Rare Rides: The 1978 AMC Matador - Baroque and Barcelona
The Rare Rides series has previously featured a couple of AMC products. First up was the unique and stylish Eagle Sundancer, followed up by the Van concept that never quite made it to production. Today, we head back to the late Seventies and take a look at the seriously brougham Matador coupe. And it’s not just any old Matador — it’s the special Barcelona version.
I hear polyester rustling.
The Matador started out in life as the midsize sedan offering from American Motors in 1971. Ever the penny pincher, AMC created the “brand new” Matador off the bones of its predecessor, the Rebel. Initially, the Matador was available in two-door hardtop, four-door sedan, and wagon configurations. Small trim changes and improvements occurred annually, and by 1973 owner satisfaction had improved over the prior Rebel model.
A second-generation Matador collection debuted in 1974, bringing some substantial changes to the lineup. While the four-door sedan and wagon bodystyles retained the same basic shape, the plain-looking two-door hardtop transformed into a stylish coupe with sweeping lines. Like the Van concept up above, the Matador coupe was penned by AMC’s favorite (and lead) designer, Richard Teague. With his design, the Matador coupe separated from the brass band and went its own direction, as top execs at AMC intended to inject some unique excitement into the burgeoning mid-market coupe segment. For ’74, Matador was the only new coupe on the market, and went toe to toe with the established coupe variants of the Ford Torino, Plymouth Satellite, and Chevrolet Chevelle.
The long, flowing hood matched to a short rear deck made for classic coupe proportions, if a bit distended by US bumper regulations. Not satisfied with the soft middle, AMC aimed higher with two luxury versions of the Matador coupe — the Oleg Cassini designer edition, and today’s Barcelona.
First up was the Cassini, available in 1974 and 1975. It mimicked the Lincoln tradition of employing a designer to outfit both the interior and exterior of a standard car, and putting his name on it in several places. The Barcelona trim followed up for 1977 and 1978, rounding out the remainder of the Matador’s lifespan. Both of these trim levels pushed the Matador coupe to new heights (and into the Personal Luxury Coupe segment).
All Barcelona coupes had a padded vinyl roof and opera windows in the finest brougham tradition. Though initially only available in a two-tone gold color combo, a second color combination in this dual-red was available only for ’78. Other special items included crushed velvet seating, special door trim, headliner, painted headlamp bezels, color-key wheels (gone), and some Barcelona medallions in select locations.
Today’s example has been meticulously maintained. The front bumper has been removed, and it’s been lowered a bit and put on some new wheels. All the standard and additional luxury features of the Barcelona are powered along by the AMC 360 V8, which is 5.9 liters in foreign metric units. The only transmission available is the three-speed Torque Command automatic, because this Matador is for relaxed, luxury motoring only. The seller expects more than $13,000 for it, as the last couple of listings have reached that figure and not met the reserve.
[Images via eBay]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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Man that car was about 4 or 5 years too late from being a true classic IMO. Imagine that shape coming out in 1969 or 1970, the designers were free to do the bumpers how they saw fit. Also wouldn't have had that silly vinyl roof/opera window(I know that was optional). The 360 V8 would have had about 300hp or so before the government killed all the fun on horsepower. This would have been an interesting comparison between something like the new 1970 Challenger or 1970 Camaro, both had similar, very swoopy styling.
"Look! Up in The Sky! The Flying Car-Plane...The Flying Car-Plane!" That's right, the Matador was used in the James Bond movie "The Man With The Golden Gun"! What a show that was !