Two AMC Spirit AMXs on the starting grid of the 1979 24 Hours of Nurburgring in the Group One class. Six drivers would run the two AMXs: Gary Witzenburg, a journalist; James Brolin, an actor-turned-racer; Jim Downing, an AMC factory driver who co-invented the HANS device; Lyn St. James, who had been on the racing circuit for six years at that point, and Amos Johnson and Dennis Shaw, two drivers who were running AMCs in IMSA racing at the time. Three racers, a factory driver, an actor with driving chops, and a writer in AMC Spirits in Germany. How in the hell did that even make sense?
The answer was BFGoodrich. The combination of American Motors and BFG had equated into two Team Highball-prepared 304-powered cars that were supposedly ready to take on the Green Hell in October, when the weather around the Eifel Mountains could make life for a racing driver hellish. Remember that the Nurburgring is over fourteen miles and basically loops a mountain. What starts off as a sunny lap can show you all four seasons before you cross the line to make another lap. So what kind of preparation was the team going to get before the race? Three rented Mercedes, an Opel, and when it became apparent that legitimate help would be needed, a one-armed driver in a tattered old BMW (actually, a Ring master named Heinz Hennerici) came in and language barrier be damned, taught the course to the drivers.
The race itself presented enough challenges for the team: broken shocks and suspension components, brakes that were somewhere between absent and useless, and of course the joys of driving at high speeds in sharp corners on BFGoodrich T/A Radials…actually, for 1979, that was a decent way to go, but surely racing slicks would’ve eased some concerns. Then again, it was nice to see that a more-or-less standard smog-era AMX could run and play on the track at all, let alone place where it did. Check this footage out, with narration by Brolin himself:
I would like to know where these cars are today.
The number 2 car that won the race is currently being restored…hopefully it will be completed in the next year or two…
Back in the day AUTOMOBILE QUARTERLY had an article on the cars and event.
#2 car is at: http://ssamx.com/1979_spirit_amx.htm
Nick
Cars were built in Raleigh, NC, only 30 min from house!
Awesome video! The ring is rough as hell on a car. When I was stationed in Germany I took my buddy’s Schiroco 16V and my Mini around the ring. I burned the brakes up in my Mini, and years later discovered the metal shavings in my gearbox were from a portion of two of my piston skirts. The Schiroco did better, but lost a windshield wiper, needed new brakes, and the shock tower was loose. Time of my life. The fact that Germany allows ordinary people to hot lap the ring and hackenheim and sachenheim as well is awesome.
Last I heard the Spirit AMX #1 is in excellent, as-raced condition somewhere in Minneapolis MN. I saw it a few years back at a Road America vintage event.