This new class proved popular and races would be contested on both dirt and asphalt oval tracks, in the ’70s the cars typically had bodywork from popular American cars like the Pinto, Vega, or Gremlin. The class was established in the years shortly after WWII by drivers who wanted to go faster than factory built stock cars would go, the modified cars were no longer “stock”, and so the new class was created using the no nonsense name “Modified Stock Car”. The Modified Stock Car class proved a popular entry point to regional and national motorsport competition for drivers, many of whom would end up in top flight NASCAR teams. The Kammback design of the Gremlin was an added bonus, as many felt it offered an aerodynamic advantage on long high-speed oval tracks. The Gremlin was small and cheap, with a long hood area covering an engine bay that could accommodate far larger engines than its sub-compact car competition. It’s said to have an automatic transmission, but is it paired with an AMC inline-6 (232 or 258), 304 V8, or some other powerplant? The seller is moving and won’t have space for the Gremlin going forward but would entertain trading for a motorcycle.The AMC Gremlin and Modified Stock Car racing are a match made in 1970s oval track heaven. The body looks solid with no indication of rust although the blue paint is pretty worn and will appeal to the patina lovers in the crowd. The seller says the mileage is 101,000, so the vehicle has likely seen a lot of use, before or after the conversion. And can it be changed from full-time to part-time four-wheel-drive? Was it from a Jeep, a later Eagle or SX/4 or some other 4WD vehicle? Or was it homemade at the shop in high school. What we don’t know is about the 4X4 hardware under the unibody. We’re told it was lifted, locked and injected with quite a few custom modifications along the way. The seller says it was modified to “dominate any terrain” and the photos supplied tend to support that. We don’t know the history behind the seller’s ’74 Gremlin other than it was treated to a 4X4 conversion at some point. AMC would build more than 670,000 of the oddly named cars during this time. The Gremlin was built between 1970-78 before it morphed into the Spirt (as had the Hornet become the Concord). True, it was smaller, and didn’t offer 30 mpg economy, but it did provide six-cylinder power compared to inline-4’s which would make the car more powerful on the road. It was a shortened Hornet, just as AMC had done a couple of years earlier with the Javelin/AMX. The Gremlin was AMC’s answer to the Japanese subcompact invasion of the 1960s/1970s, although it would be hard to really classify this car as a subcompact. Thanks, Channing, for the tip on this one. Located in Fairview, Oklahoma, this modified Gremlin is available here on Facebook Marketplace for $4,000. We’re not sure how this conversion was pulled off, but the seller provides us several examples of the little mountain climber in action, so it looks like it could be a lot of fun. Which was before AMC got together with Jeep and before they had their own 4X4, the Eagle. If you find yourself with a lot of spare time on your hands, you’ll find a surprising number of 1970s AMC Gremlins online that have been converted from 2WD to 4WD.
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