"American-style acceleration and European-style handling" - The AMC AMX

Some people might now think “A hot hatch guy writing about muscle cars? That can’t end well” and you’d be partly right. I’m far from being a muscle car expert. Actually, I can barely tell apart the different model years of the most famous muscle cars. But that doesn’t keep me from talking about my favorite muscle car today.

But first things first. When someone says “muscle car”, most people start thinking of heavy, giant cars with engines big enough to tear the asphalt off the ground. However, AMC had a different opinion on that.

To be exact, I’m talking about the 1968-70 AMC AMX. The car was based on the same chassis, that was used for the Javelin, AMC’s 60s pony car.

Although both cars look almost identical, the AMX is said to be absolutely unique among the American car scene. But what makes the car so special? Mainly its length. While most other pony cars of that era were in the range of 4.80m (189 in), the AMX measured a humble 4.49m (177 in) and had a wheelbase of just 2.46m (97 in). So, for comparison, a current Ford Focus is barely shorter and a Fiesta has a longer wheelbase. This difference in size had another positive side effect. The car weighs less than 1400kg (~3000 lbs), making it one of the lightest classic muscle cars.

But all this didn’t keep AMC from installing a range of V8 engines into the car. While the base engine was a 4.8l (290 cu in) AMC V8 with 225 hp, the displacement could increase up to 6.4l (390 cu in), delivering 340 hp. 340 hp in a car weighing less than 1400kg still is a good ratio by today’s standards, but for the late 60s it was simply insane.

With that power-to-weight-ratio, it’s only natural that the AMX broke several speed records. A slightly modified AMX ran 304 km/h (189 mph) at Bonneville. The car was oftenly praised by automotive journalists, sometimes even nicknaming it “Corvette killer”. Being nearly 25% cheaper than the Corvette improved the AMX’s reputation even more.

"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." - Tom McCahill, automotive journalist

For those reasons, many people call the AMX more of a sports car than an actual muscle car, but I’d contradict this. Following the definition by Webster’s dictionary muscle cars are “any of a group of American-made 2-door sports cars with powerful engines designed for high-performance driving.” and the AMX definitely fits in this category.

Somehow, the car never became as famous as the Mustang or the Camaro, although it was praised for its speed, handling and looks.

So, for me, the AMX is the perfect muscle car, especially for driving on European roads. The car fits on our rather narrow streets and you still get to hear the sound of such a huge displacement V8 engine. There are many more things to tell about this amazing piece of American engineering, but for now, I’ll stop here. I hope you liked my short explanation of why the AMX is my favorite muscle car.

Side note: All pictures were shamelessly taken off Google, credits to the picture’s owners.