature, patriotic-colored examples that most folks salute.
A 340-horsepower 390 featured modified intake and exhaust manifolds for a 15-horsepower bump over the 390 available for the Javelin and AMX. Other standard features included four-speed, bucket seats, Handling Package, rear sway bar, HD cooling, power disc brakes, 15 x 7-inch “Machine” slotted wheels with E60 x 15 white-letter tires, and 3.54 gears.
1970 Trans-Am Javelin
This was somewhat of a strange vehicle because it was not AMC’s Trans-Am homologation special—the Mark Donohue Javelin was. According to the Trans-Am Javelin Registry website, this special version of the Javelin SST was created to create a buzz about AMC’s SCCA Trans-Am program. Wouldn’t the Mark Donohue have done that already?
So now we have this ceremonial 1-of-100 image car that was completely unrelated to the car that needed homologating, but it also had a nifty three-tiered paint scheme and a unique spoiler that was not legal for Trans-Am racing. All were equipped with the 325-horse 390, ram air, and four-speed manual.