1974 AMC Matador Brougham 401 V8 Coupe

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 differentialOriginal California car purchased new in Los Angeles, CaliforniaAMC took the Matador to NASCAR, with Mark Donohue and Bobby Allison driving two Penske-prepped cars that were highlysuccessfulThe AMC Matador styling was directly aimed at racetrack drivingClassic Black exterior (code P1) with black Tru-Knit vinyl interior (code 431Q)Correct factory front bucket seatsFront and rear sway barsAir-conditioning, power steering, power brakesCenter console and roll-down rear windowsDocumentation 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!!!

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