AMC AMX III
The AMC AMX/3 is a mid-engine sports car produced by the American carmaker American Motors Corporation, which was presented to the Italian press in March 1970 and was to be produced in Germany by Karmann starting in 1971. AMC wanted to compete with the similarly designed De Tomaso Pantera that Ford marketed in the United States. The car's body and drivetrain were originated and developed by AMC, and Dick Teague designed the car. AMC consulted and partnered with Italian suppliers to build the chassis and suspension.
The design was falsely attributed to Giotto Bizzarrini, but only specific components. Italdesign and Autocostruzioni S.D. were involved in the development. the car never reached mass production after the official presentation. After half a dozen vehicles were built, AMC abandoned the project without giving any reason.
Several attempts to revive the design were unsuccessful, including a limited production license proposal, branded as the Bizzarrini Sciabola without AMC's involvement. Later, an AMC AMX/3 chassis formed the technical basis for the 1972 Iso Varedo concept car.
Background
The AMX/3 was developed partly to counter AMC's marketing and business difficulties. As the smallest of the four major American car companies, AMC had suffered significant losses in the first half of the 1960s, which was explained by an undemanding model range perceived as "staid". Near the end of the 1960s, AMC refocused on younger buyers with sporty variants of AMC's models. Introduced for the 1968 model year, the pony car Javelin was three years after the Ford Mustang, which originated the sports cars category. The Javelin-derived two-seat AMX received good reception as a muscle car, but sold less than expected. The Chevrolet Corvette was the only other two-seat car at the time with an established reputation, and possibly the AMX's stylistic proximity to the Javelin.Management had been pursuing the goal of adding a high-performance sports car with a mid-engine to the model range since 1968 to give the AMC brand a sporty image. This was triggered by the motor racing successes of the Ford GT40, which Ford used for advertising. The marketing opportunities also prompted General Motors to develop the 1968 Chevrolet XP-880, or Astro II concept car. In the spring of 1968, AMC initially showed the stylistically De Tomaso Mangusta-influenced AMC AMX/2, which was a show car with no prospect of series production. This design was further developed into the AMX/3, which was already a near-production stage.
In the autumn of 1968, the decision was made to produce the AMX/3 in series. Its primary rival was the De Tomaso Pantera, which was still in development at the time, of which it was already clear that Ford would distribute the Pantera in the United States through its dealer network.
After several prototypes were produced, AMC had promotional photos produced in March 1970 in front of the Colosseum in Rome. AMC presented the car to the Italian press in Rome on 23 March 1970 and to the American media in New York on 4 April 1970. Both events were one day before the local presentation of the De Tomaso Pantera. From 5 April 1970, the AMX/3 was displayed at the New York Auto Show, where the Pantera also debuted. In support, Giotto Bizzarrini drove a few demonstration laps at the Michigan Speedway. A little later, AMC abandoned the AMX/3. No reasons for the abandonment were given. By then, AMC had invested about $2 million in the project.
Model designation
The abbreviation AMX stands for American Motors Experimental. From 1968 onwards, AMC used the name for a series-produced front-engined sports car. At the beginning of the development phase, the mid-engined coupé was given the designation AMX/3; it was intended as the sales designation of the production model that was not realized. The 3 - for the third experimental vehicle - was typographically mostly connected with a slash. This lettering can be found on some prototypes. However, AMC deviated from it and used the styling AMX III on one prototype. A contemporary sketch shows a vehicle with the lettering AMX/K, where the K stands for the body manufacturer Karmann.History of development
The development history of the AMC AMX/3 is not clear in details. It started with the body design, for a chassis and a body structure were constructed in further steps within seven months before a test program with several prototypes was carried out. Numerous European service providers were involved in this process, three of whom were closely connected in business at the time. Salvatore Diomante managed the automotive supplier Carbondio and, was a manager at Automobili Bizzarrini. After Bizzarrini's insolvency, Diomante took over the company's technical material and numerous design plans for Bizzarrini's cars in the insolvency proceedings and founded his company Autocostruzioni S.D. on this basis, in whose favor Carbondio was dissolved in 1969. Giorgio Giugiaro was also part of Giotto Bizzarrini's circle in the late 1960s. Both were friends with each other. When Giugiaro was looking for a technical basis for the first show car of his newly founded company, Italdesign, he chose a used Bizzarrini chassis. This became the one-off Bizzarrini Manta, unveiled in October 1968 and built at Salvatore Diomante's Carbondio company in the summer of 1968. With the AMX/3, Bizzarrini, Diomante, and Giugiaro continued their association.Planning at AMC
The decision to outsource the development and production of the AMX/3 to European operations was made for financial reasons. Management hoped to keep production and sales prices low in this way. Series production was to be undertaken by the German coachbuilder Karmann, who, in Rheine, had been assembling AMC Javelins destined for Europe since 1968 from disassembled parts kits. The schematics called for increasing production of the AMX/3 to 1,000, after an initial run of 24 cars, and according to other sources, as many as 5,000 annually. They would be marketed in the U.S. and Europe. Other sources suggest that AMC initially targeted building 5,000 cars annually and later reduced this to 24 cars yearly. The projected list price was to be US$10,000 to $12,000 . This would be approximately double that of the FR layout base model Chevrolet Corvette. A more equivalent two-seat car, a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 "Daytona", was offered for US$19,900.AMC design center
The AMX/3's body design was completed in the spring of 1968 and was credited to AMC's design studio, headed by Richard "Dick" Teague. The detailed work was done by Vince Geraci, Jack Kenitz, Chuck Mashigan, and Robert "Bob" Nixon. Teague suggested in later years that "a lot of work" had been outsourced to the specialist Creative Industries of Detroit during the development process, but did not elaborate on any specific instances. A clay mock-up was crafted in a design studio leased by AMC at the company's East Outer Drive facility.In the autumn of 1968, a 1:1 model made of glass-fiber reinforced plastic, known as the Pushmobile, was created from the designs of the AMC designers. It was not roadworthy, had no engine, no steering, and no interior, and was held together inside by a metal framework. After its completion, it was contrasted in a design competition with an alternative proposal by Giorgio Giugiaro's Studio Italdesign, which had been created under time pressure in parallel with the Bizzarrini Manta show car and was perceived as "heavy and immature" or "unfinished and loveless". In the end, the AMC design won.