Do you remember how yearbook and family photos looked in the 1970s and 1980s? I mean other than the embarrassing haircuts and the staggering amount of brown that could be crammed into a photo? I think the iconic look was a soft-focus picture of the subject in a dark, menacing void, with another angle of their face superimposed behind them, large and looming, in slightly softer focus and a touch transparent. These were the hallmark of a company called Olan Mills, and for some reason in 1979 AMC’s Mexican division, VAM.
VAM stood for Vehículos Automotores Mexicanos, which even if you don’t speak a word of Spanish, I bet you can guess what it means. They were owned by the Mexican government, with AMC having a smaller chunk of ownership, too. They imported and built AMCs and later some Renaults, but mostly AMC cars with funny names.
They did make one fully unique car, the VAM Lerma:
This was a luxury car meant to replace the Matador, and used body panels from the AMC Concord sedan with a hatchback rear from the AMC Spirit. It was a novel idea still, a hatchback full-sized luxury car, and it was kind of a flop, but still, look at that!
More importantly, let’s just take a moment to enjoy these very Olan Mills-style VAM cars, the whole family, in all their glory:
The blue American nameplate affixed to the grille has poorly kerned, shaped, and sized letters. It’s as if you have used two different sets of similar-looking plastic tack-back letters to create the mould for the nameplate.
The Lerma 4 (5?) door looks like a wanna be Rover 3500. Somewhat surprisingly attractive, Frankenstein-like automobile .I wonder how the Lerma would have sold here in the states. Hatchbacks were considered cool in the 80s.
Ah yes, Olan Mills, the portrait studio that repeatedly implied to my parents that my little reddish birthmark was a disgusting blemish that needed to be airbrushed away. (Much to their credit, Mom and Dad never opted for this.) And whatever process Olan Mills used to enhance shadows was applied everywhere, making me look like I had horrible little peg teeth.
Back to the article, plaid upholstery really needs to be an option again.
I want want want a VAM Lerma!! I might like the 2 door even more than the 4 door…
And what is with that oddball “American” badge on the LH top front of a chrome grille?
VAM continued to use the Rambler American name on the AMC Concord, it was actually the “VAM Rambler American” in full.
American Motors’ passenger car branding strategy was kind of a mess from the mid 1960s onward
That Pacer pic almost makes me like the high hood.
Almost.
Matador has got to be the best Mexican car name, ever, and that’s no bull.
Cordoba, Veracruz and Durango would challenge your Matador to a surf-off in Baja.
I think its worth taking a dive into the Plymouth Valiant Acapulco.
My Spanish is rusty. Did they pronounce it Heep?
Only when they saw David’s.
An easy joke, but don’t tell me you weren’t thinking it too.
Those were funnier than I expected. The Pacer is my favorite.
Also, the Lerma looks like an alternative-universe Citation, though presumably a bit larger. I kind of like it. I have a soft spot for big 4-door fastback hatchbacks.
Love a good Mirthmobile! My godmother had one for a bit in the early 1980’s and I remember tooling around town in that thing.
LOL. I miss this style of portraiture. Most of mine came a little later in the 80s and into the 90s. We had weird like neon lines and lasers and stuff in the background of our portraits.
Did you get your face in a brandy snifter?
FWIU one of the problems with the Lerma and why they didn’t sell more is that each one required two CKD kits, a Concord one and a Spirit one.
I insist on an Autopian Olan Mills family portrait. Bonus if you ‘shop in the internationalers. Stern Dadvid Tracy, proud Torch, and those little scampering rascals Mercedes and Thomas and Lewin and Adrian sitting still just long enough for the camera to go off, all under the benevolent watchful gaze of the disembodied head of Grampa Hardigree.
Mark didn’t make the shoot because someone convinced him there was a nearby Kmart with a portrait studio and a Buick Regal with a $2,500 OBO For Sale sign in the window.
(Apologies to anyone I left off, this joke is already stretched tighter than a pair of active driving trousers)
Ya know, after a certain age, people should do a public service and not wear active driving trousers. May I suggest a nice pair of inactive sitting pants, aka sweats?
Adrian is 100% the sullen goth teenager who was dragged along for the family portrait and refused to dress in the same theme/color as everyone else.
IT’S NOT A PHASE MOM!!!
I kind of like it, I mean except for the J10 they all manage to show the car from multiple angles in a single image. Maximizing your limited ad space when you can only afford a half or quarter page. Typical AMC figuring out how to stretch a buck, o peso, si lo prefieres.
Ah yes, the portrait technique of making it look like the subject is being haunted by their own disembodied head. The AMC ads look like they put a Power Wheels version on the hood of the full sized vehicle.
Wow. Just … wow.
As a child of TWO Concords during my formative/driving years (first a Blue 4-door (not the wagon, damnit!), then post-divorce Brown 4-door replacement) (either or both which took me to get my photos done at Olan Mills) this is too fucking early in the week to go catatonic on how truly – bizarrely – weird life was in the heady times of the 70s to 80s.
We all survived so – there’s that.
I will give the Lerma coup a few points for being a stylish alternative to the 4-door sedans my parents went with. Long life the airline belt buckle door handles!!
Thanks Jason for a trip-tastic start to the week. Now to see if there’s any O-Mills in the Triangle to have family portraits taken!!
The Lerma is a legitimately nice-looking car. I’m a little surprised AMC didn’t sell it in the US, I think it would have done reasonably well.
Definitely has a Rover SD-1 vibe to it.
AMC did evaluate it for the US market, but by 1981, had already decided on phasing out the AMC brand in favor of Renault, so it wouldn’t have been worth federalizing it or tooling up for maybe 1 or 2 years of production, the Concord and Spirit were gone after 1983, the Eagle was cut back to two body styles, and then further cut to just the wagon not long after.
Lerma: A Mexican car, composed from American car parts, named after a little a Spanish town. Truly a world car. Maybe not this one, but some world.
Lerma is also the name of several places in Mexico, including two towns (all named after the original in Spain, of course, but VAM were probably thinking more local when they chose it)
Highly likely, I’d agree.
That Lerma 4-door hatch actually works. Might be the best-looking Concord body.
Is it true that all of these cars came from the factory with shag carpeting as standard? 😉
“Olan Mills is coming to town Jimmy…we need to see if your suit still fits.”
https://biscuitsandcrazy.net/685-2/
Man, these are awesome! There’s a severe lack of sweaters and large glasses though..
And “feathered” hair. Can’t forget the feathered hair.
Feathered Hair: The Popular Haircut in the 1970s and Early ’80s ~ Vintage Everyday
I was not prepared for this level of nostalgia on a Monday morning. As a child of the 70’s and 80’s, there are WAY too many photos of this style in my parents home.
Too bad none of them have cars in them.
Now I want to do an olam mills style picture of me with what matters most to me in the background. Sorry family, I ment my truck