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1970 AMX / 360 Written by: John Widiker
Here is the story of the AMX
My Dad wanted an AMX prior to when they found out my mom
was pregnant (1971), Rinke Jeep in Mt. Clemens
MI got ours in used (a year old) and he begged my mom
to let him buy it, he was 18 at the time and didn't really think through the
whole 2 seater thing I don't think.
I
was brought home from the hospital in the AMX when I was born making it the
first car I ever rode in. He drove it daily (and rapidly) to work daily
until
it cost him his license. I have about 10 racing stories I've heard over time
from his family and friends, lets just say he was an enthusiastic driver. LOL.
My mom then drove it while he waited for his points
to drop. He was killed in
an industrial accident in 1973 just after he had gotten
his license
back and was just wrapping up a head gasket swap on the car.
After he died my grandfather (his dad) bought it from my mom
for $1000.00 to save it for me, he
stored it in the back room of a factory he worked in for a few years, driving
it occasionally, my earliest memory is getting picked up from preschool in
it
by my Grandpa. When he moved jobs he built a garage for it at his
mom's house. it sat there for about 20 years getting
started every few months but not driven.
When I was getting married in 1994 I
asked if I could drive it and we had pictures taken at the wedding of us
standing with it. My Grandpa told me I could have it to keep and I've been
playing with it since. I've always felt that cars are meant to be driven and
that trailer queens are useless paper weights so I've made some changes over
time that I felt my dad would approve of. In order
to save the original engine from harm I swapped in a 360 that I built back
in 1991 for a spirit race car I had (tired and need to swap in my other
one pretty soon). It's got a 727 transmission with a shift kit, 2800 stall
converter, Mopar 8.75 rear end with
Moser forged axles, Dynotech shaft, some other
goodies.
Nothing that approaches what I want to do with it, but that's a money thing.
The next thing I'm going to do is paint it as the paint has faded to almost
flat army green over time. What I plan to do once I can afford it is make it a
modern tech pro-touring car. I've loved the AMX my whole life. Not having any
memories of my Dad (I was 1 1/2 when he died) it's super important to
me,
and now that my Grandfather
is getting old it's pretty much my only tie
to my dad. They only made 4116 of them in 1970 and most of those are
gone making it super rare today, if they had been made by the big 3 and in
those small numbers I think they would be the most collectable muscle
car
(excluding Cobras) ever made, but that's just my opinion.
~John
Widiker
Rochester
Hills, MI
Greg: John, thank you so much for taking the time to send us such a great story and a tire frying burnout!! Sorry it took so long! |
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