AMC (American Motors) Pacer History

Launched for 1975, the Pacer was one of the boldest American cars of its era — marketed as 'the first wide small car,' it matched full-size cars in width on a compact footprint, with a cab-forward stance and a vast glass area (about 37% of the body) that earned it a 'fishbowl' reputation. A signature quirk: the passenger door was four inches longer than the driver's, to ease rear-seat access. A station wagon joined for 1977.

It was originally engineered around a GM Wankel rotary engine, but when GM cancelled its rotary program in 1974 AMC had to hastily re-engineer the car around its own straight-six, adding weight and hurting the efficiency that had been part of the pitch. Roughly 280,000 were built before lighter, thriftier Japanese imports and the 1979 energy crisis ended it after 1980.

Commercially a disappointment, the Pacer became a beloved cult object — cemented by the turquoise 'Mirthmobile' in Wayne's World (1992) — and is now one of the most instantly recognizable shapes of 1970s Detroit.