While piranhas have a rep for being voracious carnivores, today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe custom AMX Von Piranha might just leave you eating nothing but ramen after paying its asking price. Let’s see if its worth it.
The fox-body Mustangs are beloved for their versatility and ability to pony-up on the cheap, while that model’s immediate predecessor, the Mustang II is generally vilified for being as dull as dishwater. Here’s the thing though, at least the II looks like a Mustang, the Foxstang always struck me as something more of a sporty Fairmont.
Perhaps horsing around isn’t enough to overcome the stigma of the sorry-ass Seventies as yesterday’s King of all Cobras proved both to be a pretender to that throne, and a 56% Crack Pipe loss at its six-grand asking price. Oh well, back to the corral, Sally.
While the Mustang’s competitors were the Camaro, Firebird, Challenger, and their ilk, Chevy’s Corvette never really had many domestic challengers with which to play. One car that did step up to the plate came from the smallest and scrappiest of domestic makers at the time, which of course was American Motors.
The AMC AMX debuted in 1968 as a shorter wheelbase, two-seat version of AMC’s Mustang fighter, the Javelin. At the time of its debut, the AMX was the first metal-bodied two-seater built in America since the ’57 Thunderbird, and would be the last until the Chevy Chevette Scooter arrived in the mid-Seventies.
This 1968 AMX is said to be a surviving example of a regional special edition out of Colorado called - get this - the Von Piranha edition. The mods include non-functional scoops on the roof (!) and real ones on the sail panels that supposedly direct air to the rear brakes. The final addition is the opening of the two hood hood bulges, giving the nose the appearance of a flounder that’s been flipped on its back, er, side.
The seller claims this car is also an original Go-Pac car, which typically means a 315 (gross) horsepower 390 V8 under the hood, power front disc/rear drum brakes, Twin-Grip Posi rear end, handling suspension, and skunk stripes down middle. This one looks to have had the stripes deleted.
The transmission here is a Borg Warner M12 3-speed automatic, engaged via a chrome crown shifter on the console. That, and the rest of the interior looks to be in excellent shape, as does the exterior in Ferrari red on top of period correct five-slot mags and fat tires.
There’s a mere 24K on the clock, and the seller says that the car is a barn find that has been in storage for over 30 years. It was up on eBay at some point after having been pulled from that barn in 2014, but apparently found no love there. An AMX fan saved the pics from that attempt and posted them to PlanetAMX. Now it’s on Craigslist with a very shouty all-caps ad and a head-reeling $34,900 price tag.
Is it worth that? That’s up to young decide. Prices for tidy AMXs are trending pretty high, and this is a special edition - at least I think it is.
There doesn’t seem to be much documentation other than a few vintage pics, and there also doesn’t seem to be anybody who has a sound recollection of who created these or originally offered them for sale. Still, the seller says it’s been appraised for $57,500, and not just by his brother in law.
What do you think, is this special edition AMX worth its $34,900 asking? Or, for that much, would you say to this Piranha “bite me?”
You decide!
Kansas City Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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