While AMC was sorting out their overall image in the 1960s, moving away from the leader of American compact cars and into areas like full-size cars and muscle cars, truth be told they always did small and compact very well, up to the end in 1987. Yes, the Javelin and AMX are icons. Yes, the Matador was a police darling. But for many, it’s cars like the Rambler American that really kept the AMC flame lit: basic, rugged, reasonably priced, and simple. All good qualities for a car that, being honest, wasn’t meant for the enthusiast. The Rambler American was meant for your quality-conscious father, your frugal aunt, not little Johnny and his leaded right foot.
That being said, we’ve seen Americans done up all sorts of ways: drag cars, road-racers, customs and let’s not forget AMC’s own take with the SC/Rambler. They’re rugged enough to make for a decent little dirt-basher as well. If you wanted to raise a little hell on a gravel road, you’d be fine. But how about this for a bit of a challenge: take two backyard mechanics, the Rambler, and a CBS cameraman and ship them all to London, England in November. Point in a direction that’s generally speaking south-easterly, tell them they’re in a competition, and inform them that between the starting line and the finish line they’ve got 10,373 miles of what may or may not constitute “road”, several countries, a ferry crossing for the English Channel and a boat ride from what was then still called Bombay to Fremantle, Australia and hey, what the hell, the entire continent of Australia, west to east for good measure.
In a 290-powered Rambler American. Okay, it was a former Shell 4000 rally car, but still.
Now, most common-sense people would’ve just turned 180 degrees on their heels, flew two fingers high in the sky and walked away. But Sidney Dickson, John Saladin and cameraman Jerry Sims took on the challenge and managed to place 46th out of 98 entries. More impressive is that they finished the journey in the same car that they took. Even more impressive was that the Rambler was still romping around in 1991 when MotorWeek came calling to see this battered rally car for themselves. Dickson would run the rally in a even more prepared American again in 1993. Makes you wonder where those two American Motors anvils are at now, doesn’t it?