About

The pictures with this car ARE NOT the actual car. I don't think I ever took a picture of it the whole time I had it!

This little egg of a car really didn't have a whole lot to recommend it - except that it didn't cost me a cent! In mid-1985, my folks decided to get my mom a new car, so they took her old one, this Pacer, to trade it in. Well, the sales manager offered $50 for it in trade. It only had about 60,000 miles, and it had a brand new state inspection on it! Knowing that we needed a second car at the time, they offered it to me instead. My dad told me later that the salesman looked relieved when they told him that they wouldn't be trading it after all!

This may well have ben the last new car in the state of Pennsylvania to sell for under $3,000, when my folks bought it in November, 1977 (Yes, 1977. As you saw, it WAS a '76 model - VERY left over!) It was a bare-bones stripper that the dealer had ordered just to be able to advertise that he had one at the base price. The only option on the car was a limited slip differential. It had that because that was the only diff that AMC had on the shelf when the car was built due to a strike at the gear manufacturer. My dad paid the dealer to have him put in an AM/FM (MONO!) radio for my mom. Imagine this - all that un-tinted glass and no air conditioning! The car had no power steering, no power brakes and best of all, three-on-the-tree!

Specs

232 cid inline-6
3-speed manual transmission
Limited slip rear
NO Power Steering
NO Power Brakes
NO Horsepower (That I could find!)
NO Torque (Ditto!)
0-60 in about 18 seconds (according to my wristwatch)
1/4 mile - ???
Top Speed - ???

Factory Options

Limited Slip rear, due to the manufacturer not having any open rears in stock when the car was built because of a strike at the company that built their axles. The car also had a dealer-installed AM/FM mono radio.

Mods

When I got the car, I added sport striping and some custom paint work along the rocker panels to repair stone chips without having to color-match 10 year old paint. Inside, I tinted the windows and replaced the dealer installed radio with a Pioneer AM/FM/cassette stereo. Finally, I added trim rings around the factory dog-dish hubcaps.

Browse Related Cars: 1976, amc, pacer, free

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