AMC matador barcelona
Source: eBay.
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AMC Matador Barcelona, ​​A Luxury Coupé

AMC matador barcelona
Source: AMC.

That SEAT has used the names of Spanish cities to name several of its models is something perfectly understandable. Something less, but also acceptable, is that the passion of Ferruccio Lamborghini by the Spanish bullfighting will lead to the list of models of Sant'Agata Bolognese look like a volume of the Cossío encyclopedia. After all, Iberians and Italians are close enough for this type of idyll to occur.

But what happened in the United States of the 70s when a certain American car appeared with a Hispanic name full of bullfighting resonances ...

It's something weirder. Even more so when you look at the pompous shield that presides over the front hood and you notice that it is not that of the brand but that of the city of Barcelona!

AMC matador barcelona
Source: eBay.

A detail that is not the result of the local eagerness of a supposed Catalan owner, but of the brand itself: the American Motors Corporation which, in 1977, launched on the market 396 units of the AMC Matador Barcelona. A luxurious and comfortable coupe conceived to compete among others - and ironies of life - with the 1975 Chrysler Córdoba. We have found this example in E-Bay and we take the opportunity to tell you the story ...

AMC MATADOR: THE SURVIVAL OF AN INDEPENDENT BRAND

AMC (American Motors Corporation) has always been free verse. Founded in 1954 in Kenosha - a prudent 900 kilometers from Detroit, although it later ended up there - maintained a stubborn independence from the giants of the American automotive industry until its disappearance in 1988.

And for that ... He did everything he could.

From producing ingenious urban utilities like the Gremlin or Graze to try a partnership with Renault and even assume the manufacture of a model like the Cherokee, finally produced by Chrysler in the face of AMC's financial difficulties.

Curiously, the Matador shared a designer with the legendary off-road vehicle, Richard A. Teague being responsible for a car that came to change many things in the brand. But… How exactly? Well, every company needs to know which market to target and, in that sense, AMC decided to target the general American public.

How? Well, offering a wide range of non-sporty but very comfortable and practical vehicles, some equipped with powerful and elastic large-displacement engines designed to devour kilometers smoothly ... And others more conducive to the urban environment, with reduced dimensions, lower fuel consumption and a great habitability for the day to day.

Since 1971 the Matador was the star of the first of these two coexisting categories at AMC, evolving through two generations in which the model was offered in bodies as different as sedan, station wagon and the one that interests us: coupe. In short, a denomination under which versions were actually very different from each other, equipped with about 8 different engines that made more than one really wonder 'What is a Matador?'

THE DECADE OF THE 'MUSCLE CAR '

If we think of the moderately sporty American coupes of the 60s ... The image quickly comes to mind of a Mustang or a corvette, of a Camaro, a GTO or a Charger. Sinuous and vitaminized pony y muscle car that, although they were not exactly aces of the curves - at least of series -, they were relegated in the decade of the 70 by a very different type of car.

And is that Between 1968 and 1973, the American industry took a 180 degree turn from what, for them, had to be a sports coupe. Thus the harshness ended, if only in the forms, the sound or the acceleration, to give a few examples, and the alleged sportiness only remained in the name. In the mechanical section, although the available power was not renounced, it had to be delivered in a progressive way, turning those cars into lambs in wolf skin.

Right there was the Matador Coupé, a model that appeared in 1974 with more than 5 meters long and 1.861 kilos of weight pushed thanks to a V8 that ranged from 3.8 liters to 5,9 and 225CV, depending on the version. A powerful luxury car - it was the top of the range - but nothing sporty, even more so if we consider that the gearbox was normally automatic and three-speed.

And it is that, as we have said before, the idea in these coupe it was luxury and comfort. In fact, AMC offered its own support services of today when purchasing a Matador Coupé; Among them was the commitment to provide you with a replacement car in the event of a breakdown, as well as a personal telephone line where AMC would gladly answer any questions the customer might have about the operation of the brand new car.

Starting in 1976, and with the release of the second generation of the Matador, more sumptuous versions appeared such as the Cassini -dressed by the famous fashion designer of the time- and the Barcelona; where the use of the coat of arms of the city is repeated at least four times, two of them in the model windows Opera from its side.

The Matador Barcelona is a striking car but at the same time very representative of a time in which the 2 + 2 Americans were conceived to drive quietly, wasting liters of Groovy with his left arm leaning against the window as the radio exuded themes of Bobby womack o Al Green.

Oh, and one thing: If you like it but you still miss a little more sportiness on its four wheels ... Do as Francisco Scaramanga -the enemy of James Bond in "The Man with the Golden Gun"- and put a good pair of wings on it, see what happens. 😉

What do you think?

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Written by Miguel Sánchez

Through the news from La Escudería, we will travel the winding roads of Maranello listening to the roar of the Italian V12; We will travel Route66 in search of the power of the great American engines; we will get lost in the narrow English lanes tracking the elegance of their sports cars; We will speed up the braking in the curves of the Monte Carlo Rally and we will even get dusty in a garage while rescuing lost jewels.

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