1961 Rambler Classic

1961 RAMBLER CLASSIC – AN AMERICAN MUSCLE CAR?
First off, NO. Not even close. So why include it in this website about awesome American Muscle Cars? To try to give some perspective on the AMC brand in the early 1960s. At this point, there was little thought of building muscle cars going on at AMC. Heck, the first true muscle car didn’t come out until 1964. AMC wasn’t even particularly concerned with high performance. What they were very interested in, and also happened to be very good at, was producing low-priced, economical cars for thrifty American families who wanted a good, reliable car. It’s not that they were primitive necessarily, because some came fairly well-equipped for the day. And look at the detail that went into the dash on this car. AMC, through its brands Nash and Rambler had defined themselves as builders of finely-crafted bargain-priced car. Sort of an oxymoron. But, for them, at the time, it sort of worked. AMC never sold nearly the cars of even the smallest of Detroit’s Big 3 (that would be Chrysler). But it wasn’t for lack of build-quality, because AMCs and Ramblers were actually very good cars, relative to their peers. Probably the biggest thing that held AMC down was their stodgy styling. No matter how they tried, they just never seemed to hit the sweet spot. And in the end, looks sell.