DRIVING My New AMC Pacer In 2024 Is TERRIFYING

If you've ever wanted to Party On in a fishbowl, this is the car for you. I bought this 1975 AMC Pacer sight unseen from a Facebook auction and now it's time to see what I bought.

Tech Channel: @TechThrowback

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Common Questions:

What motorcycle do I ride? A few. Ducati 1198, Honda Goldwing, Honda Grom, Honda Ruckus

What do I do for a living? Make YouTube videos.

Can you wheelie? No, I suck.

Are you fast? Sort of. I suck mostly though.

Where can I keep up with you off the bike?

Instagram: WatchJRGo

Facebook: WatchJRGo (or JRGo, FB hates my branding)

Do you go to school? College, for 2 classes.

Why do you ride so dangerously? What do mean? I was doing 25.

Do you go to the track? Of course, hopefully there will be videos in the future.

Do you play video games? No, but I might stream N64 Goldeneye at some point. Twitch: WatchJRGo

Are you afraid the police will watch your videos and arrest you? Something something evidence something something warrants and due process of law

#AMCPacer #Pacer #WaynesWorld

[dalejohns]

Had a 1978 Pacer years ago, drove it 12 years. Ran great Zero problems. Had 243, 000 miles when I sold it. Great car.

[janhautala]

Best car ever. AMC Pacer wagon. A.C. Power everything. Great heater, fantastic visibility. Held a ton of stuff, drove on the desert, down the side -off road- of a small mountain. Drove through a blizzards. Wishing still had one. It was a tough car. It had compression bumpers. If anybody tapped your front or back and bumpers compressed in. No damage.

Loved mine. I miss it.

[scooterwoodley]

Aunt Carol (RIP), your beloved car is on YouTube!

[ccacace]

Simplicity at it's best. Very cool car. It is totally unpretentious and it's in great shape to boot. To me that's a keeper. Good video!

[bmhwa]

I wouldn't do anything to that car except tune it up and replace the shocks and check all of the suspension and steering bushings and replace any that are bad. There should be several with grease fittings. I wouldn't be surprised if it needs some lube.
I see that it has typical Pacer rust issues. Not uncommon to see that a few years after they were new. AMC did a terrible job with rust protection. It still looks great for a 50 year old car though.

[Benjerri]

Despite its reputation, but this car has a character, unlike most cars today, in which from 30 feet away, it is hard to distinguish an Audi from a Hyundai

[motocrossedful]

my uncle (veteran of 3 wars highest ranking NCO in the Navy) who suffered from really bad arthritis, drove a Pacer from San Diego to New Jersey during peak summer with 3 speed on the column and no air conditioning. Uncle Joe had no pretensions whatsoever.

[bytes]

I've been daily driving my restored 76 Pacer for 3 years now. It's no different than driving any other classic on the road today. Maintenance and upkeep is key.

[RobertBrown-oj]

I was lucky enough to joyride around in this bulbous beauty for 10 years. It's not a race car, that's for sure, but people smile and take pictures when they see you go by in it. It's a feel good kind of car. Seriously, though, don't race anybody unless they're on foot.

[michaelcoonce]

I find it amusing when you young guys drive old cars. i actually find these cars more interesting then your audis and minis

[davidbrownell]

Remember that AMC advertised the new Pacer as the first Wide Small car. And, for grins, park your Pacer alongside a Porsche 928S and you’ll see who might have inspired the styling of the other. The Germans were paying attention to AMC at that time.

[FarrellMcGovern]

Speaking of Pacers and possibly tipping over...
Back in the 1980s, I was coming back from a party at about 6 am on a Sunday morning on the Queensway in Ottawa here, there was not another soul on the road. There is this slight hill in Kanata that the highway goes over just before you go down in the the valley around the city of Ottawa. There was five of us in the AMC Pacer that the driver, Vince was in the process of rebuilding, so the back seat, for example, didn't have any seatbelts. He run the local co-op/DIY garage. So as we were coming over the top of that hill, we could see a car rapidly gaining on us. We were doing around 100 kph (~60 mph), so this car must have been doing at least 140-150 kph to be closing on us rapidy. We could see they were not changing lanes to the left to pass us, and our driver was sure that if we didn't change lanes, they would rear-end us. So we got into the left lane, the car went zooming past us on the right...and then make a sharp left hand turn directly in front of us! I don't know how he did it, but our driver managed to avoid hitting this drunk (we learned later), and we ended up in a flat spin and travelling about a football field length down the road and into the grassy medium. I am sure that if we had been a car that was not as wide as the Pacer was, we would have rolled.

Our next concern was the other driver, as they had skidded off the shoulder easily 200 yards into a field, We pull a half u-turn to get facing the correct way, and as we were doing that, the other driver restarted their car, then with tires spitting grass spun around, got back ont the road and started speeding away from us. Our driver, as you might guess, was pissed, and decided to follow the other car so we could at least their their license plate number. I am sure we hit speeds in excess of 150 kph (~90 mph) catching up to them. They other car was probably doing only doing about 130-140 because bits of their car was dragging on the ground, and they were swaying back and forth across the road. We got off at the next exit after getting their plate number, and went to the nearest police station. They took down our information, (our driver didn't mention the speeds we might have been travelling at to catch up with the drunk 🙂), and it turnout out that they couldn't do much about it since there was no collision, and it would be just a we said, they said type thing. But the drunk had a drunk driving record already, and wasn't supposed to be driving...so they went to the person place, and found them passed out, smelling of alcohol in their car in their driveway. They didn' say if they arrested the person, but they did say they would not be danger on the road anymore.

So maybe the Pacer we were in had upgraded suspension...but as I said, I am sure that we would have rolled in another car, and as we didn't have any seatbelts in the back seat, we would have been either jelly, or ejected if it had rolled.

[americanrambler]

That motor in the Pacer is performing right and proper to spec! I am totally blown away you cracked 60 mph in under 20 seconds! You have the China clipper standard steering option. About 7.2 turns lock to lock. Perfect for the old school AMC buyer who was too cheap to pay for any add ons and thought power steering was just a fancy option and not needed. 3 turns of the steering wheel to go around a corner was perfectly fine for him.

If the steering is sloppy floppy, then there are probably some sloppy parts in the suspension and steering parts. The Pacer came with rack and pinion steering which was tight even if slow when new.

I love this clean plain version you’ve got ahold of. I wonder if a new Chrysler Hurricane inline 6 would fit under the hood?

[kevinkay]

Believe it or not carbureted vehicles were driven in the winter for years and were very dependable doing so if properly set up.

[Devastator]

Man, I can't believe that in all of the time that car has existed that someone didn't get the windows tinted and retrofit A/C to it.

[johnasbury]

Those old shocks are shot. New gas shocks, tires and rag joint in the steering would really help this turdallic

[ricoolivier]

Driving slow cars fast is more exciting than very fast cars fast!

[beforebefore]

The "whiff of coolant"... check the passenger carpet... it's old, expect a heater core failure.

[royschultz]

I bought a 1977 Pacer wagon brand new. Manual 4 on the floor, ac, manual steering, brakes, windows, no radio. Hot as heck in the summer even with the ac, and parts constantly breaking or falling off

[jimfuqua]

I had the '76 Pacer 3speed stick shift with no air. Was living in Brownsville Texas during the summer time. Temps above 100 with very high humidity. You haven't lived until you've done that. 😂