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American Muscles | Episode 08 – AMC AMX/3
AMC AMX/3
Words Christian Parodi / Photos Gooding & Company
Don’t worry if you’ve never heard anything about this, it’s a rare piece, very rare indeed. However, I thought that it deserved a moment of reflection for its particular beauty, which has remained intact after well over half a century. And the credit also goes to an Italian. We are talking about the AMX/3, a mid-rear engine sports car created by AMC in 1969 to face the rising European icons and broaden the customer base of a generalist brand born from the union of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation, Studebaker-Packard Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company, also in order to hold on and continue to fight with the American trio represented by giants such as Chrysler, Ford and General Motors.
An ambitious project led by president Gerry Meyers and design director Dick Teague, who commissioned Giotto Bizzarrini to make the ultimate Italian-American masterpiece. This is where the car was then equipped with an independent suspension system and a 6.3-liter 390 horsepower V8 combined with a 4-speed manual gearbox. Weight was kept to a minimum thanks to the special central beam chassis with welded monocoque and a fiberglass body.
Unfortunately, despite a plan of 5,000 units to be produced annually, AMC had to review its targets, dropping to just 20 units per year. In March 1970, every brightest ambition was canceled with the definitive cancellation of the project, both due to a too high selling price ($12,000) and due to the increasingly stringent safety regulations introduced in the States. A real shame because the AMX/3 had confirmed that the distortion of the classic layout of a typical American sports car with a front engine could very well be transformed into something that would have opened up who knows what horizons to the stars and stripes automotive panorama. In the end, just 6 were produced, including the beautiful example in the photograph, auctioned by Gooding & Company in 2017 and protagonist of important speed tests at the Monza racing circuit. In short, a tragic love story that intertwined United States and Italy on more than one occasion. A dream that is difficult to admire given its extreme rarity and precisely for this reason worthy of being introduced to those who have never heard of it.
… to be continued
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