October is a month filled with spooky sights leading up to Halloween where the streets of Franklin will be filled with ghosts and goblins going door to door for candy. For car enthusiasts, October signals the coming end to the car cruising season, so their treat is taking those final cruises as the weather still allows.
Aside from those ghosts and goblins, one other sight you might see prowling the town is a Gremlin.
In 1970 American Motors Corporation (AMC) introduced a brand new model they named the Gremlin. Marketed as “the first American made import” as it directly competed with the surge of low cost imports starting to flood the roadways of America such as the Toyota Celica and Volkswagon Beetle. Of course, its contemporary competition came from the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega.
The Gremlin was the brainchild of legendary designer Dick Teague. A stalwart of automotive design, Teague had already designed cars for General Motors, Packard and Chrysler before he took over the design reins at AMC. The pocket book at AMC was much smaller than the Big Three (GM, Ford and Chrysler) so Teague gained a reputation of doing “more with less.” This often meant designing creative alterations to current models to create new models that shared certain features and parts.
On an airline flight Teague sketched out an idea of truncating the tail of the AMC Javelin model on an air-sickness bag. His design created a sub-compact economy car to compete with the growing import class. This initial concept became known as the AMX-GT that was first displayed at the New York International Auto Show in 1968.
While the concept never made it into production, the name AMX was transferred to another new two seater sports car for AMC and the controversial styling would be adapted to a shortened AMC Hornet chassis.
Marketed as “cute and different” the Gremlin featured a cartoonish mascot designed to differentiate it from the more seriously named competitors in the sub-compact class. Like many AMC models, Teague’s styling cues drew fans but also drew criticism. The steep sloped rear end of the car has since become a common trend on small compact hatchback models made by many modern car manufacturers.
Tim Kinslow is the owner of this absolute time capsule 1970 Gremlin. Bathed in its original Hialeah Yellow paint with black interior, Kinslow’s beauty looks like it just rolled off the Kenosha Wisconsin plant assembly line. The odometer displays its 6,400 original miles.
True to its “economy car” purpose the Gremlin is equipped with the base 199 cubic inch inline 6 cylinder cranking out a dismal 128 horsepower. AMC claimed that it was the most fuel efficient American made car of the time, while Consumer Guide magazine opined that it was a well appointed compact car that offered options rarely seen in the compact class.
Many Hot Rodders took to modifying the little Gremlins and they could be found on race tracks all across the country. In 1972 AMC even started offering the Gremlin with a 304 V8 making the nimble Gremlin into a miniature muscle car.
Kinslow purchased the car in 2024 and is the fourth owner. His plans are to show the car at local shows and cruise-ins and just enjoy the many looks his little Gremlin generates.
“The car really belongs in a museum” Kinslow says. “Perhaps one day it will.”
While this Gremlin won’t scare too many cars on the road, it still makes a nice Halloween treat. Until next time — keep cruising!
