The AMC AMX is a two-seat GT-style muscle car produced by American Motors Corporation from 1968 through 1970. As one of just two American-built two-seaters, the AMX was in direct competition with the one-inch (2.5 cm) longer wheelbase Chevrolet Corvette, for substantially less money. It was based on the new-for-1968 Javelin, but with a shorter wheelbase and deletion of the rear seat. In addition, the AMX's rear quarter windows remained fixed, making it a coupe, while the Javelin was a true two-door hardtop.
Fitted with the standard high-compression or optional or AMC V8 engine, the AMX offered sporty performance at an affordable price. Despite this value and enthusiastic initial reception by automotive media and enthusiasts, sales never thrived. However, the automaker's larger objectives to refocus AMC's image on performance and to bring younger customers into its dealer showrooms were achieved. After three model years, the two-seat version was discontinued.
The AMX's signature badging was transferred to a high-performance version of its four-seat sibling, the Javelin, from the 1971 to 1974 model years. American Motors capitalized on the respected reputation of the original two-seat AMXs by reviving the model designation for performance-equipped coupe versions of the compact Hornet in 1977, Concord in 1978, and the subcompact Spirit in 1979 and 1980.
Origin
The AMX name originates from the "American Motors experimental" code used on a concept vehicle and then on two prototypes shown on the company's "Project IV" automobile show tour in 1966. One was a fiberglass two-seat "AMX", and the other was a four-seat "AMX II". These radically styled offerings reflected the company's strategy to shed its "economy car" image and appeal to a more youthful, performance-oriented market.
The original AMX full-scale models were developed in 1965 by AMC's advanced styling studios under the direction of Charles Mashigan. The two-seat AMX was a "big hit on the auto show circuit in 1966" and featured a rumble seat that opened out from the rear decklid for extra passengers called a "Ramble" seat. AMC executives saw the opportunity to change consumers' perceptions of the automaker from Romney's economy car image to the realities of the new marketplace interested in sporty, performance-oriented vehicles. Robert B. Evans requested a car like the AMX to be put into production quickly.
Two simultaneous development programs emerged for a production car: a modified Javelin and another for a completely new vehicle bodied in fiberglass. The first approach was selected to allow AMC to use its existing technology and unibody manufacturing expertise to make relatively inexpensive modifications to the Javelin, approximating the prototype's styling and proportions. The automaker could turn out steel bodies in large numbers, so it rejected developing plastic (or fiberglass) bodies because those are intended only for low-production models. The first fully operational unit debuted as part of AMC's AMX project in 1966. The once-"frumpy" automaker jumped on the "pony car bandwagon" with its "attractive Javelin" and soon introduced the "unique" AMX featuring a design where "hoods didn't come any longer, nor decks any shorter".
Vic Raviolo, previously responsible for the Lincolns that raced in the Carrera Panamericana during the 1950s, was involved with engineering AMC's new sports-car-type coupe. The AMX was the first steel-bodied, two-seat American performance car since the 1955 through 1957 Ford Thunderbird. Ford's original two-seater evolved into a four-seat personal luxury car starting in 1958.
The AMX was also the only mass-produced, domestic two-seater to share the market with Chevrolet's Corvette since the 1957 Thunderbird. With a short, , wheelbase, the AMX's direct competition was the one-inch longer ( Chevrolet Corvette. The AMX's manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) was US$3,245 (US$ in dollars ), nearly 25% below and over $1,000 less than the Corvette's price tag.
The AMX was introduced to the press at the Daytona International Speedway on 15 February 1968, just over four months after the Javelin went on sale. In the demonstrations on the race track, the new AMXs ran at speeds up to . American Motors' group vice president, Vic Raviolo, described the AMX as "the Walter Mitty Ferrari". The AMX was designed to "appeal to both muscle car and sports car enthusiasts, two camps that rarely acknowledged each other's existences." The problem was the "tire-melting" acceleration of the two-seater made it "a quick car that handled like a sports car, confusing the buying public." Automotive journalist Tom McCahill summed up, "the AMX is the hottest thing to ever come out of Wisconsin and ... you can whip through corners and real hard bends better than with many out-and-out sports cars."
Record-breaking
To promote the new car, AMC's manager for performance activities, Carl Chakmakian, asked world land speed record holder Craig Breedlove to put the AMX through its paces before the new vehicles were even available for sale. In January 1968, two specially prepared AMXs set 106 world speed and endurance records at Goodyear's track in Texas driven by Breedlove, his wife Lee, and Ron Dykes. Breedlove's "Spirit of America" crew and Traco Engineering had six weeks to prepare the cars before they were to be displayed at the Chicago Auto Show in February.
