(first posted 4/12/2016) On the Friday night before my most recent, February trip to Las Vegas, this hatchback greeted me in front of my favorite, neighborhood pizzeria on my walk home from the L after work. It was still in the middle of winter, and the lack of daylight in the PM hours stood in sharp contrast to bright late-afternoons as of this writing in April. Even with its black paint amid this evening’s darkness, this Eagle stood out like some sort of exotic bird that hadn’t migrated south for the winter. These cars aren’t getting any more plentiful on the ground.
Paul Niedermeyer has already covered the ’81 Eagle SX/4 here, in a post from 2011 – which is a great read for much factual information on this unique product. I’m not actually sure if this particular car is an ’81 – it could just as easily be an ’82 or an ’83, which was the last year for this bodystyle. The featured liftback shared its “Series 50” designation with the Gremlin-descended “Kammback” two-door hatchback sedan. Both Series 50 bodystyles were on the same 97.2″ wheelbase, which was 1.2″ longer than the Spirit on which they were based. The “regular” sedan and wagon variants of the Eagle were called “Series 30”, and were produced from 1980 for the two- and four-door sedans and the wagon, with the two-door notchbacks disappearing after ’82, and the four-door sedans after ’87. The Eagle wagon held on through ’88 as part of Chrysler Corporation’s newly-formed Eagle Division before it departed after selling a nominal 2,305 units that year. All Eagles were four-wheel-drive.
As for the SX/4 featured here, its first sales year, ’81, was its strongest – with over 17,000 sold with prices starting at $6,717 (about $18,400 in 2016) for cars with the base engine, a Pontiac-sourced 2.5L four-cylinder. A combined total of just over 30,000 SX/4s were built over three model years before the Series 50 was retired after selling just over 2,200 units for swan-song ’83.
I was a young kid when the Spirit liftback on which this Eagle was based was introduced. Before I had learned to make fun of AMC cars from my siblings and kids with whom I went to school (and before I had unlearned to do so and had chosen just to like what I like), I always thought the Spirit looked great. Later on in grade school, I came to recognize the Spirit liftback as a reasonably modern-looking car with a great greenhouse (I loved that the shape of the rear, side windows echoed those of the Matador coupe, which I also liked), pleasing horizontal taillights, and a nicely-sloping front fascia. A contemporary Javelin or Mustang-competitor it wasn’t, but the Spirit’s styling seemed to include all kinds of special touches, like the disk-shaped rear side-marker lights.
Visually, the only things that seemed a little “off” to me were that the front still seemed a little blunt, and the free-standing bumpers weren’t executed as gracefully as some Big Three offerings which featured smoothly integrated, body-colored bumper covers. It didn’t matter that the Spirit didn’t take your breath away with its beautiful styling. That it was simply an attractive, new-ish design from AMC with no hideous or polarizing features made it stand out and a stylistic success for simply just those reasons. Admiring the Spirit liftback was almost like going to a movie with friends that you expected to be absolutely terrible from the previews, but when you wound up actually liking it, it gained your respect in the process.
As for the aesthetics of the Spirit-to-Eagle-SX/4 conversion (utilizing AMC’s Quadra-Trac 4WD system), the raised height of the Eagle conspired with the short wheelbase to give the liftback slightly cartoonish proportions. Getting past that, though, I came to really like the SX/4. To my young mind, its elevated stance and giant wheels made the Eagle SX/4 resemble one of those Matchbox “Rough Riders 4X4” toy cars that would appear in commercials between my Saturday morning cartoons. It has been documented at Curbside Classic how much I loved my Matchbox cars. Check out the white car in the middle row on the far right. Look familiar?
As a counterpoint to less-sympathetic views I have read about these cars, I feel that time has been good to the SX/4, and also that it has become much less of an automotive punchline that it might have been for some in the past. As evidence of this, I’ll conclude by relating a brief exchange I witnessed on the night I took these pictures. This car was parked roughly two blocks south of Loyola University’s North Shore campus. Part of what I love about living in this neighborhood is both the diversity of the families who live here, and also the youthful energy the college students bring to this area.
