The American Motors Ambassador was never meant to be a muscle car. In AMC’s lineup, that job fell to the ever-so-slightly smaller Rebel/Matador. But with the only real noteworthy difference between the two cars falling to a wheelbase difference, it isn’t hard to squint at an Ambassador coupe and think that you’re looking at a Rebel. Then again, if you’re able to tell the difference between the two cars at the drop of a hat, you’re doing much better than the majority who haven’t given AMC any real thought ever since the company was swallowed up by Chrysler. Truth be told, finding one of these big coupes is enough of a justification for spending money, and finding one as nice as this particular Ambassador SST would convert more than just an American Motors fan. Just look at it…big and sexy, with the “Machine”-like hoodscoop and eye-searing green paint…what’s not to like?
Restoration job? Nope…this is a well-sorted custom job that can be driven whenever. The only way you can tear this car down is if you get nit-picky, and even then, we wouldn’t bother: sure, the paint is Sublime Green and not the AMC-correct Big Bad Green, but really, do you care? The tail stripe isn’t right either, but unless you’re going to repaint it…and why would you?…don’t complain. Just get in, twist the key, fire the 360ci mill up, and get to moving. Every bit of explanation you will need about a car like this will come to you the more you drive it. When car guys react with surprise and interest, when old-timers get misty-eyed about a car like this they used to own, when kids ask you tons of questions about a car brand that’s been gone for decades, that’s when the true value of this AMC will become apparent.
eBay Link: 1970 AMC Ambassador SST
I actually owned a Big Bad Green 1970 Rebel Machine for about a year. Pretty cool car. Turns out that they’ve only documented perhaps three of them in green so far… I always sold the ones that are valuable today…
My dad had a 69 Ambassador SAT coupe with the 390. Regular readers of this site are probably sick of seeing me post about it. Pretty quick for the time, but scary as hell when it came time to stop.
High school buddy drove a Rebel, cool car.
I have a 1971 Ambassador SST Coupe that I’m putting back together currently. I saw this one for 9k and was kicking myself for picking mine up for 1500 last fall and knowing I’d end up dumping at least 10k into it to get it up to the same standard as this one. I’ll be going with the factory Golden Lime Metallic when it’s time for paint though.