1980 Spirit AMX: the last car to wear the name

This record's own dek describes 1980 directly as the last car to wear the AMX name: the V8 option was dropped entirely, leaving the 258 six as the sole engine, a change this record's own overview states plainly rather than leaving implicit. Wikipedia describes the Spirit AMX package as color-matched fender flares and an air dam, turning flat black specifically for 1980, alongside a Rally-Tuned suspension, adjustable Gabriel Strider shocks, 14-inch wheels on raised-white-letter radials, a rear spoiler, stripes and decals, and a Rallye gauge package, though this record's own overview again notes that this generic package description has not yet been checked against the 1980 AMC literature specifically, separate from the far more detailed factory data-book figures used elsewhere in this record.^1,2

No confirmed Spirit AMX production total was found for 1980 beyond a single unattributed secondary figure: autoevolution states that AMC delivered an additional 865 units in 1980, a number this record's own production note describes as resting on no stated underlying source and referring to deliveries rather than confirmed builds. A separate Barn Finds listing repeats the same 865 figure, but this record treats that repetition as likely the same lineage rather than as independent corroboration, since Wikipedia's own Spirit production table covers all Spirit trims combined without breaking out the AMX specifically, leaving the true build count undocumented rather than assumed to be zero or exactly 865.^3,2

A manufacturer's suggested retail price of $5,653 is recorded from AMC's own 1980 ordering guide and price list for the "AMX" row of the Spirit liftback body. The sole engine, the 4.2-liter (258-cu-in) six with two-barrel induction, carries no horsepower or torque rating in this record despite the otherwise detailed 1980 AMC data book supplying its compression ratio and bore-and-stroke figures directly. Two transmissions are documented from that same data book with page-level specificity: a four-speed manual on the floor standard across 49-state, California and high-altitude configurations, and a three-speed automatic on the floor optional, with a 2.53 standard axle ratio common to both, rising to 2.73 at high altitude with the automatic specifically.⁴

Six exterior colors are recorded for 1980: Classic Black, Olympic White, Navy Blue, Cardinal Red, Saxon Yellow and Cameo Tan, each tied in the factory data book to a specific decal-striping code, dark-orange AMX lettering with the upper bodyside decal deleted on Black, black lettering on the other five. This record's own conflicts section flags a seventh color, Cameo Blue, marked as available across all AMC carlines on the separate customer color chart but absent from the data book's own six-color AMX list; this record's treatment lists the six data-book colors as the AMX's documented palette while noting that the customer chart implies Cameo Blue was available as well.

Options include an AMX Custom Interior package with reclining bucket seats in Sport Vinyl or Caberfae corduroy, custom door trim panels, a split rear seat, a day/night mirror, courtesy lights and a premium headliner and sun visors, alongside a separate AMX hood decal and the usual power, audio, comfort and heavy-duty option groups. Standard AMX equipment is documented as the 258 six, G.T. Rally-Tuned suspension, a tachometer, the four-speed manual, a deep-tone exhaust specifically with that manual transmission, spoke-style wheels, DR70x14 outline-white-letter tires, black bumpers and guards, a front air dam, fender flares, a color-keyed rear spoiler, blacked-out grille and headlight bezels, and AMX graphics.

Six interior trim codes are recorded, three base Sport Vinyl bucket-seat colors, black, blue and beige, matched by three further Caberfae corduroy-fabric bucket-seat codes in the same three colors as part of the Custom Interior package, giving buyers the same color choice in either material. No performance-test data or dedicated vehicle-identification detail beyond the engine and transmission specifications already described is recorded anywhere in this record for the 1980 model year, the last carrying the AMX name.