SS/AMX History and Documentation

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Disclaimer: The following people provided info, feedback, and help with this post.  I would like to thank them all. Jim L'Esperance, Ross Gilbert, Ted Kijek, Dave Siipola, Dick Erlandson, and Robert McCorkle, former original owners of these cars. Mike Weaver and George Gudat, current owners of these cars who operate the www.ssamx.com website, and whom I have corresponded with over the years about these cars. Rick Wyman, Steve P, Bill D, Scott, and Ian from this site who research the various aspects of the cars. "Kevin of Cincinatty", Joe R. from NY, Rick C. and others for what they contributed.  Andre Jacobs, who shared info with me years ago and Dave Lesick, both current owners of these cars.  Eddie Stakes from www.planethoustonamx.com for some info on his website. And the many photographers whose pictures I used on this thread whom I am not able to identify.  Steve Avery, especially for his photograph interpretations. More when I think of them, but this is an assembly of collected works and I no way wish to take credit for much of what is here.

If you have anything to add, please PM me here, or use my e-mail: tbenvie@comcast.net 
I can also be reached by phone most evenings (508) 378-1423.

Thanks

I don't know where else to post this, so I thought I would put it here.  Please note-some of these images were taken from various sites on the net.  I have original copies of the documentation and factory/magazine pictures and can scan and post them if someone wants to see my copy-I just thought I would save some time posting what is already scanned.
I do NOT have copies of many of the color pictures on the web and do not take credit for them.

The beginning is always a great place to start, so let’s get a little history of the beginning out of the way.

When George Hurst left the Navy he opened a repair shop in Philadelphia and quickly became known for his engine swaps.  This was made easier because he developed a set of motor mounts that allowed for a number of engine and then later engine/trans swaps.  The tranny swapping was a natural beginning to an industry creating shifters.  Hurst eventually contacted enough buyers that he built a production facility in Warminster, Pennsylvania, to go along with his research facility in Madison Heights, Michigan. Jack “Doc” Watson was hired as an engineer to work in Michigan and he quickly became involved in some special projects, most notably the Barracuda wheelstander “Hemi Under Glass” and the “Hurst Hairy Olds.” 
Here is an early showing of some Hurst cars at the drags:

Hemi Under Glass wheelstander (Named because the engine is under the big back window):
Hurst Hairy Olds:
Hurst’s biggest break came when Pontiac agreed to sell his shifters as a dealer installed part in 1963, then made them OEM (factory installed-Original Equipment-Manufacturer) in 1964. Other auto makers followed suit, and soon the Hurst shifter was available in most muscle cars right from the factory (AMC in mid-69, to coincide with the new Hurst inspired SC/Rambler).

In 1968, Watson made a special Oldsmobile for George Hurst.  George convinced Olds to make the car, and in June 1968 the first of a series of Hurst Olds were made.  The cars were made in the Lansing, MI assembly line, and then sent to Demmers Tool and Die Company (in an old warehouse) for assembly.  These were NOT done at the Hurst facility.  Here is one:

Also in 1968, Hurst contracted with MOPAR to make 50 Hemi Darts and 50 Hemi Barracudas.  (50, as that were what NHRA required for homologation).  Final tally was about 80 Darts and 70 Barracudas.  These cars were sent to Hurst minus a number of components, to include the entire front-end sheet metal!  Some of the changes for the car were fiberglass front-end sheetmetal, with a huge scoop on the hood.  Plastic windows, but the door mechanism to roll up the windows was missing-instead, straps were used to open/close the windows.  The car used Dodge van seats, and most importantly, the 426 Hemi engine.  A number of items, such as the heater, were deleted.  These cars were made at the Michigan Hurst facility.  (An interesting note-the front end was kept natural fiberglass black color-no paint).  Here is a picture (and the scoop-though larger-should look familiar):

“From the web:
In 1968, Dodge released one of the most feared drag cars ever: the 1968 Hurst Hemi Dart.  Dodge would ship Dart body shells to Hurst and they would install a ram-inducted 426 cu in (7 Liter) Hemi V8 under the hood.  Using fiberglass fenders and hood, belt straps for window cranks, and A100 seats for decreased weight, this car and its sister car, the Hurst Hemi Barracuda, would dominate Super Stock for decades to come; in fact, it still does today.”

“During the 1968 model year, between 50 and 70 (reports vary) Dart 2-door hardtops were fitted with the 426 Hemi engine.  These cars were purpose-built race cars, did not come with a warranty, and were not intended for street use (although some enterprising purchasers did manage to register them).  They are variously known as Super Stock or "LO23" Darts, the latter taken from the first four digits of their VINs.  The cars were built without engines and shipped to Hurst for completion.  Many weight-saving measures were taken, including omission of the heater, radio, and sound-deadening insulation.  The cars also came with fiberglass front fenders and hoods, as well as light weight Corning glass side windows that were raised or lowered with straps instead of the normal regulator assemblies.  As an additional weight-saving measure, the standard bench seat was replaced by two lightweight buckets sourced from the Dodge A-100 van.  The Dart's rear wheel openings were radiused out to allow for larger tires.  The cars were shipped unpainted, with black gelcoat on the fiberglass front clip and gray primer from the firewall back.”
There was one other interesting Hurst car with Dodge for 1968.  New York City changed the specifications for interior dimensions for their taxi cabs.  Only the Checker could meet these.  Dodge hired Hurst to lower the floorboards of 1500 cars so they would meet the New York specs.  Who would think-a Hurst taxi!
At this same time, some point in early October 1968, AMC had some talks with Hurst about supplying the new shifter for their line of car, most notably the new for 1968 AMX and Javelin.  These talks for the shifter evolved into talks about building two cars for AMC:  the Rambler SC/Rambler, an out-of-the-box street race car, and the SS/AMX, an out of the box quarter mile race car.  
Here is an "A" scheme SCRambler:

Here is a "B" scheme SCRambler:

Work began on the cars, but I do not know exactly when.  AMC already had a Performance Division in place, notably to promote the Grant funny car Rebel driven first by "Banzai" Bill Hayes, and when he was injured he was replaced by Hayden Proffit. A Performance Activities binder was sent to dealers with the promise of many future bulletins to help local performance events.  Here are three:

They were gearing up to race the Javelins in the Trans Am racing series in 68, and felt someone in charge of performance would be an asset to the company. Carl Chakmakian was the man for the job.  

Here are some pics of the 68 Javelin Trans Am cars and Grant's Funny car:

(Before the corporate red, white, and blue paint scheme) 

AMC also ran an ad about their racing program, and promising more to come:

A prototype Super Stock 1969 AMX was made for testing.  It was painted the soon-to-be traditional red, white, and blue.  A number of hood scoop designs were used, and one was selected to begin trials.  Through some trial and error, a final product was tested and presented to the AMC brass.  They were more than impressed, and gave the go-ahead to begin production.  The NHRA deemed 50 cars were needed for homologation purposes, so 50 were to be built. 
So what is homologation?  Here is a definition:
“In motorsports, Homologation refers to the approval process a vehicle must go through to race in a given league or series.  The regulations and rules that must be met are generally set by the series' sanctioning body.  The word is derived from the Latin homologare for "agree".”
“In racing series that are "production-based," (that is, the vehicles entered in the series are based on production vehicles for sale to the public), homologation entails not only compliance with a racing series technical guidelines (for example, engine displacement, chassis construction, suspension design and such) but it often includes minimum levels of sales to ensure that vehicles are not designed and produced solely for racing in that series.  Since such vehicles are primarily intended for the race track, use on public roadways is generally a secondary design consideration, except as required to meet government regulations.” 
So a minimum was needed to build a car for use on the track.  The NHRA declared 50, but other sanctioning bodies were not the same.  It is said 100 Trans Am Javelins were built in 1970 for homologation purposes.  What were they homologating?  This car had a tri color paint scheme with dealer available spoilers front and rear.  I’ve always heard 100 for homologation reasons, but never was able to document this. 
This is called “hearsay evidence” until it can be supported. 
There is support that at the beginning of the 1970 SCCA Trans Am racing season the homologation standards changed.  Now a percentage of the previous years’ production must be made to homologate a car or part.  For 1970, AMC came out with the Mark Donohue Javelin.  
It had a special spoiler, and a percentage of the previous years Javelin production had to be made to allow AMC to use this spoiler on the race car.  The total needed was 2501 Mark Donohue Javelins.  Now for years the AMC community said they had to make 2500 and “one in case something happened”, etc.  If this were true, then there would also have to be 2500 AAR Cudas and TA Challengers.  There were not-their production numbers were as follows:
“From the web: 
Officially 2,724 AAR 'Cuda's with US specification (Y05) and 149 with Canadian specs (Y07) were produced at the Hamtramck, MICHIGAN Plant between March 10, 1970 and April 21, 1970.
The T/A would only be available for 1970 as Dodge pulled out of Trans Am racing.  Only 2,142 T/As were made.”
As you can see.  Less than 2500.  Yet for years, the AMC hobby repeated “2500 plus one extra in case something happened”.  (And what would happen?  They just had to make the cars-if one was damaged, do you think they would have to start all over?)
And for history, here are the production numbers for the Boss 302 Mustang, Z/28 Camaro, and Trans-Am Firebird, all 1970 SCCA Trans Am race cars:
“Boss 302- Production numbers were 1,628 in 1969 and 7,013 in 1970.  Base Price in 1970 was about $3,720.”
The Z/28 option code was introduced in December 1966 for the 1967 model year.  This option package wasn't mentioned in any sales literature, so it was unknown to most buyers.  The Z/28 option required power front disc brakes and a Muncie 4-speed manual transmission.  The Z/28 featured a 302 cu in (4.9 L) small-block V-8 engine, 3" crankshaft with 4" bore, an aluminum intake manifold, and a 4-barrel vacuum secondary Holly carburetor of 780CFM.  The engine was designed specifically to race in the Trans Am series (which required engines smaller than 305 cu in (5 L) and public availability of the car.  Advertised power of this engine was listed at 290 hp (216 kW).  This is an under-rated figure.  Chevrolet wanted to keep the horsepower rating at less than 1hp per cubic inch, for various reasons (e.g. insurance and racing classes).  The factory rating of 290 hp occurred at 5300 rpm, while actual peak for the high-revving 302 was closer to 360 hp (268 kW) (with the single four barrel carb) and 400 hp (298 kW) (with optional dual-four barrel carbs) at 6800-7000 rpm.  The Z/28 also came with upgraded suspension, racing stripes on the hood and trunk lid, '302' front fender emblems on the early cars, and 'Z/28' emblems in late 68 & 69.  It was also possible to combine the Z/28 package with the RS package.
Only 602 Z/28s were sold in 1967.  The 1967 and 1968 Z/28s did not have raised cowl induction hoods as was optional on the 1969 Z/28s.  The 1967 Z28 received air from an open element air cleaner or from an optional cowl plenum duct attached to the side of the air cleaner that ran to the firewall and got air from the cowl vents.  15-inch rally wheels, were included with Z/28s had while all other 1967-9 Camaros had 14-inch wheels.
The origin of the Z/28 nameplate came from the RPO codes - RPO Z27 was for the Super Sport package, and RPO Z28, at the time, was the code for a Special Performance Package.
67 Production numbers:
RS: 64,842
SS: 34,411
Z28: 602 
Total: 220,906

