In 2013, Angel joined Motor1.com (formerly WorldCarFans), where he dedicated over a decade to delivering daily news and feature articles. His expertise spans a wide range of topics, including electric vehicles, classic cars, and industry topics. Angel’s commitment to automotive journalism is further demonstrated by his membership in the Bulgarian Car of the Year jury since 2013.
America has tried to crash Europe’s supercar party more than once. The recipe always sounds perfect – a mid-engine layout, big power, sharp styling, and a price that undercuts the Italians. Then reality shows up with a calculator – tooling costs explode, suppliers ask for more money, and the market shifts. The project dies in a conference room, long before the racetrack.
One late-’60s effort hurts the most because it looked finished. It chased real speed the right way, with real engineering and serious outside talent. The plan even included overseas production to make the numbers work. Then the bills piled up, the business case cracked, and the car faded into “what if” trivia. Who built it?
The AMX/3 Was AMC’s Mid-Engine Shot At The Big Leagues
AMC called it the AMX/3, and it aimed it straight at the world’s mid-engine exotics. The company showed the car to the Italian press in March 1970, and AMC expected a German builder, Karmann, to handle production starting in 1971. AMC even eyed the same space the De Tomaso Pantera would soon occupy in the U.S., which tells us everything about the target – fast, loud, and just attainable enough to dream about.
The pitch sounded simple – put AMC muscle in a low, wide, mid-engine body and sell a “halo” car that rewired the brand’s image. The AMX/3 didn’t look like a warmed-over sedan, either. It sat crazy low, stretched wide, and used a true rear-mid-engine, rear-drive layout. AMC’s own design boss, Dick Teague, led the styling, and the finished shape came off as pure early-’70s space age, minus the disco ball.
AMC didn’t build the AMX/3 as a flimsy show prop, and that’s the part people forget. The company went shopping for real specialists. It pulled in Italian engineering and fabrication help, then brought in BMW for testing and development work under the internal code “E18.” The Bavarian firm wrote reports, flagged issues, and pushed fixes like a strict teacher with a red pen.
The AMX/3 even landed with perfect timing for headlines. Sources note AMC introduced it in Rome on March 23, 1970, right before the Pantera hit the stage the next day. AMC put the car in front of the press and cameras and tried to make the world take the company seriously. For a brief moment, it worked.
AMC Outsourced Talents To Help Build The Car
AMC’s in-house team didn’t stumble into this. The company had already played with wild ideas through the late 1960s, and Teague’s group knew how to draw a crowd. That was important because a mid-engine car needs more than a pretty shell. It needs packaging discipline, proportions that make sense, and enough cooling and structure to survive real driving.
Then AMC did something smart – it admitted what it didn’t know. The company had built front-engine cars, not mid-engine exotics, so it leaned on specialists. Giotto Bizzarrini worked on key engineering elements, while Italdesign played a role in engineering and development work that many casual retellings skip. Karmann hovered as the likely production partner, and the project turned into a weird, awesome Detroit-meets-Europe collaboration.
BMW’s involvement adds the best “wait, really?” detail. BMW and AMC signed a test contract worth DM 1.5 million, and BMW treated the AMX/3 like a serious program. BMW engineers criticized the weak structure and braking feel early on, then pushed upgrades. They even swapped in ATE brake components and used BMW-sourced parts for items like the handbrake and clutch hydraulics.
AMC’s Last True Muscle Car Is Rarer Than A Hemi ‘Cuda
AMC’s final shot at muscle car glory packed big-block power, superb styling, and production numbers smaller than a Hemi ‘Cuda.
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By Raunak Ajinkya
AMC’s Rarest Engine In AMC’s Rarest Engine Layout
Engine
Power
Torque
0-60 MPH
Top Speed
6.4-liter V8
340 hp
430 lb/ft
4.8 seconds
160 mph
The AMX/3’s most fascinating trick sat right behind the seats – AMC’s 390-cubic-inch V8, fed by a four-barrel carb. Sources list the early Monza test car at around 340 hp at 5,100 rpm, and it pairs that engine with an Italian OTO Melara four-speed gearbox in a rear transaxle. In other words, the firm moved the whole AMC attitude behind the driver’s ears.
That layout counts as the truly rare part. Plenty of AMC vehicles used the 390 up front, where it belonged in the muscle era. Almost none put it behind the driver in a proper mid-engine chassis, with a transaxle out back. The AMX/3 turned a familiar American torque monster into something closer to a Miura-style experience, except with a very different accent. Think more baritone, less opera.
Numbers help explain why AMC chose the 390 for this stunt. The engine delivered big power, but it also delivered big shove, the kind that makes a car feel fast even when the speedometer still tries to catch up. In addition to the 340 hp, 429 lb-ft of torque were on tap, and AMC likely loved that combo because it didn’t need high revs to feel dramatic. That also meant the AMX/3 could play the supercar game without acting fragile.
