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Revision as of 01:22, 27 April 2006
Motor vehicle| AMC Matador | |
|---|---|
| 1972 AMC Matador | |
| Overview | |
| Manufacturer | American Motors Corporation |
| Production | 1971–1978 |
| Body and chassis | |
| Class | Mid-size |
| Related | AMC Rebel |
The AMC Matador was an intermediate size car built and sold by the American Motors Corporation (AMC) from 1971 to 1978. The Matador succeeded the Rebel nameplate which had been in use since 1967.
The Matador was essentially the 1970 Rebel restyled with a longer front clip and a new interior. From the cowl back, the Matador shared its unit body with the AMC Ambassador, which had a longer wheelbase and front end sheetmetal.
The Matador initially came with a choice of an automatic or manual transmissions, in 2-door hardtop, 4-door sedan and station wagon bodystyles. Starting in 1974, the hardtop was replaced by an unusually styled coupé (see below). AMC's entire stable of 6-cylinder and V8 engines were available at various times.
The four-door sedan was adopted by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1972, and became familiar through its use on the Adam-12 TV show.
Penske prepared factory-backed Matadors were used in NASCAR racing by Mark Donahue and Bobby Allison, and won a number of races. Both the first and second generation coupes were used, and both are shown here.
Matador Coupe
For the 1974 model year, AMC introduced an unusually styled coupe with pronounced headlight surrounds and fastback styling, along with a less than attractive front and rear restyle of the four-door models. The coupe was one of the more contoversial designs of the 1970s. Although mid-sized coupes were extremely popular at the time, the model was unfortunately introduced shortly before the first oil crisis of the 1970s. Sales, while initially promising, dropped along with demand for other traditional intermediate cars in the midst of the first fuel crisis, and again after downsized full sized models appeared from GM in 1977. Sketches appeared in the automotive press showing designs for the sedan and wagon based on the styling themes of the coupe, but these did not reach production.
Faced with declining sales, and lacking the financial resources for a full redesign (the car still used the basic 1967 Rebel platform), the Matador was discontinued after the 1978 model year, after which AMC concentrated its resources on its smaller models. Of interest is the extremely low production (23 units) of 6-cylinder-powered 1978 Matadors.
In pop culture
- In the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, the villain Francisco Scaramanga drives a Matador that could transform into an aircraft (in that movie, various American Motors vehicles were used, making it one of the first product placement movies).
- AMC Matadors were also used in the first Police Academy movie and in the Dukes of Hazzard television show.
- Michael Jackson takes a sledgehammer to a Matador in one of his music videos.
External links
- A brief history of the Matador
- Norbert Vance's Matador Photo Sampler
- Arcticboy's Matador page, from which this page's pictures were taken
- The Coupe Coop, a page dedicated entirely to the Matador coupe
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