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Marlin. Beauty!
AMC Marlin.
Looks like the new Fiatsler Crossfire.
I knew a businessman in my hometown that won an AMC Marlin in a contest. He was embarrassed to be seen in it so he drove it home and parked it in his garage.
There’s almost always at least one Marlin for sale on ebay. My favorite, which has been for sale there at least twice in the past couple years, is a nice blue 1967 with the 232 cid inline six and 3-on-the-tree manual. As I recall it had extremely low mileage. I gotta have me a Marlin someday.
@tced2: Seriously? The Marlin is arguably the best looking American car of that era.
The example shown is lovely.
Oh, how much nicer looking this car and the 1971 – 1973 Buick Riviera would have been…if only the bean counters had allowed them to be built upon the smaller chassis for which they were designed.
Judging from what’s going on with the back end there, he must be carrying a couple of grey whales in the trunk.
(Yes, I know that whales aren’t fish. Just work with me, would ya?)
I believe it was designed by Richard Teague?
I know for sure it was built in Kenosha, WI… I grew up near Milwaukee and these cars were more common around there because the factory workers got discounts…
I had an uncle who had one of these for a while. He was my “cool” uncle, often having Pontiac or Cadillac convertibles.
And I’m with paul_y
I see a lot of Porsche Panera in the greenhouse/trunk.
Yeah I remember the Marlin. How about a “Rambler Scrambler”? Now thats a rare one.
These fish have swum far and wide … there is an auto repair shop, here in Gams, Switzerland, posessing an original good condition, two-tone Red and Black Marlin similar to that in the photos.
Two questions:
1. What says the text on the IP just above the steering column?
2. Are those the original vents in the centre of the IP? If so, they – with what would appear to be rotatable flaps – seem very much like the contemporary vents so ubiquitous in car design today. Was this the first application of this design approach?)
paul_y : The Marlin is arguably the best looking American car of that era.
Another hit on the crack pipe and it’ll look even better… On the other hand, no cheap plastics on that dash, and the steering wheel looks like it’s covered with rattlesnake hide. I bet those were pretty hot cars on the Vegas strip, back in the day.
“On the other hand, no cheap plastics on that dash, and the steering wheel looks like it’s covered with rattlesnake hide. I bet those were pretty hot cars on the Vegas strip, back in the day.”
It would seem so… it is a nice dash. A little older, yes, however in its original state was probably very nice. Steering wheel has style.
you could get them with a Nash 327, 4 barrel/ 4 speed tranny . AMCs were built even cheaper than any of the Big 3, but they were competitive across the board with them. Any car with Hudson and Nash DNA in it was a good un in my book.
Robert.Walter :
August 23rd, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Two questions:
1. What says the text on the IP just above the steering column?
2. Are those the original vents in the centre of the IP? If so, they – with what would appear to be rotatable flaps – seem very much like the contemporary vents so ubiquitous in car design today. Was this the first application of this design approach?
Two answers:
1. On a mid-60s AMC, the text above the steering column says “Fasten Seat Belts”. (On cars with column mounted automatics that space was devoted to the gear selection indicator instead.)
2. Those vents were the A/C vents on cars so equipped. They would be mounted in various places, depending on the model and the year. The American had them mounted under the dash, for example. I think you’ll find examples of similar vent design that predates AMCs use of it.
How much, if any, of that back end opened up? I see a keyhole–but no sheet metal gaps–and what looks to be the fuel filler, in the middle of what should be the hatchback door.
Anyway, although I ought to be old enough to remember seeing these on the road, I’ve only ever seen Marlins in photos. The oldest big AMC coupe I remember is the much later Javelin. I thought those were pretty hot looking back in the day, but when I went to test drive an 8 or 9-year old one when I was in my late teens, I recall being really put off by the yard of steering column between the wheel and the instrument panel. After that I always associated AMC with weird ergonomics. The Pacer, with its interior door panels that inexplicably rose higher than the bottom of the windows, sealed the deal and I never looked at one of their products again.
Re Rambler Scrambler: was that the one that had the front bench seat that folded flat with the rear bench to make a big bed? In my early teens (before the shaggin’ wagon van craze of the late 70s) I thought they were awesome parking/ drive-in movie cars … ;-)
@ZekeToronto: Oddly enough, from 2001-2004 (i.e., most of my college days), I lived in a neighborhood outside Rochester, NY that contained two Marlins, among other oddball cars (a couple of early 4Runners, an XR4Ti, an M35 Deuce-and-a-half, an H1, and an Isuzu Vehicross all spring to mind).
@Zeke
The trunk outline is just visible in the full on rear shot just inside the chrome outline of the black painted area.
