In the history of world automobiles, it’s the bigger players that can last the longest and sell the most. The smaller players tend to get lost somewhere in between getting completely ignored and landing on their faces, or getting nowhere with sales because of less than stellar products.
But when AMC, American Motors Corporation stepped into the fray in 1955, it did so in style. Of course, it wasn’t as small as a standalone carmaker of the time was, having come from a huge merger of Hudson Motor Car Company (makers of the acclaimed Hudson Hornet) and Nash-Kelvinator (makers of the very rare Nash Healey).
AMC soon became to be known as the maker of the Rambler, the Rambler Rebel, the Pacer as well as the Eagle, but the car that gave it the most mileage as a brand was the AMC AMX.
This is the classic car, the muscle that changed public opinion about the AMC, erstwhile known for making safe if stodgy cars. The AMX, and the closely-related Javelin told the world that American Motors was as muscly as the Detroit Three.
Here’s all that was very innovative about the AMC AMX, and the one offshoot of it that never entered production…
The Emergence Of The AMX Pony
In 1959, AMX hired Dick Teague to be their assistant director of design and he became VP in 1962. Later, in the mid-‘60s, when the emergence of the Ford Mustang and the impending Chevrolet Camaro brought home the fact that a big engine in a small car was the way ahead, new Chairman Roy Chapin Jr suggested AMC go down the same road.
Teague and Chapin were off the same mindset, and under their guidance, the AMX concept car debuted at the SAE convention in 1966. In February, the same year, the AMX concept was shown to the public at the 58th Chicago Automobile show as a non-running, fiberglass two-door sports coupe.
The public wanted more and so in June 1966 at the New York Auto Show, a running AMC AMX debuted, along with three new non-running concepts: the Cavalier, the Vixen, and the AMX II. To grab even more attention, there was a “Ramble seat” in the rear of the cars, basically put in the boot of the cars, accessible when the trunk was popped.
The ploy worked, and the AMC AMX revolutionized the American coupe market.
The 1968 AMC AMX Debuted Industry Firsts
To maximize the successful platform on the car, the AMC AMX was introduced as a two-seater coupe, along with the already selling four-seated Javelin, so introduced in 1967.
The AMX ran on several powertrains. The base model was a quad-barrel 4.7-liter V8 that churned out 225 horses, enough to propel the AMX with power and speed. Next came a four-barrel 5.6-liter V8 that jet 280 horses but the biggest and most powerful engine was the 6.4-liter V8 that made 315-340 horsepower, and an insane 415 ft-lb torque. On this engine, an AMC AMX could zip 0-62 mph in less than 7 seconds.
And yet, the AMC AMX came almost 25% cheaper than the Chevy Corvette of the time, costing $1,000 lesser.
It set records and broke earlier ones. It was put through paces by the fastest men in the world, and they came away impressed. And it debuted many industry firsts. The car’s dashboard was a single-piece injection-made one for added safety. The 6.4-liter engine had large displacement but a small size. The car also had fiberglass padding on the inside of the windshields for added safety and in fact, the windshield itself was awarded for being way safer than the others.
By 1971, the AMX became a two-door option of the Javelin, which in itself ceased by 1974. But not before the world got a glimpse of what could have been, with the AMX 3…
The Most Expensive AMX Of All
Before AMC went kaput, they made the AMX 3 prototype. And rumors have it that the car came to life because of an in-house competition between Giorgetto Giugiaro and Dick Teague. Teague won, and Giotto Bizzarrini was involved in the prototype build. Plus, BMW tested the cars.
Only seven such AMX 3 prototypes were ever built, powered by the same 6.4-liter V8 but capable of a 0-62 mph sprint of 5.5 seconds. The cars were stunning to look at but were built at a great cost, and AMC soon realized that selling this car, despite the looks and power would be an exercise in futility. The AMC AMX 3 was shelved and yet somehow, the legacy of the car is such that in 2020, one of these exchanged hand for $400,000 and that too on the Facebook Marketplace.
One may remember the AMC AMX for different reasons and as different cars but this was the one time American Motors was able to make a dent in the sales, pride, and ego of the Detroit three. And that alone makes the AMC AMX worth raving about…
Sources: HeacockClassic, Classic-Car-History.com, TheDrive