Long long ago in a far away land…a baby blue 1972 AMC Gremlin was sold as an end of year closeout. The person who bought her was me. Little did the poor metal beastie know what she was in for.

She was my very first ever brand new car. Having grown up on the poor side of the tracks, she was probably my first ever brand new car to even ride in. I chose from the top three “economy” cars of that time, Ford Pinto, Chevy Vega and AMC Gremlin. As I have for my entire life, I chose the path less traveled. I thought the Gremlin was a sturdier and better powered car plus I thought it was cute. Thought she looked like a sneaker shoe.

Truly, she proved to be sturdy and, in all the time I had her and all the abuse I put her through, she had only one real manufacturing or design flaw. I paid extra for a parcel shelf that ran the length of the front just under the dash. Nifty junk catching contraption, but…when ever you released the parking brake the metal handle whacked that shelf really hard. so the shelf broke, the heavy molded plastic just cracked out. Annoying but not the worst flaw I’ve ever found in a car.

The Gremlin was my “grocery getter”. She had a baby seat in the back and the rear seat was often folded down to haul whatever, from groceries to car parts to plywood. We even took her camping and you can sleep two full grown adults with the seats folded down. She had a 232 CID 6 banger coupled with a Borg Warner T10 four speed tranny. Gas mileage was delightful, not that we appreciated it back then but I’d really love to have her economy today.

She was also my toy. I insisted upon tearing apart her Carter 2 barrel carb and messing with her innards, even tore the entire engine down at one point and put it back together. I enjoyed doing these things and was a rabid reader of all Hot Rod, Car Craft and any other hop up magazines and I subjected the poor thing to every single thing I could afford to do. Spent hours pouring over JC Whitney catalogs finding treasures for the Gremlin. So OF COURSE I drag raced her. She and I learned how to play that game together. We went round after round after round. If and when I finally lost, I was always the first one back in the TO lanes. We cut 2 seconds off her times with a little this and a little that. Still not ever adding any real after market equipment. Just messing with carb and timing and things like that. Eventually, of course, I went over the limits she could tolerate and I stripped all the pretty teeth off some gears in T10. I became very familiar with the clutch, throw out bearing and the flywheel. No fault of the Gremlin, as I was the one being unrealistic in the relationship. She was a good car and we played together for several years.

I moved on to a 64 Pontiac GTO and eventually lost the Gremlin in the war. Meanwhile I was a huge fan of serious drag race Gremlins, still am to be honest, and Wally Booth was my hero with his winning pro stocker. Several guys had Gremlin body’s on their top fuel funny cars as well. I am including a few pictures that I have found here and there plus a picture of my little blue car. This one was taken in the staging lanes at Seattle International Raceway not long after that track gained the name. The name on the door and the sponsor stuff is all painted on with water based paint that I removed each weekend. Yeah I was crazy LOL. The sponsor was a peach who gave me spark plugs and let me use his bays at the gas station in exchange for his name on the car. That was my very first sponsor come to think of it. I was entered in R/Stock class that day and as I recall went a few rounds before we lost. My fault entirely…the gremlin was a champ! I would love to have another Gremlin.