El Diablo Went Down To Georgia: The 1981 VAM Rally AMX
Sales of the Gremlin-based AMC Spirit in the United States were pretty dismal, but perhaps that was just the result of the suits in Kenosha choosing the wrong ad agency. Let’s head south of the border to see how VAM, which built certain AMC models under license for the Mexican market, pitched the ’81 Rally AMX.
You still see a fair number of VAM-built AMCs in Mexico these days, as I discovered during a visit to Nayarit last year. Sadly, Renault ended up taking over VAM and shutting down the operation in the late 1980s, which is why you don’t see ’03 Javelins.
Yes, it’s a pair of VAM Rally AMXs terrorizing a once-peaceful Mexican village, while Satan saws at his fiddle and chickens flee in terror!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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Wow imagine if ad agencies were as bold as that Mexican ad agency was 32 years ago! Can you imagine two Honda Civics facing off on a farm somewhere? The lawyers would go ape! OTOH, a Spirit with A/C for that kind of money in inflationary 1979 prices isn't too bad. To compare, my brother bought a fairly stripped (no air for sure) Mercury Zephyr (Ford Fairmont clone) for about $4400 in 1978. To put that in perspective, my father bought a nicely equipped Mercury Montego for about $4000 in 1975.
I owned 3 AMC Grand Wagoneers ,actually 5 , because the CHrycos were virtually identical. By current standards the build quality is terrible. But compared to big 3 cars of the same age, AMC comes out rather ok . I miss AMC . Their muscle cars are undervalued compared to other muscle cars of the era.