For 1979, the AMC Spirit took the place of the Gremlin. A sedan version was nearly identical to the Gremlin, but with a more conventional rear side window design. The new liftback Spirit was one of the best looking cars to emerge from AMC in its later years. The Spirit line was dropped after 1983. Interestingly, after Chrysler acquired AMC it applied both the Concord and Spirit names to its own cars.
   An AMX version of the Spirit liftback was offered for 1979 and 1980. It featured special trim items, performance suspension, and white-letter tires. The biggest powerplant on the 1979 AMX was a 304 AMC V8 capable of reaching 60 mph in 13.4 seconds. For 1980, the only engine was the 258 in-line six. Still, it's the last car to wear the AMX name, and it's understandably popular with AMC collectors.
   Since the Spirit had an AMC V8 available, it is possible, and fairly popular, to swap in a larger displacement engine. Many Spirit owners have swapped in 304, 360, or 401 V8s, as the swap takes very little work to accomplish.
   Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Spirit"
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