It’s been a long time since my MtF profile of the only other AMX in the muscle car fleet, the bright blue one named “Sinner.” I mentioned at the time that it was a little surprising, even to your HB, that an AMC fan such as myself had never added another one, but this Auto World copy of the classic Aurora original has been hard to come by in a configuration I actually wanted. The most common version is a ghastly hot pink, and there’s 2 or 3 white versions that are plain and uninspiring, and a dark blue version I don’t want because I already have it in a different shade of blue. I’ve been after the lime green and bright orange ones for years, but these are early release collectibles getting to be around 20 years old now and they always seem to elude me on “the ‘bay.” Fortunately there was one last option, and although it took me a while to find the metallic purple one, you can bet that once I did, I planned to go “all the way” with it.
That meant spending another $40+ on a special chassis, since I wanted to compliment the purple body with something other than the light brown “barn find” chassis I often use to contrast purple, green, or blue bodies, so I opted for one of the expensive white units that are sold with the “i-Wheels” releases. With the wheels and tires this brought the whole cost of the car up to nearly $100, but look at the results!
Of course anyone who reads this blog knows I never miss a chance to get a purple car, but this one is exceptionally beautiful, being a deep metallic hue, absolutely my favorite color and one that just screams late 60’s muscle, IMHO. Fitted with Road Race Replica’s awesome “Magnum” style wheels accentuated with the extra cost option black paint and finished off with set of Firestone Wide O’s, this is what “going all the way with it” means to me!
As to what “going all the way with it” means to owner/operator Darrian “The Barbarian” Sloane, this first US-born son of an Irish father and Jamaican mother decided that the stock 600cfm 4-barrel on his 1968 model’s top-rated 390 V8 wasn’t nearly enough, so when he restored the originally white outside/black inside car, he rebuilt the engine with a rare Offenhauser mid-rise 2×4 manifold and fitted it with dual 500cfm Carter AFB’s with a ¾ race Isky camshaft to match and topped with a custom made air cleaner fashioned partially from a unit cribbed from a Chrysler 440 6-pack. This was in addition to a fetching custom paint job and the installation of white seats and door panels to complement the stock black dash and carpeting; colors that were never available from the factory, but then, neither were dual 4’s! The Borg Warner T-10 was rebuilt with stronger-than-stock internals but the case is original, as is the 3.51:1 “Twin Grip” limited slip rear axle. The last major mod was the brakes, which he had custom machined at great expense to put massive dual-caliper discs on the front to try to haul down the massive torque that cammed and carbed 390 produces. Due to both its short wheelbase and its short times through the traps on any track, Sloane named her “Short Timer.”
Darrian The Barbarian is another newbie at Drag City but it goes without saying this beauty is catching a lot of eyes and a lot of challenges from every Camaro and Mustang driver in the fleet, so we’ll see how he places in the time trials and who he goes up against first!
Another must have for the fleet and this is a winner at any speed. For a special piece like this, I would say it was worth the investment that you made!