This is how car tests for performance vehicles should be done. Straight to the point. Well filmed for the time. I'm pretty sure I video taped the whole series.
when i was racing for amc in canada we had a 401 javelin on our team.it ran low thirteens in the quarter mile in pure stock.[no slicks or other modifications were allowed.] this car ran in d/s automatic.it ran against 440 powered dodges and plymouths,it seemed to win every week at the strip.when it was taken off the track i bought it for my son and he is now going to restore it and start driving it to car shows.
@@chadhaire1711 I owned a 71 AMX, witch I believe that only around 435 were built and only the last couple of hundred had a 727 tork flight and a 4 speed was 95 percent of the time not going to be as fast, small block vets didn't have a chance, mine was bought from a friend of my brother and the girl that owned it her father was service manager at a dealership in Bellflower CA. Don A vee AMC it was on order for over a year, it had 5 less horsepower than a 455 trans am and would not come close to kicking the AMX ass 401 had some low end tork like a train, biggest problem was keeping the power to the ground and not blowing the tires, low 13 I believe it with the right traction rubber.
Gotta love those flush AMC door handles as they were used in ALL of their cars, it seemed like: used all the way to the Bitter End of AMC's legacy in the Jeep Wrangler TJ with its AMC 4.0L inline six + same flush door handles = AWESOME!
I owned a 71 AMC gremlin and swapped out the str 6- 232ci for a 401ci police interceptor damm that 401 was quick...not to many cars could beat me off the line...had to add traction bars to get any traction... FYI : the 401 went into the gremlin with lots of room after I swapped the 6cyl K-frame member for a V8 k-frame I found in a wrecked gremlin X with the 304ci in it.... Distributor were all front mounted in all AMC V8's so the firewall was never an issue if U wanted to swap from a small block 304 or 343 up to the 390 or 401 Cheers from🇨🇦 Luke
My brother's near mint 72 Ford Torino had a very minor dash fire in 1982 when he was 17. His "friends" convinced him to swap his Torino for a 73 Gremlin X with a police interceptor. I sure did have fun for months playing in that car as an eight year old; it ran long enough to make it to our driveway on its first trip where it died, never to start again. It was towed away for the cost of the tow trip by the wrecking yard 18 months later.
@@RCH45ACP Then it needed thicker ones, because that kind of body roll is unacceptable....that's something I'd expect to see in a full size car from the day
The AMC V8s were surprisingly good. Build quality was a problem IMHO. I used to get these cars from used car dealers for work and the trunks would be wet from leaks and the doors would rattle with screws coming loose from window regulators. That was in 1978.
Used car nearly a decade since the javelin stopped being made if memory serves and if its only the trunk leaking and the doors rattling it sounds as If the build quality was quite good
@@markwegner6100 I do believe the glass is made by a separate manufacturer if memory serves so it was likely a defect in the manufacturing of the glass (also was this the only issue with the 78 Pacer in question aside from fuel economy)
Yes,I remember them!! Big Blue 'Gumball Machine' on the roof and all!!! Each County got two,except for #1 Jefferson (Birmingham) #2 Montgomery #3 Mobile and #47 Madison (Huntsville......My Home at the time?)....they had four patrolling those counties? (Four largest metro areas. The numbers #1,#2,#3 & #47 are the registration codes on the licence plates....like 47-12345?)
@@drjohnsonhungwell5115 yeah and the trooper cars had the special computer chips ion them that made them faster than anything on the road LOL.. THE STORIES OF THESE GET BETTER AND BETTER EVERYTIME.. even though there was nothing special with them compared to a reg javelin.. in fact a reg javelin would be a touch faster as it will be lighter as no police equipement!!!!!!!!!
@@FasterNLouder Really? I find that hard to believe ...I mean, just looking at the size I would have guessed about 3800 lbs. Shows you how much I know! LOL!
@@markanthony3275 I think a stock, fully loaded one with an auto might have been around 3500. I have aluminum heads, intake, lighter brakes, etc. I do have power steering, power brakes and A/C though.
@@glennhansel9411 Old muscle with the bias plys ran 13's low 14's... put newer tires on them they run 12's! put slicks they run 11's! What dont you understand??
I think the AMC javelin set the looks for future cars in style. For all makes . The TV show 1 Adam 12 in the later episodes had a police car matador with 401cu badges on the front fenders. My favorite javelin was the mark Donahue racing version.
