1964 Rambler Ambassador 990-H Is Rarer Than Hen's Teeth, Was Saved From a Junkyard in 1988

‘It just drives so smooth, and it has lots of power.’ Surely, it must be one of those luxury barges from Detroit’s Big Three, probably a full-size Buick, a neat Imperial, or a mighty Lincoln. But no, it’s a Rambler. An Ambassador 990-H from 1964, one of the rarest American cars made that year. And this example has a neat story attached.

Usually, any automobile from the late American Motors Corporation is not commonplace nowadays. Still, those that were originally built in four-digit volumes are downright celebrations. And I’m not talking about some limited-production series dedicated to a sanctioned-event homologation, but plain-Jane regular civilian production.

The 1964 Rambler Ambassador 990-H is one of those instances, with just 1,464 examples ever assembled. The H is not for ‘Hurst’ but ‘hardtop’—the carmaker brought back the body style for the Ambassador series that year after a six-year hiatus. Naturally, orders weren’t tidal-wave-sized, so we’re ever grateful to see one in splendid condition, like the one featured in Lou Costabile's video attached below (while you watch it, subscribe to his channel, too).

The car sports an anomaly immediately noticeable to the brand’s fans and followers—the grille, which duly belongs on a Rambler Classic’s front. However, since the corporation wasn’t rolling in money, the models have many interchangeable parts to save costs. But that’s just skin deep. The rest of the car is all high-end Rambler—high-end, even.

The owners, Lance and Susan Gates, have had it since 1988, when they rescued it from a junkyard. The man was an AMC loyalist on the lookout for parts for his car from that time (an older Rambler) when he spotted this gem sitting there, waiting for its demise. In a stroke of luck, his wife noticed the neat automobile at the same time as her husband, although the two were wandering the scrapyard separately.

Long story short, he liked the car, she liked the car, and they took the car home and never let it go. Not only that, but they also restored it to a splendid state and now drive it here and there every once in a while. The automobile sports a 327-cube V8 under the hood—all Ambassadors of the low-priced carmaker had eight-cylinder power that year with 57,400 miles on it (92,400 km or thereabout).

5.4 liters, 270 hp, 360 lb-ft (274 PS, 448 Nm) wasn’t the greatest output in the world—by comparison, the Corvette, which had the Chevy 327 V8, not to be confused with the Rambler 327, started at 250 hp. Curiously, the same amount of power came from the regular Ambassador 990’s V8 ( only Hs had the high-power motor as standard).

To say that not many of these are around would be a blunt mislead – they’re a handful at most, and not all come with the equipment this example sports. As a direct descendant of the Kelvinator Appliance Company, Rambler was very much entitled to install air conditioning in inexpensive cars back when this feature was a very expensive commodity.

As such, the beautiful car starring in Lou’s video boasts the climate-controlling buttons and knobs and switches just over the center console and the stick shifter for the automatic three-speed transmission. One incomplete design drawback of the cooling system was positioning the three vents directly in the center of the dash, right next to one another, without any outlet on the sides.

Imagine driving on a hot, sunny day and getting the right part of your body chilled by the blowing cold air while the left half bakes with no airflow directed toward it. Still, by mid-sixties standards, it was far more comfortable than rolling down the windows.

But that wasn’t all Rambler offered its customers: a dual-circuit master cylinder improved the brakes’ safety by operating each set (front and rear) through different, independent circuits. If one failed, the car would still have stopping power from the other.

And notice the steering pump attached to the engine – this Ambassador came with pretty much all the driver’s aids of the era. Unfortunately, it wasn’t singing the buyers’ song of the era. In 1964, the muscle car and the pony car both made landfall. A very reasonable Rambler automobile with no gossip-worthy specs went as noticeable as the shadow of the Sun.

Despite its humble looks, the Rambler Ambassador of 1964 was a sturdy automobile thanks to its  ‘Advanced Unit Construction’ (unibody in people’s language) that had been introduced in 1963. It wasn’t just a stronger shell advantage; it also made for a tighter fit of the doors, thus enhancing weather sealing.

This Ambassador 990-H is a very well-equipped car with all the improvements that make driving a great experience, but none of the fuss that simply adds costs without a real benefit. Think of power seats or power windows – they’re neat creature comforts but don’t impact the actual driving experience whatsoever, like power steering and power brakes do, for example.

One brakes and steers far more often than opens and closes the windows. And the seat, once adjusted, tends to stay in the same position for a long time. Perhaps it was too… irreproachable, with no major faults to hold against it, no flashy features to make heads turn, and a very average Joe price tag. It wasn’t a cheap car, it wasn’t a bad car, it wasn’t a remarkable car.

In a decade when cars were all about being noticed, first and foremost, the Rambler was wildly outgunned. And the Ambassador had a most uninviting name – not that it was bad, but think about it this way: who’d be willing to go to a ball game with a polite, considered, composed, controlled diplomat?