A high school friend of mine had an elderly father who, as late as 1970, had never driven a car in his life. As a matter of fact, when he saw a car, he referred to it as a “machine”. Well, in the case of this 1970 AMC Rebel Machine, he would have been spot on! We have covered many of those, usually very recognizable red, white and blue performance-enhanced Rebels here on Barn Finds. Today, traveling incognito, and for your review, is this toned-down, blue/gray finished example. It is located in Maysville, Kentucky and is available, here on eBay for a current bid of $20,000, four bids tendered so far. Thanks to Tommy T-Tops for this find!
This is another listing with scant detail so there’s not much disclosed around its provenance. What we do know is that the Machine was a one-year-only two-door, hard-top muscle car based on the AMC Rebel. Standard power was a 340 HP, 390 CI V8 engine that was fed via a ram-air hood scoop. At the time, it was AMC’s most powerful engine. A little over 2,300 Machines were built in ’70 with the first thousand donning its distinctive white finish augmented with a blue lower-body color treatment, a wide blue hood stripe and scoop and then accented with a red side-stripe. Oh, and that part about the one-year-only availability of the Machine – that’s not entirely true. It was continued in 1971 as an add-on to the Matador but supposedly only 50 were built and just one survives according to javelinamx.com.
This Machine has had the misfortune of having its original, and special, 390 CI V8 engine replaced with a 360. The seller claims that it “runs and drives good” through its three-speed automatic transmission, but the loss of that unique 390 takes a lot of wind out of its sails (and probably out of its sales too). Based on the engine image, the hood scoop obviously adds nothing.
The images of the interior are two in number and not very adequate. The carpet and dash present well but the door cards are dissolving and the lack of a clear image of the driver’s seat is troubling. As is often the case, the backseat appears unused but then the upholstery pattern doesn’t match that of the front seat unless the front seats are so worn that the pleats no longer are visible.
The exterior looks good! The finish is a nice shade of blue but I’m not certain if it was one of the original non-white colors offered. The flat-black hood, standard with a non-white exterior, has obviously been painted body color. The paint has nice depth and shows a much more subdued side to the Machine as opposed to how they are usually decked out. Notable demerits go to the missing trunk lid stainless molding, rusty rear bumper, and some small rust bubbles bleeding through the edge of, at the least, the rear left wheel opening. Other areas of the exterior should be checked, as well, for similar brewing problems. Nice to see, are the original machine wheels; I have read that they are hard to find and reproductions are not currently being made.
This seems to be a fairly nice example of a desirable muscle car, but there is enough detail lacking, not to mention the compressed images, that it is hard to be objective. Was this machine originally white or was it one of the 1,300 or so finished in a different hue? A trim tag reveal would help answer that question. And the missing 390 CI “Machine” engine puts a damper on the enthusiasm level. So, tell me GM, Ford, and Mopar fans, does a not-from-the-big-three product like this AMC Machine hold any interest for you, or are these more the province of AMC aficionados?
Cool car!
Paint wise this Machine is spot on for me, along with the black interior. I think the stock wheels would go to safe keeping and torque thrusts with raised white letter tires would finish the appearance.
Too bad about the 390, without it it’s just “the machine” without capital letters.
Very sharp.
Almost 5 days left and it’s been bid to $20,000? AMC, oh how we miss you!
Great write-up, Jim! And I love that slate-blue paint–I would put that on any car/truck I have ever owned!
With the loss of the 390, this one doesn’t have much appeal, but I’m with you on the color. It looks very similar to the GM color “Blue Granite Metallic”, which is what I used on a ’93 Bronco that was attached to my boat trailer for 15 years.
Very similar to Plymouth’s Winchester gray also
I agree. In the mid 1960’s, I had a ’57 Chevy, 210 that was painted Honduras maroon. One summer day, the paint on the roof crackled. I had it painted a color that was very popular with Chevy in 1965-68 ( I think)…Mist Blue. Looked beautiful I received a lot of compliments on it. Sure wish I still had the car. The story of the story of how I had to get rid of it is too sad to tell here. Been crying ever since 1966
You know, the RW&B ones stole all thunder( crickets) but I remember many that were standard colors. At the Kenosha 2014 reunion, there was a whole group of “Machines”, many other colors, like this. In the swap area, there were vendors with all kinds of original parts. I think there actually more clones than originals, but that’s okay. Cool cars, and Adam-12 sure helped sales, but it was just a Rambler, and never got past that image. I’ve said before, the old man had ’70 Ambassador ex-forestry squad, with a 390 AMX motor, and that car had some steam, it did, but the Machine, like most AMC specialty cars, was not a big seller. Cool find, IDK about $20g’s, aside from the Machine stuff, it’s a pretty lackluster car, but a great find.
I miss AMC. (sob)
Many years ago I was in a yard looking for some mundane part for my daily driver, and neatly tucked off to the side of the road was a complete Machine in Hialeah Yellow over black. Probably could’ve had it for less than a Grand – I kept walking – I tell myself I did that because it was an automatic, but in truth don’t remember what transmission it had. I do still regret the decision not to even ask on it.
AMC had some cool cars and the names for some of them were just out of this world.Would love to the meet the guys who thought of the names and have got some of the good stuff they were on back then.
The fact that the 390 is gone is bad enough…. the rust bubbles over the wheel well make it more worrisome. I love AMC, but this would be a hard pass… unless that 390 was still around and coming with it….
Chased a factory orange Machine around my hood that was stalled with a bad gas tank. Almost had it a time or two but the owner was keeping it for his kid. They moved and I lost track of it. Not really sure the guy knew what he had.
What is the difference between this and a regular Matador?
The Machine had suspension upgrades, disc brakes up front, bigger wheels, different gearing and bigger cooling capacity.
We bought a ‘69 Rebel from Boeing Surplus. It was a 343 – 4v that ran on premium leaded gas. It still had holes for 8mm camera mounts from the Everett’s 747 program. It was used as a runway pace car and had low mileage. Fast and I think all my cousins learned to drive on it. Great first car?
maybe it would have run on jet fuel! ;-)
It is not entirely a deal breaker not having the original 390. A quick look on Racing Junk states a 1970 390 complete original for $3500. The Auto trans kills it for me but a lot of old guys might enjoy letting the trans shift for them.
The 360 is fine because the speed limit is 70 in most places. You won’t race it ot time attack it. Rge 360 makes good power on its own. If the seller hadn’t mentioned the 390 was gone. No one on here would be able to tell the difference anyway.
The caps to the wheels are not correct. Super hard to find as is the missing ram air cleaner.
After the initial run of RWB cars halfway through production the door was open on any production color. So breaking it down to colors and transmissions this could be maybe a one of 10 survivors. Most likely less.
An AMC enthusiast could make it right. Not horrible on it’s own.
Bought new 70’s Machine new off dealership showroom floor…sank it in a farmers tomato patch …getting “Lucky”…sure do miss that car…