Happy Wednesday Web Riders faithful, Big_Blocker here for a somewhat early installment of Muscle Car of the Week. Seeing as I am going out of town later today to visit famiy and will not be able to post for the next few days, I decided to treat you all with something most people have never heard of from a company that most people never heard of. The car is the 1968 AMX and the company is AMC, hit the jump to read more on the little pony car that slipped in under the radar in ‘68.

Prior to the late 1960’s, American Motors Corp. or AMC, did not have a favorable reputation with the young and performance minded enthusiasts of the time, and as the maker of the Rambler, how could they. AMC made one of their greatest moves ever when they decided to take 2 concept cars and actually produce and sell them to the public. The first was the Javelin, a four seat coupe with a recessed grill and fastback roofline. For the AMX, or American Motors Experimental, one foot was cut out of the already short 109 inch wheelbase of the Javelin giving the AMX an overall length of about 177 inches. To help keep weight down, the rear seat was also removed, making the AMX the first real two seat sports car since the Ford Thunderbird of the mid 1950’s, and when fully equipped weighed in at a slim 3,100 pounds.

The AMX was available with several engine options that it shared with its big brother the Javelin, however since the AMX was a performance minded car, it was offered with the 290 cubic inch V8 standard, and not the inline six. The 290 came stock with 225 horsepower, with the 343 and 390 options putting out 280 and 315 respectively. A four-speed transmission was standard equipment as well. When the equipped with the top of the line 390 V8, the AMX could hit zero to sixty times of 6.9 seconds and would blast down the quarter in the low 15’s, not bad for a two seater from AMC. But the true potential of the AMX would not be tested until it was given to Craig Breedlove who set 106 speed records in February of 1968 eventually hitting a top speed of 189 miles per hour in San Angelo, Texas. To commemorate his monumentous achievement, 50 red, white and blue Breedlove AMX’s were produced.

In the end, AMC was rewarded with good sales numbers and sold over 6,000 AMX’s and over 40,000 Javelins. Not bad for a little company that made Ramblers not but a few years before. Hope you enjoyed a look at a car that most people have never heard about. Stay tuned for next week. Big_Blocker signing off.