The AMC V8 engines, such as the engine in one car was bored out to and the in the other to . The shop installed exhaust headers, eight-quart oil pans, oil coolers, hi-rise intake manifolds, racing camshafts with solid lifters and stronger springs, and larger carburetors. The cars had engine and rear-end oil coolers, as well as cell-type safety fuel tanks. Engine components were X-rayed and Magnafluxed to check for cracks, as were chassis components.
Chassis preparation included heavy-duty front and rear springs (part of the factory's optional handling package), rear spring traction control arms, heavy-duty shock absorbers, and a "panhard" type track bar in the rear to eliminate side sway. Wide magnesium racing wheels and Goodyear racing tires replaced the stock road wheels and standard tires. The cars were aerodynamically modified: the front ends were lowered, the hoods were slanted down, and spoilers were installed below the front bumpers. The car interiors had structure-stiffening roll cages for driver protection, a stock bucket seat modified for additional support, and supplementary engine-monitoring instruments.
Breedlove also took the AMX to Bonneville reaching in a United States Auto Club (USAC) sanctioned run, as well as an unofficial run of over .
Industry firsts The American Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) named the AMX as the "best-engineered car of the year" in 1969 and 1970.
For its first-year recognition, the reasons cited included the car's dashboard, which was injection-molded in one piece "for safety purposes, an industry first." The AMX's new engine was developed to have a large displacement within its minimal external dimensions and moderate weight, while the use of common components and machining with AMC's 290 and 343 engines assured manufacturing economy. The 1968 models also included an innovative fiberglass safety padding, a "plastic" on the inside of the windshield posts that was first used on the AMC Javelins.
For the following year's award, the SAE recognition included the 1970 AMXs (and Javelins) being the first production cars to use windshields that were safer, thinner, and lighter than ordinary laminated glass. Developed by Corning, the glass featured a chemically hardened layer designed to give under impact and crumble into small granules to reduce injuries. The inner layer has "stress raisers that will cause it to break before excessively high concussion forces can be developed in the occupant's skull."
American Motors also incorporated new designs for windshield sealing for the 1970 models and developed a systems solutions process that began in the styling studio to ensure maximum efficiency.
1968
American Motors promoted the mid-model year launch of the AMX to automotive journalists at Daytona to emphasize its sports car performance, as well as with a marketing agreement with Playboy Enterprises. To introduce the AMX to its dealers, AMC held meetings at nine Playboy Clubs.
The AMX was introduced to the public on 24 February 1968, five months after the Javelin and other 1968 AMC cars. The AMX was promoted as "the only American sports car that costs less than $3500". American Motors advertisements also showed "a helmeted race driver revving up at the starting line in one of AMC's sporty AMX models, which it describes as ready to do 125 miles an hour."
The two-seat AMX was "meant for a small, well-defined market niche, and it pulled young people into AMC dealer showrooms in never before seen numbers". Numerous road tests described the new AMX as a "handsome two-seater with American-style acceleration and European-style handling". Journalists gave it a real run workout on all kinds of terrain and wrote "that the AMX is one of the best-looking cars – if not the best-looking car – made in the U.S.A."
All AMXs came with four-barrel carbureted small block AMC V8 engines in several versions: (, N-code), (, T-code), as well as the "AMX" featuring with of torque (X-code). All are derived from the same external size block. However, the three engines differed vastly internally, with the smallest engine having small intake and exhaust valves, thin block webbing, and a cast nodular iron crankshaft; the 343 used larger valves with a thicker block webbing; and the 390 moved up to a forged steel crankshaft and connecting rods, as well as larger rod bearings, compared to in the smaller two versions.
A BorgWarner T-10 four-speed manual transmission was standard, as were unique traction bars, dual exhaust system, and fatter tires for better traction. A "Shift-Command" three-speed automatic transmission with the capability of manual shifting (BorgWarner model M-11B or M-12) was optional together with a floor console mounted shifter.
A popular "Go-Package" option was available with the four-barrel 343 or 390 engine. It included power-assisted front disk brakes, "Twin-Grip" differential, E70x14 red-stripe performance tires on 6-inch wide steel road wheels, heavy-duty suspension with thicker sway-bars, heavy-duty cooling, as well as other performance enhancements. A wide range of specialized performance parts were also available through AMC dealers for installation on customer's cars. These were known as "Group 19" parts because of how AMC organized its parts books.
Breedlove AMX According to several sources, "Breedlove Replica" cars to commemorate the speed and endurance records were offered by AMC. The Standard Catalog of American Muscle Cars 1960–1972 describes an estimated 50 "Breedlove" AMXs were sold featuring the red, white, and blue paint scheme along with the standard 4-barrel V8 with four-speed manual transmission.
However, AMC historians argue there was no "factory literature, order sheets, advertising, photographs, or anything else to properly document any factory 1968 or 1969 'Breedlove Replica' AMXs." According to historians, a new car that a dealer in Canada ordered could not have been painted at the factory, but rather outsourced to local Kenosha body shops to perform the final painting.
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