The Orphan Javelin

I walk by this 1974 AMC Javelin a couple times a week. Though I am not a big fan of “orphan” cars produced by small manufacturers like American Motors, this one always grabs my attention. I love its racy fastback profile. The bulging fenders scream SPEED! The body lines are clean and smooth. Somehow, the bumpers managed to meet the Federal crash standards of the mid-70;s without becoming the godawful appendages used on other cars.. It is a beautiful car with an impressive sales and racing record.

The owner tells me this one is equipped with a 360 cubic inch engine and a 4-speed Borg Warner transmission. (When he told me this, the cash register in my brain went Ca Ching.) The car has a straight body, with rust damage to the right rear quarter panel.. The hood is missing its nose piece trim and appears to be slightly off-kilter. (Many Javelins have fiberglass hoods, which might explain its poor fit.) The owner says the car has had two paint resprays over the original black. I assumed it was an Arizona car until he volunteered that it came from New York. Hopefully their winter salt didn’t damage it too much.

This car is important for a number of reasons. 1974 was the last year for Javelin production. It was also built at the end of the Muscle Car Era. Due to the OPEC oil embargo, tighter emissions standards and higher insurance costs Muscle Cars briefly fell out of favor. This car has a very desirable drivetrain. The 360 may not have been the largest engine available from AMC, but it is bigger than the 305 engines powering AMC’s Trans Am Championship race cars. The four-speed manual transmissions is still coveted by old-school enthusiasts. Coming at the end of the Muscle Car Era, the engine is a bit down on power, but still pretty zippy by the standards of the Malaise Era. (There are plenty of ways to improve the power without destroying either the car’s authenticity or the planet. An E-85 Carburetor or a throttle-body fuel injection system would produce low emissions and could easily be hidden under the air cleaner.)

Probably the most compelling reason to love this car is its racing heritage. In the late 1960’s, tiny AMC decided to take on the Big 3 in the Trans Am racing series. They were up against well-funded factory teams running Mustangs, Camaros and ‘Cudas. When they didn’t succeed at first AMC turned their racing program over to Roger Penske with drivers like Mark Donohue. Their Javelins won the championship of this popular and competitive series in 1971, ’72 and ’76.

The AMC Javelin is the little car that could. It performed and handled well without costing an arm and a leg. Clean originals like this one are worth a small fortune. If I had it, I would only fix its mechanical issues and add a set of period-correct Magnum 500 wheels. The patina would stay.

LDT Oct 23, ’21