Facebook marketplace has quickly transitioned from the internet’s premier outlet to purchase a used deep-freezer to used car Mecca. There are plenty of vehicles for sale there nowadays, but surprisingly, some pretty rare stuff, like this 1970 AMC AMX/3 concept. Selling in a little under a day with an advertised price of $400,000, it’s one of just nine ultra-rare AMX/3 concepts produced by American Motors Corporation half a century ago.
Dreamed up at the tail end of the muscle car era, the AMX/3 was created by AMC with the help of several other huge automotive names, including Bizzarrini and BMW. Styled as an ultra-exclusive halo car to take on the DeTomaso Pantera, the entire project was doomed after AMC’s financial struggles in the early ’70s. Although 5,000 cars per year were originally envisioned, that number never came anywhere close to fruition.
The AMX/3 was powered by a mid-mounted AMC 390 V8, which produced 340 horsepower and sent its power to the rear wheels to a four-speed box via an Italian-made transaxle.
The body was designed under the supervision of AMC’s Richard Teague and was rendered in steel—not the typical fiberglass or aluminum—across the pond in Italy by Bizzarrini, who also designed the car’s steel chassis. BMW then took over, dealing with the car’s suspension and testing the vehicle. According to the German automaker, it was a very neutral-handling car and its chassis was significantly stiffer than the Mercedes-Benz it was benchmarked against.
Weighing somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,500 pounds, that stiffness came at a cost. However, the car was still deemed to be good enough, and certainly suitable as a customer-magnet to set up in showrooms. But as the beans were counted, it became clear that the AMX/3 would simply be too expensive to compete with the Pantera, and too costly as a program to justify in the face of financial struggles. Therefore, the project was canned in 1970.
Today, the few prototypes made are extremely desirable, and only five of the nine (two of which are not even complete cars) are in private hands. AMC enthusiasts still keep track of all of the cars and it’s likely one of them who bought this vehicle for the massive six-figure sum previously mentioned. After all, $400,000 is a tremendous amount of money, but for some, it’s a small price to pay for a piece of American automotive history.
Got a tip? Send us a note: [email protected]
Source: Read Full Article