Unless gray sunless skies and the great Polaris/Ski Doo debate elevate your pulse, October is the last Michigan month until May to offer any real hope of a good time outdoors that doesn’t involve a pair of skis and a hot beverage. Unfortunately, October of this year has practiced under the direct tutelage of its direct successor and enveloped the state in clouds and a constant threat of rain. Needless to say, the residents of the Great Lake State must get out while we still can, and at least the temperatures have supported fall color drives. On our annual trip to the Huron National Forest, there were four-wheeled sights to see in addition to the usual fabulous vistas.
In a past discussion of color drives, I examined the history of the Au Sable River and surrounding forest land. Luckily, the Huron National Forest is less than an hour and a half’s drive from my front door, so it’s a fine alternative to the much more crowded and distant Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore.
Aside from a slightly damp Sunday wedding at Iargo Springs, human traffic was light for this time of year, probably a result of the aforementioned dampness. Although our trip this year was mostly dry, we did encounter a few patches of rain.
I typically refrain from driving my old cars in the rain, but I didn’t mind this time; after all, this year marks my 28th of driving this ’65 Mustang, a car that was roadworthy enough by the time I was in high school to cover the first of the 85,000 miles I’ve driven it in the ensuing years. This car and I used to go everywhere together, but now that it’s a little nicer and I have a much larger collection, we only roll up about a thousand miles a year. No matter – this trip made me a little nostalgic for the old days when my car ownership experience was slightly less hectic and I didn’t let a little precipitation affect my plans.
This view is therefore among my most familiar – there’s not too much in life that’s better than the view over the long hood of an early Mustang.
Well, maybe car spotting is a little better. Our route this year followed I-75 north to US-23, past a detour to M-65, and onto River Road on forest land. This Javelin was for sale along US-23, and it is a beauty. It’s a ’68, the first of the Javelins, and what makes it so appealing, aside from its beautiful turquoise paint color, is the fact that it’s a six-cylinder car with a column-mounted automatic.
Normally, the six cylinder/automatic combination would make it far less desirable, but it’s so weird for a “ponycar” to be optioned this way that I must chalk it up to some Rambler dealer’s confusion at having a “sporty” car on the lot, or maybe it was the buyer who ordered it this way. A reputation can last forever, and everybody knows that Ramblers had a reputation, at least if you ask almost any baby boomer that I’ve ever talked to. If your life doesn’t encompass the time period in which this Javelin was built, your biases might not extend to AMC products, making this Javelin a great find.
Now it’s time for some good news/bad news. First, it’s already sold, and I took these pictures a week ago. Second, it was priced at $9500, which seems eminently reasonable considering that everyone in the world is currently asking unreasonable prices for anything that could be remotely labeled a commodity. Finally, I didn’t buy it, and its being sold removes any remaining urge to do so.
Sitting nearby was this not-quite-as-cool mid-’70s Hornet, which isn’t and wasn’t listed for sale on the proprietor’s Facebook page. Since it didn’t whip up my thinning hair nearly as much as the Javelin did, I took fewer pictures.
Needless to say, the Hornet looked like a great car for an AMC person or any fan of quirky cars from the heady decade in which I was born. Just on the other side of the sign sat a Cutlass convertible and a ’69-’72 Pontiac Grand Prix, but for some reason they didn’t call out to me that day like the AMCs did.
As Bobby Bland might have said, “further on up the road” was a small fenced-in salvage yard with this neat ’59 Imperial hardtop sitting just inside. Although I prefer the ’57 and ’58 models for their huge gauge pods, the ’59 is very similar and is propelled by the new-for-1959 413 wedge engine.
There’s no evidence that the Imperial was for sale, and it may be too far gone for any kind of cost-effective restoration, but it’s still a lovely reminder of those frightening and hopeful late-1950s years of Cold War optimism. It may not be as recognizable as its most direct competitor, the ’59 Cadillac, and it only may be more tasteful by comparison, but I love it.
The nostalgia I felt driving my first car on a gloomy weekend was a bit silly because my basic interests have changed less than they have for many healthy, functional adults. When I was a kid, I asked my parents to stop at every nature trail and every neat car on the side of the road, and I spent much of my free time in the garage or with my nose in a book somewhere. Now, I stop for a lot of nature trails and a lot of cars on the side of the road, in addition to spending much of my free time in the garage or with my nose in a book somewhere. Oh sure, YouTube and the internet exist now, so I also watch too many videos on auto repair, vintage rallies, and art history along with spending too much time on marque forums. Such is the life of this long-time car guy.
But I still wonder if I should have bought that Javelin.
Nice combination of automobiles, scenery and commentary!
Thank you!
