By
Andrew Wolf July 16, 2018Albeit certainly not on the same scale as Detroit’s ‘big three’ automakers, the once-vibrant American Motors Corporation, shuddered in 1988, still enjoys a devoted but niche following around the country and the world. Among its memorable vehicles and most prized by collectors was the Javelin, AMC’s entrance into the “pony car” market that hit the showroom in 1967. Producing 315 horsepower from its 390-inch V8, the Javelin competed head-to-head with the Mustang, the second-generation Plymouth Barracuda, the first-generation Camaro, and other timeless performance-minded machines of the late 1960s.
AMC produced two generations of the Javelin, but called it quits in the fall of 1974 as other automakers abandoned the pony car market entirely or pivoted to smaller engines and outpaced sales of the sleek AMC. The Javelin’s run pre-dated by three years Indiana native Kenny LaFlower. Now 40 years of age, Laflower has assembled a 1970 AMC Javelin that, while unsatisfactory in the eyes of many a purist, captures attention in its own way with an entirely new generation of gearheads.The Northeastern Indiana native’s story is a familiar one: growing up around cars and the racetrack with his family, Lallower purchased the Javelin at 15, drawn to it by its looks and the simple fact that it was something different. More than two decades old by that point, it was in rough shape, but it was in Laflower’s price range and it had a V8 powerplant, and that checked a couple of important boxes for any teenage male of driving age in the twentieth century.
Laflower took it to his local strip, the Muncie Dragway, and flogged its worn-out 304 cubic-inch powerplant to blistering laps in the 17-second range. Eventually he blew it up and sold it to a friend, who rebuilt the bottom end but rarely gave it the attention it deserved. Laflower bought the car back three years after he sold it, and the rest is history. Kenny later put a set of aluminum heads and nitrous oxide on the AMC-built bullet and punched into the 10.70s at just a hair over over 120 mph in the quarter.