In mid-1968, soon after American Motors had decided to drop its Javelin-based two-seat AMX, then-Chairman Gerry Meyers commissioned Italian design house Giugiaro to prepare a mid-engine sports car styling prototype and told AMC styling chief Dick Teague to do an alternative design in-house. Teague's far better AMX/2 concept prevailed and was displayed at the 1969 Chicago Auto Show. Both press and public reactions were strongly positive.
The design was further developed into the even better-looking AMX/3, and a serious effort was launched to move it to production at a reasonable cost. When soon-to-come federal bumper regulations and other issues inflated the cost to well beyond volume viability, the program was scaled down to an initial run of just 30 cars to be built by Italian coachbuilder Giotto Bizzarrini, then dropped entirely after only five cars were completed. A sixth unauthorized AMX/3 was put together in Italy from a spare body and parts acquired from a subcontractor.
This examples, chassis number 4, was one of the three sold to Dick Teague by AMC after the project was cancelled. After passing through collections in Florida and Alabama, it was recently acquired by Bernard Carl in response to a small ad in Hemmings Motor News. The car has just competed a cosmetic and mechanical restoration, but retains its original 390 cid V8 and Melara 4-speed transaxle.Also photographed at :