We’re amazed that hot rodding survived the late 1970s but maybe we shouldn’t be. When the factories were turning out slugs like the 1978 AMC AMX featured in this hilariously bad promotional film, it is no wonder guys spent their money making older and cooler cars go faster because the new ones sure weren’t that impressive. This promotional video features two identical AMXs being “compared” on a “race track” and it is so very bad in so many ways. We’re guessing that the “hot rodder” character and the “German guy” character were used to show that the car appeals to all ends of performance enthusiasts. It fails horribly.

While the announcer touts all the new features and updates to the design, including the weird rip-off of the Firebird “screaming chicken” for something that looks like an acid trip sketch, the drivers prepare to jump into their racing machines and take to the track to show off who is the better driver. We were wondering how the would make these things look fast….or mildly sporty because being equipped with the 258ci inliner, they were not getting anywhere in a hurry. As it turns out, the people making the video didn’t really know how to make them look fast and the entire “race” seems to have been filmed at an average speed 0f 26mph. It is one cringe after the next for about three minutes here.

On the plus side, these cars have become retro cool (NOT with the inline six) but if we were able to get our mitts on one and could swap a six speed behind a stroked 360ci AMC mill, it would be cool and fun. We’d love to hear how “fun” these things were stock or at least how guys who bought them thought that they had hot stuff and got walked by municipal buses.

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO BE TRANSPORTED INTO THE “BAD OLD DAYS” OF 1978 AND WHAT PASSED FOR A PERFORMANCE CAR –