It’s always interesting to discover what the guys that make the new cars we drive choose to drive on their days off.
Stellantis design boss Ralph Gilles, for instance, has a stunning Alfa Romeo coupe, a Peugeot 205 GTi, and a Lancia Delta Integrale that regularly appear on his Instagram feed.
But it was another car in a recent post from Gilles that really piqued our interest. It featured two shots of a seriously tough-looking second-generation AMC Javelin AMX, the often forgotten rival to the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger that ran from 1971 to 1974.
“What our Director of Jeep design drives at the weekends!” Gilles wrote underneath the pictures, referring to Jeep’s Mark Allen.
Related: Hellcat-Powered AMC Javelin Looks Bad To The Bone
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“Well I guess AMC owned Jeep back in the day…his AMX is an amazing one of a kind sketch on wheels! Well done,” he added.
And Gilles isn’t kidding. With the already curvy Javelin’s body stuffed full of fat, large diameter five-spoke rims it looks like one of those early design sketches for a new car that’s skipped straight to the street, bypassing the part where all the attitude gets removed.
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Head of Jeep Design Mark Allen’s immaculate AMX #wildwheelsatwork pic.twitter.com/yxxitcmNFe
— KathyatChrysler (@KathyatChrysler) July 22, 2021
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The car also appears to be fitted with the twin nostril hood scoop from the previous generation 1970-model Javelin, and while Gilles doesn’t tell us anything about the car, and Allen doesn’t appear to be on Instagram or Twitter, the ‘401’ badge on the fender gives us a big clue as to what could be under that scoop.
The 401-cubic inch (6.6-liter) V8 was the biggest motor available in the second-gen Javelin. With 255 hp, the emissions-tamed 1973 version was good for mid-15-second quarter mile runs, though if Allen has spent as much time on the engine as he has on the way the AMX looks, this one could well be much quicker.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an incredible build based on the underappreciated Javelin. Back in 2018, Ringbrothers built an incredible Hellcat-powered Javelin as a promotional tool for antifreeze maker Prestone.
