The AMX was a product of the same thinking that created the Gremlin: a bit of body surgery will allow us to create a vehicle to compete in a totally different category. In the case of the Gemlin, it gave AMC a subcompact to compete with the Vega and Pinto. The ambitions for the AMX were a bit more lofty: chop out a 12″ section of the Javelin’s mid-body and we’ll have a a genuine two-seat seat sports car to compete with the Corvette.
It’s not quite as simple as that…
I’m a bit surprised that R&T was convinced that the AMX was the leading edge of a new trend, of sporty two-seaters. It sure didn’t turn out that way. Turns out that folks would rather have a back seat, even if it wasn’t all that comfy. But it sure came in handy when needed.
And it’s not like taking out 12″ from a Javelin was going to magically turn the AMX into a real Corvette competitor, or taking out 12″ from the Hornet’s wheelbase was going to make a real Corolla competitor. You think it’s a coincidence that both the AMX and Gremlin had exactly 12″ inches cut from their donors’ wheelbase? And that they essentially have the same wheelbase and platform? Yes, I know that nominally the Javelin had a 109″ wb and the AMX 97″, and the Hornet 108″ and the Gremlin 96″. But that 1″ was well within the margin of error that was commonly employed by Detroit. These are cut from the same cloth.
R&T noted that its proportions were a bit off: “the section aft of the windshield looks stubby compared to the long hood”. True that. There’s no denying the fact that the AMX looks like what it is: a shortened Javelin. And as such, its proportions are pretty seriously compromised. No professional designer would ever draw this from scratch. But hey, this is AMC, and we’re scrappy and desperate and willing to cut up our cars and pretend they’re suddenly sports cars or subcompacts.
Yes, I’m being a bit harsh on the poor AMX, which was a bit of a bright spot when it appeared in 1968. And as R&T’s test showed, it was a quite capable (shortened) pony car,
R&T leveled some more critiques of the AMX’ styling, including the horrendously dorky wheel covers. As to what it’s like to drive: “Well, pretty much the same as all the domestic Ponycars, give or take a microhair here and there. The car has a tremendously heavy feel about it, as it should—it is heavy. Steering is slow and numb… it understeers a lot but with the big engine it has enough torque on hand to bring the tail out faster than you can catch it.”
The 325 hp 390 V8 , which had a healthy torque curve but was done at 5,000 rpm, was teamed with a four speed manual with ratios deemed to be far too close together, with the result being that—once again—the four speeds were quite unnecessary, and an automatic would have been a much better match.
The position of the steering wheel was off-center to the driver, requiring an unpleasant cocked position, and the shifter was poorly located.
Despite the many quibbles, R&T predicted the AMX would sell well. It didn’t.
The straight fin trailing quarter panel hurts the look IMO. It hides the Javelin back glass and deck, but it thereby loses the style.
As a business…eh. It’s a cheap way to put a new product in the catalog. But it takes the style-over-substance principle of Mustang etc too far to be acceptable in the market.
The poster above is correct. The dated-looking rear quarter side spear, really hurt its looks. It added an early 60s Studebaker-quality. Bad idea. Further, I feel the busy ribbed rocker panel, really looked out of place on a ‘sports car’. I’ve done various tweaks in this Photoshop. The trailing edge of the roof could have done with a slight curve. To show movement. The AMC version is too ‘stiff’. Moving the door handles several inches forward, gives the doors less of an ‘abbreviated’ appearance. Too much front overhang in the production design as well. If the design was further polished and cleaned up, it could have been much more attractive IMO.
As a side note, the immediate greenhouse and roof profile look interestingly very much like the Ford EXP design in this area.
Proportion-wise the AMX works a little better than the Gremlin which would’ve been much better looking if they’d kept the Sawzall out long enough to chop a few inches out of the front overhang to balance things out.
The front of the Gremlin had to accommodate a long inline 6. Bobbing the nose might have required pushing the entire powertrain back, requiring changes in the firewall and floorpan.
In an alternate reality, they would have lengthened the side windows to relieve the Gremlin’s bulky look aft.
Hey, neat! Brings to mind the fifth pic in this post (please refrain from killing me)
Another attempt at a halo car. So many small companies try halo cars, and fail. On the other hand, I quite like the first gen Javelin, a close second, looks-wise, to the 70 Cougar I had when the earth was young.
And yet, when the ponycar budget dried up, “AMX” became a trim option on the Hornet, then the Spirit.
In an alternate reality somewhere, this would have been the gen 3 Javelin.
I don’t know what everyone is complaining about, IMHO the Javelin/AMX’s were the best looking pony cars of the Big 4 and the R&T roadtest is a little off. Those cars with the 390/401’s were some seriously fast cars. AMC just had to think outside the box in those days
Agreed. I wouldn’t put much stock in what the cork sniffers at R&T said back in the day. What the AMX needs is a bit of a “stagger” with different tire sizes and also a slight California rake. This gives them a full size Hot Wheels look. Fantastic.
