In 1981 the CART/PPG Indy Car series was in its third year. Formed in 1979 by racing teams who had split from the previous sanctioning body, USAC, over how races were promoted, the way that television contracts were handled and what they believed to be the small size of the winners’ purses, the ‘81 PPG Indy Car World Series had 11 races on the schedule and featured drivers like Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford and Mario Andretti. In time the series would go on to become the sole sanctioning body for all of Indy Car racing, but in 1981 the series was still in its infancy and, despite having Indy Car as a part of it name, did not even include the Indianapolis 500 among its officially sanctioned events.
To help promote the series, CART/PPG approached several major American auto manufacturers and asked them each to construct pace cars for the different events. Five manufacturers responded, including American Motors, who produced a custom bodied AMX. Based on the production “Spirit,” the AMX featured a fuel injected, turbo charged 258CID in-line 6 cylinder engine capable of a reported 450 horsepower. The car made its debut at the Milwaukee 150 on June 7 and at the end of the season went to AMC’s Vice President of Design, Richard Teague.
Today that car very car is being offered on eBay by the West Palm Beach specialty car dealership Marino Motors. Based on the many photos offered, it looks like a very clean, well thought out car. It has a full roll cage, period safety gear and a surprisingly complete turbo themed interior that makes it appear more like a production car than something that was constructed exclusively for the race track. Currently, the bids are in excess of $33,000 and the reserve has yet to be met. To an ordinary guy like me $33K is a lot of money, but to a high end collector looking for something truly unique, this car might just be an interesting opportunity. Pop over to either of the above links to see dozens more detailed photos. Love it or hate it, at the very least, it’s one of a kind.
Neat to see one of these again. I remember that PPG sponsored a whole series of pace cars from all of the manufacturers from 1981 to 1983, IIRC. It would be interesting to see something like this again today, too.
And here I thought the 300ZX was turbo logo overkill.
Yah, I’m sure it’s a record; I counted 79….. I’m sure there’s more.
Never knew it existed. With 450 HP, it must go like hell.
Every so often I hit eBay motors, set the search parameters to 1980 to 1990 and search the word “turbo” just to see what’s out there. I did it this weekend and this car is what popped up. I never knew it existed either.
I think its a pretty amazing little car that really shows how the technology was developing back in the day. I thought the readership here mighty enjoy it too so I wrote it up.
Most of these were crushed, but this and a similar vintage Mustang survived. The Mustang wasn’t so lucky in life as this AMC, though; last I heard, it was rotting away in a treeline somewhere in Michigan.
Surely, I’m not the only one that instantly thought this was a Mitsubishi Starion/Chrysler Conquest with a body kit…
As amazing as that car looks from the front 3/4 view, the rear views are exactly the wrong mix of bulbous and angular.
It does look surprisingly modern for an 80s American car and I’d LOVE to see what that inline turbo 6 felt like to drive.
Bummer that this never came out.
450 HP in an unique vintage car with a real race history? 33K is actually pretty low. That vehicle should still be competitive in low level scca stuff and a fun car to show off. Wish the newowner the best of luck, if I had that kind of cash lying around I would be picking an used XJS for track use or blowing the wad on an XF…
SWEET ! thank you for sharing this bit of automotive infamosity Thomas .
-Nate
I never knew AMC built this in conjunction with PPG. IIRC PPG did build some other prototypes and race cars with other manufacturers. This would have been neat as a Spirit/Eagle SX4 replacement.
There was some hideous PPG Oldsmobile in the 80s that’s best forgotten about.
This must be it, the redesigned W-Body Cutlass Supreme convertible.
http://www.mcecars.com/viewInventory.cfm?invID=563
No…maybe this one wasn’t a PPG product. It was that same gold, but also with dark red, making quite the gaudy piece.
Probably this one based on the N-Body Calais
http://www.mantei.com/web/img267.jpg
More Olds porn please.
I tried to google search “Olds Porn” for you…
Gaudy in gold, but still a good looking car.
Give me this motor and an old mail Jeep.
Google “PPG Pace Car” to see just how many manufacturers were involved in this program and you’ll find everything from Dodge to Renault to Ferrari. Yes, Ferrari.
That little Renault was way cool.
This was the coolest of the class of ’81 in my opinion.
Agreed.
I’ve never heard of Marino Motors, but as a Palm Beach County native with this week off, I must drive the 20 minutes to appreciate this in person. I’m in the market for a new daily driver, too, and just for a joke, it might be fun to test my usually generous (IE “hands off my car hobby”) wife and take her along.
Could this be a turbo, by chance?
Actually, the first PPG Pace Car was a Camaro with a whale tail designed by Cars & Concepts of Michigan. This was to be the start of the PPG Indy Car Pace Car…the first appearance was at the Ditzler 150 at Trenton International Speedway…and, the Indianapolis 500 was a part of the Indy Car World Series and considerable discussion with IMS, CART and USAC…the Pace Car eventurally had is own license team of female drivers.