{"id":21894,"date":"2015-12-03T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-12-03T17:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=21894"},"modified":"2015-12-03T17:26:22","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T01:26:22","slug":"craig-jacksons-69-javelin-racing-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/craig-jacksons-69-javelin-racing-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Jackson’s ’69 Javelin Racing Car"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1969<\/a><\/p>\n

Many years ago, Craig Jackson took me to a body shop in Phoenix, AZ where he worked on the cars that he owned back then. Although his family’s auction business was trending more and more towards high-end automobiles at that time, Jackson’s personal passion lay with AMC cars.<\/p>\n

I can’t remember exactly which AMC cars he had in the building then, but there were several of them that he was quite proud of. At the 2015 SEMA Show, I was happy to see that a 1969 AMC Javelin race car on exhibit outside the Las Vegas Convention Center was owned by Craig Jackson.<\/p>\n

Basically, the ’69 AMC Javelin was unchanged from the previous year’s model. Styling treatments were improved and a few mechanical features were upgraded to create a better product. A new twin venturi grille was used.<\/p>\n

As in 1968, engines started with a 232-cid 145-hp six, but everything else available was a V-8. The 290-cid V-8 came again in 200- and 225-hp editions and the latter was offered with an optional Hurst-shifted four-speed. The four-speed could also be linked to the carryover 343-cid V-8.<\/p>\n

The “big muscle” on the AMC options list was the 390-cid with 315 hp. It was available with dealer-installed factory high-performance parts, as well as Isky, Edelbrock, or Offenhauser speed equipment and Doug’s Headers. AMC was careful to offer it with a choice of automatic or four-speed transmissions.<\/p>\n

Standard rear end gears in the Javelin with a four-speed transmission were 3.54:1 and 3.15:1 gearing was a no-cost option. Serious enthusiasts could trot down to their AMC dealership and pay extra for 3.73:1, 3.91:1, 4.10:1, and 5.00:1 axle ratios, as well as a Twin-Grip differential.<\/p>\n

Production totals for 1969 included 17,389 Javelins and 23,286 Javelin SSTs. AMC built 17,147 of the 390-cid V-8s, but some were used in cars other than Javelins. The car Jackson had in Vegas was a car that Jerry Grant drove in the Trans-Am racing series where heated-up 290s would have been used. Grant was a USAC champion who also competed in the Indy 500.<\/p>\n

Later, Roger Penske acquired the car and used it for developmental work. For some reason, it was re-skinned as a 1970 Javelin. Craig Jackson still campaigns the car on the vintage racing circuit. It is finished in the red-white-blue colors used on AMC race cars and wears No. 3 on the doors. Ronnie Kaplan Engineering decals adorn the front fenders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Craig Jackson always loved AMC cars, and he now owns a ’69 AMC Javelin.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3447,17],"tags":[2962,3794,687,218],"class_list":["post-21894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classic","category-guest-column","tag-amc","tag-amc-javelin","tag-classic-cars","tag-guest-columns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/featuredimage2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-5H8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21894"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21906,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21894\/revisions\/21906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}