AMXess

1969 AMC AMX

Owner: Jimi Day

Builder: D&Z Customs

AMXess is the realization of a 33-year dream and vision and a three-stage build process. Here�s the story:

I�ve been a car guy since I was about 9 years old, when I was old enough to help my Dad work on his daily drivers. I remember as a kid my Dad putting me on his lap and driving an old pickup along the dirt field roads around central Illinois. We didn�t have really valuable cars, but some were pretty cool. We had an old 63 Dodge pickup with a push button trans and a 1970 MG Midget that we rebuilt in the garage for my Mom to drive in the summer, along with dozens of others.

I bought my first car, a 1964 Ford Fairlane, two-door coupe, just after I turned 14. I paid $125 bucks for it and it needed a lot of work. It was a 260 V8 with a two speed automatic trans. It was rusty and it leaked from every seal, but it was mine! That car needed more work than a 50-year-old porn star so I honed many of my mechanical skills early in life. There was a small body shop in the tiny town where I grew up, and I would volunteer my time there on occasions throughout the summer months.

That�s where I saw and fell in love with the AMC AMX. A local guy in town brought one in for some paint touch up work, and living in central Illinois my entire life, I was not at all familiar with the Kenosha Cadillac! Two seats, big V8, long hood/short deck lid � I was smitten. It was 1981, I was 15 and broke, but I vowed that some day, I would have an AMX.

By the time 2002 rolled around, my life circumstances finally came in line with my desires, and I was able to purchase AMXess. My goal at the time was to find a solid body car that I could eventually restore to factory stock and have a great show car vehicle. I planned to drive it some, but this was before the �pro-touring� craze and I was perfectly happy just to say I had an AMX parked in my garage!

Stage 1: The first couple of years were filled with weekend car shows and minor fix it projects. AMXess came from northern California with a decent paint job and the previous owner had already installed a 401 and T10 four speed trans. All I had to do was some minor maintenance and change a few things to make it my own. I put in different seats, cleaned up the interior and some wiring issues and added new wheels and tires.

Midway through 2003, I started on my �restoration� project. I had the motor and trans rebuilt and painted to AMC factory specs. I replaced all the aftermarket parts with all the original AMC or reproduction pieces I could find. It was through this process that I figured out that AMC fans are not your average car guys � they tend to have very unique personalities! The �restoration� process lasted about a year and I was rewarded with several big trophies from area car shows. As 2005 wore on, the 20-year-old paint was starting to look worn, so it was time for disassembly in preparation for some much needed paint and bodywork.

Stage 2: September of 2005, AMXess was completely disassembled and some minor sheet metal work was completed. Since a complete restoration of an orphan, low production number car is not very hard; I also decided to start a new business - repair and restoration of investment grade muscle cars. I�m certain someone spiked my brownies with some sort of hallucinogens because I thought that owning a business that did restoration would be the perfect opportunity to work on my car too. NOT!

Needless to say, AMXess was relegated to a back corner of the shop and finally to a damp warehouse basement while I learned how hard the custom car and resto business really was. Finally in 2008, a friend of mine in the business and fellow AMX enthusiast, Rich Rinke at Turnkey Restorations, suggested that he finish the AMX for me. I quickly agreed, and AMXess was off to Michigan for paint and reassembly. Being 2008, �pro-touring� was well established and I was already infected with the disease. I told Rich I wanted some better handling characteristics and stopping power, so Rich installed some Strange coilovers in the front with some custom lower control arms and some Brembo brakes from a 1998 Mustang Cobra. �Pro-touring� light, I like to call this stage. I brought the car home and drove it for a little over a year. It was certainly better than it was before, but it was still lagging way behind some of the cars that were starting to hit the streets at the time.

Stage 3: In 2009, I was lucky enough to get involved in the first ever OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational. Working with Cam Douglass at OPTIMA, we conceptualized an event that would take the best of the best show cars and put them on a track to see what they could do. We both believed that form and function could truly work together, and we wanted to create an annual event to prove it. The event was an instant hit and brought out some of the most modern pro-touring street cars that have ever been built. Now I had a clear vision for AMXess�take a unique small car, add a modern LS engine for reliability, replace all the suspension with modern up-to-date parts, put wide rubber on all four corners, and make it beautiful enough to present at SEMA.

I was lucky enough to meet Randy Johnson from D&Z Customs at the second OPTIMA Invitational. Turns out his shop is only 20 miles from my office in Wisconsin. Right after the invitational event, I contacted Randy to ask for his help in completing my vision. The goal was to make adjustments on the suspension, drop in a GMPP LS3 and go racing. That is way easier said than done! After a thorough inspection of AMXess front to rear, Randy and I concluded that it was never going to do what I wanted it to do with the existing parts. We made a plan and decided that AMXess would be the baddest pro-touring AMC product on the planet, but in order to do so, we needed to start with a blank slate. From that point on, the project was easy � Randy and I shared an identical vision of the finished product. The project started in earnest in March of 2010 and AMXess rolled out of the shop in October 2011 for testing and was quickly loaded on a truck for SEMA and the 2011 OPTIMA Invitational.

2012: 2012 was a great year for AMXess as it toured the country and participated in 14 events that included track days, open road races, autocrosses and plenty of highway miles. In all, AMXess amassed 9400 miles in 2012, was featured in multiple magazines, was the star in a Drive Network YouTube video and was featured on over 50 different websites and forums.

2013: For 2013, Centerforce Clutches and their DYAD twin disc brand will sponsor AMXess. Once again, we will tour the country participating in track days, open road races, and autocrosses. The feature event on our schedule is the Tire Rack One Lap of America, a grueling 3900-mile, 18-event weeklong excursion to some of the most famous tracks in America. AMXess will compete in the Vintage American class alongside our good friends James Shipka and Carl Casanova.

The Final Result: No project is ever completely finished � there are constant tweaks, upgrading of parts, etc., but the AMX you see here is absolutely my vision and dream come true. 33 years after falling head-over-heels in love with the redheaded stepchild of muscle cars, I couldn�t be more proud of the results of our ideas and hard work.