PICKUP UPDATES:
Patrick R. Foster, of the Olden Milford Press, spotted this pickup and mentioned it in an article he wrote for their web site for their National Meet titled “Rambling Ride”. The following is an excerpt of this article:
“Also there was Ed Bicknell and nephew Eric, current owners of the only surviving AMC Cowboy prototype. Although I had written about this unique prototype pick-up before, I had never actually seen it. To my surprise the Bicknell's not only had the truck with them- they handed me the keys and let me take it for a drive! To those of you who don't know about the Cowboy, it was built on a 1971 Hornet SC360 chassis, with 360 V8 and 4 speed, so it's faster than you would guess. I took it down the lakefront road, burning rubber on every takeoff.”
Provided courtesy of AMC Rambler Club and Patrick R. Foster. Click here to read complete article…
Visitor Updates
August 8th 2005
The Hornet Cowboy as I understand is now owned by former AMC styler Jim Alexander who frequents the Great Lakes Classic AMC show at Greenmeade Park in Livonia, MI each August Sunday after Detroit's famous 'Dream Cruise' weekend (this year, the 21st of August).
I've seen him and the car the past few years there. I probably have some recent, nice pics of it somewhere in my collection here. I'll look for it. The pics you show seem older... it was looking beat up in them. I don't recall seeing that damage to the left rear or the hood all
caddywampus, hummm.
Update courtesy of Norbert Vance who's late Father, Stuart Vance, was Manager of Body Engineering at AMC. To visit his web site, click here..
January 6th 2006
The "Cowboy" prototype pickup was indeed based on a 71 SC/360. Why such a car I don't know, because it wasn't meant to be a "Hornet Camino", but a small utility truck to compete with the then new crop of Japanese pickups. The original prototype had a 71-72 Gremlin front end with modified grille complete with Jeep logo. This gave it more of a utilitarian truck look. Jim Alexander added the Hornet front clip at a much later date -- couldn't have been built in 71 now, could it? The Hornet clip does give it a totally different, classy look.
It wasn't produced for two reasons:
- The Hornet and Gremlin were already selling about as fast as AMC could build them, especially the new Sportabout, and a hatchback was already planned to come out soon. The lines would have been strained with yet another Hornet based vehicle.
- There was no four wheel drive developed for the truck, and that was a hallmark of Jeep vehicles. It would take time and money to develop a four wheel drive system, and most of that was going into new cars (the Hornet hatchback and Pacer). I don't think an El Camino/Ranchero type vehicle was ever considered by AMC. I have never seen a mention of it, but have seen photos of the original prototype with the Gremlinesque front end.
Would you believe the "Cowboy" sort of lives in the Jeep Comanche? The Comanche employs "uniframe" construction -- the framework that supports the bed and rear axle are deep box sections of formed sheet metal and are part of the cab. This type construction was first used for the "Cowboy" prototype. I believe (but can't prove) that another legacy of the Cowboy is the Eagle four wheel drive system. The #2 reason the Cowboy wasn't made (no four wheel drive) had to have planted the seeds for the Eagle!
Update courtesy of Frank Swygert, Publisher of the American Independent Magazine (located at http://home.att.net/%7Efarna/AIM.html)
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