When the AMC AMX was launched in 1968 the AMC vice president Vic Raviolo described it as “the Walter Mitty Ferrari” – a reference to the character created by James Thurber in his short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. Walter was an ordinary man with a wild imagination and an incredibly vivid fantasy life, Vic was drawing a parallel to Walter and the wild persona that existed just under the skin of his new creation.
AMX stands for American Motors eXperimental, the model started life as an edgy concept car in 1966 that had been designed to fill the gap between the muscle car and the sports car. The 97 inch wheelbase of the production version is noticeably shorter than the muscle cars that it resembles, the 1968 Ford Mustang has a wheelbase of 108 inches by way of comparison.
One of the benefits of the shorter platform was the weight saving – the AMC AMX weighed in at approximately 3,100 lbs (1,400+ kg) and the largest engine it was offered with was the 390 cubic inch (6.4 litre) V8 producing 325hp. It was a recipe for a proper sports car, and the period automotive reviewers were overwhelmingly impressed with the new car – Tom McCahill probably summed it up best when he wrote “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.”
Despite its character, looks and ability, the AMX never caught on in the same way that the Corvette, Mustang, Camaro or the Firebird did. That said, the surviving examples have a nationwide fanbase that’s tight nit, well researched and welcoming to new members.
Examples like this one, that are fitted with the desirable 390 cubic inch engine, floor-shift 4-speed manual transmission, original factory “mag-style ” wheels, woodgrain trim elements, power steering, power brakes and factory radio. It’s being offered by Auctions America at the upcoming Fort Lauderdale auction on the 1st of April with an estimated value of between $30,000 and $50,000 USD – if you’d like to read more or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.
Photo Credits: Karissa Hosek © 2016 Auctions America
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
