As with the AMX/3 pushmobile story , there’s always something good to be found in American Motoring, the club publication for the American Motors Owners Association. From Darryl Salisbury’s column in the September/October 2007 issue (yeah, we’re a little behind, but it’s still worth highlighting) came a history of the Budd XR-400, a sports-car-with-a-back-seat design proposal that Budd made to American Motors in 1962. As Salisbury pointed out, Budd had a history of working with American Motors that included Budd’s design of the first unitized body for Nash in 1940, so Budd decided to build a sporty two-seat convertible body on a shortened 1962 Ambassador chassis, complete with the 327-cu.in. V-8, and promised American Motors they could have the car in production by October 1963. American Motors, of course, declined, and two years later the Mustang made history.
Just think of what the muscle/pony car scene would have been like today had American Motors played a bigger hand in its origination. Just think of where American Motors would be today had they beat  Ford to the punch with a sporty compact car.
The XR-400 remained in Budd’s hands and eventually made its way to the Henry Ford Museum, where visitors can see it today. Budd, founded in 1912, remains one of the top automotive suppliers, still in Troy, Michigan, though now a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp.
Siehe auch: Angebot: 1967 Chevrolet Camaro und 1965 Ford Mustang|ErikaMadeIt: Die passende Tasche zum Auto
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