The JH22 was developed from the Renault-based JH21C that AGS had used in two races at the end of the 1986 season. Where the JH21C had run a Motori Moderni turbocharged engine on Pirelli tyres, the JH22 switched to the naturally aspirated DFZ V8 and Goodyear rubber — a deliberate trade of outright power for dependability. The car carried a distinctive 1970s-style airbox mounted aft of the fuel tank, a feature later replaced with a smaller, more conventional intake as the season went on.
AGS built only two chassis for 1987, numbered 32 and 33, as the team again elected to run a single-car programme. Italian fashion brand El Charro continued as principal sponsor, giving the car — race-numbered 14 — a white and red livery dominated by a large rose above the nosecone. Frenchman Pascal Fabre, who had raced for AGS in Formula Two back in 1982, was signed as the sole driver.
As one of four teams using normally aspirated engines at the start of the season alongside Tyrrell, March, and newcomers Larrousse, AGS entered the one-off Colin Chapman Trophy for naturally aspirated constructors, while Fabre contested its drivers' equivalent, the Jim Clark Trophy.
The JH22 was slow from the outset. Fabre typically qualified last, often more than a second behind the car immediately ahead, yet the machine proved fundamentally reliable in race conditions. He was classified a finisher in eight of the first nine grands prix, even if always at least five laps adrift of the leaders. His best results were ninth place finishes on home soil in France and in Britain. In Austria he crossed the line but fell short of the lap count needed for official classification.
As the season progressed, the grid became more crowded. Osella and Larrousse each added a second car, and the Coloni team made its Formula One debut, making pre-qualifying progressively more difficult. Fabre failed to make the grid in three of the next four races.
For the final two rounds in Japan and Australia, AGS replaced Fabre with Roberto Moreno, making his first Formula One appearance since failing to qualify a Lotus at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix. Moreno scraped onto the grid at both venues. At Adelaide he capitalised on heavy attrition to cross the line seventh, three laps down — and was subsequently promoted to sixth when Ayrton Senna was disqualified from second place for oversized brake ducts. That sixth-place finish awarded Moreno and AGS their first championship point.
At the end of 1987, AGS were classified equal 11th in the Constructors' Championship and third in the Colin Chapman Trophy. Fabre finished fifth in the Jim Clark Trophy with 35 points; Moreno's Adelaide result placed him equal 19th in the Drivers' Championship.
The JH22 was replaced by the JH23 for 1988. Of the two chassis built, one remains in AGS's historic collection while the other is on display at the Manoir de l'Automobile in Lohéac, Brittany — a testament to the small team's determination to compete, and to the debut point that kept the JH22 from being remembered as entirely fruitless.