68 Production numbers:
RS: 40,977 
SS: 27,884 
Z28: 7,199 
Total: 235,147

69 Production numbers:
RS: 37,773 
SS: 34,932 
Z28: 20,302 
Total: 243,085

1970- "Z-28 Special Performance Package" featuring a new high-performance LT-1 360 hp (268 kW) 380 lb*ft (520 N*m) of torque 350 cu in (5.7 L) V8

1970
Production Numbers
Z28
8,733
$572.95

1970 Eliminator production figure = 2,267 
1969 Eliminator production figure = 2,250

Here are the 69 Production Figures:                                        1970 numbers:
Javelin-40,675                         1/250th=1017                         Total made-2501 Mark Donohue Special
Mustang-299,824                    1/250th=7496                         Total made-7013 Boss 302
Cougar-100,085                      1/250th=2502                         Total made-2267 Eliminator
Camaro-243,085                      1/250th=6077                         Total made-8733 Z28
Firebird-87,011                                    1/250th=2175                         Total made-3196 Trans Am
Barracuda-31,987                    1/250th=800                           Total made-2873 AAR Cuda
Challenger-new for 1970                     1/250th=?                    Total made-2142 TA Challenger

And while I am on production numbers, here are a few more:
1512 SC/Ramblers were made.  Why?  Because that is all they sold. (It was a mid-year production car). If they could have sold 3,000, they would have.
There were 784 SC360s made.  Why?  Because this car was never meant to sell a lot, but to get people into the dealerships.  A letter was sent out to dealers stating the timeline for ordering SC360s had ended, and production had ceased on the car.  
It was never designed to be a big seller.  Here are two Primary Source Documents showing just that:

Machines:  there were 1936 cars made.  Here is the Primary Source document:

Despite this “in-your-face-can’t-get-any-clearer” document, people still say 2326 were made, or “depending on the source, there were 1936 or 2326 made”.  Please, what is the other source????  This is THE final production document from AMC.  There were ONLY 1936 made.  Could we please get it right!

Back to the Super Stock cars.  It is written all over the place that the NHRA needed 50 built cars to be sanctioned for racing.  Here are some examples from other makes:
“These 50 special Novas fit into NHRA rules structure, but the stylish though often heavier Camaro remained the weapon of choice for most competitors; with the new transmission, Chevrolet had cars in both SS/C and SS/CA.  By the time they arrived (Spring 1968), (Gibb Chevy Nova II)” 
“W-30 Olds Smith and Chief Engineer John Beltz, along with Hurst's Jack "Doc" Watson sold Oldsmobile management on the idea of building a limited run of special 442s engineered to compete on the drag strip and positively annihilate any musclecar on the street, even the Hemi.  A run of at least 50 cars was necessary to homologate this special 442 for NHRA competition and legalize all the parts that comprised the package.”
“Though the ZL1 Camaro was the sleeper's sleeper, it was never meant for road use.  The idea was to homologate these cars for NHRA Super Stock racing.  To satisfy the rule, Chevrolet had to build and sell at least 50 of them.  La Harpe, Illinois, was the home of Fred Gibb Chevrolet.  Gibb requested the first batch via the Central Office Production Order (COPO), the way for dealers to obtain special equipment on Chevrolets so long as the process did not interrupt the normal flow of production cars.  In short, if you (Gibb and Harrell) knew the right guys (Vince Piggins, et al), you could pretty much get whatever you wanted.  In extreme haste, Fred Gibb ordered 51 of the socially unacceptable beasts and the first load was delivered on New Year's Eve, 1968.  A few weeks later, while Gibb and I were looking over the Camaro's mundane appointments at Harrell's shop, he told me that he was so excited about the event that he'd left a party early to be at his store when the truck arrived with its historical cargo.”
Despite everyone saying 50, the AMC crowd still says “52 plus....here it comes-one in case something happened”.  Thus the “52 or 53, depending on the source” you see quoted.  (And again, what source?)  Even though it may be written all over the ‘net that 50 were needed, where is the Primary Source document that proves this?  I haven’t seen one for the other models, but I do have one for the SS AMX!  A letter was sent out to various dealers that had a racing program in place-not every dealer got this letter.  It was dated November 4, 1968 and mailed November 5 (and was received at CA Cox Rambler, Wollaston, MA on Nov 7-he dated everything). 

Note the price-not to exceed $5000. This was signed by Bill McNeilly, the VP of Marketing, who had the enviable job of promoting this and other AMC cars. 
Here is a copy of the envelope (I told you Cox saved everything, dated it, 3 hole punched it and put it in a binder).  

 The letter as seen above mainly asked for 50 dealers to step forward to order the car or it would not be made.  Price would be about $5000.  The deadline to order was November 20, 1968.  An order form was attached.  AMC was going to build a Super Stock race car!  It is very clear they must build FIFTY (50) cars.  So why do so many people quote “they had to build 52?”  Where did this come from?  Just more AMC speculation that is repeated enough that it becomes the standard.
So, can we all agree AMC only had to build 50 cars?

Let’s look at one other clue from this Primary Source document.  Note the date?  Somewhat early in the model year.  So why do we see “after the success of the SC/Rambler, AMC worked with Hurst to build a race car”.  What success?  1512 cars is not really a success.  Plus, the SCRambler was introduced to the public at the Chicago Auto Show March 8, 1969.  The SS/AMX cars were being made at this time, with 50+ confirmed orders. They were released late March and early April.
Therefore, the “success” of the SC/Rambler had nothing to do with the SS/AMX. They were both actually conceived at the same meeting.
Two myths down…….
The November 20, 1968 deadline came and went and only 40 cars were ordered.  A second letter dated December 2, 1968 was sent to the dealers again (Mailed Dec 2, 1968 and received Dec 5, 1968).
This letter stated the dealership was contacted as they had sponsored a race car the previous year.  It went on to say what was going to be done to the car:
Hood scoop and induction
Special manifold and carbs
Clutch and bellhousing
Modified cylinder heads
Relocated battery
Modified suspension
Altered wheelwells
It also stated it was not for street use, did not pass emissions, and had no warranty.
Nothing about tires and wheels, paint, pistons, etc. etc.
And get this:
"the prototype vehicle is nearing completion".  

So here is an admission from AMC on a Primary Source document that states a Hurst SS/AMX was made that is not in the sequence commonly accepted.  Call it prototype or whatever, it is a Hurst-made SS/AMX, but this car surely does NOT fit into the VIN sequence we have all seen and acknowledged as “the only ones made”
Another myth down (and FYI-the whereabouts of this car is known-Howard Maseles raced it for Hurst, then Jack Thomas and then it was sold to Garrett Ghezzi, who still owns it and races it competitively.)
Here is a copy of the Dec 2 letter:

So, you now see why I questioned the production numbers of these cars.
Here are some pictures of the original prototype AMX (note the scoop).  The car was sent to Miami FL for development, then on to Orange County Raceway to introduce to the Press.  It was also a time to introduce HL and Shirley Shahan, who were signed by the Southern California AMC dealers to race a SS/AMX on their behalf.  (HL Shahan did a lot of prep work on this car before the release to the press, a lot of it at the Hurst facility).
(Another myth-she was signed by Corporate AMC, but she raced for the Southern California Dealers Association.  AMC retained ownership of the car and it had to be returned when the Shahans were done with it).  

And here is an interview (I do not know the author):

Here she is with Bill McNealey of AMC, George Hurst, and her husband H.L.  This was mid-February 1969 at Orange County International Raceway, Calif.

This is one of the test runs down the track for the Press.

I have to wonder about this scoop, but then again, they did design the Hurst Olds scoop and the SCRambler scoop.

Here she is inside the car.  Note back of scoop, heater controls (remember, it was a prototype.  
No big deal).  Headrests have been removed.  And is that a clock knob?

And again. Carpet is obviously cut, no radio pod, tach in the center pad, the car had headrests 
but they have been removed.  Waffle style headliner.
And a block of wood on the clutch pedal!

Definitely a white car.  Still has hood hinges, missing core support bars, filler in front of radiator, 
(Piece attached under the hood did not see production).

(Some of these pics came from a Car Craft article).
Also involved with this project was David Landrith, who had just signed on with Hurst and would 
leave in 1971 to start his own racing consulting firm-one of his first customers were the 
Shahans and their Hornet and Gremlin SS cars.  Here is a scan of Dave:

Though it may look like this SS/AMX he is sitting in has leather seats, further study with a better computer application just shows it to be the "dots" in the 69 upholstery.