The CC effect strikes again with a vengeance: we were on that very same Iargo Springs trail a couple of days ago. A beautiful spot I’d never visited before. You saw much nicer cars than we did, though.
That whole area is great for a walk, at least if one is up to climbing a lot of stairs. 🙂
“… its most direct competitor, the ’59 Cadillac, and it only may be more tasteful by comparison…” Don’t forget Continental. ’59 was not exactly the pinnacle of restrained good taste in American luxury cars.
The color of that Javelin really makes it pop, it works extremely well with the rear end on that one too, very clean and unfussy. A very nice car for someone to enjoy.
And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a liftback Hornet, wasn’t even aware that was an option, and makes that car far more interesting than most of them. That one too looks quite good from here.
Your over the hood shot somehow instantly took me back to the two Mustangs I rode in occasionally in college, a ‘64.5 six/3-speed and the polar opposite, a ’66 Shelby, both owned by (lucky) friends at the time. I can hear (and still feel) the deep thrummy note of the V8 at full chat in the Shelby while also hearing the lighter note of the six in the earlier car, both unexpected memories generated by your shot. Makes we want to get into a Mustang again, haven’t done so since then somehow. Good stuff!
The liftback Hornet was pretty popular, with younger buyers. It was a big improvement over the three-box Hornet. A good looking car, along with the sporty wagon. Teague had some real winners along with the losers. These Hornets really kept AMC afloat during the otherwise difficult 70s. Frankly, why bother with the Pacer when you already had this for a fraction of the development costs?
I agree – that color (or more precisely the color combination, with the white interior) is particularly alluring here. More than enough to overcome the unfortunate drivetrain combination if viewing it as an occasional-driver pleasure car.
Those bucket seats without a console remind me of my father’s ’76 Buick Century, which he ordered that way because he hated bench seats.
Thanks Jim…if you’re imagining sounds, mine is closer to the Shelby than the six; it has dual 2 1/4″ exhaust with Dynomax Super Turbos. It’s probably louder than I’d like and certainly has a drone at 60 mph…but it sounds pretty cool.
Is that a stock paint color on the Mustang? Very unusual, though it could be the light.
I’d love to see the Grand Prix, and what was the 40’s car behind the Imperial?
If I recall the discussion from some years back, it was the original Vintage Burgundy that went on a little lighter than it should have, probably due to the problems inherent in re-creating the old formula.
Good memory, JP…that’s exactly how things went down. 🙂
I’m not positive, but the car behind the Imperial may be a 1941 Plymouth.
That is a gorgeous Javelin. I would have had a hard time passing that up as well. I grew up in the 60’s and remember these well. My dad was an AMC guy for a while so I have always had a soft spot for just about anything AMC. Sixes were commonly found in pony cars from the big three as well. Finding one in a Javelin is no surprise.
AMC vehicles always looked better than they were. Now that they have been gone two generations, they appear even more attractive. No matter how much I might enjoy seeing them, I always remember what was underneath those attractive bodies. If AMC would have only invested in better cars underneath those Teague beauties, instead of producing those odd Pacers, Matador Coupes – there could perhaps still be a Kenosha Wisconsin car company today?
Nah.
Column mounted shifters for automatics were standard on all the pony cars except the Mustang, so they were hardly uncommon.
I’m almost surprised not to see a bench seat in this one.
I rather love that white interior with that terrific exterior color. It just needs some dog dishes to make the look complete.
I could be mistaken but I believe Javelins came standard with bucket seats like the Mustang. The 68 brochure only features them at least
I knew that; I was just projecting, being somewhat surprised that AMC didn’t offer a bench. One of the reasons being that The Javelin was significantly roomier in the back seat compared to the Mustang and Camaro, due to it sharing much of its basic proportions with the Hornet. I bet a Hornet bench seat would fit perfectly. 🙂
Given that AMC was famous for sharing many components among their models and across model years, It makes me wonder if the floor pans were shared between the Javelin and Hornet.
Anyone else notice the last picture where the Javelin appears to have a trunk full of six-packs of beer? Imagine an ad like that in today’s world…
Well it was made in Wisconsin
On the first photo I’m surprised you didn’t take a picture of the 1975-78 Mercury Marquis.
I probably should have, but big Fords of the mid ’70s have never been super high on my list. It looked nice from a distance.
From the rear three-quarter view of the Hornet hatch, it’s giving me strong Javelin-lite! In the best way. Teague had talent.
Love, love, love that Javelin, and in such a great color combo. I might also get weirdly nostalgic for the column shifter, even it isn’t sporty. So many cars I grew up with had that.
I’ve always preferred column shifters for automatics, and don’t know why floor mounted shifters are preferred. You can keep your hands on the wheel and don’t have to look down. There is something satisfying about moving a lever and hearing the clunk as the transmission shifts into Drive.
