The AMC Pacer is a two-door compact car produced in the United States by American Motors Corporation (AMC) from 1975 through the 1980 model year. The Pacer was also made in Mexico by Vehículos Automotores Mexicanos (VAM) from 1976 until 1979 and positioned as a premium-priced luxury car.
Design work began in 1971. The rounded shape and large glass area were unusual compared with the three-box designs of the era. The Pacer's width is equal to full-sized domestic vehicles at the time, and AMC promoted this unique design feature as "the first wide small car". The Pacer was the first modern, mass-produced, U.S. automobile design using the cab forward concept.
Upon its introduction, reviews used descriptions such as "futuristic, bold, and unique". The Pacer featured an aerodynamic "jellybean" styling, numerous innovations such as different door lengths. This was noted "as a space-efficient car, seemingly from the future".Joe Ligo: , 2013 The Pacer stood out at a time when "Detroit was still rolling out boat-sized gas guzzlers."
History
Design
American Motors' chief stylist Dick Teague began work on the Pacer in 1971, anticipating increased demand for smaller vehicles throughout the decade. The new car was designed to offer the interior room and feel of a big vehicle that drivers of traditional domestic automobiles were accustomed to, but in a much smaller, aerodynamic, and purposefully distinctive exterior package. American Motors called it "Project Amigo" as a fresh design "featuring a body style not seen before, using the latest technology and exceeding upcoming safety regulations".
Car and Driver magazine wrote, "It was the first car designed from the inside out. Four passengers were positioned with reasonable clearances, and then the rest of the car was built around them as compactly as possible." American Motors explored many unique solutions to what Teague called the "Urban Concept" car. Not only different sized doors for the driver and passenger sides were considered, but also using a Wankel engine and front-wheel-drive. The first development mule was made by shortening both the front and the rear of an AMC Matador by .
The shape was highly rounded, with a large glass area, and was very unusual for its time. Road & Track magazine described it as "fresh, bold and functional-looking". The Pacer featured a rounded and aerodynamic "jellybean" styling The body surface was 37% glass, and its surface area of was 16% more than the average passenger car at the time. The May 1976 issue of Car and Driver dubbed it "The Flying Fishbowl," and it was also described as "the seventies answer to George Jetson's mode of transportation" at a time when "Detroit was still rolling out boat-sized gas guzzlers."
Development was under Product Group Vice President Gerald C. Meyers, whose goal was to develop a unique car: "Everything that we do must distinguish itself as being importantly different than what can be expected from the competition." Even before its introduction, AMC's Board Chairman Roy D. Chapin Jr. described, "It will be a visibly different car, maybe even controversial. It's an idea that represents a transition between what has been and what's coming. Today versus tomorrow." According to Popular Mechanics, "This is the first time in the history of the American automobile industry that a car manufacturer has said in advance of bringing out a new product that some people may not like." The Pacer was in sharp contrast to the conventional boxy and rectilinear automobile body styles of the 1970s. Road and Track described the car's styling "with all those rounded corners, the lack of distinct edges, and acre upon acre of curvilinear surfaces".
American Motors explored many futuristic ideas, but the automaker needed more resources to build components from scratch. Instead, they needed to use outside suppliers or adapt existing components and parts in their production facilities. Unique for a comparatively small car, the Pacer was as wide as a full-size American car of the era. American Motors did not describe it as "cab forward". Nevertheless, the Pacer's layout included wheels pushed to the corners (short overhangs), a relatively wide body, and A-pillars moved forward. The windshield was placed over part of the engine compartment, with the bottom edge of the glass forward of the firewall. Contrary to some reports, the Pacer was not widened to accommodate the rear-wheel drive configuration. The editor of Road & Track asserted that front-wheel drive, as well as a transverse mid-engined configuration, were among "various mechanical layouts ... tossed around by the idea people at AMC," adding that "it's unlikely they ever had much hope of being able to produce anything other than their traditional front engine and rear drive, using components already in production."
The introductory 1975 AMC advertising and literature proclaimed it "the first wide small car". The width was dictated partly by marketing strategy—American drivers were accustomed to large vehicles, and the Pacer's occupants had the impression of being in a larger car—and partly because AMC's assembly lines were already set up for full-size vehicles.
Teague's low-drag design was highly innovative, predating the fuel crisis and the flood of small imports into the American market. Pacer's drag coefficient of 0.43 was relatively low for that time. Teague even eliminated rain gutters, smoothly blending the tops of the doors into the roof—an aerodynamic detail that, although criticized at the time for allowing rain onto the front seat, has become the norm in today's designs.
