I wanna be a Rebel

"tetsu_no_usagi" (tetsunousagi) 09/23/2013 at 12:09 • Filed to: None

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One of the things I love about being a gearhead in the day and age of the internet and Wikipedia is finding out about new cars I've never heard of before. This is why I think !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Wheeler Dealers would work is that there are so many weird cars out there by companies that don't exist anymore, just exploring those would give you 3 seasons worth of shows. (and yes, a long stretch of cars in the '60s and '70s are just your average American muscle car, but that's what they built in those time periods because they were popular and sold... it would get a little boring if you did nothing but one muscle car after another, but that's why you switch it up and go older, newer, foreign, whatnot in between the muscle cars)

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Rewind to last week, and I see a beaut of a project car over on Hooniverse, something I'd never seen before, an AMC Rebel.

Just look at it (and this isn't the project car on Hooniverse, just a handy stand in I found through Google Image search), it's definitely a '60s muscle car, but it's so generic you find yourself looking at just one part of it and misidentifying it as something else. Like if you bought your beer and it looked like this:

But I think that's why I'm loving it so much - if you drove past somebody in it, without them seeing the badge on the back, they'd spend the next 20 minutes guessing at what had driven past, and getting it wrong the whole time.

Anyway, just my random thoughts. What weird car from a company that no longer exists has caught your attention lately?

Z_Stig > tetsu_no_usagi 09/23/2013 at 12:14

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Hmmm....I like it. A lot.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > tetsu_no_usagi 09/23/2013 at 12:19

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I see your rebel and raise you a Rebel Machine

oh how I want one.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > tetsu_no_usagi 09/23/2013 at 12:27

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Obscure muscle car? Sign me up lol. That's why I love my Montego. I had people at the show I went to this past weekend going...what did you just pull up in??!?!?!!? And Ford guys flocking to it because they'd never seen one up close and it looked familiar but they didn't know what the heck it was.

So to answer your question (like a lot of people here say Miata) my answer is always Montego:

(shameful plug to my post I put up just a few minutes ago about my car at the car show: http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/montegoman-goe… )

FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 > tetsu_no_usagi 09/23/2013 at 12:33

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My worry about getting AMC iron like this is the general lack of aftermarket support. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm going to assume that many popular aftermarket companies like wilwood and hotchkis don't make kits for these cars as they aren't that popular. I was recently watching a Jay Leno's garage episode where he restored a Ford Galaxie - it was a struggle for him to find aftermarket support and the galaxie was a high volume Ford product.

I'm planning on getting one of the reject cousins for my future muscle car. Perhaps a Mercury or Oldsmobile variant.

JEM > tetsu_no_usagi 09/23/2013 at 12:37

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Before y'all crucify me, please let me explain why this is my choice:

There's a used car dealership on the street I take to get to the grocery store, or damn near any part of city I live in. It's had one of these Mercury Capri things there for a number of months now and I always do a "what the fu... oh right one of those Capris" double take because you just don't see them much. I think they recently wrote on the windshield "make offer" which means they practically might pay me to take it off their hands. I could use an economical daily commuter car and while I know the correct answer is "Miata", this is just sitting right there, and might be dirt cheap, and.... no. musn't.

Kugelblitz > tetsu_no_usagi 09/23/2013 at 12:38

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Google the Mercury Comet Caliente. Awesome.

tetsu_no_usagi > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 09/23/2013 at 12:41

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The Machine was awe-inspiring to be sure, and the "American pride" livery is, well, not bad, but not fantastic ('70s paint schemes... *shudder*). The name is also great, and I'm surprised I hadn't heard of it before now, as it's as good as The Judge, Roadrunner, and the rest. Unfortunately, it got too chunky between the '69 and '70 model years. It's by no means the sleekest '60s muscle car, but you can see how beefy it got.

Still, I wouldn't kick a Machine out of bed for eating crackers, that's for sure.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > tetsu_no_usagi 09/23/2013 at 12:48

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And then you also have the SC/Rambler

tetsu_no_usagi > FJ80WaitinForaLSV8 09/23/2013 at 13:40

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Oh I hear you, and the sad fact is that the likelihood of me actually purchasing a Rebel (of which there are a surprising amount for sale on Craig's List across the country) are slim to none. If I can ever get my finances to the point of picking up a project car, it'd have to be a Miata (always Miata) for a combined autocross/rallycross/Lemons/ChumpCar racer. But what you said is true - especially for car companies like AMC that no longer exist, but didn't buy their powertrain pieces from other companies, you're going to spend most of your time fabricating fittings to put in commonly had bits from other companies, like GM crate engines, and Muncie Rockcrusher trannies and whatnot.