AMC made my favorite pony cars. Javelins and AMX's are hardly seen on the road in my neck of the woods these days. Even 15 years ago ( before an imbecile totalled my 71 Jav ) people would ask what kind of car it was.
That Javelin handles like a pig and the stopping distances are unsafe. The ride height is like a Jeep. I had a 70 AMX 360 4-speed Go Package. I lowered it with higher roll rate front springs and bigger sway bars with BFG tires. It looked cool and handled well.
The driver is locking all four wheels during the brake tests, not the way to generate the best stopping. Tires look they could use a few more pounds of air.
I don't see how pegging the brake pedal into a 4 wheel lockup generates much heat or "pedal fade" either unless you were doing it multiple times in a row in an unrealistic way. The tires are scrubbing all the heat off, not the brakes during a lock-up. Threshold braking was well known back then, too.
Always been a firebird trans am guy but we had a 71 Javlin just like this at my dads body shop when I was 13 so 1990 and it was pretty cool. Even then it did look corvette from the driver seat and at angles cool at the fenders but a little awkward from the rear and looking perpendicular to front fenders. I would say this seems to be an even match for a 71 Formula 400 my favorite. Wicked review!
my uncle in Manitoba was the AMC Jeep dealer so my cousin kelly had a few Javelins in the 80s i remember a pierre cardin one and i think also a levi's edition also my cousins had jeep Honchos and my uncle had a turbo Fuego
Yeah... in the early 1980's I worked at Omega Autobody in St Boniface, right across from Canada Packers...and we had a Javelin at the shop with the Pierre Cardin interior that you mentioned . Unusual for it's day !
Yeah these cars get ugly. I have a restored 72 GTO and even with all new tight suspension it’s hard to drive and does what ever it wants. Driving these old cars hard is like a game of chess.
My father owned a 72, my brother owned a 71; Both had V8's, But not the 401. The both of them were very nice automobiles. I was still to young to drive, But I liked these more than the Mustang; As far as the styling.
At :57, the driver looks like he wants to hurl lol This car had way too much body roll (even for it's time), but the 401 mill under the hood would give some musclecars a run for their money
@David H. yeah steve maquin... he was a butcher in brooklyn that drove a beat up buick while drinking beer... he would just floor the accelerator and never let off until he got to where he was going ... he would bounce off parked cars like they were there for him
Yes but you have to think about technology now and technology then. Carburetors don't have the ability to control oxygen and fuel like today's cars. I can assure you if the engine in the Javelin had today's technology it would be a beast and most likely spank the modern Camaros and Mustangs in performance. At the time this Javelin with a 401 V8 was competing with the Ford Mustang GT 500 with a 428 Cobra Jet V8.
@@tskraj3190 Really ? Modern engines are not exactly the same as 70s muscle cars ? I was trying to point out the irony of a boring modern family sedan being competitive with a 70s muscle car.
@@MrSmartAlec Sadly though a modern family car is competitive with an older muscle car and our modern muscle cars are faster than our older super cars. I would take a 71 or older American Muscle car over any Super or Hyper car any day. The only other country I would want an older muscle car from would be Australia.
I agree, though my 2003 Honda Accord V6 (equipped with 4 wheel discs) required 211 feet t accomplish the same feat, per CAR AND DRIVER. And trust me, it felt like it. Amazingly poor brakes by 2003 standards!
Uh somethings up there. I have driven those accords and they stop nicely. Also motortrend clocked a 129 ft stop from 60 so I doubt it was that high from 70.
Love the old days and the cars. We have certainly come a long way. The cars we drive today, Camry's, Accords etc, family cars would put so called muscle cars of yesterday to shame now.
I'm not so sure about that, lol. My GTO was pretty quick but my V6 Camry would definitely give it run...lol, yeah, I love the old iron and wish I still had it, especially my girlfriend at the time!!!...lol
"Body lean did not seem excessive" >car is nearly fucking sideways lol Also nice jab at the corvette, but get real "bud", the vette would run circles around this clunker
wow, in '84 I was 17 making $5 hr plus tips delivering pizzas in my '78 Ttop Z28 that I bought for $2000 cash! I had just sold my '76 Monte Carlo for $1200 & had some money saved up to buy the Z28 which I had until 1991