We’re happy to report Wednesday night drag racing is alive and well in America. Proving that winning ugly can bring great reward is Dave Pekonen’s 1975 Levis edition AMC Gremlin X. The baby blue hatch runs in the low 11-second range at 120 miles per hour, and is driven at lessor speeds the 40 or so miles roundtrip to the track. Dave’s been running with the Gremlin for 20 years. The original 304 V8 mill was uprated to 401 cubic inches of Rambler power. When he’s not out at the drag strip in his AMC, you might also find Dave at Dave’s Auto Parts in Santa Rosa, California. For more information on bracket drag racing action head on over to Sonoma Raceway, or support your local drag strip!
This is the most heartening thing I’ve seen all day. May that Rambler block stand up to many holeshots to come, and that Teague-styled sheetmetal never be recycled into Chinese-made Fiskars hedge trimmers.
With each passing day, my fascination with (and desire for) the Gremlin X grows…
Dave had the quickest and fastest Gremlin X out there.
I need another AMC like I need another hole in my head. I’m currently watching for a nice Gremlin and a variable-speed electric drill.
Great piece of American Iron. Perhaps one of the first American hot hatches.
I saw a Gremlin X at an old car museum somewhere in California on Rt 66. I recall spending a fair amount of time going over it, while my girlfriend looked on in bemusement. “Its a Gremlin _X_” I tried to explain. “I don’t care”, she said. “Its still a _Gremlin_”.
Her first car was an ’81 Mustang.
Levi’s Edition, huh? My first car was a Hornet with this option, which we swapped a 343 into in 1981. It lasted until the rearend broke, so another from a Javelin was found (we would have taken the 390 from it but it was promised to someone who put it into a ’65 Rambler wagon) and drove happily until I got t-boned in an intersection in 1983.
The End.