AMC Eagle
A sport coupe on stilts
For 1981 AMC added two smaller Eagles, the Series 50 models, built on the Spirit instead of the Concord: the Kammback two-door and the SX/4 hatchback. The SX/4 took the Spirit liftback's fastback shape, raised it, and put the Eagle's four-wheel drive underneath.
It came standard with GM's 2.5-litre "Iron Duke" four, a four-speed manual and power steering, with AMC's 258 six and an automatic available. A Sport package added the look to match. AMC's own advertising called it "the sports car that doesn't always need a road". The company was trying to create a new kind of car, the off-road sports car, and Car and Driver agreed it "doesn't require pavement to be fun."
With AMC's small advertising budget, most people bought them for mud and snow rather than for sport. Today the SX/4 is often described as decades ahead of its time: a lifted, all-wheel-drive hatchback years before those became common.
Only three model years
About 30,000 in total. Dropped for 1984.
SX/4 at a glance
| Wheelbase | 97.2 in (Series 30 Eagles: 109.3 in) |
|---|---|
| Length / width / height | 166.6 / 73.0 / 55.2 in |
| Curb weight (1981) | 3,065 lb |
| Fuel tank | 21 gal |
| Engines | 151 cu in GM four (standard); 258 cu in AMC six |
| Best EPA rating | 23 city / 32 highway (1982, four-cylinder, 5-speed) |
| VIN model code | 53 |
From AMC's 1981–1983 brochures. Every year's engines, axle ratios and fuel economy are on the specs page.
How AMC sold it
AMC pitched the SX/4 as "the 2-wheel/4-wheel drive Eagle" and "driving in the 4th Dimension". These original ads are in the public domain.
On the rally stages
From 1981 the SX/4 ran in the SCCA ProRally series. Guy Light and Jim Brandt finished that season second in the points, winning the Production class at the finale in Reno by eight minutes. Gene Henderson and Jim Kloosterman carried on through 1983, finishing second among drivers that year, and American Motors placed third among production manufacturers in 1981, 1982 and 1983. Privateers were still entering SX/4s in the mid-1980s.
Full story on the home page.
More SX/4s
Sources: Wikipedia: AMC Eagle; AMC Eagle brochures 1981–1983 (see the specs sources).