Rare, documented AMC Mark Donohue Javelin project. RUST FREE , great upside!

1970 AMC Javelin SST Description

Up for auction is a rare and documented special edition Mark Donohue 1970 AMC Javelin. From what I have been able to determine from some AMC experts and from the forums there were a total of 2501 Donohue "duck tail" Javelins made in the model year 1970. AMC, along with the Big Three manufacturers, competed against each other in the SCCA's Trans AM race series. Roger Penske and Mark Donahue came to the AMC team in 1970 after dominating success in previous years with the Chevrolet Camaro.
As you know, the other manufacturers had street versions of the race car for sale to the public for homologation purposes. Those included the Z28, Boss 302, T/A Challenger and Plymouth AAR Cuda. AMC produced 100 commemorative red white and blue street going versions of the race car all with 390s. The spoiler on the RWB car was similar to the adjustable one used on the 68/69 race cars. When Donohue, who was an engineer, took over as the driver for 1970 designed the "duck tail" spoiler for the race car which had to be homolagted for use by offering street versions available to the public. Therefore AMC built 2501 exceeding the homologation requirement by 1 and offered to the public for sale through AMC dealers. This is one of those cars.To pacify the SCCA spoiler rules, AMC announced another Trans-Am special. The Mark Donohue SST featured the new one-piece spoiler, emblazoned with his signature, in addition to other performance features: rear spoiler, side stripes, AMX-style hood, Go Pack and choice of 360 or 390 engine.
While a special spoiler addition that was easily cloned by dealers wasn't as exclusive as the competition's models such as the Boss 302, Z28 or Chrysler twins it was sold in limited numbers . However, it was not as easily documented as the the other cars. This car, however, may be a unicorn. I say that because from everything I have read in the forums and or by AMC experts says that these cars are impossible to document unless you had the dealer paperwork or the window sticker since there was allegedly nothing on the build sheet to indicate that the car was a Donohue edition. Dealers were known to add the spoiler to a car and sell it as a "Donohue special".
As you can see in the photos I found the build sheet neatly folded up in the rear seat springs that clearly denotes that this car is indeed an authentic factory built Donohue special. It is fairly common to see Mark's name misspelled using the more common Donahue. What's funny here is that the factory got it wrong altogether by using the spelling of "Donahua"!
NOW LET'S GET TO SPECIFICS ABOUT THIS CAR
This was a fairly loaded car. In fact other than checking the box for the 390 I think it was about as loaded as you could get. First, it is a P code 360 Ram Air car and came with AC, PS, Tilt wheel, Go Pack and AM/FM radio. It currently wears it's worn original Commodore Blue paint. I also had a white 1/2 vinyl top option. Other than some primer covering sun baked paint, it is all original paint making it very easy to see what you are getting into. There is only one very small spot of rust starting to show behind the right rear wheel on the lower quarter panel. It is 99.95% rust free! That is the good news. The bad news, which isn't a big deal in my opinion, is the fact the car is peppered with dings on both sides so the car will need some body work prior to painting. The shut lines are as good as they were new and doors open a close with ease. Same with the window regulators, the windows glide up and down like they are supposed to. The car is obviously in project state but this one of the most solid and rust free car I have every seen in my 25 plus years of restoring 60-70s Detroit muscle cars. I purchased from the previous owner in the Denver area and the car spent most of it's life in Arizona. This is the main reason i bought not even considering the Mark Donohue special factor. When I got it is was completely together but not running due to a broken timing chain (according to previous owner). My intentions was to refresh the car into what I would consider a high end driver meaning a complete r&r of everything mechanical and of course restore the paint and interior etc.
When I removed the engine for a rebuild I discovered another nice surprise. The block is one of the elusive unmarked "service replacement blocks" which is essentially a 401 with a 360 bore. I checked the bore and it is standard at 4.08 and cylinders look very clean. If you look closely at the picture of the bottom end of the engine right after I pulled the pan you can see the "wide webbing" and notched cylinders as you would find with a 390, 401 block. There is no way to document this but I truly believe this is the engine that came in the car. I don't believe it was a warranty replacement. I have read in various forums that some of the factory Dohohue cars were built with these blocks. It also has the high compression 291C heads as seen in the pics. I tore the engine down and took everything to my machine shop 7 or 8 months ago and it is still sitting there where I left it. I have all the accessories, AC components, brackets, ram air parts for the engine. Nothing is missing. In fact I don't think anything is missing from this car.
As I said, my intention was to do a high end car that could be occasionally driven so I decided to start tackling some of the mechanical restoration while I was waiting on my paint and body guy. First thing I did after getting it down to the unibody was to thoroughly clean, de-grease the entire chassis, suspension etc. If you have never done this it's hard to put a value on this part of the labor. Take a look at the suspension, steering gear box, cross members, rear end etc. Since I had the parts off the car it was a no brainier to replace bushings, worn parts etc. To that end I completely rebuilt upper and lower control arms with new ball joints and upgraded poly bushings in the arms, sway bar, strut rods etc. I also replaced inner and outer tie rod ends and upgraded to billet adjusters. I installed new front coil springs purchased from Detroit Eaton Spring. While I was at it, I went ahead and performed a 1 1/2 inch spindle drop. You will also notice that I have upgraded the pitiful factory disc brakes with an aftermarket Wilwood caliper. The rotor is an off the shelf 69 Mustang disc brake rotor that is 11.4 inches in diameter and nearly 1 inch thick. The factory rotors were only 1/2 inch thick! I have retained all the original parts to the car. After cleaning the crud from the engine compartment, I sanded it down and shot it with correct color using rattle cans. I think it looks fine, but it can be up to the next owner to paint again with a gun when the car goes to paint and body.
The interior was complete but needing some attention. As you can see the front seats were recovered by the previous owner but doesn't exactly match the color/pattern of the original rear seat. Plus he didn't do a very good job with building up the foam in the seats. Up to you what you want to do going forward. The dash is in very good shape with no cracks or breaks and the wood grain overlay is in nice shape. The headliner is in great shape. Door panels will need some attention. They are pictured here. I have also obtained a restored Rim Blow wheel which is also pictured.
In summary this is a great opportunity to get a great and rare AMC Javelin that has a lot of upside potential with a head start on the restoration process. To top it off it has great bones being a rust free car! I honestly believe this is $40-$45K car when done. It is unlikely that I will recover what I have invested(especially my sweat equity) but I have no intention of giving it away. I will be happy to speak with you about reasonable offers. I will not list my number here so you will have to contact me through eBay messaging and give me your number to call you. Thank you for your patience and hope you read all of this to have a very clear understanding of what you are bidding on. Good luck and be safe!




360 "wide web" unmarked factory engine