Really, there’s almost no benefit to an automatic’s selector being on the floor – it just looks sportier. It also calls attention to the fact that the owner didn’t get a manual. 🙂
It’s interesting that two of the hottest domestic ‘street legal’ race cars, the 1968 Hemi-Dart and Hemi-Cuda, came with automatics that had column shifters. They even had reverse-order, manual valve bodies, and they would usually be replaced by the racers with aftermarket, ratcheting floor-shifters, but they came from the factory on the column.
^ This.
My Father had one of the last cars available with automatic on the column, a 2006 Impala. You could also get it on the floor, and probably was more popular that way. However, for us it was a godsend, my Dad became handicapped in less than a week due to the oral chemo drug he was on (wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it) and had to transfer from his wheelchair into the front passenger seat of his car…we had a transfer board (slippery flat board that goes between the wheelchair and the front car seat) but also used a towel that he would sit on and we could pull him the rest of the way in the car. My Father was a big guy (I am as well) but I wasn’t always available to drive him, so my sister (who is petite) had to get him into the car. If the car had a floor shifter it wouldn’t be easy to pull the towel (the shifter is in the way, you want to pull it horizontally).
The other reason of course you see in old movies…people get in on the passenger side and scoot over to driver seat. This really becomes handy when someone hems in the driver’s side (such as parking too close to that side of the car). I live in a crowded city (10x the size it was when I moved here just about 40 years ago)…I’m amazed more people don’t seem to have this issue (or maybe they are thinner than I and can get in the small slit of the driver side door).
Back to the cars of this article, I’m normally a hatchback guy, but the exception for me is the Hornet, I prefer the sedan. Plus, the hatchback is often setup as “sporty” with the floor shift automatic vs column shift (I know it also comes as floor or column manual). To me the Hornet was the car AMC should have developed (though maybe the luxury version Concord could have come out a few years early to placate the “luxury” market that was particularly big in the mid 70’s. To me the Hornet was “right ” sized…maybe because I grew up with 2 Rambler classic wagons, even more space efficient but unfortunately have the trunion suspension. The Hornet is pretty plain, but I don’t mind that.
Beautiful photos, nice cars.
I’m sure that Mustang has some stories to tell, including having been lovingly cared for over a 28 year span. Congratulations.
Thanks!
Speaking of stories I should yell out loud…Mercury6768, I think it is. Club member just bought an original owner Rangoon Red 66 Mustang hardtop out of Oklahoma in the last week or so full of options and in gorgeous original condition from what I can tell.
I never liked the Hornet Hatchback all that much when they were common, but like it a lot more now.
CC effect – I was shown a picture of an oddly painted trailer the other day and noticed mismatched wheelcovers. One was from a 69 or 70 Mustang, but the other I could not ID. It is from this Javelin!!!
Love the Javelin in that color combination. I too am surprised that it isn’t equipped with a bench seat.
The Hornet hatchback was always attractive to my eyes and these pictures reminded me of the close contact I had with several while growing up. Our next-door neighbors had a swarm of Hornets, including 2 Sportabout wagons, a four-door and three different hatchbacks. These were bought new and traded every few years, though at one point, there were three Hornets in their driveway. I really liked the red hatchback, which was optioned very nicely, whereas all the others were strippers that confirmed the Rambler reputation that the author alludes to here. After the Hornet went out of production, the neighbors tried a Concord, which was a real lemon, and then switched to base model Nissan sedans.
Yes on price alone you should have bought the Javelin for all the reasons you detailed… great photos through the fence of that classic Imperial.
My daily hood view is a joy..
I thought about it for a few minutes, but storage is really getting to be an issue, so I have to learn to be more selective until I upgrade to much more land (or get some off-site shop space of my own).
Nice finds Aaron! Nice to see you enjoying your long-time owned Mustang, it’s still looking great. Those Javelins were pretty sharp, but the proportions on the rear half of the car always seemed a tad off to me. In my eyes the AMX just looked better, even though it was a bit too short. Like Joseph points out, the Hornet and Javelin are remarkably similar when seen from that angle.
Ontario weather is pretty similar to Michigan weather, so I can relate to the grey skies and rain during fall. However, when we do get the clear sunny days it is the best time of the year to drive an old car. My most enjoyable ride this year was a spirited drive on an some new to me secondary highways this fall. With lots of hills and curves, the trees at peak colours, it was quite enjoyable.
The Javelin’s rear half was too long; the AMX’s too short. They should have split the difference with one car.
The Javelin is based too much on the Hornet, hence the two look so similar in proportions. But their original missions were different. A big back seat was not really a selling point. It’s no coincidence that it and the Barracuda were always at the bottom of the sales in that category.
