41 Facts About AMC Pacer

AMC Pacer is a two-door compact car produced in the United States by American Motors Corporation from the 1975 through the 1980 model years.

The AMC Pacer was made in Mexico by Vehiculos Automotores Mexicanos from 1976 until 1979 and positioned as a premium-priced luxury car.

The AMC Pacer stood out a time when "Detroit was still rolling out boat-sized gas guzzlers.

Car and Driver magazine noted that "AMC Pacer said it was the first car designed from the inside out.

American Motors did not describe it as "cab forward, " but the AMC Pacer's layout included wheels pushed to the corners, a relatively wide body, and A-pillars moved forward.

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The AMC Pacer's design was ranked as equal with the new Aspen-Volare compacts as the most serviceable in the industry.

AMC Pacer was the second American production car, after the Ford Pinto, to feature rack-and-pinion steering.

The AMC Pacer was designed from the start to meet the expected stringent safety specifications.

The design of the AMC Pacer was strong for a small car, making it solid and heavy with protection features that included strong and massive bumpers, as well as wide B-pillars that factory information bulletins described their "roll bar like characteristics.

AMC Pacer's remaining safety features were not strongly advertised, and seldom influenced a potential customer's purchasing decision.

In 1973, AMC Pacer signed a licensing agreement with Curtiss-Wright to build Wankels for cars and Jeep-type vehicles.

Newsweek noted the "Pacer's primary competitive drawback is gasoline mileage: AMC offers only six-cylinder engines and the car gets only 18 miles per gallon in city and suburban driving vs 23 mpg or more for some four-cylinder competitors.

The AMC Pacer incorporated many controversial styling and design innovations that led to its market failure after five model years.

American Motors developed the AMC Pacer by identifying emerging trends and design technologies, but it faced a small window of opportunity since a product that comes out either too early or too late can fail even if the opportunity was there initially.

Many of the attributes the AMC Pacer incorporated became the goal of all manufacturers in the two decades that followed.

Nevertheless, "the foresight by Teague and AMC was correct" with approaches to meet the evolving U S government regulations covering automobiles.

However, AMC Pacer sales fell after the first two years, though the car continued to be built through the 1980 model year.

Similar to its mid-year introduction, on 3 December 1979, production of the AMC Pacer ended at the Kenosha, Wisconsin assembly plant where it had begun five years earlier.

The design of the AMC Pacer provided inspiration to the restyling of the Renault 5 to meet the needs and requirements of the American Market.

AMC Pacer started out as an economy car, and eventually became a small luxury car.

Vehicle tests that focused on the electrical drive system including the batteries, controller, and motor "found that the AMC Pacer performance is approximately equal to the majority of the vehicles tested in the 1977 assessment.

The electric AMC Pacer wagon was one of the more expensive cars at $14, 000.

The AMC Pacer was wider than a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and slightly longer than the then-current Ford Cortina.

AMC Pacer was produced in Mexico by Vehiculos Automotores Mexicanos starting in 1976.

The VAM AMC Pacer was offered in one version and had no model or trim badges.

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The car was focused to be a futuristic and high-end luxury car from its introduction, while the AMC Pacer counterpart was first targeted as a small car to consumers accustomed to large vehicles and AMC Pacer later repositioned it as a more upscale model.

The VAM AMC Pacer became the most costly and luxurious VAM car at the mid-year discontinuation of the 1976 Classic line.

The AMC Pacer's seats incorporated a golden Cassini crest on the adjustable headrests and a pattern with copper buttons forming squares.

These upgrades gave the VAM AMC Pacer an estimated 12 net horsepower increase over the previous year with improved fuel economy as well as increased top speed while maintaining torque and the car's towing capacity.

AMC Pacer X was available in only three colors, included colored-matched bumpers, and had most of the bright trim deleted.

The VAM AMC Pacer X was limited to 250 units and is the most collectible AMC Pacer model in Mexico.

However, an impact resulted in the destruction of the AMC Pacer's radiator giving the lead to the Ford truck after 21 hours and 20 minutes of racing.

AMC Pacer said the ride was "not choppy as in so many short-wheelbase cars", the rack-and-pinion steering gave "handling a feeling of precision.

Summing up, he said that with its "very modern styling, ample power and generous interior" the AMC Pacer was "more car" than "the Mustang II or "GM's sporty compacts", and that its performance felt "strong—certainly on a par with most V8s.

The "roly-poly" AMC Pacer was one of the few of that era that had "real personalities" and it embodies a sense of "artful desperation" making it "stand out from the crowd and epitomize at once the best and worst of the seventies.

Business Week magazine reported that the rising values of so-called "nerd cars"—ugly 1970s-era cars—prompted the CEO of a major collector-car insurance company to buy a AMC Pacer which has "inexplicably appreciated substantially beyond the $2, 300 that he paid for it in 2004.

AMC Pacer has been described as one of the formerly unloved cars from the 1970s that are enjoying a resurgence in both collectibility and auto restoration—especially among fans of cars from that era.

The AMC Pacer is one of several 1970s cars that were always thought of as cheap vehicles; therefore they were poorly maintained, which reduced their life expectancy.

In 1976 an AMC Pacer X was used as product placement in the hit French film The Wing or the Thigh, driven by the French actor Coluche.

Blue 1976 AMC Pacer was used as the "Burgermobile" in the 1997 film Good Burger.

The body of the AMC Pacer was stripped and repainted, the wheels were re-chromed, and the interior was re-covered, all to match the specifications of the screen car.