1971 AMC Javelin: Flared Fenders, a 401 and the Trans-Am Championship

At Road America on 17 July 1971, Mark Donohue started the Penske Javelin from pole. Vic Elford put Roy Woods's Javelin alongside him, and George Follmer's Bud Moore Mustang started third. The series' own retrospective says Follmer cut a tire just past the pit entrance on lap four and had to drive the whole four-mile lap before his crew could help him. He recovered to finish second. The SCCA result sheet records Donohue the winner by two minutes ten seconds after 50 laps. It lists Elford as retired after 30 laps with a “mechanical” failure. It was Donohue's fourth win of the season and the third of six in a row.^1,2

The car in the showrooms had changed as much as the one at the track. For 1971 AMC redesigned the Javelin with bulging fender flares and a spoiler along the roof edge. Ate Up With Motor credits the styling to Jack Kenitz and Keith Goodnough. It adds that the flush grille was included at Donohue's request, because he wanted better aerodynamics for racing. The car grew to a 110-inch wheelbase and a 192.3-inch overall length. It came in three models: the base Javelin, body 7179-5, the SST, 7179-7, and a new Javelin AMX, 7179-8. The AMX name no longer meant a short two-seater. It now meant the top Javelin.^3,4,5

The order form ran from economy to real performance. The 232 six was standard, followed by the 258 six and the 304 two-barrel V8. Wikipedia rates them at 135, 150 and 210 gross horsepower, figures not yet checked against AMC literature. AMC's 1971 brochure rates the 360 four-barrel at 285 horsepower and 390 lb-ft and the new 401 at 330 horsepower and 430 lb-ft. The Go Package cost $410 with the 360 or $499 with the 401. It included Rally Pak gauges, dual exhaust, 15x7 Rally wheels, E60x15 raised-white-letter tires, a handling package, heavy-duty cooling, a space-saver spare and Twin-Grip. The factory prices were $2,879 for the base Javelin and $2,999 for the SST.^6,7,4

Most buyers did not choose the car's racing image. Planet Houston AMX, followed by JavelinAMX.com, counts 7,105 base Javelins and 17,707 SSTs, and breaks each down by engine. Among the 17,707 SSTs, the 304 went into 10,907, about 62 percent, and the 360 into 5,324. Only 582 had the 401, about 3 percent, and 894 had one of the sixes. The base car leaned even further toward economy. Of its 7,105 buyers, 3,338 took the 304, 2,283 took the 232 six and only 97 took the 401. The two tables give 679 401-powered base and SST Javelins in the year the Javelin won the manufacturers' championship. The 2,054 Javelin AMXs are counted separately.^4,5

One small group of 401 Javelins went to work for the state. The Alabama State Police bought Javelins with the big engine, but the size of the order is disputed. JavelinAMX.com estimates about 3 to 20 cars for 1971. Wikipedia gives 132 over 1971 and 1972 together. Neither figure is backed by a published purchase record, so both are reported with their sources and neither is used as a count. The police cars cannot be separated from the 401 totals in the production table, and the table's 679 figure should not be read as civilian buyers only. Even the 401, the rarest engine choice, has an unsettled story behind its numbers.^5,6

The racing program on those 1971 weekends had begun two seasons earlier. After 1969, Team Penske moved from Chevrolet's Camaro to AMC's Javelin, and its own history says the small crew had to adapt to a different car. Don Cox, who joined in November 1969 as the team's first dedicated engineer, later recalled AMC's proposal as financially attractive. He said it kept Penske and Donohue together and offered a new challenge. That is his recollection, not the contract. Team Penske names Karl Kainhofer, Woody Woodard, Earl McMullen, Chuck Cantwell and Cox among the early crew. Development of the Javelin was a team effort, not the work of one or two famous names.^8,9

The first season did not bring the title. Ate Up With Motor says Donohue won the Javelin's first Trans-Am race at Bridgehampton on 21 June 1970. The final 1970 SCCA sheet shows Ford ahead on manufacturer points, 72 to AMC's 59, with Chevrolet at 40, Dodge at 18 and Plymouth at 15. In 1971 the result reversed. Across the ten over-2.5-liter rounds, Donohue won Lime Rock, Edmonton, Donnybrooke, Road America, St. Jovite, Watkins Glen and Michigan: seven wins, six of them in a row. Follmer won the other three, at Bryar, Mid-Ohio and Riverside. Ate Up With Motor's “seven of the 12” wording does not match the ten dated SCCA sheets, and the sheets lead.^3,10,2

The final 1971 sheet gives Javelin 82½ points to Mustang's 61, Camaro's 17 and Pontiac's 7, and states that Javelin had clinched the championship. That was a manufacturers' title, the only kind the series awarded then. A later Trans Am reconstruction applied driver points to the early seasons and credits Donohue as the 1971 driver champion. That recognition is retrospective and is labeled that way. The opposition was also thinner than before. Ate Up With Motor notes that the other manufacturers had withdrawn factory support. Follmer's three wins and his recovery at Road America show that the Javelin still had serious competition, and AMC won the title anyway.^2,11,1,3

The showroom car and the race car shared a name, a shape and a purpose in AMC's advertising, but the brochure is not a Penske specification sheet. It cannot prove the race engine's build, output or weight, and a street 401 did not win at Road America. The link between them is the grille that Ate Up With Motor says Donohue asked for. After 1971, according to the same history, Penske and Donohue left the Trans-Am while Roy Woods continued with Javelins in 1972. The Javelin itself lasted through 1974, when AMC needed the plant capacity for the Pacer. In 1971 the Javelin brought AMC its first Trans-Am manufacturers' title, after third place in 1968 and second in 1970. On the street, that same season's buyers mostly chose a 304 SST, and only 97 of them ordered a base car with the 401.^3,4,10,2