Google AMC Marlin Trunk, and you can see it open.
Ahh I see it now. On the plus side, the panel gaps look tight and uniform for a American car of that vintage. But on the negative side, what a ridiculously small opening and (judging by the “open” pic on Wikipedia) crazy tiny luggage space for a car of that size. Typically, 60s era cars had fairly trim shapes with better ratios of interior/luggage space to exterior dimensions, than did the barges of the 50s or the land yachts of the early to mid 70s. But clearly there were exceptions!
FWIW, Chevrolet toyed with the idea of putting a similiar roofline on the original Chevy II Nova and made three 1963 prototypes that ended up being used for drag racing. From the photos, it sure looks like Teague copied the styling from that car for the Marlin.
None of those exaggerated, tacked-on, huge rear glass fastbacks from the era (like the ’66-’67 Charger and ’64-’66 Barracuda) really looked that great. As someone else pointed out, about the best of the lot was the 1971 Riviera.
As to the Rambler ‘Scrambler’, it was actually titled ‘SC/Rambler’ and was a one year only (1969) musclecar with eye-popping red, white, and blue graphics (including a big hood decal of the word ‘AIR’ with an arrow pointing into the opening of a large, up-tilted hoodscoop). It was followed the next year by a similiarly wildly festooned ‘Rebel Machine’.
If one thing can be said about AMC styling in the sixties and seventies, some of the cars can’t exactly be described as subtle…
As I understand it, the original “Tarpon” fastback show car was based on the smaller Rambler American, and was cute as a bug. CEO Roy Abernethy insisted it be based on the larger Classic body shell for sales volume, and ruined the proportions.
Personally, I think it looks all wrong in side and front three-quarter view, but looks pretty slick directly from behind.
The ’67 Marlin was based on the full-size Ambassador, and looked pretty good. The fastback looked good in S and L, but not M.
(I read that Dick Teague would joke that AMC paid him his Christmas bonus in Marlin decklids.)
Speaking of having the correct sized chassis, this car was never intended to originally be on the 112″ wheelbase mid-sized chassis; it was originally intended for the 106″ wheelbase compact chassis.
In other words, it would have been a Plymouth Barracuda and Ford Mustang competitor, and would have been called the Rambler Tarpon (another fish). What was it with fish?! Barracuda….
http://www.marlinautoclub.com/create/Tarpon_Concept_Car.htm
I understand that the AMC 287 and 327 Y-block V8’s (with up to 270hp from the 327 with factory Holley 4 barrel carburetor) would technically have fit, but the engineering boys said “no” since the all-new AMC light-block V8’s wouldn’t see the light of day until mid-year 1966, and the old 287/327 block weighed in at 650 pounds plus, overstressing the smaller chassis. (The American didn’t get an optional V8 until 1967).
The funny peculiar thing is, the 1957 Rambler Rebel (on 108″ wheelbase) had tiny brakes and a body intended for a little Rambler six, but had the Nash Ambassador 327 V8 shoe-horned under the stubby little hood in front of 4 door hardtop body (AMC didn’t make any 2 door hardtop coupes that year). It was their ‘pre-muscle era muscle car’ and actually was 2nd fastest production car that year behind the fuel injected Corvette. It blew the doors off the hemi-powered Chrysler 300, in fact….
So it’s not like AMC hadn’t “done it before” plus AMC had access to Bendix’s parts bin and could have specified front disc brakes as used by Studebaker with so much success on their Avanti…
But they chickened out and tried transferring the style of the car to the bigger, wider Rambler Classic chassis….
It’d have been far more competitive as a Tarpon…
Plus a Tarpon with front disc brakes, heavy duty shocks and suspension, 327/V8 with Holley 4 barrel, dual exhausts, glass packs, Warner T-10 four speed and Twin Grip locking axle would have packed about 280hp, and would have been one of the fastest sporty compacts going…. in a straight line, of course. Curvy roads? Get a British sports car, buddy…. ‘mercun cars go straight and fast…
Besides which, the lines are all wrong on this mid-sized wheelbase; the hood is just too short. The 1967 Marlin corrected this, as it added the longer front clip of the Ambassador full-sized car, but this made it a Dodge Charger competitor – instead of “a tweener” – and AMC didn’t have any engines to compete with the massive muscle car power that Chrysler’s 440 and 426 Hemi could offer. “Only” 390 cubic inches, by that time, from AMC (up to 315hp; th Hemi shoveled 425 onto the pavement – at least that was what was advertised; real HP was more like 500).
The biggest problem with the Tarpon not making it into production wasn’t the lack of an AMC small-block V8 at the time (which was a legitimate concern). In an interview from Wikipedia, Dick Teague stated that AMC’s president, Roy Abernathy, was a big guy who just didn’t like small cars. That’s why the Tarpon’s roofline was stretched onto the mid-sized Classic to make the Marlin, instead.
