The strategy of American Motors President, George W. Romney, was to avoid a head-to-head battle with the domestic Big Three automakers (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler) by focusing AMC on cars that were smaller than the "standard" models in the marketplace.
Development of AMC's new overhead-valve V8 engine began in 1955, under the automaker's chief engineer, Meade Moore, as well as David Potter who was hired from Kaiser-Frazer [REF].