Vehicle Description
1974 AMC Matador Brougham 401 V8 Coupe One of only 312 Brougham
Coupes with this engine. Reportedly one of five Matadors made with
the 401 CID V-8 engine mated to a dealer-installed four-speed
manual transmission and Twin-Grip differential Original California
car purchased new in Los Angeles, California AMC took the Matador
to NASCAR, with Mark Donohue and Bobby Allison driving two
Penske-prepped cars that were highlysuccessful The AMC Matador
styling was directly aimed at racetrack driving Classic Black
exterior (code P1) with black Tru-Knit vinyl interior (code 431Q)
Correct factory front bucket seats Front and rear sway bars
Air-conditioning, power steering, power brakes Center console and
roll-down rear windows Documentation includes original owner's
manual and original Matador D/L sales brochure Are you looking for
the high school bully of all cars? The one that just screams
sinister from the other side of the parking lot? Then take an
aggressive look at this rarely seen black AMC Matador 401 V8 Coupe
at MotoeXotica Classic Cars. The Matador had a very unique history
in American cars from the 1970's, thestyling was directly aimed at
racetrack driving. It was super slippery, aerodynamically ahead,
for the 1970s. NASCAR driver Mark Donohue drove these rather
successfully at the time and brought home many checkered flags for
AMC. This particular Matador is one of only 312 Brougham Coupes
that left the factory with one of the Muscle Car Heavy Weights, the
AMC 401 V8! One of only very few Matadors known to exist with a
dealer installed 4-speed manual transmission! Black exterior, black
interior, 401 V8, four on the floor and posi rear-end... you just
can't go wrong with this combination! The original owner was a
pilot in the Los Angeles, California area who bought the car on
December 28, 1973. After the Matador arrived from AMC's Kenosha,
Wisconsin factory with a three-speed automatic and a floor shifter,
the buyer, a Robert K., reportedly did not like the fact that AMC
did not offer a factory 401/four-speed manual drivetrain on the
Matador. Allegedly, the dealership technicians made a transmission
conversion using parts from a Javelin. Other previous owners were
Brad D. and Dave G. Dressed in Classic Black (code P1), the car's
paint and trim are in overall great condition with only minor
imperfections. The car's body work is solid and straight, the
engine bay is tidy and the car's new-for-1974 five-mph bumpers are
in very good order. This Matador rolls on BFGoodrich Radial T/As,
size 225/70R15 in front and 275/60R15 in back. Each tire is mounted
on a factory, vented alloy wheel. The wheels are in good, original
order, as are the tires. Under the hood is American Motors' big 401
CID V-8 engine with a 8.25:1 compression ratio. Instead of the
three-speed automatic transmission, there is a four-speed manual
transmission with a Twin-Grip limited-slip differential. Driver
convenience features include air-conditioning, power steering,
power brakes and driver's remote sideview mirror. The car also has
front and rear sway bars. Inside, the car has black Tru-Knit vinyl
(code 431Q) front buckets and rear demi-bench are in very good
shape, as is the matching carpet. The three-spoke Sports steering
wheel looks great as only something from the mid-70s can. The
tachometer and horn are inoperable, the air conditioner blows and
engages but the air is not cold. This car also has a center console
and roll-down rear windows. The instrument panel with its woodgrain
trim and the inner door panels are all in great shape. For 1974,
American Motors' executives saw an opportunity to replace the
"uninspired" Matador two-door hardtop with a new design to capture
people looking for exciting, sporty styling in a market segment
that was outpacing the rest of the automobile market; and were
looking to answer the demand for plush mid-size coupes after the
end of the muscle car era. When AMC redesigned the Matador line for
1974, they essentially made two different cars out of the same
name: the sedan and wagon were basically face lifted versions of
the car that replaced the Rebel mid-sizer in 1971, and were
well-known as police vehicles. Then there was the coupe, a design
that, depending on your tastes, varies between "polarizing" and
"horrifying". A joint effort between AMC's design wizard, Dick
Teague, and AMC driver Mark Donohue, the Matador coupe was a
radical departure not only from the previous Matador coupe, but
from just about every form of conventional design in the 1970s,
period. Teague claimed to have been influenced by his first design
for American Motors, the 1964 American, but unless you seriously
squint at the nose of the Matador coupe, you won't see it. While it
isn't a gorgeous car, it did do two things that surprised a lot of
people: for one, it sold surprisingly well in it's first year, with
almost two-thirds of the overall production of 100,000 coupes ever
made sold in 1974, and secondly, but even more eye-raising, was
that AMC took the Matador to NASCAR, with Donohue and Bobby Allison
driving two Penske-prepped cars. New passenger car requirements set
by NHTSA called for the front and rear passenger car bumpers to
have uniform heights, take angle impacts, and sustain
five-mile-per-hour impacts with no damage. The 1974 AMC Matadors
accomplished this with massive bumpers. The coupe's wind-shaped
look was enhanced by a very long hood and a short rear deck. The
Matador coupe stands out as one of the more distinctive and
controversial designs of the 1970s after the AMC Pacer and was
named "Best Styled Car of 1974" by the editors of Car and Driver
magazine. A Popular Mechanics survey indicated "luscious looks of
Matador coupe swept most owners off their feet" with a "specific
like" listed by 63.7 percent of them for "styling." Coupe
competition to this Matador in 1974 included Buick's Century Gran
Sport, Chevrolet's Chevelle Laguna, Dodge's Charger SE, Ford's
Grand Torino Elite, Mercury's Montego MX Brougham, Oldsmobile's
Cutlass Salon, Plymouth's Satellite Sebring and Pontiac's Luxury Le
Mans. Documentation includes a Matador original owner's manual and
an original Matador D/L sales brochure. If you're an AMC buff, a
fan of seldom seen '70s vehicles or if you're in the mood for
something unique for your collection, say a bully car, you owe it
to yourself to visit MotoeXotica Classic Cars and check this car
out. VIN: A4C169Z231868 This car is currently located at our
facility in St. Louis, Missouri. Current mileage on the odometer
shows 96,510 miles. It is sold as is, where is, on a clean and
clear, mileage exempt title. GET OUT AND DRIVE!!! Please copy and
paste the link below to view our You Tube Video!
https://youtu.be/y0RTHmbnNJA Note: Please see full terms and
conditions listed below that pertain to the purchase of any said
vehicle, thank you.
