They say BMW is “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” but before the now-legendary German brand took that given name for itself there was another, far more humble car, that called itself simply “The Machine.”  It was built, not by Bavarian Motor Works but by American Motors, and despite its ordinary underpinnings, if The Machine had ever squared off against a contemporary BMW, it would have blown it back into the Black Forest. Which is not to say The Machine was the final “ultimate driving machine,” but in its own idiosyncratic way the American Motors Rebel Machine, a model you probably don’t recall, but a model whose single year was a great one, somehow, someway deserves to be considered among the Greatest Cars of All Time. Read more . . .