Annual Changes
The new AMC Spirit was largely a restyled Gremlin that had been manufactured from 1970 to 1978. Many engineering and equipment upgrades introduced on the 1978 Concord were now transferred to the sub-compact Spirit. The suspension system was revised with "soft-ride" mountings for the coil springs over A-arms in the front and the rear live-axle with leaf springs to improve ride and handling. Attention was also focused on sound-deadening, corrosion protection, and other engineering features included among others, lightweight aluminum bumpers, lock-up automatic transmission converter, and higher-compression six-cylinder camshaft and pistons for economy, performance, and emissions. The body received new styling and a liftback model was added to the previous two-door sedan. Richard A. Teague’s "more-conventional" design of the new liftback coupe “had a particularly graceful superstructure for such a short car”. A road test by Popular Science described the transition as AMC having the "cleverest engineers in Detroit" cementing their reputation of "getting $200 worth of looks for $100".
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Famous quotes containing the word annual:
“Time that scatters hair upon a head
Spreads the ice sheet on the shaven lawn;
Signing an annual permit for the frost....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“I would not have every man nor every part of a man cultivated, any more than I would have every acre of earth cultivated: part will be tillage, but the greater part will be meadow and forest, not only serving an immediate use, but preparing a mould against a distant future, by the annual decay of the vegetation which it supports.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)