And Dave was not the only one to come from Hurst:

And the New York Zone also had a Performance Specialist (I wonder if all the zones had one):

Edited by tbenvie - Apr/09/2010 at 11:34am

Author	Message Share Topic Printable Version Google Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Windows Live Yahoo Bookmarks reddit Facebook MySpace Newsvine Furl Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic
tbenvie Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Jul/02/2007 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 334	Quote Reply Topic: SS/AMX History and Documentation Posted: May/08/2009 at 5:14pm
	Disclaimer: The following people provided info, feedback, and help with this post. I would like to thank them all. Jim L'Esperance, Ross Gilbert, Ted Kijek, Dave Siipola, Dick Erlandson, and Robert McCorkle, former original owners of these cars. Mike Weaver and George Gudat, current owners of these cars who operate the www.ssamx.com website, and whom I have corresponded with over the years about these cars. Rick Wyman, Steve P, Bill D, Scott, and Ian from this site who research the various aspects of the cars. "Kevin of Cincinatty", Joe R. from NY, Rick C. and others for what they contributed. Andre Jacobs, who shared info with me years ago and Dave Lesick, both current owners of these cars. Eddie Stakes from www.planethoustonamx.com for some info on his website. And the many photographers whose pictures I used on this thread whom I am not able to identify. Steve Avery, especially for his photograph interpretations. More when I think of them, but this is an assembly of collected works and I no way wish to take credit for much of what is here. If you have anything to add, please PM me here, or use my e-mail: tbenvie@comcast.net I can also be reached by phone most evenings (508) 378-1423. Thanks I don't know where else to post this, so I thought I would put it here. Please note-some of these images were taken from various sites on the net. I have original copies of the documentation and factory/magazine pictures and can scan and post them if someone wants to see my copy-I just thought I would save some time posting what is already scanned. I do NOT have copies of many of the color pictures on the web and do not take credit for them. The beginning is always a great place to start, so let’s get a little history of the beginning out of the way. When George Hurst left the Navy he opened a repair shop in Philadelphia and quickly became known for his engine swaps. This was made easier because he developed a set of motor mounts that allowed for a number of engine and then later engine/trans swaps. The tranny swapping was a natural beginning to an industry creating shifters. Hurst eventually contacted enough buyers that he built a production facility in Warminster, Pennsylvania, to go along with his research facility in Madison Heights, Michigan. Jack “Doc” Watson was hired as an engineer to work in Michigan and he quickly became involved in some special projects, most notably the Barracuda wheelstander “Hemi Under Glass” and the “Hurst Hairy Olds.” Here is an early showing of some Hurst cars at the drags: Hemi Under Glass wheelstander (Named because the engine is under the big back window): Hurst Hairy Olds: Hurst’s biggest break came when Pontiac agreed to sell his shifters as a dealer installed part in 1963, then made them OEM (factory installed-Original Equipment-Manufacturer) in 1964. Other auto makers followed suit, and soon the Hurst shifter was available in most muscle cars right from the factory (AMC in mid-69, to coincide with the new Hurst inspired SC/Rambler). In 1968, Watson made a special Oldsmobile for George Hurst. George convinced Olds to make the car, and in June 1968 the first of a series of Hurst Olds were made. The cars were made in the Lansing, MI assembly line, and then sent to Demmers Tool and Die Company (in an old warehouse) for assembly. These were NOT done at the Hurst facility. Here is one: Also in 1968, Hurst contracted with MOPAR to make 50 Hemi Darts and 50 Hemi Barracudas. (50, as that were what NHRA required for homologation). Final tally was about 80 Darts and 70 Barracudas. These cars were sent to Hurst minus a number of components, to include the entire front-end sheet metal! Some of the changes for the car were fiberglass front-end sheetmetal, with a huge scoop on the hood. Plastic windows, but the door mechanism to roll up the windows was missing-instead, straps were used to open/close the windows. The car used Dodge van seats, and most importantly, the 426 Hemi engine. A number of items, such as the heater, were deleted. These cars were made at the Michigan Hurst facility. (An interesting note-the front end was kept natural fiberglass black color-no paint). Here is a picture (and the scoop-though larger-should look familiar): “From the web: In 1968, Dodge released one of the most feared drag cars ever: the 1968 Hurst Hemi Dart. Dodge would ship Dart body shells to Hurst and they would install a ram-inducted 426 cu in (7 Liter) Hemi V8 under the hood. Using fiberglass fenders and hood, belt straps for window cranks, and A100 seats for decreased weight, this car and its sister car, the Hurst Hemi Barracuda, would dominate Super Stock for decades to come; in fact, it still does today.” “During the 1968 model year, between 50 and 70 (reports vary) Dart 2-door hardtops were fitted with the 426 Hemi engine. These cars were purpose-built race cars, did not come with a warranty, and were not intended for street use (although some enterprising purchasers did manage to register them). They are variously known as Super Stock or "LO23" Darts, the latter taken from the first four digits of their VINs. The cars were built without engines and shipped to Hurst for completion. Many weight-saving measures were taken, including omission of the heater, radio, and sound-deadening insulation. The cars also came with fiberglass front fenders and hoods, as well as light weight Corning glass side windows that were raised or lowered with straps instead of the normal regulator assemblies. As an additional weight-saving measure, the standard bench seat was replaced by two lightweight buckets sourced from the Dodge A-100 van. The Dart's rear wheel openings were radiused out to allow for larger tires. The cars were shipped unpainted, with black gelcoat on the fiberglass front clip and gray primer from the firewall back.” There was one other interesting Hurst car with Dodge for 1968. New York City changed the specifications for interior dimensions for their taxi cabs. Only the Checker could meet these. Dodge hired Hurst to lower the floorboards of 1500 cars so they would meet the New York specs. Who would think-a Hurst taxi! At this same time, some point in early October 1968, AMC had some talks with Hurst about supplying the new shifter for their line of car, most notably the new for 1968 AMX and Javelin. These talks for the shifter evolved into talks about building two cars for AMC: the Rambler SC/Rambler, an out-of-the-box street race car, and the SS/AMX, an out of the box quarter mile race car. Here is an "A" scheme SCRambler: Here is a "B" scheme SCRambler: Work began on the cars, but I do not know exactly when. AMC already had a Performance Division in place, notably to promote the Grant funny car Rebel driven first by "Banzai" Bill Hayes, and when he was injured he was replaced by Hayden Proffit. A Performance Activities binder was sent to dealers with the promise of many future bulletins to help local performance events. Here are three: They were gearing up to race the Javelins in the Trans Am racing series in 68, and felt someone in charge of performance would be an asset to the company. Carl Chakmakian was the man for the job. Here are some pics of the 68 Javelin Trans Am cars and Grant's Funny car: (Before the corporate red, white, and blue paint scheme) AMC also ran an ad about their racing program, and promising more to come: A prototype Super Stock 1969 AMX was made for testing. It was painted the soon-to-be traditional red, white, and blue. A number of hood scoop designs were used, and one was selected to begin trials. Through some trial and error, a final product was tested and presented to the AMC brass. They were more than impressed, and gave the go-ahead to begin production. The NHRA deemed 50 cars were needed for homologation purposes, so 50 were to be built. So what is homologation? Here is a definition: “In motorsports, Homologation refers to the approval process a vehicle must go through to race in a given league or series. The regulations and rules that must be met are generally set by the series' sanctioning body. The word is derived from the Latin homologare for "agree".” “In racing series that are "production-based," (that is, the vehicles entered in the series are based on production vehicles for sale to the public), homologation entails not only compliance with a racing series technical guidelines (for example, engine displacement, chassis construction, suspension design and such) but it often includes minimum levels of sales to ensure that vehicles are not designed and produced solely for racing in that series. Since such vehicles are primarily intended for the race track, use on public roadways is generally a secondary design consideration, except as required to meet government regulations.” So a minimum was needed to build a car for use on the track. The NHRA declared 50, but other sanctioning bodies were not the same. It is said 100 Trans Am Javelins were built in 1970 for homologation purposes. What were they homologating? This car had a tri color paint scheme with dealer available spoilers front and rear. I’ve always heard 100 for homologation reasons, but never was able to document this. This is called “hearsay evidence” until it can be supported. There is support that at the beginning of the 1970 SCCA Trans Am racing season the homologation standards changed. Now a percentage of the previous years’ production must be made to homologate a car or part. For 1970, AMC came out with the Mark Donohue Javelin. It had a special spoiler, and a percentage of the previous years Javelin production had to be made to allow AMC to use this spoiler on the race car. The total needed was 2501 Mark Donohue Javelins. Now for years the AMC community said they had to make 2500 and “one in case something happened”, etc. If this were true, then there would also have to be 2500 AAR Cudas and TA Challengers. There were not-their production numbers were as follows: “From the web: Officially 2,724 AAR 'Cuda's with US specification (Y05) and 149 with Canadian specs (Y07) were produced at the Hamtramck, MICHIGAN Plant between March 10, 1970 and April 21, 1970. The T/A would only be available for 1970 as Dodge pulled out of Trans Am racing. Only 2,142 T/As were made.” As you can see. Less than 2500. Yet for years, the AMC hobby repeated “2500 plus one extra in case something happened”. (And what would happen? They just had to make the cars-if one was damaged, do you think they would have to start all over?) And for history, here are the production numbers for the Boss 302 Mustang, Z/28 Camaro, and Trans-Am Firebird, all 1970 SCCA Trans Am race cars: “Boss 302- Production numbers were 