Also unique was that the passenger-side door was longer than the driver's door. This innovation made passenger egress easier, particularly from the rear seats. This innovation made it safer for passengers to use the curbside in countries that drive on the right.
Engineers also took an entirely fresh approach with the Pacer's front suspension and engine mounting. It was the first U.S. small car to isolate the engine and suspension system noises from the passenger compartment. The entire front suspension was mounted on a crossmember isolated from the frame extensions by heavy rubber bushings. It is also different from all other AMC cars, with the coil spring between the two control arms seated on the lower wishbone arm at the bottom and in the suspension/engine mount crossmember at the top. The rear suspension was also isolated, requiring a unique tool to press the one-piece bushings in and out of the mounting brackets.
Other aspects of the Pacer were designed for ease of service, including the dashboard and instrument panel, which used a minimum number of easily accessible screws and featured a removable cover/bezel that did not require disconnecting the speedometer cable, while also providing access to the instrument light bulbs. The Pacer's design was ranked to be equal with the new Aspen-Volare compacts as the most serviceable cars in the industry.
The Pacer was the second American production car, after the Ford Pinto, to feature rack-and-pinion steering. The system was mounted low at the front of the crossmember. The Pacer's body was also designed so that structural lines protected it from collision damage, and AMC engineers claimed they protected more than 50% of the car's surface.
In the mid-1970s, the U.S. government mandated significant vehicle safety improvements, starting with the 1980 model year. These included front-end crash testing, side crash testing, and rollover testing, as well as the installation of bumpers that would resist a impact at the front and at the rear. "Full-circle body protection was designed into the Pacer, starting with the energy-absorbing bumper mounts" through upper and lower box-section rails on each side extending back to the front pillars, as well as from the bases of the pillars behind the doors, the box-section members in the body floor curve up and continue past the rear wheel houses. The Pacer was designed from the start to meet the expected stringent safety specifications.
The low beltline and window design afforded the driver outstanding visibility. The Pacer had laminated safety glass in the windshield. The articulated front wipers were hidden when parked, while a rear wiper and washer system was optional.
General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler persuaded U.S. government authorities that modifying existing production cars to comply with the new regulations was not financially viable. They would face enormous expenses to produce new, safety-compliant vehicles. As a result of the lobbying, the requirements were reduced, including the deletion of several safety features. For example, production Pacers did not feature an actual roll bar over the passenger compartment, but the bump in the roof remained. The design of the Pacer was strong for a small car, making it solid and heavy, with protective features including massive, robust bumpers. AMC described the wide B-pillars as having "roll bar-like characteristics". Even with the Pacer's large glass area, passengers are not positioned near the windows because the windows bow outward around seated occupants. The Pacer's wide stance also makes it stable and provides a unique feeling when inside the car, providing credence to the marketing phrase used by AMC: "You only ride like a Pacer if you're wide like a Pacer."
The editors of The Motor opined the "more you study both the general layout and the detail features of the Pacer, the more convinced you become that the men who dreamed it up and decided to make it actually do drive around in crowded cities and consequently realize from their own experience that the traditional big barges are less and less easy to navigate through our streets." The unusual proportions of the Pacer provided buyers the "idea of feeling like they were sitting in the front of a roomy big American car, but without all the unnecessary length." Car and Driver road testers also noted the Pacer's "smooth and quiet ride can probably be attributed to a front subframe that isolates the passenger capsule from the engine, suspension and steering loads" making the car "eminently stable and controllable, with its rack-and-pinion steering and wide track".
The Pacer's remaining safety features were not strongly advertised and seldom influenced a potential customer's purchasing decision. The car's extra weight—due in part to the safety equipment and the abundance of heavy glass—hurt fuel economy: production models tested by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave in the city, but or better on the highway (depending on driving habits and transmission), thanks to aerodynamic efficiency.
Powertrain Initially, the car was designed to have a Wankel rotary engine. In 1973, AMC signed a licensing agreement with Curtiss-Wright to build Wankels for cars and Jeep-type vehicles. (The agreement also permitted Curtiss-Wright to sell rotaries elsewhere.) Later, AMC decided instead to purchase the engines from General Motors (GM), which were developing them for use in their cars. However, GM canceled development in 1974 for reasons that included durability issues, the fuel crisis, tooling costs (for the engines and a new product line designed to take advantage of the rotary's ultra-compact dimensions), and the upcoming (the late 1970s) U.S. emissions legislation. It was also thought that the high-revving Wankel would not suit Americans accustomed to low revs and high torque.