Simple fact: If you stare at this 1977 AMC AM Van idea for more than 30 seconds, your sideburns will expand twice as quick. Another simple fact: publicly admitting this motorless notion is great will consequence in a few pairs of bellbottom denims magically appearing in your closet. That is how gloriously 1970s this experience is, and you know what? We are just high-quality with that.
Here is the tale driving this curious strategy. Developed by American Motors Company as a structure research, it is really a one particular-off car or truck that toured the car demonstrate scene with several other AMC ideas in the late 1970s. According to duPont Registry, it was the most preferred of the bunch thanks to its blend of meaty tires, facet-pipe exhaust, and futuristic styling. To our eyes, we see a good deal of AMC Pacer affect with the substantial home windows, however the front slopes sharply downward not unlike minivans that would abide by just a few many years later on. And is there a much better color combo to represent the 1970s than purple and orange?
As a lot fun as it would be to troll Cars & Coffee with this rig, it truly is just a shell. The body is wooden, topped with a fiberglass human body. The aspect pipes hook up to very little, so regrettably you will find no turbocharged engine to go with the turbo stickers on the aspect. For that subject, there aren’t even operating doorways but that is alright, because there is scarcely an inside.
Had the AM Van entered generation, it was envisioned to carry six people in two very large rows of seats. 4-wheel travel was also part of the equation, a feature that would get there on the AMC Eagle station wagon in 1980. Among that and shades of minivan in its styling, 1 may say the idea was a suitable notion forward of its time.
Being a concept, it can be believed this is the only AM Van at any time developed. It is been preserved as portion of a thought-vehicle assortment for the last 35 many years, and it goes up for auction by means of RM Sotheby’s Sand Plenty party, managing May possibly 25 by means of June 1.
