AMC American Javelin SST 1968

A handsome car and a comfortable one, the Javelin is wide-open for some hard knocks in the marketplace from the entrenched sporty car establishment: Mustang, Camaro, Cougar, Firebird, and Barracuda--the Big Three's menagerie.

In fact, Javelin is much like the early fastback fry-the-children-in-the-desert-sun Barracuda. It is a kind of stop-gap between AMC's last week's image of fustiness, and the hoped-for bright new world of the Corvette-like AMX-and all the sex the AMX will bring to Kenosha.

Chrysler Corporation was able to make a good, even legitimate, thing of the Barracuda. The question is, will American Motors be able to do the same with the Javelin? Our car had the 280-hp, 343 cu. in. V-8, and it does the job, if the job demands only the minimum of energy. There's a 390 due, and it should be a considerable improvement. The 4-speed BorgWarner transmission is a good device; the disc brake set-up is acceptable. But "heavyduty" suspension obviously means something quite different in the Javelin than it means in, say, the Camaro Z-28. Everyone, AMC hopes, will love the Javelin with a kind of underdog worship. That seems like a great deal too much to ask.