Who can not love the AMC Pacer? The Leisure Suit on Wheels, the glassine bolus of dorkiness?
Made in America, and with a bubble top straight out
Logan's Run, the Upside Down Bathtub was originally intended to be a revolutionary little car with a Wankel rotary engine, as well as the width (and theoretically road-gripping) of a standard size car of the day. It was also intended to have a larger interior space than comparable sized cars, such as the Ford Pinto.
When the Wankel didn't work out, the design was hurriedly retrofitted with a V-6 (updated: per the comments, this was an in-line 6), which later could be upgraded to a V-8, which of course demolished the fuel economy of the vehicle.
While there were only five model years (1975-1979), the little bubble sort of grows on you. Like all other Objects of Goodness, the AMC Pacer has its own dedicated fan page where you can read about all things Pacer, including a delicious blast from the past, the 1975 Pacer salesman guide (.PDF).
More Pacer fun below the Sqiggle of Doom ...
AMC had teamed up with Renault, makers of the famous Le Car, to handle European distribution. In France, the Pacer was used to subdue the 15.24 Metre Femme:
And the Pacer was Garth and Wayne's Mirth Mobile, setting the fabulously retro Bohemian Rhapsody scene:
P.S. That thing that Wayne is putting into dashboard is called a "cassette tape", it was common shortly after 1492.
Sadly the glory days of the Pacer are past ...
James Tworow
But a few beloved survivors remain.
Here's a splendid specimen located in Berlin in 2011. If Don Quixote were alive today, he'd be driving one of these:
Caribb/ Flickr
The Pacer had numerous mechanical problems and as one can see, eventually became something of a joke. The belated repowering with a V-6 (oops -- straight 6) made the car heavier and underpowered, and not the nimble runabout that had been intended.
But looking at the Pacer from the longer term, it represented a major effort by an American car maker to challenge larger car makers with an innovative design, which tried to meet changing consumer demand, as well as reach the overseas markets, something which we should hope to see again in our time. So I think we have to respect the Pacer as a rather lovable might-have-been, rather than an ignominious failure.