Nice cars other than x-fire

The American Motors Corporation had a brilliant idea in 1971 but totally choked at the finish line. The market was suddenly getting flooded with tiny cheap Japanese pickup trucks from Toyota and Datsun. AMC had just bought the legendary Jeep brand and decided they desperately needed a compact hauler to fight back. They gave the green light to Jim Alexander and his design team to build the Cowboy.
This specific green and white survivor is the absolute wildest of the bunch. The engineers did not just build a boring economy truck. They secretly based this exact prototype on the high performance Hornet SC 360. That means this little compact pickup hides a massive 360 cubic inch V8 engine under the hood paired with a manual floor shifted transmission. It even came with custom green bucket seats and factory air conditioning. It was a pure tire shredding muscle truck hiding in a utilitarian work body.
But the corporate accountants ruined everything. AMC was bleeding cash and decided it would be far cheaper to just build a standard Hornet hatchback instead. They permanently shelved the Cowboy project and completely missed their chance to dominate the 1970s compact truck market. This surviving 1971 prototype was actually used as a factory test mule for years before being sold to a lucky employee. We traded this brilliant piece of blue collar hot rodding for boring imported appliances and it is a massive historical tragedy.

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Dave91TM said:
Here's a question.... given the choice ....Lady or vette.... ya can't have both?
Click to expand...
Tough question.... Logic does prevail...at least for me.... Old saying...If it has t!ts or tires you're gonna have trouble with it. My wife is pretty easy to get along with but you just never know before you commit so based on that alone, I'll take the car.... :thumbs:
 
The name itself was a performance promise. Four-barrel carburetor. Four-speed manual. Dual exhaust. The 4-4-2 began in 1964 as a hasty response to the Pontiac GTO, created by performance engineer John Beltz, the same man responsible for the front-wheel drive Toronado. By 1966 it had evolved into something that Motor Trend described plainly and accurately: they would be hard pressed to find another car that did so many things so well for the price.

The base engine for 1966 was the 400 cubic inch V8, a unit exclusive to the 442 lineup, producing 350 horsepower after a compression increase over the previous year. For buyers who wanted more, a tri-power setup with three two-barrel Rochester carburetors was available, pushing output to 360 horsepower. And then there was the W-30. The W-30 performance option debuted in 1966 exclusively on tri-carburetor cars and included an outside air induction system, front bumper induction openings, internal engine modifications, and a special 308-degree camshaft. Oldsmobile built just 54 factory W-30 cars that year specifically to qualify the package for NHRA competition. A W-30 equipped 442 ran a 13.80-second quarter mile at 105.2 mph in Car Craft, making it the fastest muscle car tested in 1966.

The four-speed manual transmission received Hurst linkages for 1966, with a Hurst label embossed directly on the gear lever. Suspension was stiffer than anything else in the GM A-body lineup, with heavier springs, higher-rate shocks, and a thicker front sway bar borrowed from the heavy-duty parts catalog.

Total production for 1966 reached 21,997 units across all body styles. Cheaper than the GTO. Better sorted than the Chevelle. The 442 was the muscle car for people who actually read the fine print.

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