A Rare One. Lucinda, PA
1969 American Motors Corporation Hurst SC/Rambler
The American Motors Corporation was founded on May 1, 1954, as the result of a corporate merger of the Hudson Motor Car Company and Nash-Kelvinator. The idea behind joining the two companies was to bring the nameplates under one umbrella and better compete with the Big Three in the consumer vehicle market.
AMC’s Chairman and CEO, Roy D. Chapin, Jr., sought to commemorate the history of the long-running and successful Rambler before its retirement and gave the green light to a performance version for 1969.
The parameters for the project dubbed the AMC Hurst SC/Rambler (SC for “Super Car”) were simple: cram the most powerful engine the company had into a lightened Rambler chassis. The design team also gave it the bits and pieces needed to rival all-comers on the street and the strip in the NHRA’s F/Stock class. To accomplish this, AMC designers turned to the fabled performance firm, Hurst, for collaboration.
Work started on the car by installing the top performance engine from the AMX – the vaunted 315 horsepower, 425 lb-ft, 390-cubic-inch V8 equipped with a Carter AFB four-barrel carb. This lump featured a bore and stroke of 4.165 inches by 3.574 inches, a 10.2:1 compression ratio, heavy main-bearing-support webbing, as well as forged rods and crankshaft.
There was no mistaking an SC for a standard run-of-the-mill Rambler. All SCs wore white paint to which one of two unusual accent schemes were added. In the “A” paint scheme, a full-body-length red billboard was applied to the car’s sides, while a blue stripe adorned the roof and trunk lid. The more conservative and rarer “B” scheme had red and blue accent stripes below the car’s beltline and dispensed with the top stripe.
All of this added up to a rather potent muscle car for the period. Automotive magazines were routinely able to launch the 3,160-pound car to 60 mph in a then-scant 6.3 seconds. It tripped the quarter-mile in as little as 14.3-seconds at 96 mph. Its top speed was roughly 120 mph.
AMC offered this little beast for a paltry $2,998, which helped increase demand beyond the 500 examples they initially planned to build. In the end, though, the company was only able to find 1,512 folks who wanted to take one home, turning the 1969 AMC Hurst SC/Rambler into one “Rare Ride.”
A Rare One. Lucinda, PA
1969 American Motors Corporation Hurst SC/Rambler
The American Motors Corporation was founded on May 1, 1954, as the result of a corporate merger of the Hudson Motor Car Company and Nash-Kelvinator. The idea behind joining the two companies was to bring the nameplates under one umbrella and better compete with the Big Three in the consumer vehicle market.
AMC’s Chairman and CEO, Roy D. Chapin, Jr., sought to commemorate the history of the long-running and successful Rambler before its retirement and gave the green light to a performance version for 1969.
The parameters for the project dubbed the AMC Hurst SC/Rambler (SC for “Super Car”) were simple: cram the most powerful engine the company had into a lightened Rambler chassis. The design team also gave it the bits and pieces needed to rival all-comers on the street and the strip in the NHRA’s F/Stock class. To accomplish this, AMC designers turned to the fabled performance firm, Hurst, for collaboration.
Work started on the car by installing the top performance engine from the AMX – the vaunted 315 horsepower, 425 lb-ft, 390-cubic-inch V8 equipped with a Carter AFB four-barrel carb. This lump featured a bore and stroke of 4.165 inches by 3.574 inches, a 10.2:1 compression ratio, heavy main-bearing-support webbing, as well as forged rods and crankshaft.
There was no mistaking an SC for a standard run-of-the-mill Rambler. All SCs wore white paint to which one of two unusual accent schemes were added. In the “A” paint scheme, a full-body-length red billboard was applied to the car’s sides, while a blue stripe adorned the roof and trunk lid. The more conservative and rarer “B” scheme had red and blue accent stripes below the car’s beltline and dispensed with the top stripe.
All of this added up to a rather potent muscle car for the period. Automotive magazines were routinely able to launch the 3,160-pound car to 60 mph in a then-scant 6.3 seconds. It tripped the quarter-mile in as little as 14.3-seconds at 96 mph. Its top speed was roughly 120 mph.
AMC offered this little beast for a paltry $2,998, which helped increase demand beyond the 500 examples they initially planned to build. In the end, though, the company was only able to find 1,512 folks who wanted to take one home, turning the 1969 AMC Hurst SC/Rambler into one “Rare Ride.”