All American Motors

By Kelly Schoof

I have always supported the underdog. Proving to people that their concept of AMC was more than just a little wrong seemed to come naturally. - Kelly

Part 2 of 2

Its strange how Glen and I remained such good friends through this period of rivalry in our younger years. Some times it would get very intense. Of course, he liked to put down AMC when there was a big audience of our peers within earshot. However, most times I had a good enough comeback that it made him squirm a bit. Despite the put downs, name calling, and general humiliation on both sides, we maintained a good friendship under the surface.

Since it was fall when I bought the Matador coupe, the snow soon came and I didn’t have the chance to race Glen’s Maverick. As a result, I entered into a winter’s worth of criticism and lectures on how I would never beat anybody with THAT AMC Matador. When I reminded him of the fact that the same Matador had propelled AMC to a number of NASCAR victories his mind was unchanged. However working at Kar-Basher that winter had it’s benefits. I found a nice pair of bucket seats, and many other Matador accessories that winter while finishing my J-20 body.

By the time spring rolled around the Matador had 2.25” dual exhaust installed and a Holley 500 cfm 2-bbl, tire and rim improvements were also in place. Then came the day; Glen had the mighty Maverick out and it was time to race. However the results were not much different than with his Comet and my station wagon – he lost. This time he did admit that I had put in a not bad show. But, now he was sure he would secure victory if he put NOS on his car and off he went to seek out just such a system. Some time later I found a 4-bbl intake at Kar-Basher and installed it. As coincidence would have it, Glen was ready with his NOS system – or so he said.

The race between the mildly hopped-up Matador coupe and the NOS Maverick was yet one more disappointment for the Maverick, not because a NOS Maverick couldn’t beat my car, but because Glen could never get it to work right. We raced several times and each time either the NOS didn’t kick in and he had black smoke with a flooded engine or he had other fuel problems that caused his mixture to be off. After several attempts he gave up. Three weeks later he sold the car and bought a ’67 454 Chevelle.

Months passed and I was now in my second year of Engineering at the University of Alberta; however, I still found time to work on cars. I had built a functional ram-air system for my car with an opening and closing door inside the hood scoop, several body modifications were made, a new bumper system in the front and back were installed and the car was painted. I was also building a juiced-up 360 for my car. It included a higher lift Crane cam, Rhodes variable duration lifters, and TRW forged pistons. I custom cast an epoxy resin carb adapter plate that not only kept the carb cool, but allowed me to fit a Carter 850 cfm Thermo-Quad. I also added headers and yet an even better flowing exhaust.

Once again the day came; the day to race Glen’s 454 (now built and bored to a 460) Chevelle. We picked a wide deserted industrial street on a Sunday afternoon: nobody was around. We started on the fly at about 10 mph then we both hit it hard. I couldn’t beat him, but he couldn’t beat me either. Then something strange happened: he started to slide sideways. He backed off the throttle and fell behind me. All I could see in the rear view mirror was a cloud of dust as the Chevelle spun circle after circle behind me. After he came to a stop, we inspected his car and there was no damage done – we agreed he must have hit some pea gravel. So we raced again in a cleaner road section. Much to our surprise both cars were equal! We went to about 90 mph and decided that that was fast enough.

Since those days, my Matador machine has propelled me to bewilder many rich boys at the stop lights with their (new) Corvettes and even humble a few in the Chrysler family of big block Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars. I have taken it to Montana where I found that it really would do the 140 mph that the police certified speedometer went to, (and for those of you who wonder: yes I did check the speedo for accuracy). I have even been through some parts of B.C. where I discovered that with the right tires and 15” rims it even took the corners pretty well at 1½ to 2 times the posted speed limit. And by strange coincidence, 99% of all the traffic violations I have ever been served with were while I was driving this car.

I currently own 4 Jeeps, and 4 Matador coups in various conditions. This month the Matador featured in this article will get an upgrade from the 360 to that of a modified 401 (I got used to the amount of horsepower the 360 made). One of the Matadors, besides the one pictured in this article, is slated for a future rebuild that will make it unlike any other Matador that I’m aware of.

So if you’re in the belief that an AMC, more specifically a Matador coupe, doesn’t have performance potential, think again. AMC engineers had purpose in mind when they designed the Matador Coupe: NASCAR racing.

Bobby Allison and Mark Donohue Matador Coupes Run by the Roger Penske Team in the 1970’s

For more information on the 1974 –1978 Matador Coupe, Visit www.matadorcoupe.com