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Rare 1970 AMC AMX/3 Comes Out of Storage to Flex Mid-Mounted V8

AMC's most daring project, the AMX/3, is now largely forgotten. It started life as a concept car in the 1960s, it was approved for production in 1969, but it was canceled in 1970. Thankfully, a half-dozen cars were completed before American Motors Corporation pulled the plug and they're still around to tell the AMX/3 story.
1970 AMC AMX/3 7 photos
Photo: DtRockstar1/YouTube
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The idea behind the AMX/3 surfaced in the mid-1960s when AMC was struggling to compete with Ford, Chrysler, and GM. In need of a car that would appeal to younger buyers and following Ford's success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the GT40, AMC management decided that a mid-engined sports car was the way to go.

Although the body was designed at AMC's styling center, headed by Dick Teague, production was outsourced to Europe. The mid-engined chassis was developed by Giorgio Giugiaro's Italdesign, while the suspension was the work of Giotto Bizzarrini. AMC initially wanted German coachbuilder Karmann to handle production, but the prototypes were eventually put together by Diomante.

AMC also cooperated with BMW on this project. The German firm undertook test drives with the first AMX/3 prototype and recommended a series of improvements to the chassis, suspension, and cooling system.

Diomante reportedly started building AMX/3 vehicles in early 1969. AMC displayed it at the New York Auto Show in April 1970, where the DeTomaso Pantera also made its debut but abandoned the project just a few weeks later. American Motors never explained the decision, which is said to have cost the company about $2 million.

The exact number of AMX/3 cars built remains a mystery to this day, but most experts agree that Diomante put together six. The final example wasn't completed until 1971 and it was used by Bizzarrini as a mule and promo car for his own take on the AMX/3, marketed as the Sciabola. The latter project also didn't come to fruition as a production model.

All six cars are still around in private hands. Some of them are regularly loaned to museums across the U.S., but seeing an AMX/3 in the metal is a rare event outside these special exhibits. They rarely hit car meetings. Luckily, one of the six cars was recently displayed at Eyes on Design, which became a rare opportunity to see and hear the AMX/3 on the go.

You can do just that in the video below, where this rare, mid-engined American oddity is flexing its 390-cubic-inch (6.4-liter) V8 engine to the tune of 340 horsepower and 430 pound-feet (583 Nm) of torque. It's joined by the Vector W8, yet another attempt to revolutionize the U.S. car market, this time around from the late 1980s.

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About the author: Ciprian Florea
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Ask Ciprian about cars and he'll reveal an obsession with classics and an annoyance with modern design cues. Read his articles and you'll understand why his ideal SUV is the 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer.
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