1,628 in 1969 and 7,013 in 1970. Base Price in 1970 was about $3,720.” The Z/28 option code was introduced in December 1966 for the 1967 model year. This option package wasn't mentioned in any sales literature, so it was unknown to most buyers. The Z/28 option required power front disc brakes and a Muncie 4-speed manual transmission. The Z/28 featured a 302 cu in (4.9 L) small-block V-8 engine, 3" crankshaft with 4" bore, an aluminum intake manifold, and a 4-barrel vacuum secondary Holly carburetor of 780CFM. The engine was designed specifically to race in the Trans Am series (which required engines smaller than 305 cu in (5 L) and public availability of the car. Advertised power of this engine was listed at 290 hp (216 kW). This is an under-rated figure. Chevrolet wanted to keep the horsepower rating at less than 1hp per cubic inch, for various reasons (e.g. insurance and racing classes). The factory rating of 290 hp occurred at 5300 rpm, while actual peak for the high-revving 302 was closer to 360 hp (268 kW) (with the single four barrel carb) and 400 hp (298 kW) (with optional dual-four barrel carbs) at 6800-7000 rpm. The Z/28 also came with upgraded suspension, racing stripes on the hood and trunk lid, '302' front fender emblems on the early cars, and 'Z/28' emblems in late 68 & 69. It was also possible to combine the Z/28 package with the RS package. Only 602 Z/28s were sold in 1967. The 1967 and 1968 Z/28s did not have raised cowl induction hoods as was optional on the 1969 Z/28s. The 1967 Z28 received air from an open element air cleaner or from an optional cowl plenum duct attached to the side of the air cleaner that ran to the firewall and got air from the cowl vents. 15-inch rally wheels, were included with Z/28s had while all other 1967-9 Camaros had 14-inch wheels. The origin of the Z/28 nameplate came from the RPO codes - RPO Z27 was for the Super Sport package, and RPO Z28, at the time, was the code for a Special Performance Package. 67 Production numbers: RS: 64,842 SS: 34,411 Z28: 602 Total: 220,906 68 Production numbers: RS: 40,977 SS: 27,884 Z28: 7,199 Total: 235,147 69 Production numbers: RS: 37,773 SS: 34,932 Z28: 20,302 Total: 243,085 1970- "Z-28 Special Performance Package" featuring a new high-performance LT-1 360 hp (268 kW) 380 lbft (520 Nm) of torque 350 cu in (5.7 L) V8 1970 Production Numbers Z28 8,733 $572.95 1970 Eliminator production figure = 2,267 1969 Eliminator production figure = 2,250 Here are the 69 Production Figures: 1970 numbers: Javelin-40,675 1/250th=1017 Total made-2501 Mark Donohue Special Mustang-299,824 1/250th=7496 Total made-7013 Boss 302 Cougar-100,085 1/250th=2502 Total made-2267 Eliminator Camaro-243,085 1/250th=6077 Total made-8733 Z28 Firebird-87,011 1/250th=2175 Total made-3196 Trans Am Barracuda-31,987 1/250th=800 Total made-2873 AAR Cuda Challenger-new for 1970 1/250th=? Total made-2142 TA Challenger And while I am on production numbers, here are a few more: 1512 SC/Ramblers were made. Why? Because that is all they sold. (It was a mid-year production car). If they could have sold 3,000, they would have. There were 784 SC360s made. Why? Because this car was never meant to sell a lot, but to get people into the dealerships. A letter was sent out to dealers stating the timeline for ordering SC360s had ended, and production had ceased on the car. It was never designed to be a big seller. Here are two Primary Source Documents showing just that: Machines: there were 1936 cars made. Here is the Primary Source document: Despite this “in-your-face-can’t-get-any-clearer” document, people still say 2326 were made, or “depending on the source, there were 1936 or 2326 made”. Please, what is the other source???? This is THE final production document from AMC. There were ONLY 1936 made. Could we please get it right! Back to the Super Stock cars. It is written all over the place that the NHRA needed 50 built cars to be sanctioned for racing. Here are some examples from other makes: “These 50 special Novas fit into NHRA rules structure, but the stylish though often heavier Camaro remained the weapon of choice for most competitors; with the new transmission, Chevrolet had cars in both SS/C and SS/CA. By the time they arrived (Spring 1968), (Gibb Chevy Nova II)” “W-30 Olds Smith and Chief Engineer John Beltz, along with Hurst's Jack "Doc" Watson sold Oldsmobile management on the idea of building a limited run of special 442s engineered to compete on the drag strip and positively annihilate any musclecar on the street, even the Hemi. A run of at least 50 cars was necessary to homologate this special 442 for NHRA competition and legalize all the parts that comprised the package.” “Though the ZL1 Camaro was the sleeper's sleeper, it was never meant for road use. The idea was to homologate these cars for NHRA Super Stock racing. To satisfy the rule, Chevrolet had to build and sell at least 50 of them. La Harpe, Illinois, was the home of Fred Gibb Chevrolet. Gibb requested the first batch via the Central Office Production Order (COPO), the way for dealers to obtain special equipment on Chevrolets so long as the process did not interrupt the normal flow of production cars. In short, if you (Gibb and Harrell) knew the right guys (Vince Piggins, et al), you could pretty much get whatever you wanted. In extreme haste, Fred Gibb ordered 51 of the socially unacceptable beasts and the first load was delivered on New Year's Eve, 1968. A few weeks later, while Gibb and I were looking over the Camaro's mundane appointments at Harrell's shop, he told me that he was so excited about the event that he'd left a party early to be at his store when the truck arrived with its historical cargo.” Despite everyone saying 50, the AMC crowd still says “52 plus....here it comes-one in case something happened”. Thus the “52 or 53, depending on the source” you see quoted. (And again, what source?) Even though it may be written all over the ‘net that 50 were needed, where is the Primary Source document that proves this? I haven’t seen one for the other models, but I do have one for the SS AMX! A letter was sent out to various dealers that had a racing program in place-not every dealer got this letter. It was dated November 4, 1968 and mailed November 5 (and was received at CA Cox Rambler, Wollaston, MA on Nov 7-he dated everything). Note the price-not to exceed $5000. This was signed by Bill McNeilly, the VP of Marketing, who had the enviable job of promoting this and other AMC cars. Here is a copy of the envelope (I told you Cox saved everything, dated it, 3 hole punched it and put it in a binder). The letter as seen above mainly asked for 50 dealers to step forward to order the car or it would not be made. Price would be about $5000. The deadline to order was November 20, 1968. An order form was attached. AMC was going to build a Super Stock race car! It is very clear they must build FIFTY (50) cars. So why do so many people quote “they had to build 52?” Where did this come from? Just more AMC speculation that is repeated enough that it becomes the standard. So, can we all agree AMC only had to build 50 cars? Let’s look at one other clue from this Primary Source document. Note the date? Somewhat early in the model year. So why do we see “after the success of the SC/Rambler, AMC worked with Hurst to build a race car”. What success? 1512 cars is not really a success. Plus, the SCRambler was introduced to the public at the Chicago Auto Show March 8, 1969. The SS/AMX cars were being made at this time, with 50+ confirmed orders. They were released late March and early April. Therefore, the “success” of the SC/Rambler had nothing to do with the SS/AMX. They were both actually conceived at the same meeting. Two myths down……. The November 20, 1968 deadline came and went and only 40 cars were ordered. A second letter dated December 2, 1968 was sent to the dealers again (Mailed Dec 2, 1968 and received Dec 5, 1968). This letter stated the dealership was contacted as they had sponsored a race car the previous year. It went on to say what was going to be done to the car: Hood scoop and induction Special manifold and carbs Clutch and bellhousing Modified cylinder heads Relocated battery Modified suspension Altered wheelwells It also stated it was not for street use, did not pass emissions, and had no warranty. Nothing about tires and wheels, paint, pistons, etc. etc. And get this: "the prototype vehicle is nearing completion". So here is an admission from AMC on a Primary Source document that states a Hurst SS/AMX was made that is not in the sequence commonly accepted. Call it prototype or whatever, it is a Hurst-made SS/AMX, but this car surely does NOT fit into the VIN sequence we have all seen and acknowledged as “the only ones made” Another myth down (and FYI-the whereabouts of this car is known-Howard Maseles raced it for Hurst, then Jack Thomas and then it was sold to Garrett Ghezzi, who still owns it and races it competitively.) Here is a copy of the Dec 2 letter: So, you now see why I questioned the production numbers of these cars. Here are some pictures of the original prototype AMX (note the scoop). The car was sent to Miami FL for development, then on to Orange County Raceway to introduce to the Press. It was also a time to introduce HL and Shirley Shahan, who were signed by the Southern California AMC dealers to race a SS/AMX on their behalf. (HL Shahan did a lot of prep work on this car before the release to the press, a lot of it at the Hurst facility). (Another myth-she was signed by Corporate AMC, but she raced for the Southern California Dealers Association. AMC retained ownership of the car and it had to be returned when the Shahans were done with it). And here is an interview (I do not know the author): Here she is with Bill McNealey of AMC, George Hurst, and her husband H.L. This was mid-February 1969 at Orange County International Raceway, Calif. This is one of the test runs down the track for the Press. I have to wonder about this scoop, but then again, they did design the Hurst Olds scoop and the SCRambler scoop. Here she is inside the car. Note back of scoop, heater controls (remember, it was a prototype. No big deal). Headrests have been removed. And is that a clock knob? And again. Carpet is obviously cut, no radio pod, tach in the center pad, the car had headrests but they have been removed. Waffle style headliner. And a block of wood on the clutch pedal! Definitely a white car. Still has hood hinges, missing core support bars, filler in front of radiator, (Piece attached under the hood did not see production). (Some of these pics came from a Car Craft article). Also involved with this project was David Landrith, who had just signed on with Hurst and would leave in 1971 to start his own racing consulting firm-one of his first customers were the Shahans and their Hornet and Gremlin SS cars. Here is a scan of Dave: Though it may look like this SS/AMX he is sitting in has leather seats, further study with a better computer application just shows it to be the "dots" in the 69 upholstery. And Dave was not the only one to come from Hurst: And the New York Zone also had a Performance Specialist (I wonder if all the zones had one): Edited by tbenvie - Apr/09/2010 at 11:34am
	Thomas M. Benvie