I built this one up recently with F60 in front and L60 in the rear. Torque Thrusts are great, but also Cragar S/S wheels came on the factory Super Stock cars and they are awesome.
A true two seater is much more expensive to insure, even in the ‘good ole days’. I knew a woman had her Porsche 914 insured as a VW. Back before vin search was a thing…
Javelins & AMX were respected street cars but weren’t many around MI, it was all Big 3
Gremlins were right up there with Pintos & Vegas. No comparison to the Jav/AMX
In my humble opinion, a car with a great big V-8 is just lame when it comes to a manual transmission, especially a device like the BW T-10. The Muncie M-22 was even more unpleasant.
It seems to me Detroit was never all that serious about four speed manuals and couldn’t understand why anyone would want one.
Well, Chrysler offered the good A833 on the Dart-Valiant-Baccaruda cars in ’64-’66, with a good Hurst shifter in ’64-’65. Even with the cheaper ’66 Inland shifter, this was a much, much nicer setup than the 3-on-the-tree, for not much more money (I don’t think; I don’t have a price guide handy), but not very many people bought ’em. Chicken/egg?
Comparing t he AMX to the Gremlin isn’t accurate. THE amount Was designed to be a performance car even by chopping off The Javalin. THE Javelin was designed to be a performance pony car, the Gremlin was designed to be a compact/ grocery car from the jump.
Was it though? AMC seemed to have the Gremlin design in their styling arsenal early on and the Javelin was the car it was previewed on.
Kinda negates the barf bag story…
The barf bag story reminds me way too much of the garden party story regarding the ’62 Dodge and Plymouth. It’d long overdue for a debunking.
Can’t argue with the success of the Gremlin, could have been better if they had kept the AMX length aft of the B pillar. Frame less doors maybe. With longer side windows and Hornet rear sheet metal and tail lights, Gremlin is a better car for less expenditure. As I’ve mentioned before, they should have kept the Hornet grille and trim and saved money on that too. I think that’s what Studebaker would have done.
Does anyone remember the commercial about the javelin with the blower sticking out of the hood and the sn tells his dad I only made it better.
Can fid that clip anwhere.
This one? 🙂
That’s it.
I do remember that one. I can’t find a debut clip of the Javelin where guys with sledge hammers start destroying a Camaro. Towards the end it showed the Camaro getting blown up. When the dust and smoke cleared you saw the new Javelin.
Doug,
I remember that advertisement. I thought it was very funny as a 11 year old.
It seems AMC learned their lesson with the Gremlin when they introduced the Spirit Kammback: Almost identical bodyshell, but larger windows.
Step in the right direction. Looks great, reduces the blind spot and moves weight to the rear, where it was needed. About the AMX, the article mentions issues with the steering. Dad had an Ambassador Airflight and later owned a Hornet. My brother had a ’61 Classic. “Loose” steering was a big issue on all these AMC cars. Drove the Hornet quite a bit and the Classic some, that’s one reason why I know. Shop I worked for hated to get them in for State inspection – they always seemed to need front end work.Donaldo
Never meet your heros. I have loved these from afar without ever driving one. I’ve never taken the time to look up period reviews so I was excited to read this o e from R&T when Paul posted it. Sounds like it needs a wide ratio 4spd or – gasp – an automatic. Fact that the driver qas not aligned with the steering wheel doesn’t help either. I still want to drive one someday but, the luster is off the rose, shall I say.
I have a 68 390 4 speed it is a pleasure to drive and it’s not a Cadillac but it is comfortable for a long drive.the magazine folks have their heads up their a$$ in my opinion drive a nice one and see for yourself.
I may just have to do that, where do you live? 😜 JK.
I knew a guy who was a pretty astute collector of automobiles. At one point, he had about sixty cars that today would be worth at least half a billion dollars. He also had a row in his warehouse that was made up of AMXs. I don’t know that he hung onto the AMXs long enough to make a profit. Along the way he figured out that he could use corrupt authoritarians to accumulate wealth without any level of risk, and I stopped being entertained by his money-making schemes.
Were AMXs ever rental cars? Hertz maybe? In retrospect it seems more likely a Javelin, but my Dad was visiting around 69-70, had a rental car, I could swear an AMX that he let me drive a bit. Mind you the ink was still wet on my drivers license at the time when 25 was a carved in stone rule, but he let the kid drive it a little. Seemed fast and fun, but compared to my Mom’s 63 Ford with a 2 speed auto, of course it was quick. One oddity I recall was the horn was a little compression strip in the rim of the steering wheel. Surprisingly to me even, I didn’t mind it, even if it wouldn’t have been my first choice.
A neighbor of mine had a green AMX with unending clutch issues. I think the rear seal was leaking or something. He didn’t have it long. He ended up pulling a gun on me one night when he was high on coke and his wife sold it to come up with bail money. Later on, he would be infamous for a hit and run killing of some poor guy on a bike one night. He only spent 4 years in prison. I saw the AMX constantly while he was gone, the clutch was fixed.
