In the late ’60s and into the early 1970s AMC took on Detroit with sedans, wagons, and muscle cars, and the outfit even had an answer for the influx of compact, affordable imports: the Gremlin.

The Gremlin and the Pacer also stand out as quirky. The Hornet is one of AMC's not-so-iconic nameplates, but it also spawned a performance-oriented model in 1971. It's called the SC/360 ...