Re: Mat coupe front clip on wagon

[farna@xxxxxxx]

I remember that myself Wayne, but forgot all about it when typing! The Coupe was still Teague's last big "hurrah" while AMC still had money to design a car body from the ground up. But you do bring up the most likely reason AMC execs allowed it -- something that slipped my mind. They must have felt like the NASCAR competition, especially if it did really well, would bring in enough publicity to be worth the effort. Unfortunately the big companies were pulling out of NASCAR at the time, so like the T/A races, the NASCAR victories were a bit hollow. Not that there were many really big NASCAR wins -- but the car was competitive, much more so than the old sedan and more than anything based more on the bulkier car could have been. 


On September 26, 2005 Wayne E LaMothe wrote:

> IIRC the matador coupe was designed by Teague after serious input from
> Mark Donohue.  It was meant for the super speedways and NASCAR.  I
> believe there was a big write up about it in a 1974? R&T mag.
> 
> Wayne
> > I don't know WHAT AMC execs were thinking when they
> > okayed the Matador Coupe. I think Teague just talked them into it --
> > he'd mentioned before that it was his last shot at a clean sheet
> > design. Maybe the execs thought it might be as well, or just wanted
> > to give him the chance to see what could be done. Should have been
> > with a small car. It was just the wrong car at the wrong time.
> >


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