AMC's 1970 Rebel Machine Up Close

Hi, I'm Dennis Gage. Welcome to My Classic Car. Well, this week we're in Ferdinand, Indiana to visit my good buddy Joey Lange and check out a couple more cars from his extensive muscle car collection. Now, Joey's all about muscle, but he's also all about low production number, uniquely option vehicles. But this time I wanted to look at a couple of the most unsung muscle cars ever. And they're AMCs. That's right. AMCs. The '69 SC Rambler and the '70 Rebel Machine. Now, these are really wild cars and they pack a lot more punch than most people realize. I think you'll be amazed. Joey. Great to see you again, man. Good to see you, Dennis. You know, I love coming out here. You know, it's such cool cars and you're really, I mean you're a hardcore muscle car guy. Yes. Mostly Mopars? I started out with Mopars. I had buddies, they like Mopars. So I start out Mopars and then basically I just like them all. But with you also you like kind of low production number, rarely option cars. That's what almost your whole collection is. Correct. Yes. And I think the only two AMCs in your entire collection are the two that I that I wanted to look at today. The '70 Machine, the '69 SC Rambler, these things are some of the least understood muscle cars, I think that were ever built. I agree. They're oddball cars too. Why did you go after these? The ones that had the three nineties in and on Scrambler had the 390 and The Machine... 70 had the 390, basically they're muscle car. Yeah. - [Dennis] So let's talk about this baby. This is a 70 rebel machine and they only made it in the '70. Yep. One year. One year only. And when I think of these things... I know I was in high school back then and I remember a guy in town showed up with one of these and it was just the wildest looking thing around. And I fell in love with it back then. And you don't see him very often, either one this was a low production too. They only made 2,500, but this paint scheme was you know, when you saw this thing, you know you knew it was a rebel machine. and some of the front is, is almost like it's really taped. It's like a tape darn Chrome. Except for the bumper, but... And then the red, white, and blue there, which is I think, that you know, a pretty subtle addition and it's all iridescent because those I remember seeing them under headlights and those, you know just reflect like crazy. It was like a street sign or something. And what a weird hood scoop, the thing had it's just an odd shape. And it had the tach, I mean does this one even work? Nope. And they were surprisingly competitive. These things could, could turn low fourteens right off of the showroom floor. Yeah. Pretty amazing. This one is set up for drag racing and I think it was more muscle street. It was street muscle. Whereas the SC was really, that thing was built to drag. Built to drag race. Yes. But this was, you know it had the high back buckets and that, that red, white and blue arm rest was, that's how it came. Her shifter was stock. And I forgot what a stark dash it had. Yeah, you could see how fast you're going. And you really can't miss it. You know, you really couldn't miss it but there wasn't a lot else. You know, there's an awful lot of aluminum there with not much interrupting it, cool body style. And I think, you know the Mopar guys will kind of give this thing a pass. Cause it does look a little bit Mopar, but this is this is also when you get right here in this quarter you get some Talladega. I think so too, back in his back. Yeah. And this was the stock striping package which has actually a tape package, right? Actually a tape. And the machine, this baby had the 390 with 340 hours, yes Totally get that baby. All right. So functional Ram air. Yes. With the kind of like Mopar, was there a vacuum old vacuum labor open up? Yeah, the backseat is vacuum. Just leave her open up and... You know, the, in that really is a small block. It is not a big engine. Yeah. AMC never, never made a one big block. Nope. That was, but they got a lot of power out of these things and these things were competitive. I mean, they, they turn times that Hemi CUDA is four forties, you know, were were the only things that were kind of competitive and people didn't really part of it was the there's so darn light. Yes. That's what I think. So, and it rarely ran high thirteens, fourteen flat Showed a hundred miles, a hundred 104 miles per hour, but she looks... Are you kidding me? I mean, she looks just, it looks pretty original. Yep. This and here's... got the actual original pumps. And which this is pretty rare here too. I know of systems here where And that's the block color that the AAMC head net here? Yep. Man. It just looks awesome. So how does, how does this one run? Does she run pretty good? She runs great. Can we take it off? Yes we can. - Can I go head in? You bet. - Alright, dude! Close that baby up. I love that sound. Man, let's go Lodos. On the brakes on this car. Fine, fine Okay. Looks good. Actually does. Which is pretty out here, man. You live in a nice place, Joey. Yep. Nice part of the country. All the leaves just turned in the past couple weeks. Boy, the blue off that butcher looks nice too. I love the three stripes. I did the grill there and the intake. Uh-huh , and the front? Uh-huh , yep. Hits the sun just right and they come alive. That's probably the moxiest scoop they ever put on my car. Big. It is big. But that extra kick up over here for the tach. Yep. I wonder if those hood tachs ever really worked. but most of my other cars do I try to really try to get it working. Are they electronic even on the other cars? Or are they cable? They're electronic, yes. I see some black marks in the roads wrong. It wasn't like yours. Are they? They could be. Mind if I light it up a little bit? Yeah, light her up. Wow! It gets there fast. Quite a sound that this baby has too. Yeah, you get the fore barrel kicked in, eh. Hey Joey, the machines a blast but let's take that baby out. Let's take The Scrambler. Let's do some scrambling.