As I was photographing this car, a group of four gentlemen who appeared to be students of east Asian descent were passing on the sidewalk, speaking a language that was unfamiliar to me. In the midst of their conversation, I heard “AMC Eagle” from one of them. They all looked at the car, nodded appreciatively, and continued in their conversation without missing a beat. I had no idea what they were saying about the car, but context clues led me to believe it was something positive as there was no derisive laughter or tone of voice that peppered their speech as they passed by. And for that, this SX/4 deserves your respect – for being an example of the last, new, all-American bodystyle of passenger car that came off the line in Kenosha, and also just for having made it into 2016.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Friday, February 5, 2016.
Other related reading:
- From Perry Shoar: Curbside Classic: 1981 AMC Eagle Sedan – Kindertrauma;
- From Nelson James: COAL: 1985 AMC Eagle Wagon – End Of An Era; and
- From Paul Niedermeyer: Curbside Classics: AMC Eagle Wagon And Sedan – “What The Hell Is This?”.
I’ve got little love for the fastback SUV, but the tight profile of this one in black with those chunky tyres helps me overcome my prejudices just a little bit. Great to see that Matchbox catalogue page, never knew about the Rough Rider range.
The Rough Rider range seemed to be a bit more comprehensive than Stomper, its competitor I was most familiar with. Somewhere in my basement I still have a black Pontiac Firebird Rough Rider with the remnant of the Lo-High stick sticking out of the roof, like those seen above.
Stomper had a Jeep Honcho pickup I still have and one of the two brands offered up an all-wheel driver Peterbilt or Kenworth that is still hanging around also. The only bad thing about the PB or KW was it took like three or four batteries.
You young’uns with your fancy internet-of-things toys. Back in my day, we didn’t need batteries. hehehe
Cherokee Chief Stomper here. I had a tank at one time too. It’s fun to watch the old commercials on YouTube now, I had forgotten just how well they went.
Those Rough Riders (which I had forgotten–maybe I’m a bit too young?) immediately made me think of the Stomper. I only had one Stomper but a cousin had what seemed like all of them. I particularly remember one that was a wrecker or something with a Ford C-Series cab. That was my favorite of all of his, and the one I always wanted to play with! I do remember the existence of the Eagle SX/4 Stomper as well though.
I am starting to get an appreciation for these Eagles from the end of AMCs life. I am glad that this one has found an owner who seems to appreciate it.
What a terrific find; the wagons still seem to pop up occasionally but not these.
Given the short wheelbase and the all-wheel drive system, does anybody know how well (or poorly) these rode on less than ideal pavement? I can’t help but think it would have all sorts of commotion going on.
OMG I also thought, in the day, that the back windows of these were reminiscent of the Matador!
These weren’t bad looking cars in 2WD guise, but yeah, in 4WD their advanced height made the greenhouse look comically small.
My brother’s oldest friend had one of these for a while in the early 90s. Squeak and rattle city. And the back seat backs were thin and flimsy. And the dashboard was Straight Outta 1971 Hornet. That car gave its life one evening with my brother in the passenger’s seat when some fool ran a red light and clipped it hard. Only the Spirit was injured.
The dashboard was re-designed in 1978 for the Concord and eventually Spirit and Eagle. While it wasn’t perfect, it was a huge improvement over the previous Hornet/Gremlin dashboard.
My memory is dim, as it was a long time ago, but I remember that Spirit having a Hornet-like parcel shelf under the dashboard. So maybe that’s why I assumed it was the same dashboard.
Yeah, that cheap parcel shelf survived to the new dashboard and the bitter end. Not only did it look bad, it shook and rattled a lot too.
You’re right about the back seats too. They were pretty much the same as those in the Gremlin. I don’t think AMC actually thought anyone would sit in them.
I like these but those tires are a bit much for my taste.
That Mini appears to be trapped.
Outstanding find! And the setting really complements the mysterious nature of this car.
The movie analogy is a perfect one (of course, AMC could either stand for the car company or the movie theater chain!). When new, I think a lot of people immediately dismissed AMC products due to their pre-conceived notions and/or expectation of failure. I, for one, have grown to admire many their cars – this being one of them.
Also, I recognize Gino’s Pizza from your Impala article last year… I feel like having a pizza there, just to see what’s parked outside.
Having owned, and loved, a couple of Eagles (a wagon and the elusive Kammback), I can say without reservation they were the best snow vehicle I ever drove. A testimony to their prowess is that my wife still mentions we should get another one, about ten years after the previous Eagle passed on.