tbenvie Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Jul/02/2007 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 334	Quote Reply Posted: May/10/2009 at 6:16pm
	Now the cars were a go. Cars were shipped to Hurst for final completion. There were two pictures of the cars in the facility, one from Car Craft, the other from Car Exchange. And someone put them both together to show the shop. (Picture has been credited to A. B. Shuman, but he said it was a Hurst publicity shot. I wonder how many they took? Shuman used the pic in an article he did about the Shahans for Car Craft -see article below.) So let’s look at photo number 1. The cars appear white with black wheels. Possibly 3 aircleaner assemblies stacked near the crate. Some hoods appear to be upside down on the roofs, other are still on the car. Decklids are open. There appears to be an engine/tranny combo on a wooden pallet in front of one car. There is a portable engine puller in front of one of the cars. There is some stuff on top of the upside down hoods. And please note: Rocker Moldings! Another myth undone. Now look at photo number 2. There are obviously some stamped metal parts in the crates. No idea what they had to do with AMC. They are possibly floor pans from the Dodge Taxi project as thy were being worked on when owners came to take delivery of their AMXs. The first car looks like it is missing the steering wheel as you look through the passenger door window. And look all the way back at the car up higher than the rest. Sure looks like a Javelin to me, missing the door and nose. So anyone know what that is doing there? A Hurst SS/Javelin? And does it have paperwork, or will it be lost to history because it does not? More later, but this is the Hurst NASCAR Javelin. Now look at both pictures combined and cropped by Kevin of Cincinatty: How many cars do you see here? I’m counting 3 cars between the upright posts. That is all that will fit. It looks like there are 6 cars in a row, times 4 rows, or 24 cars tops. Now here is some “hearsay” evidence. This is word of mouth evidence without any documented back-up. I talked to “Doc” Watson in the mid 80s, I think about 1984-85. He told me numerous times AMC was the worst company to do business with as they wanted things “on the cheap”. One thing he told me was a story about the cylinder heads. Hurst wanted 50 sets of heads sent to Crane, modified, and then sent back to Hurst for installation. AMC wanted Hurst to remove the factory heads, send them to Crane, then wait for them to come back. Watson told me arrangements were made to send half the cars to Hurst for the modifications, then when done they would take the other half. AMC sent all the cars at once, which really ticked off the boys at Hurst. He told me he sent half of them back to AMC. So was there room outside the plant to store the vehicles until they were done? And if so, is that a practice Hurst used? There must be some pictures or documents somewhere. This picture does NOT show all the Hurst cars being modified. Here is a picture of the Hemi Darts outside the Hurst facility. You can see it did not hold 50 cars: Another myth down. And speaking of myths. For the longest time, everyone said the SC/Ramblers were also done at the Hurst facility. Swore to it, some even saw them there. Used this photo to document it: Now there is a problem if you just look at a photo without further investigation. This is a photo of a number of SC/Ramblers. Compare it to the SS/AMX photo number 1. Does this look like the same building? Same walls, light, windows, height of ceiling, etc? No, it is not the same building. Where is it, then? This is a warehouse HL Shahan used to store and work on the SC/Ramblers sent to him for the press runs at Orange County International Raceway. And then I found this photo and published it in the New England AMX Club newsletter, the AMX-Press: Though the picture is celebrating an AMX milestone, look what is on the assembly line behind the AMX? Yes, proof positive the SCRambler was made on the East Assembly line in Kenosha. More AMC myths exposed. So just what was done to these cars at Hurst? Here is what was written in the original letter to the dealers: So the cars started off as a regular production AMX with a short option list. All cars painted P72A Frost White (and this is very different from a “body in white”, which is a unibody assembly in primer, not painted). The cars had a charcoal interior and were equipped with a 390 4 speed, posi rear with 4.44:1 gears, manual steering, manual drum brakes, no undercoating (which was an option, so it was not added to the option list), and no sound deadener (which is carpet sound deadener, not body sound deadener). No radio, no clock. They were not Go-Pac equipped, so no stripe. To start. We have proven it had rocker moldings. Now, what about mirrors, wipers, heater assembly? Spare tire assembly? Wheels and tires? More later. Here are two build sheets posted on net. (The first is from the ssamx.com website): (Second sheet from www.performanceamstyle.com) The Sequence Number on a Build sheet is really the Body Number from the door tag. This is the sequential number of Javelins and AMXs coming down the line of the Body Plant. This particular number is R022185 on the first sheet, R022203 on the second sheet, showing they were made the week of January 11, 1969. They are 18 cars apart. (Note: I do not believe the cars came with a door data plate. Why would it? They did NOT conform to Federal specifications!) The Serial Number is the last 7 digits of the VIN, in this case X213585 (Car #26) for the first sheet, X213589 (Car #30) on the second sheet. Here, they are 4 digits apart. Haven't broken down the "Order No." yet, but you can see they are 18 digits apart. (18 the other way from the Sequence Number) It was a common practice to build the bodies and ship them to the final assembly plant not necessarily in the same order. Therefore, the Body, Sequence, and VIN number were rarely in sequence. The Zone shows “00”. This usually stands for a factory based car, so probably is correct. The car will be shipped via ground “G”. It is an AMX (39-7), with the color 72 Frost White and interior 31F, charcoal vinyl. The tire code is “00”. Interesting as I don’t have this code. I was told the car was delivered on Javelin spare tires on black rims, and there are pictures of the cars with black rims and skinny front tires. Another source shows E70 x 14 blackwall tires. At any rate, the "00" could also mean a special order wheel color, as black was not the standard wheel color for a frost white car. A “2” in seatbelts and a “1” in headrests are standard for 1969. A “9” for engine is a 390, an “M” for trans is a 4-speed. Gear Ratio “F” I have as 3.54:1, standard on a 4-speed AMX. These were changed to 4.44:1 as shown in the Special Instructions" section of the sheet. No number in “DE”, Dual exhaust. Interesting there is no number because it did come with an exhaust. A “1” in “TGD” shows it had a twin grip differential. Next line: “WE” is Weather Eye, for a heater. The “9“ shows Command Air. This doesn’t make any sense. More research needed. At any rate the heater was not installed on the assembly line and the car received block-of plates. (A large one for the heater motor, another for the heater core, another to take the place for the heater control, a block-off for the defroster ducts (made of cardboard), and lastly a plate that blocks off the opening where the fresh air would flow through the heater core through the cowl vents. I do not know what the “6” is in TS LGR. I haven’t seen this on other AMX build sheets. TS stands for "Third Seat" and LGR means "Luggage Rack", codes used for wagons. AMC did put codes in boxes that were not standard for that model to designate something (the Donohues I am pretty sure had a "4" in the box for cruise control, an option not available on the Javelin) The “1” in HDC LDC is for Heavy Duty Cooling. The “1” in HB is Heavy Duty Battery. Under Special Instructions, assembly line workers were told to delete sound deadener (under carpet) and hood insulation, install special 4.44:1 rearend gears, and allows for “deviation of No. 96”. Sure wish I knew what “deviation of No. 96" was-anyone care to guess? By the VIN, the first sheet shown here should be car # 30; the second would be #26. However, Hurst assigned them their own numbers. I also wish there were other Build Sheets for the other cars. From letter #2 from American Motors: Hood scoop and induction Special Manifold and Carbs Clutch and Bellhousing Modified Cylinder Heads Relocated Battery Modified Suspension Altered Wheelwells It also stated it was not for street use, did not pass emissions, and had no warranty. And noted the car did not conform to emissions standards (could this be the "deviation of 96", meaning no emission controls on the engine)? Being a 4 speed, the car would have a smog pump and all related components. No mention of pistons at all. No mention of a different shifter assembly, or parts. Does modified suspension also mean axles? Or just shocks and springs? Any other deleted items? This could be answered in the third letter from Hurst. A number of dealers were unhappy about the readiness of the car, and let AMC know just how unhappy they were. To answer this, AMC performance sent a letter to the dealers that ordered a car: HMMMM. "One of which you have purchased" Why would Cox get this at his dealership? Could this mean he actually ordered an SS/AMX? He got this letter, and that is what it states, right? I would say yes. But...look at the date. This could not be for the car listed on eBay because that car wasn't even on the production line when this was sent out. And look at the signature. More here: So Chakmakian is gone. What a shocker for the dealers who ordered this car! "Only those items needed to be installed per NHRA specs!" Who would have thought that and read into it when the first letter came out? Dealers were outraged! They sure seemed to have expected the car to come balanced and blueprinted, and maybe even overbored. And I wonder what the mention of the paint job meant? When I asked Watson about the car's paint, he stated that Hurst was not a paint shop, and didn't paint the cars. This seemed to make sense with the delivery of the Hemi Darts with an unpainted nose. But again-this is "Hearsay"-no proof. I have been trying for years to find out how and where these cars were painted, but no luck. Probably a local shop. Plus, was a tri-color paint job extra cost? I would think yes. Later in the letter, there is a mention of tri-color paint, so they obviously came that way. While at the Hurst facilities, a sheet was put on the windshield with a checklist and car number. Here is an example: Here is a cleaned-up blank: The sheet designates the car number and if it was all white, or red, white, and blue. Some interesting work: cut and patch floor pan. Know why? More later. How about "set up air package?” What is this? There was also a sheet for the engine. Luckily, there are two different cars with this sheet. Two items here not previously mentioned: Pistons and Flywheel. I wonder what the big "R" stands for? So there is a missing document. I don't have it, but hopefully someone does. This is the actual order form for the dealers. This form would give the options for color, for instance. It would specifically spell out what comes with the car, and what does not come with the car. It would determine the paint scheme. And most importantly, it would show prices. The original letter showed a price of about $5000, yet it is reported they cost almost $6000. That is a HUGE difference for 1969. Now here is some NHRA update Tech Sheets: Note the carb type-a Holley 4584, with AM part #4487187. Here is a pic of the carb numbers: NHRA Technical Specifications Issued: 1 March 1969 Revised: 4-1-69, 4-17-70, 7-17-70, 4-1-71, 4-26-74 6-24-95, 2-4-05, 12-21-05 WR, 8-3-06 WR Bulletin #: Amer-69 Page 1 of 1 Specifications for the 1969 American Motors engines H.P. Disp. C.R. Ind. Make Model/Transmission Manifold R.R. Lifter Head cc Notes 315 390 10.2 1-4 Cart AFB-4664S/SM 4665S/AUTO 3191736-C 1.6 H 49.10 340 390 12.2 2-4 Holl 4584/SM ONLY 4486228 1.6 H 57.00 2 Notes 2 Super Stock Only Carb size 1562x1562/1250x1313 Deck Piston Type H.P. Disp. Cl Dish/Dome Ht Vol Valves Cam Lift Springs Gasket Head Cast Notes 315 390 .028 FLAT w/trough 13.94cc 2030/1630 425/425 Outer Only .040 3188558 340 390 .038 DOME w/n 3.60cc 2080/1740 425/425 Outer Only .030 558,291,993 A Notes A = "O" rings may be used in the heads or the block if desired. It is not mandatory for a racer to use "O" rings, it is optional. A head gasket must be used in either case. This brings up some questions. First are pistons. It isn't mentioned in earlier letters, but does show up in the engine checklist. I have seen a number of brands mentioned, but my question is: the parts were only supposed to be things the NHRA needed changed. Were pistons one of these? What is really silly to me is for the company to put standard bore pistons in the car, plus no blueprinting/balancing. Then, they send out a notice on how to make free floating pins! Well, the answer is the domed top of the piston. AMC had to install these so the racers could use them. The racers could overbore the cylinder as much as they wanted, but would have to use flat top pistons if AMC didn't put these domed ones in. And there is a story that one racer used a piston with a different top design for the valves and had to change them. Anyway, here is a letter from Brian Higgins to me from the late 80s. He sent me an article that was written about his car (Westbury Rambler's S & K car). You can see his writing in the margins: Here is a better copy of the article, scanned from an original magazine (Super Street Cars, Feb 1970): Nope, this isn't going to help as they talk about what pistons are in the motor, but not if they came that way. I say this as they also talk about the cam in the engine, and they were definitely NOT changed from factory. (Because there are a number of factors that go in to selecting a cam, to include altitude, so a Boston cam would be very much different than a Denver cam. Thus, the factory-stock cam was left in the engine). I've also heard from owners that Hurst did nothing to the bottom end of the car (we know they put on a stock oil pan. Seems crazy that they would pull the pan to replace the pistons, then put the stock pan back on. How much more would it cost to put a deep pan and pick-up in?) Anyone with definitive info on the pistons? JE seems to be the piston company verified by most owners. That is verified with this notice found in a period drag publication Drag News: And please note the carbs again. I have seen everywhere carbs from 600 to 650 cfm. Hurst put two Holley 4584 carbs on the intake (and I may be thinking of something else, but were they also labeled "L" and "R"?). They are 570 cfm, and ONLY came on the SS/AMX cars, so sure have a premium price on them. Let's look at an article from Car Craft June 1969 posted by Phat69AMX: First, there is mention that "most" of the cars were sold to dealers. I wonder how many were sold to a private individual, and how they found out about it? The prototype car originally ran an R4B and Holley 3bbl, and the heads were done by Hurst. I wonder how they decided to send them to Crane when the project got going? As we all know, the intake became the Edelbrock Cross-Ram. The stock horsepower for a 1969 390 engine was 315 hp. The magazine mentioned that after some more tweaks, to include the crossram, they were able to get ANOTHER 28 horsepower from the car. Let's see, that equals 343hp, yet the car was rated for 340-and this does not include the horsepower increase with the R4B, etc. Wonder what the real horsepower on the prototype was? Mentions Holley 4210 615 cfm carbs. We know that is wrong. I wonder how they determined the carb size for the final build, especially when the bore/cam was still to be determined by the new owner? "That's all there will be.” How did they know? Here is a part that bothers me. There is documentation that shows the beginning VIN sequence. There is also mention the names of the owners will be sent to the NHRA for certification, or homologation. But where does it say there will be no more made? And they only had to send 50 names and VINs to the NHRA for certification, why would they have to send other names once the car was homologated? There is no documentation that I have seen or heard of that says "this batch, and no more." Remember the mention of the Hurst Hemi Dart? They made 50, then later made 30 more. Hmmmm. Original parts and pieces are available from Hurst and AMC....” I will look and find these prices in 1969. There is a mention of the almost $6000 price for the car, a huge sum in 69. JE Forged 12.25:1 pistons. Someone must have a program to see hp ratings with the various parts on the car. Total weight 3025 pounds. Didn't it weigh about 3200 when new? This post is locked. Any comments? Please post here: http://theamcforum.com/forum/ss-amx-posts_topic10530.html Edited by tbenvie - Dec/28/2009 at 8:53pm
	Thomas M. Benvie

