This Low-Mileage 1965 Rambler Marlin Will Make You Forget About the Dodge Charger

Previewed by a similar concept car in 1965, the first-gen Charger arrived in showrooms for the 1966 model year. Dodge, however, changed the original recipe at the end of 1967 when it launched a more spartan second-gen Charger aimed at the muscle market.

The first-generation Charger thus remains a unique iteration of the nameplate, but it's worth pointing out that it wasn't as innovative as Dodge would want you to believe. The luxed-up fastback Charger was actually created to compete with a similar vehicle that went into production in February 1965, more than a year before the Charger.

And it wasn't designed by Chrysler's main competitors, Ford and General Motors. Nope, it was AMC who rolled out the first fastback that offered more room than the Plymouth Barracuda and Ford Mustang while also including premium appointments inside the cabin. That vehicle is called the Rambler Marlin.

Previewed by the 1964 Rambler Tarpon, which was based on the compact American, the Marlin arrived in 1965 as a two-door hardtop version of the mid-sized Rambler Classic. It was part of AMC's then-new strategy to better compete with the Big Three" in the intermediate market.

The Marlin was born under CEO Roy Abernethy, who shifted away from his predecessor's focus on compact, more economical cars. Abernethy believed that the key to success against the Big Three was to offer a sleek fastback that provided more room than the Mustang and Barracuda while offering an extensive list of premium standard features.

The Marlin was well-received and prompted Dodge to design the Charger, but it wasn't as successful as AMC hoped. The fastback moved 10,327 units in its shortened first year on the market, but sales dropped to only 4,547 examples in 1966. The redesigned version of 1967 found only 2,545 customers, and AMC promptly decided to discontinue the vehicle without a successor.

Come 2023, the Marlin is not among the most iconic nameplates of the era. However, it is one of the rarest midsize rigs of the 1960s. And because AMCs don't get as much love as their Detroit counterparts, very few have survived as all-original and low-mileage classics. The first year, Frost White example you see here is one of those cars.

Documented by classic car enthusiast Lou Costabile, this Marlin is arguably the finest of its kind I've seen in many years. While the color combination may be a bit dull, this fastback looks spotless inside and out despite being nearly 60 years old as of 2023. But that's also because this Marlin has only 18,000 miles (28,968 km) on the odo, so it's basically a garage queen.

And yes, it still has a numbers-matching V8 under the hood. The unit in question is a 327-cubic-inch (5.4-liter) mill, the largest and most potent powerplant AMC offered in the Marlin in 1965. It was available with a two-barrel carburetor and 250 horsepower and a four-barrel carb setup good for 270 horses. This Marlin packs the latter.

Granted, the fastback is nowhere near as powerful as the HEMI Charger that Dodge unleashed in 1966, but it's still decidedly more exotic than its Mopar counterpart. Check it out in the video below.