John;
You certainly don't have to apologize for owning a Matador! There is a reason it was chosen to be on the cover of the Standard Catalog of Independents; with its AMX/3 inspired styling, it was a very attractive car, one of those cars which was so bold in its styling as to elicit an immediate 'love it or hate it' response. Car and Driver magazine labelled it the 'best styled car" for 1974. I've owned one; the only thing I didn't like was the large headlight tunnels/frog eye headlights, but that was a minor beef. The car turned a lot of heads.
I owned a 1978 Barcelona Coupe. You should know that there weren't very many of these made (only 2006 coupes total, of these approx. 396 were barcelonas). Mine was all original, and did not have 'barcelona' script anywhere; I think 1976 was the last year they used the script. It had the gold emblems you are referring to on the glove box inside, on the stand up hood ornament, and one on each fender beside the 'Matador' script.
Visit www.matadorcoupe.com (the 'Coupe Coop') for much more information on your beautiful car! There are some good scans of articles from magazines there, and lots of pictures of Matadors.
Rick Ferron Niagara Falls Canada
----- Original Message ----- From: "John McEwen" <moparrr@xxxxxxx> To: <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2004 1:08 AM Subject: Anyone have two round Barcelona fender medallions?
Hello Everyone:
Unfortunately, I don't have a Gremlin, Hornet, Ambassador, Javelin or AMX. What I do have is a Matador Barcelona Coupe. I've found an inconsistency in the description and pictures of the badging on these cars and wonder if anyone can clear it up.
I've seen pictures of the cars which show a round gold-colored medallion (prominent red cross in design) on each fender adjacent to the MATADOR emblem. However some of these cars have script 'Barcelona' emblems on the trunk and hood (offset to the right as viewed) while other cars are pictured with an AMC badge on the hood and I have not seen any rear shots to verify how that was finished.
My car, a '78, has no medallions. It has MATADOR badges on each front fender and AMC stick-on badges below that. I believe my car is supposed to have 'Barcelona' script badges on the hood and trunk but I'm not certain what is correct now.
I'd like to know if anyone who has a Barcelona could tell me what year their car is and what kind of badges are in what locations on the car. I'd like to clear up the mystery.
In the meantime, if anyone has a couple of the round gold medallions (probably stick-on) I'd certainly like to buy them - as long as they're in decent shape..
Thanks,
John