American Motors took one furtive shot at the performance market in the 1950s with the 1957 Rebel, cramming a beefy 327 CID V8 into a lightweight Rambler body. Here’s the story behind this unusual machine.
In the George Romney era at American Motors—1954 to 1962—the automaker focused almost entirely on compact and economy cars, showing virtually no interest in the performance market. The company’s ads boasted: “Why don’t we enter high-performance Rambler V-8s in racing? Because the only race Rambler cares about is the human race.”
There was one curious exception to this policy, though. In 1957 the company rolled out the Rambler Rebel, which combined the compact Rambler platform on a 108-inch wheelbase and the 327 cubic-inch, 255 hp V8 normally found in the big Nash Ambassador. With its muscular power-to-weight ratio, the unlikely package produced 0-to-60 mph performance second only to the Corvette, and a performance legend was born. Sort of.
Though it looks like a close fit here, the American Motors 327 CID V8 (no relation to the Chevy V8 of the same displacement) fell right into the same space as the standard Rambler 250 CID V8, since the two AMC V8s shared the same architecture and dimensions. Though the Rebel was originally slated to use a 288-horsepower V8 equipped with the then-new Bendix Electrojector system, the primitive electronic fuel injection system was not ready for prime time, and apparently no cars so equipped were delivered to the public. Production Rebels used the Nash Ambassador V8 with a Carter WCFB four-barrel carburetor, solid lifters, a 9.5:1 compression ratio, and an official rating of 255 hp. Photo above by Christopher Ziemnowicz.
The Rebel’s cabin was all standard Rambler in upmarket Custom trim, with nothing to suggest a performance theme. Note the clutch pedal on the floor and three-on-the-tree column shift lever. (Overdrive was available, while GM Hydra-Matic was also optional.) Despite the un-sporty vibe from the driver’s seat, editors at Motor Trend magazine discovered that the little rocket could do 0-to-60 mph in 7.5 seconds, which made it the quickest American production sedan for 1957 in their book, and second only to the Corvette sports car overall. Photo above by Christopher Ziemnowicz.
A key factor, no doubt, in the stout performance was the Rebel’s light weight, around 3350 lbs. at the curb. Only one body style was offered, the Custom four-door hardtop (there was no two-door shell in the Rambler line at the time) and in just one color combination: metallic silver with gold-anodized side trim, as shown in the lead photo above. List price with standard Rebel equipment was $2,786, and the company records declare that exactly 1,500 units were produced.
Shown above is the Rebel’s headline feature which, oddly, never made it to production: Bendix Electojector, the first electronic fuel injection system for production cars. Sharp readers will note that this display unit is actually installed on a Buick V8 mockup. Developed in the very early days of solid-state electronics, the Bendix system used breaker points to trigger the fuel injectors, along with some other primitive features that rendered the setup not quite ready for consumer use.
ADDENDUM MAY 2020 — A reader has kindly sent in this image of the Bendix fuel injection system installed on an American Motors V8, reportedly taken at the New York Auto Show.
While American Motors pulled the plug on the trouble-prone setup before it was released to the public, rival Chrysler actually delivered a few dozen cars with Bendix Electrojector, and a handful of these vehicles still exist today. When Bosch entered the electronic fuel injection market some years later, it used a considerable amount of the Bendix technology under license, and the American company made a nice stack of change on the fees.
In the photo below from the 1957 Chicago Auto Show, a banner over the Rambler Rebel proclaims, “Electrojector Fuel Injection 288 H.P,” a reference to the engine that, ultimately, was never offered. And if we look behind the car, we think we can see an example of the fuel-injected engine on a display stand. Are any of the Bendix Electrojector-equipped Rebel engines or vehicles still around today? It seems doubtful. If any still exist, they have yet to surface.
I still recall how my dad had a bit of a defiant nature in the cars he would buy. Reason I say this is that while working at the G,M, Tech center in Warren Michigan he went against there unenforced policy of wanting to see the employees driving G.M. vehicles. Dad would not comply to this unwritten expectation. He was driving a Rambler wagon and parking it within the compound parking area at the tech center and I recall him saying he knew the upper echelon didn’t like his choice of what he was driving. He was also into Hudson’s with a 49 Commodore and a classy 52 Hornet. I liked my dads strong character.He did resurrect that situation when he traded the 52 Hornet in on a new 57 Buick Super coupe.That Rambler American was a impressive automobile I must say!
