Red, white and true blue.(history of American Motors)

Byline: John Matras

If you were the factory race team for a company named American Motors, how would you paint your race cars? In all-American red, white and blue, of course. And if you were a company named American Motors and wanted to build a homologation special-designed specifically to qualify certain race parts and produced in a quantity to meet the minimum required to be considered a production car-how would you paint that car? Just like the race team's, of course.

So for the fall of 1969, American Motors built 100 copies of the Javelin SST ``Trans-Am'' (someone else had dibs on the name Trans-Am, so officially this Javelin wasn't called that) specially equipped for homologation for the SCCA's ``production sedan'' racing class.

AMC's 390-cid V8, rated at 325 hp and 420 lb-ft of torque, was standard (despite SCCA's maximum 5.0-liter-302-cid-limit for Trans-Am racing). It boasted a 10:1 compression ratio and was hooked to a close-ratio four-speed manual with the Hurst shifter that was standard on the SST. Dual exhaust, heavy-duty engine cooling, power steering and power front disc brakes, stiffer springs and shocks, 14x6 steel ``mag-look'' wheels, Goodyear Polyglas F70x14 fiberglass-belted bias-ply tires and a limited-slip differential with 3.91 gears were all standard. The dash held a 140-mph speedometer plus an 8000-rpm tachometer. A bib spoiler was under the chromed front bumper and a small adjustable spoiler graced the trunk lid.

Then there was paint. This Javelin's nose was painted Matador Red with a band of Frost White over the roof and Commodore Blue on the derriere. Just like the race car, and all for $3,995.

Only about a dozen of these original 100 Javelins are still known to exist. One resides with Victor and Barbara ...