SG stopped by to comment on our story, “1968-70 AMX was American Motors’ answer to a question nobody asked.”
AMX was not a sectioned Javelin. It was designed first and was supposed to be a fibreglass body on a new chassis. That was too expensive and risky, so the AMX was put on a shelf. Then the CEO, Robert Evans, ordered the engineers to make the AMX on the Rambler American chassis, similar to the Javelin. Shared parts were necessary to cut costs. It worked because much of the Javelin’s style had come from the AMX prototype.
It is clear to me that nobody here has actually driven an AMX, so I will explain that Mario Andretti test drove an AMX and really liked it. Or, as a person from Detroit once said, with tears in his eyes: “the most d*G awful fast car i have ever been in.”
— SG
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I’ve only seen an AMX up close at a car show and yes, I’d like to drive one. My supposition is that it’d remind me of my first wife’s 71 Hornet in how it would ride, steer & brake, only it’d be five times as fast as her Slushbox 232 and yes, that’d be terrifying. I won’t rehash the usual tropes about AMC but I’m not sure AMC could have afforded to make the AMX a Halo Car. Them’s costly.