David Howes raced this phenomenal AMC Javelin in the 1972 and '73 British Saloon Car Championship. Unlike the American Trans-Am Javelins, which were limited to a 305, the engine in Howes Javelin was out to 389 cu in

Blast from the past

Words: Steve Havelock
Photography: Steve Havelock and Marc Devis

Marc Devis' 1968 AMC Javelin racecar is a real time warp machine with a new owner who appreciates it and is giving it a new life in historic racing...

Most old race cars are like Trigger's broom. Twenty new handles, and twenty new heads. Racing, by it's very nature, is hard on machinery. Notwithstanding crash damage, components wear out and metalwork hardens due to flexing, and starts to crack or even break. Even bodywork, especially aluminum panels, can split. Furthermore, most racecars were only built to last a season or two. After that, many were either scrapped or stripped. No one at the time envisioned that some of these cars would be racing in 30, 40, 50 or more years later. Consequently, very few historic racing cars are truly original, as they raced in period. The lucky ones were covered in a dust sheet and shoved to the back of the garage, but most of those were unearthed years ago.

At the 2016 Silverstone Classic, therefore, it was very special to witness the return to the racetrack of a time warp AMC factory-sponsored Javelin that last raced 41 years ago. Sporting red, white, and blue AMC racing colors, this steroidal, highly modified racecar was fundamentally just as it was when it was put into dry storage in 1975. It even carried some of its original Silverstone scrutineering tags. Only the seat and fire extinguisher system had been updated for safety reasons, but even so, the old system, which still works, has been retained for authenticity.

The car had been methodically gone through and prepared for the track by WDK Motorsports of Andover, including crack testing of key components, new tyres and brakes. Under the bonnet is one of the original race engines which has been refreshed. It's an AMC 390ci (6.4-litre) V8 with twin Holley carbs which is coupled to a four-speed T10 gearbox. Proud owner and driver from Belgium, Marc Devis, explained to me: "It's the only Javelin that raced in Europe in period. i bought the car late last year from David Howes. How often is it that you can buy a race car from the original owner that is untouched, hasn't been modified or messed with, resprayed or disassembled? It's one of a kind. I'd like to keep it that way. it's British motor sport history. I like these special cars and doing this project and bringing it back to life is what I like to do."

David Howes, now 74, was at Silverstone to watch its comeback race and he later told me all about the car's history and how it came about. He recalled: "In the Sixties I'd been racing an ex-Alan Mann Ford Falcon Sprint quite successfully. I then decided to do Group 2 racing (British and European Touring Car Championship). Everybody else was running Chevrolet Camaros and Ford Mustangs, but I wanted something a bit different. I had a motorcar dealership and used to sell AMC cars, which at the time were Ramblers. Their station wagons were the most popular. We sold a lot of those in the UK. They were right-hand drive and they were a super station wagon, they really were. It was about the only American car you could buy that was right-hand drive. I also became the UK's first ever Jeep dealer, who were owner by AMC back then. So, I had an association with AMC and had a few good contacts at the factory. They had been doing well with the Javelin in America in the Trans-Am Championship, so I decided to build a Javelin racecar."

The transformation from a puny road car to pumped-up Group 2 racecar was massive. It's like the Incredible Hulk's warning - "You won't like me when I'm angry." For starters, David recalled that it ran on 12" wide McLaren wheels at the front, and 15" or 16" wide Gulf Mirage wheels at the rear. When shod with sticky slick tires, the additional forces generated necessitated the beefing up of the chassis and to stop it, massive Can-Am ventilated discs and powerful calipers were fitted all round, along with new master cylinders, servo and Aeroquip hoses.

This braking system was designed and supplied by Automotive Products of Leamington Spa. The 390ci motor was stripped and race prepped by Ian Richardson Racing of Ampthill. Ian was a top racer himself, soon to be campaigning an 8.1 litre fuel-injected Chevy powered Corvair. The Javelin's motor was fully balanced, polished and blueprinted. The flywheel was lightened, the head was gas flowed, roller rockers and Crower roller cam assembly were fitted, as were forged pistons, a custom-made manifold and a Mallory ignition system. The bill came to £1325, a tidy sum back then.

David said: "There were a lot of trick parts on the car and a heck of a lot of modifications; a lot of special parts, all one offs, which we had to have made and machined. It's far from a basic road car. The location of the rear axle was changed and it's all different suspension. It runs on coil springs and dampers at the back. They would normally run on leaf springs like the road cars, but we put on plastic lookalike springs and the scrutineers accepted that. It was a nylon leaf so it looked like a leaf spring and then you could pretty much do what you liked. It's all still there. It's just as it was when I last raced it. It's very much a time warp car."

In went the roll cage and all the safety gear. The only concessions to lightness were two fiberglass doors with Perspex windows and a Perspex rear screen. The rest of the car is steel. The Javelin was painted white. Daivid's first race in the car was March 1972 at Brands Hatch, quickly followed by Oulton Park,Thruxton, and Silverstone. After sorting out some oil surge problems by dry-sumping the motor with a system supplied by Traco Engineering of California, he started taking outright victories, class wins, and podiums.

In September RAC TT at Sliverstone, things didn't go as well. He said: "It was quite a big meeting. Silverstone was much faster than it is today. The old Woodcote corner was about 125 mph in my car. You would really steam through there. I came through there and was about to pass a back marker, a Mini, and we touched. It put me into the wall and I went all along the pit wall, right under the bridge and ended up in the field. It flattened all the way down the right-hand side of the car and I didn't get a scratch on me. It was a bit of a mess and I was a bit upset at the time. We rebuilt it and it was better than ever afterwards."

Meanwhile, back in the States, the Penske-run Javelins won the 1971 Trans-Am Championship and, with the Woods Brothers taking over the operation, again in 1972. David said: "I had a new engine built for me by the Woods Brothers in California. They were very famous racers in NASCAR and Trans-Am and the factory said they were the best people to go to. We flew it back, popped it in the car and it really was quick. That engine was about 550 horsepower. The first one was about 470bhp. It made a big difference. I think I paid them $8,000 or $9,000 just for one engine. Sitting in their workshop were the two trans-Am race cars with six or seven engines. The Woods Brothers raced the cars on behalf of the factory with full factory support. They were previously run by Roger Penske who, with Mark Donohue driving, won the championship first time and then Roy Woods took over the cars and won the championship again with George Follmer. I could have bought them, with all the spares and engines, for $20,000 each. If only. The ex-Mark Donohue car sold about six years ago for $500,000."

In March'73, David tried to persuade AMC to cough up the money so he could buy one of them and race it in Europe and the UK, but they weren't willing. He did however manage to secure sponsorship, advice, and parts form the factory for his own Javelin and consequently resprayed it in the striking factory Trans-Am color scheme. David said: "If I ever asked for any bits and pieces, it was always very forthcoming. I had a good relationship with them. They were a small company and I knew the MD. He was an English guy who headed the whole AMC company."

"Every time I went over there I would go and knock on his office door and he'd say, 'Oh, hello David, nice to see you.' and I could call him from England and he'd take my call. They gave me a lot of help with all the bits and pieces. I asked for some help from Penske, but they said no, it was their legal property. So that wasn't forthcoming."

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