Thanks Vince, today was probably the last really nice day – it’s dropping to the 50s by the weekend. Oh well…out comes the Dart soon, which is probably as well, because everything is mechanically going to hell in the fleet right now, unfortunately.
Very NICE!! While the base Javelin looks appealingly colorful compared to the dull ACHROMATIC paint applied to most vehicles today, the achromatic black certainly graces the still sleek lines of that Hornet.
The hatchback Hornet’s were one of the cleanest, yet flowing automotive designs of the 1970s. Sadly they were let down by the rather archaic platforms they rode on. OTOH, their US built competitors really were not significantly better for handling, brakes, etc! My 1969 Nova 6 did not put my dad’s 1974 Hornet 6 in the shade at all! The only item I can remember is that the Hornet seat’s were even less supportive and comfortable than my Nova’s bench seat was. Both got similar mpg from their “big” 6s!
However, while I wouldn’t push my ’88 Camaro IROC-Z 350 out of the garage for a swoopy Hornet like the one shown…….I probably would push my red ’21 Civic EX out!! :):) DFO
The Hornet was a decent enough car by the standards of the day. The biggest letdown was the interior with just about the worst seats in the industry and that godawful, ill-fitting, cheap plastic dashboard. (When the Hornet morphed into the Concord the interior was much improved.)
The platform’s really not all that archaic by American car standards of the day, it’s a unibody, the rear suspensions were typical Hotchkiss as found in all of the Compacts and Ponycars of the 70s, and the front suspension was redesigned in 1970 eliminating the trunnions for ball joints, and supposedly with decent geometry learned from the Trans Am campaigns. A Hornet hatch stands up pretty well against a Maverick, at least on paper
Almost CC effect as I saw an AMX Monday night in a local parking lot.
Across the street from my high school friend lived a fellow who was one or two years older than us so 18 vs 16. They had a yellow 1968 Javelin in the driveway. I know it had the 343 V8 with an automatic and I was never sure if it was bought by his Dad for Dad or for him. He pampered that car every week and it there was ever a Javelin to last through to this day it would have to be that one. He also put on Cherry Bombs for my Cougar in 1970 when the engine was still stock. Just volunteered to do it for the hell of it.
Second favoritist wheel covers are these ones on the Javelin, very clean design. The proportions AMC went with for these definitely errs on the Barracuda side but it makes an excellent case for attractive yet practical ponycar or at the very least a sporty compact coupe like the Duster of the 70s. I love this color, I had been watching one of these for months on Denver Craigslist a few years ago for very reasonable money – I can’t believe how undervalued these still are! – and it was the same exact color with some patina. I wanted to look at it when I got out there but by the time I did the seller rattlecanned it flat black to try to move it and apparently it worked, it was gone by the time I had the opportunity to pounce
The shots you took of both the Javelin and Hornet actually highlight their related underpinnings better than a full on side view, its kind of funny how the Hornet AMXs represent malaise era sticker supercars and name debasement but there’s a hell of a lot more in common between them and say a Volare Roadrunner or a Ventura GTO. If the Hornet hatch design debuted as the 71 Javelin instead it would seem totally appropriate successor, maybe better in some peoples eye(I personally love them but I see why the 71s are polarizing)
My cousin’s first car was a ’68 Javelin, brown, with a 6cyl and auto. Slow is being nice about it. It rusted away pretty quickly and it was replaced with a ’74 Camaro. It was brown too, and had the 250″? six and an auto. It was slower than the Javelin. He had that car a long time, at least until ’82 or ’83. He has a track record of buying base powertrains in almost every vehicle he’s ever bought, along with some of the worst sounding stereos ever. His current Subaru Outbacks (He and his wife both have identical silver ones) are probably the quickest vehicles he’s ever had. He sees my Scat Pack Challenger and his eyes about pop out of his head. I can’t get him to even ride in it.
Not anything to do with cars, but you mentioned the Au Sable river…when we lived in Burlington VT (in the 60’s though we moved to VA and back to Shelburne in the 70’s) there was a popular tourist site, Au Sable Chasm, across Lake Champlain in New York state, near Port Kent (the ferry from Burlington went to Port Kent). Wonder if there’s a connection? Lots of French names up north especially near Quebec.
Now live in Texas, most of the names are Spanish (some are also German, or Moravian). I tell my Mother she’s a minority here (she’s 100% Slovak, which was also her first language, even though she was born in the US, not many like her here though).
Oddly for me, a hatchback fan normally, I prefer the Hornet sedan (especially 2 door). Maybe because most had column shift vs floor shift for the hatchback (know some hatchbacks had column shift, but seemed to me that most were floor shift, as they were considered “sportier” than the sedan I guess.