By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Of course I’m going to highlight any 1979 AMC Spirit that comes through the Hemmings.com classifieds, especially a 1979 Spirit sedan such as this one. The sedan was by far less popular than the hatchback, which makes it more unusual today, but it does serve as a very visual link between the Gremlin and the Spirit hatchback, which are almost exactly the same under the skin. This one in particular looks like the one that sold out of the Steve Green collection last year for $9,000. From the seller’s description:

1979 AMC Spirit two door sedan – Only 10,556 miles on most probably the nicest ‘79 Spirit in existence today!! Equipped with the Inline 6 cylinder motor – RARE 4 Speed Manual Transmission – AM/FM Radio – Rear Air Deflector – Luggage Rack – Styled Steel Wheels – Light Khaki in color with matching cloth interior.

See more pics at Hemmings

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

When Matt at Munich Evolution told us he was getting the BMW M1 that John blogged about last year, we knew we had to check it out. This is a one-of-a-kind 1979 M1 coach built by Spezialkarosserien in Germany for the former Prime Minister of Qatar. It’s got flared fenders, a big rear wing and a front spoiler from the race spec M1 Pro Cars. It also has a wild custom pearl white paint job with the BMW M tri-colors. And of course it has some custom BBS Racing wheels.

So we just got back from driving, taking photos and shooting video. We’ll have the video ready in a week or so, but for now, here are the pics. It’s got old tires and we were just in the park near the zoo, so we didn’t get too crazy with it. But man, what a car!

More pics after the jump!

Continue reading "Munich Evolution's BMW M1" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Screaming chicken and T-Tops! Doesn’t get any better than that! Check out Jamie’s ride page for more pics!

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

A couple years ago we knew a guy who put a 427 in one of these cars and it was just ungodly fast. We like the idea of the big-inch Olds even better though as it’s the proper brand-in-a-brand situation.

This car would be bad ass to roll into the local ice cream or burger joint with on the weekends. Especially if there were some extracurricular activities planned later in the evening. Leaving the car in primer gives it the street tough look and feel. This thing has all the qualities of a great street bruiser and that 455ci Olds mill should be making cruise ship torque. For a finished, running, caged car, four grand seems like the right price.

If you buy it we get to drive it at least once. See it here.

Continue reading "455-Powered 1979 Cutlass on Craigslist" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This ’79 Camaro was built by Connie’s husband and has several top five finishes at the track. Pretty clean for a race car!

Funny thing is, I had this blog written before BudMan#27 took the piss out of poor Weston yesterday. So was that Connie who posted those comments, or was it Dan?

This year’s AMO convention traveled north of the border for the second time in AMO history, descending on Kingston, Ontario. Not too many Americans showed up for the truly international celebration of American Motors products, which just meant that plenty of Canadians brought out their cars and proved that they had just as much enthusiasm for the cars from Kenosha.

One such Canadian AMC that I kept coming back to was Harm van der Veen’s 1979 AMC Spirit GT. While entirely AMC, Harm hardly left it stock. To begin with, he dropped the Spirit three inches over the stock 14-inch TurboCast II wheels and added a Competition Engineering anti-roll bar. He said the Goodyear Eagle STs stick in any corner and never rub, even with 245-width tires. An AMC 360 provides power enough for the little hatch.

The bodywork, however, really sets this Spirit apart. Spirits tend to look a little unstable without their bulky front bumpers, but Harm solved that by extending the valance panel outward. He then repeated the valance extension to the rear, boxed and extended the rocker panels and added a custom cowl-induction hood.

The boxed rocker panels add stiffness to the unibody structure, as does the rollcage and the bar that ties the front shock towers together. Harm then ripped the stock bucket seats out and added Recaros and five-point seat belts to keep the driver in his seat in the twisties. The most frustrating part, however, is that Harm had the Spirit GT for sale for $12,500, and I didn’t have nearly enough loonies or toonies to bring it back home to the States. Two more pics after the jump.

Continue reading "1979 AMC Spirit GT" »

Here’s what you get when you take a Chevy Blazer, chop it, stretch it three inches by bolting double steel plates to the frame, and then drop an El Camino body on top. Pretty cool. Check out Brandon’s El Camino ride page for more pics.