By the center Nineteen Sixties, George Romney had left the helm of American Motors to develop into governor of Michigan and firm president Roy Abernethy had determined that AMC wanted to compete extra instantly towards GM, Ford and Chrysler. To ensure that the Kenosha producer fashioned from the 1954 merger of Nash and Hudson to do this, a real full-size automobile needed to be created to steal gross sales from the Impala, Galaxie and Monaco. With a wheelbase stretch and a restyling by Dick Teague, the Rambler Ambassador turned that automobile for the 1965 mannequin 12 months. Here is a once-snazzy soft-top Ambassador from that 12 months, discovered at a family-owned yard simply south of the Denver metropolis limits.
I’ve documented fairly a number of classic machines at Colorado Auto & Elements on this collection over the previous 12 months, together with a 1954 Plymouth Belvedere, a 1969 Walker Energy Truck, a 1974 Ford F-250, a 1960 Triumph TR3A, a 1947 Dodge Customized Membership Coupe, a 1969 AMC Rambler 440, a 1951 Studebaker Champion, a 1959 Princess DM4 limousine and a few dozen first-generation Mustangs and Cougars. This Ambassador is now parked between a Chevelle and a Mustang.
The Ambassador 990 convertible wasn’t the most costly new ’65 Rambler you could possibly purchase, as a result of the Ambassador wagon and the sporty new Marlin price a bit extra. Nonetheless, its $2,955 price ticket ($29,907 in 2024 {dollars}) was on the steep aspect for Rambler customers accustomed to penny-pinching Classics and Individuals.
This automobile would have price way more than the bottom MSRP, although, as a result of it was constructed with AMC’s largest automobile engine on the time: a 327-cubic-inch V8 rated at 250 horsepower. No, it is not associated to the Chevrolet 327 small-block; parts-counter staffers spent many a long time coping with that complicated identify mixup (to be honest to AMC, their 327 was first).
Kaiser-Jeep, not but bought by AMC, purchased AMC 327s to be used in its vehicles throughout the mid-to-late Nineteen Sixties and referred to as them 327 Vigilantes.
The bottom engine within the 1965 Ambassador was the 232-cubic-inch “Torque-Command” straight-six, the 4.0-liter descendants of which have been nonetheless being bolted into new Jeep Wranglers in 2006.
The bottom transmission within the 1965 Ambassador was a three-speed column-shift guide, however this automobile has the elective three-speed automated with “Flash-O-Matic” shifter on the middle console. Should you wished a manufacturing unit radio in your new ’65 Ambassador, you could possibly add “Duo-Coustic” or “Vibra-Tone” rear audio system.
AMC offered just below 65,000 Ambassadors for the 1965 mannequin 12 months, together with wagons. In the meantime, Chevrolet offered higher than one million of its full-size Biscaynes, Bel Airs and Impalas that 12 months (and GM’s Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick offered loads of their very own variations of these vehicles as effectively). As for Ford and Chrysler, there isn’t any must rub it in by itemizing their huge gross sales numbers for large vehicles that 12 months. The Ambassador wasn’t a lot greater than the competitors’s midsize vehicles on the time, which was a consider its gradual gross sales.
American Motors had its ups and downs after 1965, however the normal story arc was that the Detroit Large Three used their higher assets to proceed grinding down their Wisconsin competitor till Chrysler lastly purchased what was left in 1987.
The final mannequin 12 months for the Rambler marque was 1968, after which all of AMC’s U.S.-market vehicles acquired American Motors Company badging. The Rambler identify lived on for another 12 months, because the mannequin identify on the previous Rambler American for 1969: the AMC Rambler.
This automobile could be value respectable cash if restored, however the physique is on the rusty aspect and the inside has been uncovered to the weather for a few years, making such a restoration a really pricey proposition.
The “Smart Spectaculars” promoting marketing campaign was on the puzzling aspect.