Why Design?
By Crowbar RumblefordWhen Roy Abernathy took over the reigns at American Motors in 1962, he set about changing the successful course of the company, which had been charted by previous CEO George Romney, who had left to campaign for the office of Governor of the State of Michigan, which he won for three consecutive terms.
Abernathy had done yeoman’s service at AMC over the preceding years, spearheading the sales and marketing of the line of sensible cars Romney dictated for the company. Once at the helm, and with a salesman’s perspective, he quickly set about fleshing out the AMC product line with a range of small-to-large models that would-be buyers would have not found at AMC stores in the Romney era.
Keen to ride the wave of demand for sporty fastbacks that was started by Plymouth’s Barracuda and Ford’s Mustang, Abernathy pushed a plan to “productionize” the styling theme of the AMC Tarpon show car, which had debuted to some praise in January of 1964, some months before the Barracuda and Mustang hit the market. Based on the compact Rambler American, the Tarpon had an engine bay that was not suited to the V8’s buyers were demanding in their sporty cars. Rather than re-tool the recently-introduced American, Abernathy directed his team to adapt the Tarpon's fastback styling to the larger Rambler Classic. The Classic, AMC’s entry in the mid-size market, was an upright, not-unattractive sedan. It was also the base for their largest car, the Ambassador. The latter car had a longer wheelbase, most of it between the firewall and front wheel, giving it a long-hood stance that would have blended well with a fastback.
Alas, AMC missed an opportunity to give the car more attractive proportions, and used the shorter Classic as the platform for the Marlin. With it’s stubby front end, use of the Classic’s sheet metal from the A-pillar forward resulted in a car that was staid and frumpy business sedan up front, and a party fastback astern – sort of an automotive equivalent of a mullet haircut. Another blemish to the cars visual appeal was the CEO’s direction that headroom in the rear seat should not be compromised in the name of style. Of course, the result was the reverse: what could have been a styling pacesetter, and a stronger competitor for the upcoming Dodge Charger and other mid-size fastbacks, was instead a too-tall mishmash of design cues, some sporty, some staid, resulting in an odd car that debuted to mixed reviews, and very sluggish sales. Motor Trend magazine seemed to like the car’s delivery of "distinctive styling without penalizing the passengers". Hot Rod magazine dubbed it a "weirdly attractive fastback 2+2 from American Motors". Automobile Quarterly pulled no punches, chiding it as “the ugliest vehicle yet to come from Detroit”. The 1965 Marlin design carried over mostly intact for the 1966 model year, sans the Rambler name. A better-proportioned, Ambassador-based Marlin was introduced for the 1967 model year, but did not survive, as the new Javelin and AMX were in the wings, ready to give AMC a much needed injection of sport and style.
