automotive: June 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

the San Diego Auto Museum has one of the 6 existing AMX 3 concept cars, head over and see it for yourself!

Thanks to Marisela and Chris for their time and effort to allow me to photograph the AMX 3 so well!

The variety in the few AMX3 concept cars made, 10 total I've read, but interestingly not alike in tail lights, and rear deck

Above image 2007 Meadow Brook Concours

Above images 2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed by Ilya Holt and from 2007 Meadow Brook Concours

Above 4 images were taken in 2004, at the Bizzarini Expo in Brussels by Dirk de Jager and all the above photos are from http://www.supercars.net/cars/2982.html

Notice the above museum car has a side marker light behind the rear wheel that only one of of the following do.

Lower door racing stripe and AMX 3 callout looks really good, and the rear deck styled partition with air foil over the tailights

Really don't like the above rims.

images from my many posts on the AMX 3... I hope you take a moment to see the differences in these different models, the bottom one having the coolest looking wheels, but I bet it's a mock up with no real car parts, and it looks like the model is in the design studio for a photo op.

Notice it doesn't have a gas cap like the yellow model directly above it, and the rocker panel is black with the AMX 3 call out looking really nice. Different tailights too.

From the Supercars website story on the AMX3:
Giotto Bizzarrini, of ex-Ferrari fame, was specifically responsible for making a production worthy AMX/3 out of the show queen AMX/2. What would have been a challenging build for AMC, was easily handled by Bizzarrini who was very familiar with race car design
and construction, particularly on a tight budget.

Bizzarrini's final AMX/3 featured the hallmark of sports engineering, a mid-mounted engine and rear transaxle. The Italian firm Melara developed the new gearbox while BMW completed final testing on the roadworthy AMX/3. It seemed AMC was serious about production. From a design standpoint, the AMC/3 was remarkably similar to Ford's DeTomaso Pantera which debuted just one day after the AMX/3. Such timely releases made it unclear exactly who copied who, but in any case, the casual observer can easily mistake the AMX/3 with a Pantera.

Due to the successful launch, and low price of the Pantera, AMC scrapped the AMX/3 project. Bizzarrini was ordered to destroy all six cars, which he, of course, did not.