Worth it, if you've got the tools, know how, and willingness to do it? Hell yes. For me, though, pipe dream.

tetsu_no_usagi > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 09/23/2013 at 13:44

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Now there's a land yacht blast from the past for ya!

tetsu_no_usagi > JEM 09/23/2013 at 14:42

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I saw one of those on the road the other day and had to do some Wiki research on it. Pretty interesting little car, and would have been a real contender to fight the Miata/MX-5 back in the day, except for one major omission - FWD instead of RWD. I can't remember, did the earlier generations of the Capris have RWD? I'm pretty sure the first gen did, and this should be 3rd or 4th, but did 2nd have RWD?

Okay, yes, the first and second gen American ones did (the 2nd gen was just a rebadged Mustang), pretty sweet one showed up on DailyTurismo not all that long ago:

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > tetsu_no_usagi 09/23/2013 at 15:13

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Not as "yacht-y" as you would think, its actually the "mid-size" if it's time with 2 size cars above it. I have no idea how the 2 bigger ones fit in a garage. For reference it's a similar size to the Chevelle parked a space over.

tetsu_no_usagi > Kugelblitz 09/23/2013 at 15:29

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I like the front end of them, something about stacked headlights, but they've got just a bit much trunk for my tastes. Interesting, though.

JEM > tetsu_no_usagi 09/23/2013 at 16:02

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The originals were awesome looking! Basically the English/UK Ford Escort I think which was a pretty cool car in it's day.

I also liked the bubble hatched 2nd version, even if it was just a re-badged Mustang.

tetsu_no_usagi > Z_Stig 09/23/2013 at 16:45

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One definite thing I've learned today - when it comes to muscle cars, black is my favorite color. That Capri I posted earlier looks really nice, but it would be so much better in black. Matte or glossy, black with chrome highlights or black on black, I'm not so picky on that, as long as the base color is black.

tetsu_no_usagi > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 09/23/2013 at 16:46

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I still forget that the '60s were a time when a Chevelle was the mid-size selection, and the Camaro and Nova were the compact cars of their day. I feel like I could park two Honda Fits (my daily driver) on top of that Montego and still have space leftover for a motorcycle.

tetsu_no_usagi > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 09/23/2013 at 16:48

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That's pretty too, but you can definitely tell it was an early '60s car. For my sense of aesthetics, the late '60s were THE sweet spot for muscle car design and proportion.

tetsu_no_usagi > JEM 09/23/2013 at 17:21

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Yeah, the 'Murican Capri (another German built Escort, really, which always makes me laugh when people tell me seriously they only buy domestic cars) 1st gen was pretty sweet little '70s car. The '80s rebadged Mustangs aren't all that bad, either (if you're into '80s Mustangs/other muscle cars).

Kugelblitz > tetsu_no_usagi 09/23/2013 at 20:11

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Dunno, these are sleeper cars in the right livery.

tetsu_no_usagi > Kugelblitz 09/23/2013 at 21:17

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I didn't say they weren't pretty, just not to my particular taste - though, like I said, I've realized today that my favorite color for old muscle is black, and that is nice looking Comet, and it is muy Caliente. And most of us gearheads know that you see a '60s or '70s muscle car, start looking for the telltale big rubber that tells the story of what you can find in those huge engine bays. If you can stuff a LS1 into the front end of a FD RX-7 (and you can ), just think of the giant, 500+ cubic inch crate demons you can stuff into the engine bay of one of these beauties. I'll never believe one of these beasts is a sleeper and to be taken lightly (at least in a straight line).

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > tetsu_no_usagi 09/24/2013 at 09:24

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YUP. The Camaro was more "pony car" than compact, but size wise I'm just splitting hairs now lol.

The Montego, while being giant- more length than width btw isn't actually as long as it seems. It's probably only a foot or a foot and a half longer than my Mercury Milan when they are parked side by side in the garage. It fits in normal parking spots no problem. Even funnier, my wife's Jeep Commander is actually shorter in length than the Montego as well (not by much though).

It sure as hell LOOKS gigantic though. My wife refuses to drive it, says its too big. I then remind her that her jeep is roughly the same length, she still won't drive it lol. Maybe it's the lack of power brakes? hahaha

Kugelblitz > tetsu_no_usagi 09/24/2013 at 10:05

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Crate demon has just joined my car speak lexicon.