Steve_P Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Charter Member Joined: Jun/28/2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 639	Quote Reply Posted: May/11/2009 at 9:58am
	The Trans Am homologation numbers for '70 break down like this: 1/250th total of 1969 production for company, or a minimum of 2500 (whichever is greater) 8200 chevy 7000 ford 2800 dodge 2500 AMC and Plymouth This is from SCCA and quoted in a 1970 magazine. I didn't write down the source, but those are the numbers listed. I haven't verified them by back-checking with 1969 production figures. So, AMC had to make 2500 1970 Donohue Javelins as a minimum.

Steve_P Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Charter Member Joined: Jun/28/2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 639	Quote Reply Posted: May/12/2009 at 9:00am
	Tom, I know I pulled that out of a 69-70 magazine. I do not quote internet posts. I think you're misunderstanding? I said: 1/250th total of 1969 production for company, or a minimum of 2500 (whichever is greater) It's for the company (or division) and not the car model. So, chevy would be 1/250 (or 2500 min) 1969 production of chevrolet, not camaro. And AMC would be by total AMCs made, not javelin. I don't know 1969 AMC production offhand, but I know it wasn't 500k; therefore, they had to build 2500 min per what I said, and this is what they did (2501) I have 500++ vintage magazines so I'm not going to search for my source- I should've written it down but am sure it came from home as it is written on a notepad from there and I remember running across the figures and writing it down. I looked in my Trans Am hardback book and they say 2500 min. Feb 1970 Car Life magazine said 2500 or 1/250 but did not give specific breakdowns. So, this can be checked if anyone wants to search for 1969 chevy, ford... production.

tbenvie Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Jul/02/2007 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 334	Quote Reply Posted: May/14/2009 at 8:39pm
	Here is also article from May 69 Super Stock magazine on the day at Orange County Raceway with pictures of Shahan and the prototype car and first hoodscoop: So far, we know a prototype car was made about Dec 68, tested in Florida, and shown in California with Shahan to AMC dignitaries. Hurst sold the idea to AMC the same time they sold the SC/Rambler idea. A letter was sent out asking for 50 orders. A second letter went out stating they needed a few more orders. The car was given the green light, and shipped to Hurst. There is a picture of at least 20+ white cars in the Hurst facility. AMC stated they had enough orders to homologate the car with the NHRA, and was sending VINs and owner names to get the process started. The cars had some items removed to save weight, such as hood springs, radiator filler, heater assembly, core support bars, hood latch assembly, and had block-off plates for the heater assembly, radio, and there was no clock, or undercoating. It was a 390 4 speed drum brake car with a 4.44 posi rearend, no power steering or brakes. Hurst supplied a crossram intake with two specific Holley carbs, a Mallory distributor, velocity stacks, a new shifter and handle, one piece axles, and a special scoop. Also a clutch assembly with a blowshield. The battery was relocated to the trunk. Most of the owners would be dealers. Most received their cars through regular car delivery, but I heard some picked them up-don't know if it was from the Ferndale, Mich. Hurst facility or a local marshaling yard. To support the owners, AMC sent a number of performance bulletins out to help them during the season. AMC and Hurst sent telegrams whenever they could. Here is Performance Bulletin #1, as part of the introduction letter: It is dated March 20, 1969 meaning this is when the cars started to ship out. We now know the car had special front 90/10 front shocks, complete with a Hurst part number. There are also special rear shocks (50/50), special rear axles, and special rear springs, with two part numbers, meaning they were left and right, not interchangeable. Stock tranny, and a new shifter with a reverse lock-out that has a different mounting plate (which is why they cut the floor) and different rods. Was the rest the same? New flywheel, bolts, clutch disc, and pressure plate. Also came with a blowshield (though interesting, not a driveshaft loop). Stock fuel pump, special heads reworked by Crane. Recommendation for tolerances, oil pump modifications, etc. Here is the next bulletin: Needs better head gaskets-care to speculate how they found this out? Ouch! Slipping linkages for the carbs. New clutch linkage geometry. Why would they show the rear wheel opening configuration? FYI-some owners stated to me (hearsay evidence) their cars did not have modified rear wheelwells. The car was originally to be classified as SS/G, but now we see it is SS/E. Wrist pin failure? Another ouch! I wonder how many blocks were lost? Dated June 6-the owners have had their cars two months. Again, I wonder how many cars had damaged parts before these bulletins were sent out: Maybe they didn't get it the first time? Seems an expanded version of the previous bulletin. I wonder if anyone was disqualified for having the engine at the wrong spec? October 10, 1969-the season must be almost over at this time. So that is the 7 Performance Bulletins I have. If there is an 8th or more, I would love to get a copy. To jump ahead a little bit and place these out-of-order, here are a few bulletins from 1970: These were the exact same specs as outlined in the 1969 sheets-as a matter of fact, the only differences between the two is the model year changed, and the form is from 1970. (Compare to the 69 sheet posted). However, there was a mistake as shown here: As mentioned, Western Union Telegrams were also sent to owners of the cars with more time sensitive information. Here is what I have: Edited by tbenvie - Nov/07/2009 at 10:59pm
	Thomas M. Benvie

tbenvie Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Jul/02/2007 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 334	Quote Reply Posted: May/18/2009 at 6:23pm
	Note-the info in some of the telegrams was first called to the owners via telephone, as shown in the telegram "Duplicate of telephoned telegram". This one seems to address the 70 SS/AMX Tech Sheets (2 pages) (sent to Jones Rambler, Texas. Hurst SS/AMX car #40): Here is the same telegram, sent to Delrose Motors, Pittsburg, PA. Hurst SS/AMX Car #30: Maybe someone with some serious racing experience could explain what was done to these heads and make a comparison to the 70 dog-leg head and modern technology. Next, let's look at some specs on the car. Besides the added feature already mentioned, there were some things deleted. The hood hinges, grill support and hood latch (four hood pins held the hood in place, but were very unpopular and most put hinges back on). The front sway bar, (because the car does not take corners), one horn, and the heater assembly. Sound deadener was also removed (This was the carpet padding, not the deadener sprayed on the inner door skins, quarter panels, etc.). So how was this done? The cars were sent to Hurst as complete running AMXs. Hurst removed the sway bar, horn, intake and carb assembly, exhaust, the various brackets, etc. And the heater? It was often thought Hurst removed it. There are two cars that had the dashes swapped as they match each other's frame rail. How else could that happen? Not too long ago there was a discussion as to why Hurst would remove it, why wouldn't they just not be installed at AMC? As it turns out, the invoice gives a credit for the heater assembly, thus confirming the heaters were not installed on the assembly line. But this once again emphasizes how the AMC community (and me too, here) repeat what they hear as if it is fact. They supposedly came without rocker moldings, mirrors, or wipers. Let's look at some photos coming right from AMC: Here is a picture of the new manifold. Note the top isn't bolted to the bottom yet: How about this one (Prototype car)? Notice no hood hinges, but especially no paint where they were. (The hinges were there when the car was painted, so paint could not get behind them. This would be correct on all cars). Note the wipers-why, electric! (But they were all vacuum in the production version of these Super Stock cars). And the clips for the washer bag are still in place as well. All the washer parts are missing. The grill support is missing as is the filler in front of the radiator. No heater (the cable going into the firewall where the hoses would normally go is a tach-drive. The car was also originally white. One more note on the wipers-the car came with a stock fuel pump, so in this case would not have the top vacuum part. Bundy (Hurst SS/AMX Car #11)-Rocker moldings, no mirror. The cars came with the manual mirror, but they were often removed and the holes were filled: Pete's Patriot (Hurst SS/AMX Car #39)-with rocker moldings and manual mirror: AMX-1 (Hurst SS/AMX Car #31) with rockers (and front plate!): S & K Speed (Hurst SS/AMX Car #19)-no rockers, manual mirror, note exhaust: Ray-Wel (Car #unknown-missing car)-Rockers, manual mirror, hooded dash: Chuck's Luck (Car #unknown-missing car)-hooded dash, no rockers, manual mirror: Stowe Engineering (Hurst SS/AMX Car #46-missing car): Rodekopf (Hurst SS/AMX Car #50)-one piece crossmember, manual mirror, no rockers: You just have to love this picture: And one more of Shahan, probably with the prototype: Speculation is the rocker panel moldings were removed due to increasing the wheelwell opening for tire clearance. The rocker moldings just fit on stock cars, so would have to be trimmed-or removed-on a modified car. . Edited by tbenvie - Nov/07/2009 at 11:08pm
	Thomas M. Benvie

