Junkyard Find: 1974 Oleg Cassini Edition AMC Matador
I never thought I’d ever find an Oleg Cassini Edition AMC Matador in the junkyard. Oh, sure, I’ve seen Givenchy Continentals, Mark Cross New Yorkers, a couple of Etienne Aigner VW Golfs, even a Levis Gremlin… but even with all I’ve written about the Oleg Cassini Matador I’d given up hope of actually seeing one on its way to The Crusher. That changed yesterday.
I wondered what emblem might have lived on the fender. Could it be…?
Yes! The Cassini crest is still visible on the seat backs. Such luxury!
Nice factory AM radio still in the dash. Probably totally worthless, but still a cool find.
I’m tempted to pull the clock, for my collection of 50+ car clocks, but there’s no way a 37-year-old American car clock will still work.
I think the mid-70s Matador coupes are pretty good-looking cars, and I’ll probably own one someday. Not this one, of course, but I might need to stash a few hard-to-find bits from it.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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One of the more hideous versions of a really hideous car. Those giant wheelwells half filled with skinny tires looked ridiculous. When this style came out, someone who lived down the street had a red one, a base car with hubcaps and tiny tires on it. It was a dog from day one, and in 3 years, it was replaced with a Pontiac J2000. Well, at least it looked better...
With Chrysler having bought AMC in 1987, this could be an engine swap project involving the 3G Hemi currently being produced. Oleg Cassini SRT-8 anyone?