While somewhat familiar previously with the Rebel, always interested in and appreciative of additional history. Thank you for your valuable “homework” which adds to our knowledge. This is the first time I have seen a photo of the Bendix Electrojector from this angle, and found interesting its resemblance to modern F.I. engines in the front air intake, though it points upward, and modern ones point downward. A ’57 Rebel with a stick – or a 4 speed hydro – would’ve surprised, and probably embarrassed, many other cars in the day. Though I believe the hydro would’ve actually been a weight penalty which may or may not have been offset by its quick first gear “holeshot” potential.
Regarding the Chrysler/Bendix F.I. applications of 1958, as you noted, most production vehicles so equipped were later changed to carburetion by owners, their mechanics, or the car dealers. Likewise, history was repeated, with the fuel injected 318 Imperials of 1981-1983. This system was Chrysler’s own, but it too proved unreliable, and once again most of them were retrofitted with carburetors. So, electronic fuel injection was a thing of the future, but apparently the future still hadn’t arrived yet.
Back to the Rebel, sadly we don’t see them at car shows, and I wonder if one does survive in the hands of a collector, or in a museum, how many potential viewers would know what they were seeing…an early muscle car…even more correctly, a “sleeper”!
Thanks for all the history you research and share.
I know of at least one Rebel that survived. There is a Nash/AMC collector living in Grainger County, TN that had one a couple of years ago, though I believe it was for sale at that time. Out for a joyride on New Years Eve day, a buddy and I drove down the crooked state highway past this guy’s place. I had met him previously and had been to his place before, so while we were in the area, we decided to drop by. He had a host of oddball cars sitting around on his property and in one of his buildings. One car that was sitting outside and readily visible was a 1957 Rambler Rebel, all original paint, basically untouched from new, but pretty well preserved. Can’t recall the asking price, but I’m thinking around $8000-$10,000. I believe he did sell it sometime after our visit.
The engine picture with fuel injection is very interesting.
Interesting because the engine is not a 327 AMC engine at all. The engine above is a BUICK nailhead.
I doubt Motor Trend never tested a 1957 Pontiac Chieftain with the optional ( that anyone could order) 347 cu. in. 317 H.P. Tri-Power engine. You know the one that went 141MPH at Daytona and also like the one Cotton Owens won the 57 Daytona Grand National in!
With a $5800 list price, higher than all Cadillacs but the Eldorado and Seventy-Five, and about $50,000 today, I doubt that many cared how fast the Chieftain went.
One thing the Pontiac had in its favor though; it didn’t look like a 1957 Rambler.
Sheet metal designed in Russia, but the interior looks quite nice…
> Sheet metal designed in Russia
A perfect description. It does have the look of a Russian Politburo car. Same group that were designing the ’55-’57 Nash I imagine. Superceded by Checker Cab school of design.
It’s obvious that the smaller players were as innovative as the Big Three, if not more. But their stylists made some odd choices. Or maybe they only look odd because I haven’t seen them over and over in every Hot Rod magazine and car show.
DNA testing has revealed “Pacer” in its genes- don’t get me wrong, I love this odd ball stuff… Every designer has the equivalent of a ’58 model year sooner or later…
The limited production convertible only Bonneville with fuel injection was the most expensive Pontiac at $5,782.
The Chieftain 2 door sedan that all the racers raced was $2,463. The NASCAR HIGH Horsepower Tri-Power engine ( 3 2bbl carburetors ) cost less than $1000.
Why did Pontiac fans care? because the winning of the 1957 Grand National ended Pontiac’s old mans car image into a performance car image which eventually put Pontiac into number three sales slot behind Ford that would last for a decade.
A Kaiser-Frazer-based engine that K-F didn’t have the funds to produce.
That lead photo was taken in Kenosha. I saw the photographer at work. Other scenes were taken at Petrifying Springs county park.