Supersonic

American Motors’ (AMC) Javelin was an unlikely (and late) entry into the pony car market – arriving in late 1967 – almost four years after the GTO, Mustang, and Barracuda. In some ways, this was due to AMC’s evolution as a company.

AMC had been born out of the merger of Hudson and Nash-Kelvinator in 1954. The architect of this merger, George Mason, died shortly after it was consummated, and control of the new company passed to George Romney.

Romney bet the future of the company quite correctly on competing in segments where the “big three” were weak – specifically on small cars. The leftovers of Nash happened to contain such a car, the Rambler, and so a line of smaller vehicles was put together to compete – and did so quite successfully during Romney’s tenure. Instead of competing with Chevy Bel Airs, they competed with the increasing presence of Renaults, Hillmans, and VWs. Until the big three launched small cars of their own in the early sixties.

But by then, Romney was moving on – running successfully for Governor of Michigan in 1962. in the wake of Romney’s departure, control of AMC passed to former Packard executive Roy Abernathy. Abernathy wanted to take on the big 3 directly and have existing Rambler buyers “trade up” to bigger cars.

Abernathy was replaced in 1967 by Roy D. Chapin, who would be a long-time steward at AMC. Abernathy’s idea had gotten some sales for the larger AMCs, but the company could not take on the big three directly, and Chapin took the company again in the direction of small cars – but by then the Javelin was a done deal.

The first attempt AMC made at a “pony car” was the Ambassador-based Marlin fastback – but the car was not generally thought of in the same league as the Mustang or GTO, and was largely ignored by the buying public.

AMC could not ignore the growing popularity of muscle cars and engineered the first Javelin for introduction as a 1968 model. Though late to the party, the original Javelin was a well-liked car. Good looking and clean, it was also appreciably lighter than many other increasingly-heavy muscle cars, most of which were now in their second generation.

The Javelin’s light weight and good handling earned it a genuine racing pedigree, and this didn’t change when AMC restyled and enlarged the car for 1971.

Around this time, many of the premium-trim versions of AMC’s cars got the “SST” designation – playing up the popular fascination with the surely-soon-to-arrive SuperSonic Transports of the 1970s.

In an ironic twist, only the Concorde and the Tupolev Tu-144 ever materialized and America’s contribution, the the Boeing SST, never happened. Later on, AMC named it’s mid-size offering “Concord” – but that’s another story.

For 1971 the Javelin was up against another set of new muscle cars, now in their third generation. It didn’t have the raw power of the Street Hemi or Boss 429 but the Javelin had the edge on handling and cornering by a good measure. Qualities famously exploited by Mark Donohue on the track.

The car did offer a vast array of engines, like most muscle cars in 1971 – from a pair of straight sixes (232 and 258 cid) through a trio of V8s starting at 304 cubic inches (which is what this car, being woken from a long sleep, is equipped with) and rising to 360 and 401 cubic inches, all with a variety of carburetor choices.

Despite its virtues, the restyled Javelin wasn’t a big seller. 1968 and 1969 were the car’s heyday, with over 50,000 sold each year. The restyled car did about half that in 1971. But in contrast to some other muscle cars, whose sales dropped dramatically as the muscle car era came to a sputtering conclusion in the early seventies, Javelin sales actually increased from 1971 to 1974, only trailing off at the very end when it was apparent that the car would not be replaced after 1974. Even then, its final year was better than its first (26,866 in 1971 and 27,546 in 1974) – a very unusual trend for any performance car, where numbers tend to drop off once the styling is familiar.