Always trying harder, little American Motors never ran out of crazy and creative ideas. Here’s one from 1972: the Gremlin Voyager, the car with a drawer.
Built for the 1972 auto show season, the Voyager was a standard production Gremlin with an eye-catching extra feature: A pull-out cargo area the product guys at AMC whimsically named the “Grem-bin.” The rear hatch glass was hinged in the standard manner but instead of a fold-down tailgate (which the production Gremlin never had) the rear closeout panel rolled out like a giant drawer, forming a handy cargo area. Factory PR photos showed outdoorsmen inspecting their camping and fishing gear (below).
Other noteworthy features included a customized grille, the factory-optional roof rack, and 14-inch slotted sport wheels with raised white-letter tires. The exterior color is Cordoba Brown, usually an Ambassador color, with a contrasting panel in a distinctive basket-weave finish. It so happens that 1972 was the first year a V8 was offered in the Gremlin, but there is no indication the show car was so equipped—other available engines included the AMC 232 CID and 258 CID sixes.
As we know, the roll-out cargo drawer never found its way to the Gremlin production line, and to be perfectly honest about it, we don’t know there was ever any serious production intent. Could be the idea was hatched simply as an attention-getter for the show car circuit. But it pleases us to know the one-and-only Voyager show car is still around in the collection of Pennsylvania Gremlin maven Brian Moyer, and it makes an appearance at vintage car events now and then.
