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Rough Start: Can This 1974 American Motors Matador Coupe Be Your Poor Man’s AMX?


Rough Start: Can This 1974 American Motors Matador Coupe Be Your Poor Man’s AMX?

Nobody is ever going to call the 1974-78 AMC Matador coupes handsome. Put bluntly, the design is the most polarizing AMC ever produced…it had legions of fans, especially if you look at first-year sales, but just as outspoken are those who find the car absolutely horrifying. Yet, if you squint a bit…ok, a LOT…you might see the car that it was supposed to be: the coupe to replace the previous generation Matador coupe and the Javelin. Why else would they bring Mark Donohue in on the design process? According to AMC, the Matador Coupe was meant to replace the “uninspired” Matador (neé Rebel) two-door coupe with something more stylish. To outsiders, it was amazing that American Motors was able to crank out a specialty coupe at all…the Javelin was going to bite the dust and AMC already had a decent performer in the form of the Hornet, if you checked the right boxes. Yet, for the most part it appears that AMC didn’t do what everybody else did, which was to chase the Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Oldsmobile Cutlass for the Brougham crown. Instead, we got…well, this.

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Some might balk at the AMC red/white/blue paint scheme on the Matador coupe, but it actually works: this was the same paint scheme that Bobby Allison ran on the Matador he used in NASCAR, and we’ve seen this particular slant-striped scheme before, on a certain Javelin dirt-track car that Lohnes would just as soon forget about entirely. At least here you’re stepping into a running, driving 360-powered machine sitting on slot mags like a refugee from a high-school campus circa 1984. That isn’t a dig, either…if anything, we say go full kill on the look and have some fun with it! Your local boys in blue might have an issue with the missing railroad ties at each end, and there is some rust to contend with (this one’s in Wisconsin, near Kenosha…go figure!) but for $2,500, we doubt you’ll find a more fun AMC product in better condition. Get it, tune it, and have a freaking ball with it.

Craigslist Link: 1974 American Motors Matador coupe

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5 thoughts on “Rough Start: Can This 1974 American Motors Matador Coupe Be Your Poor Man’s AMX?

  1. jerry z

    Always had a fascination with these cars. If this car wasn’t so far away, it would be in my driveway this weekend. Creating a Bobby Allison replica would be a dream build for me.

    1. Matt Cramer

      Yep, I’d be tempted if the thing was nearer and if I had a little bit more cash free at this time. (Although I could get around the cash part by selling the daily driver… hmmm…)

  2. 4 nomor

    I hate to say it, but I\’m really digging on this car… Fix the rust, add some hot rod parts to the 360, 5spd swap, 8.8 swap.. and this could be a ton of fun for relatively cheap!..

  3. BeaverMartin

    I love my 74′ Matador! Mine is the Oleg Cassini version though, because I only own classy junk!

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