tbenvie Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Jul/02/2007 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 334	Quote Reply Posted: May/18/2009 at 8:27pm
	Note the picture of Shahan is not the same series as the other pictures as she is wearing a different outfit. Also, note the earlier pictures of the prototype show hinges on the hood, the other picture did not. There are a couple of cars that now have electric wipers, but look at the article of the S & K car-clearly vacuum wipers. (This is how they all came when new). You might also be interested in the sticker that is on the driver's door jamb. (The door jamb has been repainted in this picture. There is paint on the decal, and the screw should not have any paint on it): Here is a reproduced sticker: And for reference, here is the tag from the Hemi Dart: Before I go on, I want to share a notice Dodge used when they sold the Hemi Dart: The introduction of the S/S Hemi Barracudas created controversy in the stock ranks, where the little guy now found himself pitted against nation record holders in factory-built race cars. On February 20, 1968, Chrysler-Plymouth general sales manager R.D. McLaughlin outlined for dealers- and racers -what they could order. The following is a reprint of his letter in its entirety. CHRYSLER ANNOUNCEMENT LETTER 1968 SUPER STOCK BARRACUDA February 20, 1968 TO: All Plymouth Dealers Subject: 1968 Hemi Barracuda Super Stock The Chrysler-Plymouth Division offers for the 1968 models a 426 Hemi-Powered Barracuda Fastback for use in supervised acceleration trials. These cars will weigh approximately 3,000 pounds and have been designed to meet the 1968 specifications of the major sanctioning drag strip organizations. The Hemi-Powered Barracudas will be available through production is limited quantities in March. To order this vehicle, use the Barracuda Order Form and specify Body Code BO29 and Transmission Code, either 4 Speed Manual, Code 393, or Automatic, Code 395. No other specifications are necessary. Description of Components 426 cu. In. 8-cylinder engine with dual 4-barrel carburetors- 12.5 to 1 compression ratio. Cross Ram Intake manifold. 1 11/16" x 1 11/16" Holley carburetors. Competition Hooker headers, exhaust pipes, and mufflers. High capacity oil pump. Roller timing chain (reduced timing chain stretch for more consistent engine performance). Mechanical valve gear. Dual breaker distributor. Transistor ignition. Metal core type ignition wires. Unsilenced air cleaners. Deep groove fan drive pulleys. Heavy duty radiator. Aluminum seven-blade fan equipped with Viscous drive. Special offset 15" rear wheels. Chrysler-built 8 ¾" large stem pinion gear set, and heavy-duty axle shafts with automatic transmission (4.86 axle ration). Dana-built 9 ¾" heavy-duty axle with manual transmission (4.88 axle ration). Sure-Grip differential. 135 Amp. Hr. battery (located in rear compartment). Heavy-duty high control rear suspension. Front disc brakes 41/2" Bolt Circle. Fiberglass front fenders. Fiberglass hood with scoop. Light weight steel doors. Light weight front bumper. Light weight side window glass. High capacity fuel lines. Business coupe interior (2 bucket seats - no rear seat). For Manual Transmission Only Special heavy-duty 10 ½" clutch and flywheel. Safety steel clutch housing. Competition "Slick Shift" 4-speed transmission. Hurst remote mounted floor-shift unit with reverse lockout. For Automatic Transmission Only High stall speed torque converter (large drive lugs and 7/16" diameter attaching screws). Heavy-duty manual shift TorqueFlite transmission. Hurst floor-mounted shift unit. Please Note: The following items are deleted on this body type: Heater, Body Sealer and Sound Deadeners, Silence Pads, Outside Mirrors, Right Side Seat Belt and Body Color Paint. NO OPTIONAL EQUIPMENT OF ANY KIND CAN BE ORDERED The policy of Chrysler Corporation is one of continual improvement in design and manufacture, wherever possible, to insure a still finer car. Hence, specifications, equipment and prices are subject to change without notice. These vehicles are intended to use in supervised acceleration trials and other competitive events, therefore, they will be sold without warrant. Special stickers will be provided for plant installation (attached to left "A" post) which will read as follows: "This vehicle was not manufactured for use on public streets, roads or highways and does not conform to Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. All customer orders must be accompanied by a signed disclaimer (sample attached) indicating that the purchaser understands that this vehicle is sold without warranty and does not conform to Federal Vehicle Safety Standards. Any prospective customer who desires to purchase one of these maximum performance vehicles should be made aware of the following characteristics which make them unsuitable for general use. A high idle speed is required to insure adequate lubrication, minimize roughness, and to keep the engine from stalling. The modified intake manifold causes a rich surging condition, misfiring and unstable engine operation in cold weather, which makes ordinary street driving extremely difficult and it is not recommended for this use. Higher than normal oil consumption will be encountered because of increased lubrication to the valve train and cylinder walls. The carburetors are calibrated for maximum power and a high numerical axle ration is used for acceleration. As a result, the gas mileage is considerably less than for a conventional car. Engine noise would be objectionable due to increased piston clearance and mechanical valve tappet clearance. The ignition system is designed for optimum engine output and must be kept in top condition. This makes it necessary to inspect, adjust and replace the spark plugs and ignition points more frequently than would be necessary on a standard engine. On car equipped with automatic transmission, band adjustment must be made frequently. Due to performance characteristics, maintenance and operating expense will be high since premium fuel is required and frequent oil changes are a MUST. Does not conform to Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Warranty and Policy Coverage Any customer purchasing this model vehicle should be advised that due to the expected use, the vehicle is sold "as is" and the 24 month or 24,000 mile vehicle warranty coverage, the 5 year or 50,000 mile Power Train Warranty coverage, or any other warranty coverage (including, but not limited to the implied warranties of fitness for purpose intended or merchantability) will not apply to the vehicle. The manufacturer assumes no responsibility for the manner in which such vehicles operate. Any repairs or adjustments which you believe warranty factory participation should be brought to the attention of your Regional Service Office where such requests will be handled on individual merits. Attached is a form letter (to be prepared on your letterhead) which should be thoroughly understood and signed by each prospective purchaser and attached to your order for each Hemi Barracuda Super Stock. The purpose of the letter is to explain the normal operation characteristics of these vehicles and clarify that the warranty coverage’s do not apply. Be sure a letter in this form, signed by your customer, is included with your order so there will be no delay. 1968 Hemi Barracuda It was inevitable that Chrysler would build the Hemi Barracuda. For the past four years, drag racers had been gutting Barracudas and dropping in 392 and 426 Elephant Engines. Since Chrysler had enjoyed tremendous success on the dragstrips in Super Stock and Unlimited Fuel since 1963, the decision to continue that domination by building a factory super stocker (with some assistance from Hurst) was a natural. The S/S Hemi Barracuda was assembled by Chrysler as a package and then shipped to Hurst. Although the number varies from source to source, at least fifty and possibly as many as seventy-five Barracudas were shipped to Hurst’s facility in Detroit. The conversions were coordinated by Dick Maxwell at Chrysler and Richard Chrysler at Hurst. As delivered to the dealers, the cars had fiberglass hoods and fenders, while the front bumper and doors were light-gauge steel. The interiors were gutted and Bostrom driver seats installed. To squeeze the mighty Elephant into the Barracuda’s tight engine bay, some modifications had to be made under the hood. The battery was moved to the trunk, and the right shock tower was moved, as was the master cylinder. Hurst also installed custom headers, shift linkages for four-speed cars and special rear-axle assemblies. Off the transport trailer the cars were delivered on street tires. All that was needed to make the car competitive was slicks, a deeper oil pan (a small pan was installed for shipping), camshaft and valvetrain. The S/S Hemi Barracudas were delivered to racers in early May, in time to qualify for the NHRA Spring Nationals. Ronnie Sox was one of the first to get a Hemi Barracuda on the strip and turned mid 10s right out of the box. Does this look at all familiar? I wonder if the owners of the SS/AMX had to sign some specific paperwork like the owners of the Hemi Dart? Edited by tbenvie - Nov/07/2009 at 11:12pm
	Thomas M. Benvie

Steve_P Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Charter Member Joined: Jun/28/2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 639	Quote Reply Posted: May/19/2009 at 2:16pm
	First off, thanks for Tom for taking the time to post all of this documentation again. I believe this is the third time he's done it. Hopefully it will be the last time he'll have to do it. Stock tranny, and a the shifter has a different mounting plate (is this why they cut the floor?) and different rods. Was the rest the same? IIRC the entire shifter was different and was an "aftermarket" type hurst unit with the bolt on rectangular handle. Did it have had a separate reverse lockout lever? For some reason I recall that but I'm not very fresh on any of this. In any case I'd bet they'd have to cut the floor to make it fit as the basic aftermarket AMC Hurst didn't fit the floorpan without some work and the throw was too long to use the stock boot and ring. And the heater? It was often thought Hurst removed it. There is two cars that had the dashes swapped as they match each other's frame rail. How else could that happen? Not too long ago there was a discussion as to why Hurst would remove it, why wouldn't they just not be installed at AMC? Still don't know for sure, but once again it emphasizes how the AMC community (and me too, here) repeat what they hear like it is fact. Removing the htr was metioned in the AMO newsletter article on the SS AMXs. I questioned this when you mentioned it last time, because: you don't have to remove the dash to remove the heater assy- it's very easy to remove the htr assy with the dash in place and this would save a significant amount of labor and $. but, even better, why not just leave it out at the factory and save at least half a day's work at hurst? and finally, and this convinces me: it says nothing on the Hurst checksheet about removing the dash and or heater. Yet it says remove shocks which is a very minor task in comparison to remove dash and or remove heater. So, the obvious possible answers would be either: they installed the wrong dash in the car at AMC; or, they stamped the wrong last digit of the VIN on the framerail of two cars going down the assy line Keep in mind that if this wasn't an SS AMX the chance of this being noticed would be thousands to one; I'd bet it wasn't the only time a mistake like it happened, but how many people authenticated the other 99.99% of cars AMC built which aren't as desirable? Tom: It seems that most of the cars had the manual outside mirror, but also had electric wipers. This would be a combination not available in a conventional car because the visibility group consisted of the remote outside mirror and electric wipers (right? I'm going from memory, no factory lit handy). Since there was no fitting on the cross ram for the PCV (?) they couldn't install the factory vacuum wipers as the factory normally installed them (correct?) as I think there was a vacuum line from the fuel pump which went to a tee above the PCV. Edited by Steve_P - May/19/2009 at 2:50pm