It’s a shame because it would have been interesting to see how the Tarpon would have faired against the Mustang and Barracuda (even with the old, heavy V8 engine). The likelihood is it couldn’t have sold much worse than the Marlin.
My father wanted one of these cars, same color, but settled for a 68 Mercury Cyclone with the 390V-8 and C-6 engine. I loved that car as a kid and would love to drive one today.
I think the Marlin was cooler and reflected the style of the times. The interior was not as nice as the Cyclone but the rear was sculpted art.
Looks like something you’d see in Cuba. Lucky for them they have the worst of American engineering and “styling”.
(The Forester gives it away, I guess for both styling and location).
Mitt Romney has been quoted as saying that he drove one when he dated his (now) wife…and that the Marlin was so ugly, he’s lucky she even dated him. And this from a guy whose Dad was president of the company that made the car.
GS650G wrote:
My father wanted one of these cars, same color, but settled for a 68 Mercury Cyclone with the 390V-8 and C-6 engine.
Hah! My dad had a Cyclone GT with a 390 in ’68 as well. After a long string of off-beat vehicles (Beetles, Volvos, a Benz, multiple Corvairs) it was the first car that really caught my attention as a little kid. Me and the neighbour boys would sit in the Cyclone, with its swoopy dash, bucket seats and full-length console, for hours … pretending we were piloting an interstellar spaceship.
The largest engine you could get on the 67 Marlin was the 343.
The 390 wasn’t introduced until 68 and a half with the AMX. The Marlin was long gone by then.
The 390 was enlarged to 401 c.i.d. for 71
My Dad was a Rambler man, he owned a pink and black ’61 sedan, then a ’66 American Wagon in the same red-and-black two-tone combo as the Marlin above… (while he was signing the papers on that, we all goggled at the Marlin in the old Coon Brothers showroom on Telegraph in Detroit….)and then in ’69 (after my sixth sibling was born)we got an Ambassador Wagon, lime green with the de-riguer faux wood paneling. Then, in 1974, after a few of my sibs started to move on to college life, he got a cool cornflower blue Hornet sportabout Wagon.
If Ramblers, and especially Rambler wagons, were still made today, I’d be there…(Jeep SUV’s don’t count….)
I thought all my dad’s were cool…especially the ’61. (Saw one outside of Sturgis, Michigan, a few years ago)….the Hornet Sportabout never got its due….small, tight, efficient, yet comfortable. That car was beat to hell for nine years by three teenage drivers….and took it all with grace and aplomb.
America lost much when AMC went Tango Uniform….
PeteMoran: Looks like something you’d see in Cuba. Lucky for them they have the worst of American engineering and “styling”.
You mean that cars that are worth a small fortune when properly restored? And the Americans led the world in production car styling during the 1950s and 1960s.
Menno: The American received an optional 290 V-8 midway through the 1966 model year. AMC’s first thinwall V-8 debuted that year, and it was designed to be installed in the American.
During the 1967 model year, AMC did jam the 343 V-8 in the American hardtop coupe and convertible, but the unit body wasn’t strong enough to handle the power. Supposedly the windshield would crack if the driver floored the pedal too many times.
As other posters have noted, the 1967 Marlin was based on the longer Ambassador wheelbase, and it looked much better with a longer nose to balance out that sweeping rear deck. But the market for large fastbacks was rather limited. The Charger sold about 37,000 units its first year of production, even though it debuted in January 1966, but then fell to less than half of that number for 1967, even though it was on sale for the entire model year. Charger didn’t hit its stride until the 1968 model debuted.
AMC made up for inflicting the Marlin on us when the all-new Javelin debuted for 1968. It was, in many ways, the best-looking of the ponycars. Unfortunately, beginning in 1971, it was afflicted with the same “bloat” that cursed the Mustang, Cougar, Barracuda and Challenger.
I own one! Of course mine hasn’t run since the 70s. It seems it overheated and warped the head. I’ve also got a 66 classic with the same 232 motor with over 230k miles and that runs like a dream!
Once you get the bags into the truck there is a good amound of room.. the truck extends to the sides of the car.. just the opening is small.. but its far from tiny!
“lack of an AMC small-block V8 at the time”
AMC never had a small block.. and the 290-401 motors all were the same size so fitting one in place of another was never and issues if you beefed up the body.
I have a 68 Javelin which replaced the Marlin in AMC’s line-up. Its no doubt a far cleaner style and the sales numbers reflect this. I still love the rear of the Marlin!
Early BMW X6?