Had a 71 Datsun 510 when going to grad school. Great little car. Got a 1976 Camaro lt later..supposed to be the worst Camaro. It was great... Tuned down to 160 horse for smog b.s...good torque...305 v8...very smooth...turned heads with red/orange paint and black vinyl top. Love that car.
Much later got 1979 caddie brougham....425 ci tuned down to 190 HP...ran great, smooth , quiet, with good pickup. Would have loved to turn the 425 lose. But they kept smog requirements for 1979.... no one could fix it....cr4p!
Always thought the gremlin and pacer showed that AMC was trying to develop cars that filled a niche. The matador, javelin and AMX were cool enough. Pacer much more cool than fiat500 or Smart cars. I could see a pacer with hybrid or super efficient ICE power...like the goldfish bowl look.....gremlin could easily be stretched a bit and be a sedan with tons of rear storage space...like a two door enclosed pick up...Ford transit connect is a tall stretched gremlin...basically...IMHO
The Pacer was designed to have a ROTARY ENGINE that would have come from GM but they killed that project which left AMC having to take another engine and wedge it into the small compartment it was never meant to be in...............