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By
DAVID PIKE
The AMC Javelin was released in the American
autumn of 1967 and was intended to finally give AMC a car to counter the
Mustang. It was born from the marriage of Nash, Rambler and Hudson and
followed a series of cars released after the Mustang first appeared in
1965, none of which were any match for it either in looks or
performance.
In its SST form the Javelin had a 5.62-litre
209kW V8 motor which placed it in between Mustang's highest and
lowest output and closely aligned it with its other competitors,
Camaro and Nova. The Javelin body style followed that set by the
Mustang being a four-seater sports coupe with a long bonnet and
short rear end and it also had a unibody construction. Suspension
was similar to most cars of this period with independent coil
springs and wishbones at the front and semi-elliptic leaf springs
at the rear.
Several engine sizes were ultimately offered
ranging from 3801cc up to 6390cc, all V8s with power outputs
spread across the range from 108kW to 235kW. The best of these
were capable of accelerating the Javelin from 0 to 96km/h in less
than five seconds and topping out at 280km/h. In spite of this
performance the Javelin wasn't all that successful on the
racetrack as AMC lacked the finances to compete in the big league.
Before the Javelin hit the market AMC had tried
to capture some of the Ford Mustang's magic with the release of
the Marlin. Whilst it had the looks it lacked the performance to
go with it. They followed this with the Typhoon and later the
Rambler Rogue but none of these gave AMC the lift they were
looking for until the Javelin came along. You couldn't say they
didn't try though. Before the Javelin AMC tinkered with their V8s
by adding a high lift, long duration cam, competition valve
lifters and heavy-duty valve springs, a cold-air system and even
changed the rear axle ratio to 4.44:1. All to no avail although
the Javelin ultimately enjoyed the benefit of these improvements.
Like all the other muscle cars of the time,
however, they were all ultimately caught out by the US
introduction of compulsory emission controls, low compression
ratios and the need to fit catalytic converters which had such a
dampening effect on performance. In the end sales of this breed of
car slipped silently off the sales charts.
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