Cute little rascal !! That’s what the Gremlin should have been from the very begining.
I hope the owner of the Cooper appreciates the Eagle as he or she ain’t going anywhere soon!!
Wow! Those tires look like either 30×9.50 or 13×10.50-15a. It’s a bit of an undertaking to stuff those up under that car. Though there are signs of “massaging” of the sheet metal at the lower wheel openings.
Great find!
Nice find–my appreciation for these has grown as time has passed. I hadn’t really made the “fastback SUV” connection, but it doesn’t really apply to these in my opinion. It’s certainly an oddity, but compared to something like the BMW X6 which was purpose-built as such (and has the tall body to prove it) this seems like a better modern analogy would be if Audi were to produce an Allroad version of the A5.
I see the mention of 4 engine choices–could you get one of these with a V8? 304 or 360 if so? While it’d probably be front-heavy, that would be a powerful little number.
You couldn’t get a Eagle with a V8, but you could get a ’79 Spirit with the 304. My brother had a ’79 Spirit AMX with the 304, it was a fun little bomb.
I’ve heard of V8 Eagle conversions, they’re probably a little more involved than a 2WD conversion due to space issues with the transfer case and front axle. Wouldn’t be too front-heavy though, I think the V8 weighs just a little bit more than the straight 6.
Great pics Joseph, that Eagle looks great. While the tires are a bit overkill, it looks much cleaner without the fender flares. These cars look so much better when they’re not saddled with some boring earth-tone colours (or worse, phony wood grain) like pretty much all the wagons were. I wonder what’s under the hood and whether or not it’s a 5 speed?
I briefly owned almost the same car, same colour except it had a red pinstripe down the side. It was bought cheap and ran great but it was too rusty to justify spending any money on it at the time. I ended up hastily selling it before moving out of town.
When I was a kid, I thought these cars looked weird but I still liked them. And I like them even more now! Even in earth tone colors!
I also like the Eagle wagons!
Nice stripes! The drop-down hitch is funny too. Even the guy in the background is laughing.
You know, Phil, from this rear three-quarter view, the Spirit / Eagle liftback has something of a Plymouth Arrow (Mitsubishi Celeste) vibe to it – in a good way. It’s in the shape of the rear-side window, the horizontal taillamps, the pleasing slope of the hatch – I actually don’t even mind that this “Eaglet” is brown! Looks just fine to me.
I remember the AMC Eagle of the 80s. I don’t remember the Eagle SX4. Apparently the SX4 liftback didn’t sell as well as the station wagon did. That’s too bad.
The wheel tire combination really works on this Eagle. Not normally a fan of the oversize wheel, but on this car it seems to work well. If the final drive was not changed in the axles to compensate for the tire diameter though, it probably really cuts down on the power.
The Mini driver should be able to squeeze out of that spot. I used to parallel park my Jetta in spots that had about as much room on either end. People at work would park on the street leaving that much space between cars. I worked a shift where I came in an hour later and instead of leaving a couple of feet between bumpers they would hog the limited parking by leaving almost enough room for most cars. In other words they would park 2 cars where there was easily enough room for 3 between driveways.
I used to get complaints about squeezing in a tight spot from my co workers about “parking too close too their car”. They still would have about 5 feet in front or behind them, so they weren’t boxed in. I would just tell them if they parked with a little consideration for the limited parking, I wouldn’t have to squeeze my car in the leftover’s.
Man, if there is one thing that drives me nuts, it’s inefficient parallel parking. Having lived for three years in an apartment with no off-street parking, it would make my blood boil to come home at the end of the day and drive past cars parked with 5 to 10 feet in between them–too short to squeeze in another car (maybe a Fortwo or a motorcycle) but so. much. longer. than necessary. The end result being 10 cars parked along a block that should accommodate at least 15.
I know it’s usually not the fault of the “regular” parkers, but there would be that one car that I didn’t recognize, and my mind would immediately label them as the clueless visitor who bollocksed up parking for the rest of the block.
You’ll never get anyone to admit it, but just perhaps Subaru was inspired by AMC to jack up their milquetoast Legacy to transform it into the (TA-DA!) Outback.
Excellent find, and yes, the analogy to toy cars is perfectly apt.