1972 AMC Gremlin V8: AMC Puts the Hornet's 304 in Its Subcompact

When the Gremlin was new, AMC's chief designer had already said where it was going. Ate Up With Motor reports that Dick Teague told the press in 1970 that AMC would eventually offer a V8, and that AMC's Hornet compact had offered an optional 304 from the start. For 1972 the promise was kept. The Gremlin could be ordered with the 304, and Wikipedia calls the result the muscle-car formula of putting a big engine in a small car.^1,2

The car itself had started as a sketch. Ate Up With Motor recounts that Teague drew the idea on the back of an air-sickness bag during a flight in the fall of 1966, and that AMC's vice president of product development, Gerry Meyers, liked it in part because it needed little new tooling. The Gremlin went on sale on April 1, 1970, at $1,879 FOB Kenosha for a two-passenger version with a fixed rear window, and $1,959 for a four-seat hatchback with opening rear glass, according to both Ate Up With Motor and Wikipedia.^1,2

Before it got more power, the Gremlin got a sporty look. Wikipedia records that the X package arrived for 1971 as a $300 option on the four-passenger model, with body-side tape stripes, a body-color front fascia, slotted road wheels with D70x14 Goodyear Polyglas tires, a blacked-out grille insert, bucket seats and X decals, and that it proved extremely popular. Ate Up With Motor lists the X package among the Gremlin's trim offerings. By 1972 the appearance and the V8 could be combined in one car.^2,1

The engine was modest by the standards of the big muscle cars. Ate Up With Motor gives the 304 a single two-barrel carburetor, 150 net horsepower and 245 lb-ft of torque. The numbers were affected by a change in how they were measured. For 1972 the industry moved to SAE net ratings, and Ate Up With Motor notes that the Gremlin's 232 and 258 sixes, mechanically unchanged from 1971, were now listed at 100 and 110 horsepower. The V8's 150 was stated on the same net basis.^1,2

The drivetrain changed too. Wikipedia and Ate Up With Motor both record that the Borg-Warner automatic was replaced by Chrysler's TorqueFlite, which AMC called Torque Command; Ate Up With Motor identifies it as the TorqueFlite 904. Wikipedia lists the 1972 options that came with the upgrade: an AM/FM radio, a fabric sunroof, a tilt steering wheel, an inside hood release, a trailer-towing package rated for 2,000 pounds, and front disc brakes with or without power assist. The Gremlin had become a small car that could be equipped like a larger one.^2,1

Ate Up With Motor says a V8 Gremlin with TorqueFlite could run 0 to 60 mph in about 8.5 seconds, a characterization that does not identify a tested car. It also records a cost: the shortened rear springs let the axle hop in hard braking, and the short-wheelbase car was nose-heavy. The six-cylinder tests give a comparison. Wikipedia reports that Car and Driver recorded 11.9 seconds to 60 mph with a 232-powered Gremlin. Those are separate cars and separate conditions, and the gap between them is an approximation, not a measured result.^1,2

The sales record for 1972 is contradictory. Wikipedia gives 61,717 Gremlins for the model year, which it describes as a 15 percent gain over 1971. Ate Up With Motor gives 28,560 for 1970 and 76,908 for 1971, and says sales climbed steadily each year to a 1974 peak of 171,128. If both are right about 1971 and the steady climb, 1972 could not have been 61,717. The two lineages have not been reconciled, and both figures cover every Gremlin sold, not the V8 or X cars.^2,1

The V8's share of 1972 cannot be stated either. Wikipedia records that 40,994 Gremlins had the V8 from 1972 through 1976, a five-year total with no annual split, and no Gremlin X count for 1972 was found. Dividing the five-year V8 figure into a single year would invent a number. What can be said is that the V8 remained on the option list for five model years, long enough for tens of thousands of buyers to choose it.²

One dealer took the idea much further. Street Muscle's Bradley Iger reports that Randall AMC in Mesa, Arizona, with AMC corporate endorsement, installed AMC's 401 V8 in Gremlins from 1972 through 1974. The 401 shared the 304's external dimensions and used the factory mounts. Wikipedia gives 20 street cars and one for the strip; Street Muscle gives 21 in total. The base price was $2,995. These were dealer-built conversions, not factory Gremlins, and their performance figures belong to the Randall cars alone.^3,2

Those figures were strong. Street Muscle reports that Car Craft tested a well-optioned 401-XR in its May 1972 issue and recorded a quarter-mile under 12.3 seconds, and that base cars ran high 13-second times. Wikipedia gives 13.90-second passes at 103 to 106 mph. The Randall cars show what the Gremlin's short body could do with more engine, but they do not describe the 150-horsepower 304 cars that AMC's own dealers sold in far larger numbers.^3,2

AMC had tried a small V8 performance car the year before, and the numbers make a useful contrast. The 1971 Hornet SC/360 put a 360 in the Gremlin's compact sibling, and the SC/360 registry counts 784 built in its single year. The Gremlin V8 was a plainer package with a smaller engine and no performance name, yet Wikipedia's 40,994 V8 cars over five years show it found a steady market. The two figures cover different spans and are not directly comparable.^4,2,1

The 1972 Gremlin V8 therefore marks a change in approach more than a peak in performance. It was a 150-horsepower net-rated V8 in a car sketched on an air-sickness bag, with TorqueFlite, disc brakes and a list of comfort options, sold alongside an X package that had already proved popular. Its annual sales remain disputed, its V8 share is unrecorded, and its fastest versions were built by a dealer. The five-year V8 total of 40,994 is the clearest measure of how buyers received it.^1,2,3