Of course, stuffing a big V8 behind the driver comes with consequences – cooling becomes a boss fight, heat soaks the cabin, and service access turns into yoga. BMW’s test notes even called out problems like inadequate cooling on early prototypes, which fits the story.
Why It Never Hit Showrooms
The simple reason – the math didn’t work. AMC planned for outside production and floated pricing that hovered in the $10,000 to $12,000 range, depending on the source. That number sounded bold, but hand-built steel bodies, European suppliers, and low volume don’t play nice with “affordable supercar” dreams. Even today, enthusiasts know the rule – if the spreadsheet cries, the car dies.
AMC also watched the goalposts move. The early 1970s brought shifting tastes and tougher regulations, and AMC’s bread-and-butter leaned toward smaller, sensible cars. One period report points to inflation and insurance pressure that punished high-powered performance cars, which shrank the market slice the AMX/3 needed. That kind of headwind hits a niche halo car first, especially when the company already fights for cash.
The program’s own timeline shows the squeeze. One account says AMC’s early talk of 1,000 units quickly shrank to just 26, even before AMC pulled the plug. That’s a brutal change because a factory can’t amortize tooling on a couple of dozen cars unless each one costs “small house” money. AMC couldn’t sell it cheaply, and it couldn’t sell it expensively without changing what the car meant.
Then the project ended, and it ended fast. AMC stopped the push before full production, leaving the AMX/3 as a near-ready car that never got its chance. That hurts because the concept didn’t fail on style – it failed because AMC tried to build a European-style exotic while still living on an American Motors budget. Even a supercar can’t outrun accounting.
How Many Cars Were Made And Where Are They Now?
Most retellings land on the same headline figure – about six AMX/3 cars came together before the whole thing collapsed. Sports Car Market writes that AMC completed five, then Bizzarrini and Diomante built a sixth from remaining components in hopes of selling it as the Sciabola. Other sources also refer to “half a dozen” prototypes.
The best-known survivor carries serious “main character” energy – that Monza test car we mentioned earlier. Gooding sold an AMX/3 (chassis WTDO 363 2/55/55) for $891,000 in 2017, and the listing calls it the program’s Monza test car with major development pedigree.
Outside that spotlight car, the survivors live quiet lives in private collections and appear at big events like special exhibits and concours lawns. When one shows up, it tends to steal oxygen from cars with far more famous badges. It helps that the AMX/3 looks “right” from every angle, and it helps that the story sounds made up until someone hands over the chassis number and the paper trail.
The Market Treats The AMX/3 As A Unicorn
Collectors love a good unicorn, and the AMX/3 checks every box – tiny build count, real engineering, and a brand name nobody expects on a mid-engine wedge. The AMX/3 also wins because it connects odd dots in car history. It ties AMC to Bizzarrini, ItalDesign, and BMW testing work under “E18,” and it does it in a way that doesn’t feel like trivia padding.
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And there’s the emotional side. Every brand has a “the one that got away.” For AMC, the AMX/3 sits at the top of that list because it didn’t just tease a styling cue or a future grille shape but teased an alternate timeline where AMC sells a legit supercar in the early 1970s. That kind of story turns collectors into romantics, which usually ends with someone bidding like they just found the last slice of pizza.
Other AMC Models That Feature The Same Engine
As mentioned, the AMX/3’s highlight was the engine, which was the same basic heart AMC dropped into several street bruisers – the 390 V8. The automaker offered the 390 in the Javelin lineup. That means enthusiasts can still get a taste of the AMX/3’s engine character without needing a seven-figure bank account and a museum-grade garage alarm.
Start with the AMC AMX itself, since it practically served as AMC’s muscle calling card. Classic.com shows 1969 AMX 390 sales landing all over the map, with individual results in the tens of thousands and a wide spread based on originality and condition. In plain terms – a nice AMX 390 can cost “serious weekend toy” money, not “private jet” money.
Then there’s the 1970 Rebel “The Machine,” which wears one of the best factory names ever printed on a fender. This one sells, on average, for around $72,073, with top sales pushing well into six figures. That car gives enthusiasts the same big-cube AMC punch, plus the bonus of a name that sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon villain.
For collectors who like rare-with-a-side-of-weird, the 1969 Hurst SC/Rambler also brings the 390 party, and Classic.com’s comp ranges place it in the same general neighborhood as other serious AMC muscle. That’s the fun part of this whole story – the AMX/3 may sit alone as AMC’s mid-engine unicorn, but its engine DNA still lives in street cars people can actually chase, buy, and drive. The AMX/3 hid the V8 behind the driver, but AMC never hid the fact that it loved big cubes.