The only issue I had with the AMX’s proportions was only that, to me, the first Javelin was just so near-perfect looking besides its slightly generic (but attractive) frontal styling. I’ve read other’s opinions that the Javelin was too long in the back, but I don’t share it. Never saw the AMX as a “Corvette competitor” besides the having two seats thing, but I thought it was a nifty idea executed on a budget to round out AMC’s model line.
I’d agree, the AMX wasn’t a Corvette competitor, from a marketing perspective, it’s a “line extension ” of an existing pony car. The competition was the sportier pony cars of the Big Three. The 2-seater format offered some distinction from these other cars they couldn’t match, again as much a marketing goal as a performance one.
Likely the AMX didn’t cost much to develop or manufacture given its reliance on existing Javelin parts so it’s break – even production volume was pretty low.
Overall this approach was sound and logical especially for a smaller firm like AMC. General Motors recycled this approach twenty years later with the Reatta and Allante models. Yeah, they weren’t for everyone either but I like them all.
The AMX seemed more like a bodystyle variant like the Fastback/Sportsroof Mustangs, it just dropped any pretense of a back seat with the bodystyle rather than cobble up some narrow dark cave of a seat the 2+2 Mustangs had. I never got the Corvette competitor thing either, I’ve heard that said about the AMX as long as I’ve known about the AMX, I think it’s one of those things where “2-seater = sports car”, sort of like how today 2-door means that.
As bad as those wheel covers were there were some equally unflattering ones on Detroit ponycars in that time, the 69 Mustang ones come to mind
Yes, the AMX was a beauty, based on a stunning beauty, Javelin. Would have liked to see the AMX developed something like the Volvo 1800 as a 2 door wagon with some real utility. Would have fit in with the idea of those first Rambler Wagons. Friend of my family had a one man floor scraping business and used his early Rambler wagon for his floor scraper and for personal use. Used to rave about it. Javelin front clip, Gremlin like body aft, extended enough and tall enough to be useful. About a foot shorter than the Sportabout. Could have used a side mounted fuel door though. Mini Nomad. Thing about the AMX was that it got compared to cars that steered and handled better. The AMC steering was a big limitation. Worked OK for the Gremlin and for a mini wagon based on the Javelin/AMX, I think would have also worked if they made it tall enough. Vega and Pinto were small and narrow. Nothing to compete directly with at a small development cost.
This Prototype still exists! https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/the-plastic-prototype-1966-amc-amx
From Hemmings.
Agree on the straight trailing edge ruining the AMX. But, then, i thought the whole thing was hokey. OTOH, probably sold as well as a convertible Javelin, which would have been my preference, even if sales would have been no different.
That was the whole idea behind the AMX: a two-seat ponycar coupe that no one else had. Unfortunately for AMC, there was a reason no one else did it.
I learned to drive in my sister and brother-in-law’s 1969 AMX. Silver with the 340.
I was supposed to get the car but it didn’t make it through their divorce to my benefit.
Just as well as I’m sure I would have wrapped it around a tree.
So my first car was a 63 Chevy flat bed truck.
Probably saved my life!
I get a Toronado vibe from the side elevation of the AMX. Taking Daniel M’s very pleasant tweaks of the stock AMX as my example, I compare it to the stock Toronado as well as to the version modified by a R&T reader c. 1966. All cars appear at the same scale (Toronado WB an inch over ten feet; the AMX an inch under eight). Daniel’s slightly concave trailing edge helps the comparison to Toronado . . .
Yeah there’s no way the Toro wasn’t a big influence in the AMX design. I actually think it validates some of the details others don’t like about it over the standard Javelin.
Heh. Well, the timing is about right: Toro, 1966; AMX, 1968. The shapes of the window opening and the rear quarter are a lot of it. And what might be called “fitted bumpers” (?) were in the wind then; certain pony cars, including eventually the Celica coupe, had them.
Daniel’s subtle improvements to the AMX (see blue photos above) included moving the door handle and very slightly reducing the front overhang. I wonder if anyone has tried to affirm whether the good doctor’s revised Toronado would have accommodated everything going on behind the front bumper of that car. Seems to me that might have been addressed, in our last discussion of the subject . . .?
Bob G’s linked article above is well worth the read . . . The name Cord appears near the end, in a heart-warming (for me) irrelevancy !
Mine drives great and it hauls ass also it’s usually star of the show wherever she goes.seems to be alot of arm chair critics that don’t know squat.
The Javelin styling is amazing and the AMX is kind of a quirky offshot. But that was really part of AMC’s plan. The production was so limited that each car had a dash plaque with it’s production number.
The 1970 Javelin really summed it up, with functional ram air hood, rear spoiler, and great color options.
Not to burst anyone’s bubble, but the the Original AMX concept was on the drawing board in January or February of 1965, and it was a running and driving car when it debuted at the car shows in June 29th. of 1966. Looks to me like Oldsmobile decided to “stretch” the AMX design to fit the Buick Riveria chassis https://heacockclassic.com/articles/evolution-of-the-american-motors-amx-the-other-american-muscle-car/