Gallery – AMC AMX

First Use in Anger

First use after build, a track day at Castle Combe, showed up a number of early teething problems, and the first go at the front suspension came up far too soft.

Cockpit and Dashboard take shape

Fuel tanks and rear window go in

Breathtaking work on the forming, Tanks strapped into the rear of the cabin, we’ll be sitting in there with 200 litres of fuel. Filler caps brought up into rear quarter lights

Front turrets, handbrake captive nuts, fuel tank pedestals, pedal box prep, roof intakes, discussion of which is better: North or South? Radiator mounting with flitches to drive air through it, transmission tunnel gearbox access and Maxtrax sand mats mounted on boot lid (hoping that mounting them means we will not need them…)

Engine Dismantling

085 — Bent push rod wasn’t helping performance…

Grim matter in the water pump a sign of standing for some time, note perished seals

Geen arrives at Autosportif

Body was put on a rotisserie so cleaning up and preparing the shell gets under way.

063 — Petrol tank removed and boot floor dropped

064 — Recess cut into cross member for exhaust to run as close to the underside of the car as possible

067 — Er front wing cutting back rust I think

068 — Folding back wing edges for larger tyres and to avoid sharp edges when changing wheels

069 — Monocoque viewed from rear upside down

054 — Engine bay dealing with spots of rust

056 — Seat bases dropped down into body to make more space for crew and link bars from front to rear added

Rollcage installation

Peter Folbigg of Fabricage does such good work that you just assume an amazing job. Steve Wilson of Autosportif welded in a section to join the front sub frame to the rear one and turrets to accept the new dampers at the rear. Peter did a great job of squeezing the near side front leg of the cage down the side of the existing dash. We later cut out the front cross bar as it presented too much of a hazard to the crew shins, not just in an accident but getting in and out as well. Cross bracing in the rear and a diagonal in the roof give us good strength. We later discussed taking a leg forward from the cage to the front suspension turrets but it proved impractical. Door bars worked well keeping a reasonable balance between side impact protection, accessibility and further strength in the cage.

Great job and having crash tested one of his cages I can’t recommend Peter highly enough. Your life might depend on it…

Fabricage: 01223 870 563 Email: fabricage@btconnect.com http://www.fabricageuk.co.uk/

Strip out at Malbrad Saab Huddersfield

Steve Broadhead and John Taylor of Malbrad Saab, who prepare my Saab rally cars, enjoyed tearing the new car apart, check out the size of the engine relative to the tiny gearbox. The rust I was worried about turned out to be mostly superficial. The shell turned out to be amazingly solid. Although sold with a 390 engine the car actually had a fairly fresh 360 engine fitted which is a better engine for the rally anyway.

http://malbrad.co.uk/ 01484 544 556

Geen Remmen arrives at Malbrad

Freshly arrived from Holland, Geen Remmen arrives at Malbrad Saab in Huddersfield. Having managed to start it they laid down an “eleven” on the garage floor, plenty of grunt!

Joop Stolze Classic Cars

Having decided on an AMC AMX as the car for the event we had to find one. Chris Partington, a good friend, kindly inspected three AMX’s for sale with Joop Stolze in Holland. Joop had the only cars available in Europe, the big advantage was we could inspect them fairly easily and it would save time shipping in a car from the USA. After a fair bit of negotiation by email I set out to visit the dealership and collect the AMX. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of stock Joop holds