1975 Pacer X: American Motors’ date with oblivion was still 12 years away, but the debut of the execrable ’75 Pacer X heralded the inevitable. The latest in a line of bizarre and ungainly creations from America’s fourth automaker, the 1975-1980 Pacer boasted such features as “genuine Levi jeans” seat coverings — complete with brass rivets that left nice burn marks in your thighs if you sat down on them with shorts in the summer — and a passenger door four inches longer than the one on the driver’s side. The bubble canopy design suggested an upended bathtub or a latter-day Marlon Brando, side profile. Propelled by a 90-hp 3.8-liter straight six tied to a “three on the three” column shifted manual transmission, the Pacer’s performance was as depressing as it got in the 1970s. It was, however, the first American car to employ the space-saving “cab forward” design technique that’s become industry standard today.


That's awesome! 90hp from a 3.8L 6 cylinder. Makes me feel not so bad about my rice burner.

 

Yup, it reminds me of how awful the 70s and 80s were for muscle cars if we ignore the turbo 6s.

Thank god I had my 75 Celica to work on.

 

Yes the Mustang II is laughable by todays standards but look around, 1978 didnt offer much. cripes chevrolet even canceled the Z-28 for 1975-76. the corvette had the almighty 200hp L82 and the Trans-am was nuetered to 180hp. so i dont think the Pinto based Mustang II was all that bad at 130hp. and no i wouldnt own one!

 

by the way, the 5.0L Corvette was only available in California. due to Califonias very strict emmisions laws. still embarassing!