The Rebel Machine was a mid-sized muscle car offered by American Motors for only one year in 1970. Production numbers were small when compared to those of market leaders like the Pontiac GTO and Chevy Chevelle SS 396. We last saw this particular Machine in the Summer of 2020, and it was a non-running project at the time. The buyer has fixed it up nicely, but more effort is needed, and it’s not show quality at this stage. Located in Inverness, Florida, this déjà vu “Rambler” is available here on eBay, where the current bid is $20,900 with an unmet reserve.
An intermediate performance car, the Rebel Machine was the successor to the 1969 SC/Rambler, which was based on the compact American. Powered by a 390 cubic inch V8, 2,326 copies of the Machine are said to have been produced. 1,000 of them were painted in distinctive white with red and blue accents, while the others could be built in any color desired. So, the rolling American flag versions are the most sought after today. From an earlier review here on Barn Finds, this car had been sitting for 37 years until the seller bought it and brought it back to life.
A prior owner had replaced the original 390 with a 360 V8, so one of the first things the seller did was to put a fresh 390 under the hood. This edition has a 4-speed manual transmission (Borg-Warner), making for perhaps the best performance combination. A host of other new parts includes a clutch, aluminum radiator, brakes, and dual exhaust. The paint and graphics were redone, though the former may be less than perfect. And parts of the interior have been refreshed.
We’re told the front-end needs to be rebuilt, something the seller never got around to doing. More passenger compartment work is needed, and the odometer is approaching 100k miles, presumed to be accurate. If you’re looking for a Machine to take to the next level, this one may offer a very solid starting point. And you have a car far rarer than an SS 396.
I hope for all it sells. Luv a factory hood tach.
This, along with the SC/Rambler and Hornet SC/360 are the “Holy Trinity” for AMC enthusiasts. Someone will step up and give it everything it needs.
Go ahead and laugh, but at least we (AMC) listened to what people wanted. 1st of all, going fast was patriotic, AMERICAN Motors celebrated that with these cars. Okay, it wasn’t your stinkin’ “Hemi Cuda”, but this car put “regular ‘Cudas to shame. 2nd, in true AMC fashion, make it go, keep it cheap. The 1970 Machine cost about $3500 new, about the same as a 383 Cuda, or 390 Mustang, and I bet could beat both, the 390 was an awesome motor. Unlike the SC/Rambler that had 2 paint schemes, I believe the Machine only had this or regular colors. At the reunion years ago, I was surprised to see more Machines regular colors than these.
Didn’t matter, to most, they were still Ramblers, until they got their doors blown off by one.
Once, in a bone yard long ago, when picking for some mundane “widget”, I happened upon one of those “regular colored” Machines. All of its prized rims were missing, but otherwise the vehicle was solid and complete. I paused for a moment, but kept walking. Still kind-of regret that decision.
Although I absolutely love the Machine and the SC/Rambler, I hate to burst your bubble. The Machine clocked the quarter at 14.40 while the 383 ‘cuda and the 390 Mustang trapped at 14.30. Now, as for quick, the small block Plymouth Duster 340 trapped at 14.10.
Good to hear from someone who knows, rather than merely pontificates.
All drivers races really bw. 🏁
Well, it would take more than that to “burst my bubble”, but what does annoy me is this jwaltb who seems to have some sort of vendetta against me, and it’s getting old. “Pontificate” is a fancy word for a BS’er, and I’ve never BS’ed in my life, and why I was unsuccessful. I apologize for polluting your comment but I can’t reply directly to this jerk, and may get me banned, but jwaltb, you can kiss my axx.
Without knowing the axle ratios of the test vehicles, it is apples and oranges to say which car is the quickest.
Too bad we can’t see more of that AMX parked next to it.
A buddy had one of these and boy that thing would fly…
If the replacement engine isn’t a ‘Y’ code 390, I would wait for another. The Machine had a different intake manifold which resulted in a 340hp engine, versus the 315hp engine in the AMX, and Javelin. Good luck finding one.
would a 406 fit?
You mean a 401? All the second generation AMC V8s used the same mounting and bellhousing bolt patterns. So yes, an AMC 290 could be yanked out and a 304-343-360-390-401 could be swapped in.
That would blow some minds at the next orphan car meet. Open the hood and be greeted by a 406 big block Ford.
OOPS, meant 401!
The Y code 390 and the 1970 X code 390 have the same block, heads, rods, pistons & cam. The Machine Y code had the modified intake and larger exhaust manifolds, that is where the 15 additional HP comes from. Could be difficult to find an engine tag that is Y code.
Rare, but meh to me. I’ll keep looking.
I’m digging this a lot!!! Big fan of AMC motors from my 11 years of owning a 79 304 Jeep . Great motors!
neat for their time for sure. doubt they would sell to today’s buyers
Most buyers today can’t drive a three pedal vehicle.
Cuz they learned to drive on mom’s 4 door Camry.
Gee, maybe that’s why they’re not building cars like that anymore?🙄
You have to admit that American Motors was unabashedly American. That lends a distinctive touch no one else can offer. With a 390/4-speed what more could you want?
A mildly upgraded 401 with a 5-speed would be nice.
AMC did a lot with very little. Unusual looking yet grew on you. They had power but nothing worth bragging about. The S/C Scrambler had a better chance of winning a race, but very seldom did that even happen. I’m from this time in history, I was there night after night and actually campaigned a 340 duster 4sp with 4:10’s headers a cam, aluminum LD340 manifold and a 800 dp holley. I never lost to one of these, you see street racing is not sanctioned drag racing, it’s spurr of the moment and the true beasts of these races were 340’s LT1’s and boss 302’s. Because hundreds of races were stop light to stop light.