tbenvie Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Jul/02/2007 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 334	Quote Reply Posted: May/19/2009 at 9:02pm
	The cars did not use the same shifter as stock, but it was replaced with a shifter that had reverse lock-out, and they did change the rods to a thicker set to prevent bending, and a steel plate replaced the aluminum one that attached the shifter assembly to the tranny. The plate was stronger than the aluminum one, and moved the shifter about 6 inches to have it closer to the driver. Also, a new "T" handle. If you look at some pictures, you will see a stock looking shifter, but also the stock ring and boot, and in the same location. To cut the floor to relocate it would also mean moving carpet, the plastic hump, etc. The carpets were cut and then sewn back together to accommodate the shifter. I will wager the heater assembly not being put in the car when it was made on the assembly line. I say this because look at the following document: As you can see, there is a credit for the heater assembly on the invoice. There is no credit for the hinges, sway bar, etc. and they were also removed from the car-the difference is, they were not removed at the factory, but rather at Hurst. And as was pointed out, there is no mention of the heater assembly removal in the Hurst build paperwork. Here is a great original looking under hood shot: You can see the two covers on the firewall that replaced the heater assembly. The large round piece is actually a formed piece and it had a foam gasket to seal it. There was a flat piece that covered the holes for the heater core and hoses. Neither one were painted from the factory, but left primer black. Usually these were painted body color. Some other things to notice is the lack of hood latch assembly, and notice no paint where it would go as it was also on the car when painted. Vacuum wipers and washers, no paint under the removed hood hinges, no fender support bars, or the piece in front of the radiator. Still has the clips for the washer bag. And...what's with the battery under the hood? This was changed by an owner. It came in the trunk. You can see the hole with the cable going through the firewall just under the heater block-off plate. (Hurst just enlarged and existing hole). Also, note this has a 70 grill. It gives a good shot of the four hood pins, and shows some overspray in various places where the car was painted. Wrong distributor here also. This is the correct brake master cylinder with the bolt-on cap. And a manual mirror. Still more about the wipers. There is no fitting for the manifold source on the intake, but pictures such as the S & K car and many others clearly show vacuum wipers. When delivered to Hurst the cars had stock manifolds, to include the fitting. They came with vacuum wipers (except the prototype, which clearly had electric). I believe the others with electric wipers were changed by later owners. There are also some pictures that do not show a mirror. I believe they all came with a manual mirror as there was a hole in the door for the remote cable and I doubt Hurst would do the bodywork to cover it up when it would be cheaper and easier to just put a mirror there. Many an owner did do this work to remove the mirror, however. I still question the hooded dash. The VIN shows it was ordered around January 11, 1969 and that is close to when the hooded dash came out. But the new hooded dash had chrome inserts, and none of them seem to have those. Plus there are some without the hooded part as well. Could it be none had the hooded dash when new, and they were added later? No, because there are some period pictures that show both the hooded and non-hooded dashes. Curious. Another piece of documentation: the ssamx.com website offers two original copies of the dealer sticker price. Here they are: From Hurst SS/AMX Car #52 (on the website): From Hurst SS/AMX Car #26: The price is the same except for the delivery charge. But this is the sticker price, and everyone knows there is room for negotiation. Look back to one of the first documents posted: an agreement stating the car would not exceed $5000. Yet, the sticker shows it did. So the dealer cost is obviously less than sticker, but how much less? $1000 seems like an awful lot. Did AMC sell the cars at a discount to the dealers? I wonder what the final dealer cost was? When the Big Bad color option came out there was a promotion where the dealers got it free, and were still able to pass the cost on to the customers (a whole $34.). And look at these car order numbers-only two apart! Before I move on, here are two more pieces of original documentation. The first is the Certificate of Origin for Hurst SS/AMX Car #41 (Note the date: 3-8-69): This is the Bill of Laden sheet for Hurst SS/AMX Car #30: Next, I'll look at the actual cost of the car and components to see if this was such a deal or not. Edited by tbenvie - Nov/07/2009 at 11:21pm
	Thomas M. Benvie

tbenvie Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List AMC Addicted Joined: Jul/02/2007 Location: United States Online Status: Offline Posts: 334	Quote Reply Posted: May/20/2009 at 8:48pm
	The price of the car on the sticker price was $5994. Here is the price of the car alone as delivered by AMC to Hurst. It was a: 1969 AMX $3297.00 P72A Frost White N/C T-931F Vinyl Interior N/C 315 hp V8 390 123.05 4 speed Trans N/C Twin Grip Diff 42.30 4.44:1 axles 4.95 Heavy Duty Cooling 16.05 Heavy Duty Battery 8.45 Total price as delivered to Hurst: $3491.80 (Note: this is the retail price for the car, not the dealer price or the factory price to make the car) Here is the price book from AMC that the dealers carried with them: There is a $28.10 credit for the deletion of the heater system. Interesting that the Heavy Duty Cooling system included the fan shroud, but it was deleted when delivered. Also deleted were the sway bar, one horn, core support rods, hood hinges, hood latch assembly, grill support, battery tray under hood (and it is also unpainted under it as it was in the car when painted), hubcaps, and baffle in front of radiator. As noted, the rocker moldings should also be deleted, but we can see that is not true in every case. Sound deadener under carpets. Deleted but replaced by something else: standard pistons replaced with domed forged pistons (and therefore rings and wrist pin), intake manifold and carb, (replaced by STR-11 dual quad intake and two Holley carbs, and thus gaskets), air cleaner (replaced with Velocity Stacks), standard exhaust -replaced by headers (and was it a smog exhaust? The warranty waiver said it was not street legal, and mentioned it was due to no emissions equipment. And what about the rear section of the exhaust pipes? It was two short pipes with glasspack mufflers.). Distributor replaced with a Mallory unit, as well as the coil and plug wires. Heads machined and replaced (so needs new gaskets for head and valve covers). Flywheel, clutch assembly, bellhousing replaced with performance items. Shifter, knobs, arms and aluminum shift plate replaced with performance items. Rear axles replaced with forged one-piece axles. Shocks replaced with performance shocks, as were the rear springs. Added to the car were a hood scoop and 4 hood pins. New battery cable and battery box assembly, installed in the trunk. Apparently, there was no credit for the removed parts (I wonder where they went?) I also wonder what they did with the spare tire? Was it mounted in the trunk with a new bracket welded to the floor, about where the standard size Javelin spare would go. No evidence yet, but the Hurst Build check-off sheet states to install spare. The original bracket couldn't be used with the battery tray located where it was. So how much were these parts? I have a few performance catalogs from back then-Gratiots from 1972, Honest Charlie from 73, a Summers brothers axle catalog (for reference as I could not find Henry's axles), and lastly a Jocko's catalog from 1970. (Jocko once owned the complete Penske Racing Team 71 Javelin and a trailer full of components). Here is what I found: STR stood for Street Tunnel Ram (STR-11 is for AMC, STR-10 is for Chevy): I couldn't find the exact Holleys, but these should give a close price: Here is an old eBay auction to give you an idea of selling prices: Velocity stacks with foam seal-(not the exact one): Gasket Sets-original from Mr. Gasket: Mallory Rev-Pol distributor (tag reads "YC"): And plug wires (Originals were Packard): Doug Thorley (Dougs) Headers (again, not exact, but for reference): Clutch assembly, flywheel, and bellhousing: Shocks: Shifter, handle, and rods (Line-Loc switch is shown near shifter handle, but was not part of this package): Pistons and rings (JE Pisons): Here is a press release from J&E about the new pistons used in the car: Hood Pins (four): And axles (again, for reference only. Original were Henrys): . Here are the costs: STR-11 126.00 Install kit (linkage, etc) 29.00 2-Holley Carbs 119.90 (59.95 ea) 2 Carb Gaskets 1.30 2-Velocity Stacks 14.50 (7.25 ea) Rebuild Gasket Set 19.50 8 Pistons 83.60 (10.45 ea) Ring Set 25.95 Distributor and Coil 77.00 Plug Wires 25.25 Headers 59.95 4 Shocks 63.90 (31.95 pr) Blowshield 93.50 Flywheel 74.50 Clutch Plate 49.95 Pressure Plate 73.50 2 Rear Axles 249.90 pr 4 Hood Pins 20.80 (5.95 ea) Shifter Plate and Rods 15.95 Rear Springs-? Total Cost: $1223.55 Plus cost of machine work to head and the hood scoop. Labor. Anything else I missed? Total thus far: $4715.35. As you can see it is close to the $5000 price AMC promised and that does not factor everything. And what about this document? This is right about the time AMC released the Hurst cars. This was to conform to the NHRA rules that the items had to be available over-the-counter from the manufacturer. (And sorry to everyone who has an earlier car and thought the dealer put these on the car when it was purchased new. Nope). Here are a couple of scans from the Group 19 or performance section of the AMC Parts Book: These are copies of the parts manual that shows the various block-off plates for the car (I circled them). Note the heater block-off is not just the two at the firewall, but also under the dash where the air goes through the heater core (this is a 70 illustration for reference purposes): Here is one side of the defroster duct block-off. It was actually one piece-the other side must have ripped off. (The plug for the wiper is not factory): Here is a clock block-off as seen in a 1970 dash (same 68-70): Here is a heater control block-off: Here is the two heater block-offs under the hood-they were not painted and remained primer grey: Here is a radio block-off-(toggle switches added by owner): And to be sure the new owners of the cars had the specific part numbers, a tri-color parts catalogue was delivered with each car with instructions to the dealer where they should file it: This also gives the paint codes for the car. I wonder why they used a different white? And how about this document from AMC? FYI-A rearend ratio (X.00:1) ending in ".00" means the pinion gear hits the exact same teeth on the ring gear each revolution. This is called a "non-seeking rear ratio" and actually has a timing mark to align the ring and pinion gears. A ratio ending in ".05" hits the same teeth every other revolution. It also has a timing mark. Edited by tbenvie - Dec/29/2009 at 2:02pm
	Thomas M. Benvie

SS/AMX History and Documentation

CHRYSLER ANNOUNCEMENT LETTER

1968 SUPER STOCK BARRACUDA