Come on! Raise you hands. How many of you out there thought this was a Pantera? Yeah, I thought so. I won't be too hard on you though. Not too many people were even aware of this mid-engine exotic even when it was new!
The late '60s was an era of not only the muscle car, but also the beginnings of mid-engine exotic sports cars-think Ferrari Dino and Lamborghini Miura. Ford had experimented with the GT-40 and even GM considered various forms of a mid-engine Corvette, however none of these ideas bore fruit.
The underdog American Motors would not be left behind by the Big Three. Especially with the always-enthusiastic Richard "Dick" Teague, AMC's head designer, stoking the fires. The firm's Javelin and AMX were certified sales hits, but Teague felt a sleek, limited-production sports car was what AMC needed to build even more showroom traffic in the hopes of getting potential customers into a Javelin, or at least an Ambassador or Rebel.
Reportedly six of these prototypes were built by Bizzarrini, with further development work by BMW, and were powered by AMC's tough 390 V8 backed to a transaxle. That set-up ultimately yielded 0-60 times in 5.5 seconds and a top speed of over 145 mph. However the AMX/3 design was never tested in a wind tunnel, and the front end got a little light at the higher speeds.
I'm sure those teething problems would have been sorted out before a production car would had ever come off the line, but the cash-strapped American Motors just couldn't justify the numbers for this limited-production supercar and the continued problems and cost overruns closed the AMX/3 project before too long. The final blow came in the form of Ford's new DeTomaso Pantera, with looks that were as sleek as the AMX, bigger production volume, and a more reasonable price tag ($10,000 versus the $12,000 for the AMX).
You can find more on these cars at www.amxfiles.com. This Web site tries to keep track of each of the six AMX/3 cars that were built-and it's worth a look. Of course, the kit and replicar industry thrives on making available unobtainable cars, be they exotic or entry level. I think you could trump a Lamborghini or a Cobra coupe with a production AMX/3. And, if you're really clever, you could slightly reproportion the body so it could accept a front engine/rear drive arrangement. Or, go ahead and set it up for a mid-engine/transaxle power as per stock.
My sketch shows the stock body configuration, and in fact my modifications were almost nil to the rest of the car (save for the aftermarket scissor-style doors and the filled-in scoop at the leading edge of the hood). I lowered the stance some more, and added contemporary wheels and tires: 18- and 20-inch Brabus wheels normally found on Mercedes Benz fill the fenderwells.
While researching this month's installment of Profiles, I ran across a great quote from an AMX/3 enthusiast: " . . . it has a touch of everything. Speed racer, Pantera, and Cheetah. It's awesome. Sharp, sexy, and sleek, it so deserved to be a contender, which makes it all the more exotic today." Amen to that!-Steve Stanford