I bought a 70 Duster 340 brand new when the first came out. Had 3.91 posi Added cold air intake, headers & 3310 Holley. Would crack 13s occasionally, but 14.0 were common. Surprised a lot of folks.
Group 19 parts were used to warm up some SC/Ramblers. Headers, mild cam intake manifold. The result was E.T.s of 12.7 and as low as 12.1. As for street racing, a colleague used to go to the bowling alley, where everyone laughed at his blue wheels. They stopped laughing after he whipped them.
Anything doing low 14’s back in the day was about as fast as a most stock “muscle cars” were doing when this was new. If you wanted to see 13’s you needed to move up to the big cubic inch motors. You either invested more time and money in your own pile or figured out how to come up with the scratch to move up to the next level. And don’t forget that most of us were rowing our own. Hole shot usually determined the final trap time. Sorry but two pedals ain’t the same as three. I will vouch that The 390 AMC products more than held their own with the cars from the big three. Ask me how I know. Nice to see this survivor resurrected. If it could talk it would have some neat stories to tell. GLWTS.
After getting out of the Air Force in July 1970, I bought a used, 1969 Hurst SC/Rambler for $1,800.00 that became my daily driver and part time, weekend drag car (best pass on a cool Sunday morning in the fall of 1971 was a 12:97 @ 104 MPH at Raceway Park in Englishtown,NJ). Well I held onto that car until October 1986, which by that point, was just a rusted out shell with no drivetrain. Knowing the car was beyond my skill level to restore I looked for a replacement and found one that had undergone an amature restoration that cost me $6,500.00. I still have that car to this day. Anyway,with my week end drag racing days behind me, I instead I started taking my ‘NEW’ SC/Rambler to local (and some not so local) cars shows here in the Central NJ area. Well around 2010, some people were coming up to me and saying, “I saw your car last week at a show, but I didn’t see you”. Meanwhile a guy who also owned a 69 Hurst SC/Rambler (who would become my friend named Ralph Epnight), well people were saying the same thing to him. They’d see my car at a show thinking it was Ralph’s. Finally someone gave me Ralph’s phone number and at the end of the 2010 car show season we got the two SC/Rambers together at a show that was held at a ‘Sonic’ in South Brunswick, NJ. There were four cars at that show and the joke I always make is, if they were giving out trophies for WIN, PLACE and SHOW, I would have been shut out that day because there was a fantastic 1962 Pontiac Gran Prix (a 421-4 speed car) that had just undergone a ground up restoration, a 1987 Buick Gran National that looked like it had just come off the showroom floor that morning and Ralph’s SC/Rambler which is much nicer than mine. Anyway, every so often Ralph and I have taken our SC/Ramblers to the same shows. Well in 2015, I took a ride to an AMC only car show in Connecticut using my wife’s Toyota Camry and at that show, there was a very clean, 1969 Hurst SC/Rambler. The thing that caught my eye was a dealer’s sticker on the trunk lid that said ‘EMPIRE RAMBLER-BRONX NEW YORK’. Well to this day I still don’t know if the guy I spoke with at that show, who was standing alongside that SC/Rambler was the owner of the car or not, but I asked him how he had managed to keep the car so nice in “THE BRONX” and that guy replied that the car had always been ‘GARAGE KEPT AND NEVER USED AS A DAILY DRIVER”. So I complimented the guy on the condition of the car and then went about looking at the other cars at that show. Well the next year, a new car show was started at a Clarion Hotel/Hooters in Somerset, NJ, so I called m friend Ralph and said that since we hadn’t gotten our two SC/Rambers toghter in a few years, I said to Ralph that even though my SC/Rambler was running like s**t, if he came to the new show at the Hooters, I’d try my best to nurse my car to that show as well, to which Ralph replied that he’d come to the show at the Hooters and that “I HAD TO BRING MY CAR, BECAUSE HE HAD A SURPRISE FOR ME”. So when I pulled into the parking lot at the Clarion/Hooters, there were two SC/Ramblers parked side by side with the space between them left open. I knew one of those cars was Ralph’s SC/Rambler, but as soon as I parked my car between the two and got out, I saw that ‘EMPIRE RAMBLER-BRONX NEW YORK sticker on one of the other SC/Rambler so I knew that was the car I had seen the previous year in Connecticut. So I told Ralph what that guy at that show had told me, that car had always been ‘garage kept and was never a used as daily driver’, to which Ralph replied “That guy is so full of s**t”, and with that, Ralph pulled out the original owner’s manual for the car, and there on the last page was his mother’s signature, date August 26,1969. Ralph had purchased that car from Flemington Rambler in Flemington, NJ brand new for $2,998.00. But because he wasn’t old enough to purchase a new car in the state of New Jersey (or maybe finance a new car) Ralph’s mother had to sign for the car. And then Ralph did with his SC/Rambler, what I did with my original one and countless other guys our age did with their original muscle car. It became his daily driver, part time weekend drag car, street racer until it fell upon hard times and eventually was sold or worse. But the kicker to this story is, Ralph did not know he was buying his original SC/Rambler a second time until after the deal was made. Oh yea, the first time the car cost him $2,995.00, but the second time it was $40,000.00.
When I was in junior high, a teacher had one of these and would always go flying by our school bus on the way home, kicking up all kinds of dust from the dirt road. She also drove stock cars. Those were the days!
Very nice clean AMC here hope it goes to a good home.
I would not have been disappointed if the Dukes of Hazzard drove 1 of these instead.
Sold on 11/27/2025 for a high bid of $43,800, there were 33 bids and 8 bidders.
Steve R