1974-1978 Matador Coupe

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car pictures go here

General Information

The 1974 Matador Coupe was an all-new car introduced at the end of the 'musclecar' era. The styling was quite radical at the time. Some have said that AMC's involvement with NASCAR had an influence on the design of the Matador Coupe. It is also said that the short-lived 1970 AMX/3 had an influence on this design. Richard Teague had been instrumental in creating some beautiful and sucessful designs for AMC, and this was another stunning example of his talents.


In 1974, the Matador Coupe was available in several levels of trim and engine options. There was the base model, the Brougham, the exclusive Oleg Cassini model and the X model. Engines ranged from the 258 6-cylinder to the 401 V8. 1974 was the only year for the 401 engine option. only 335 401-equipped Matador Coupes were produced. It is reported that 4 Matador Coupes were produced with the 401 engine in 1975.

In NASCAR, Bobby Allison drove the new Matador and was successful. The distinctive red-white-blue painted number 12 and 16 were unmistakeable.

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Body Styles and Trim Levels

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Engines

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Transmissions

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Production Numbers

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VIN Decoder

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Unit Body Identification Plate

Body

Model

Trim

Paint

The following colors were available in ????-????. The original color can be determined by looking at the Paint code on the body tag. If there are two codes separated by a dash, the first code is the primary body color and the second code is the upper body (sometimes roof) or accent color. For example, a car that was black with a white top would have a paint code of 1-72. Paint codes may also be prefixed with a P or suffixed with an A. Note that some cars were painted non-standard colors. These cars will typically have a code such as " 00" or "SPEC". This was reserved for large orders in the special color, usually for fleet use.

Paint Code Color Years
1 Classic Black ???

Color samples can be viewed at http://autocolorlibrary.com/aclns.html

Sequential Assembly Number

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Bibliography

The following sources were used to verify the information contained on this page:

  • Resource 1
  • Resource 2

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