AMC Javelin

If there is such a thing as a subtle muscle car, the AMC Javelin is a strong contender

PITCH-PERFECT

Its lines are undeniably muscular with period-correct bulging haunches and the long fastback flying buttresses. This first-generation AMC Javelin also has an era-defining, deeply recessed, squared-off ‘venturi’ grille. The pillarless doors create a perfectly proportioned aperture when the front and rear windows are wound down, and it has the correct big V8 rumble from its twin tail pipes.

This 1970 example’s Golden Lime paint is also pitch-perfect, straddling both the ’60s and ’70s, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. It looks right but you won’t recognize it as a standard colour from any of the big three American motor manufacturers. Which is another subtle success because the car was made by a company actually called ‘American Motors Corporation’ (AMC).

Owner Donald Webster says the reaction from almost everyone, and especially from muscle car fans, is, “What is it?”

It’s something of a coup to have a coupé that is undeniably a muscle car — almost a perfect expression of the genre if you don’t subscribe to the bigger-is-always-better mantra — yet which is bafflingly unknown.

Donald rates it above Mustangs, which, for all their popularity, aren’t famous for their handling. Donald’s not a fan of American cars’ driving dynamics; he finds Mustangs impossibly vague. He drove a ’67 Mustang not overly endowed with the kind of power that can get you into trouble, but Donald, who is a keen participant in the annual Targa New Zealand tarmac rally and therefore no mean wheelman, said he “never knew where it was going to go”.

Donald’s not a fan of American cars’ driving dynamics; he finds Mustangs impossibly vague