PCH, What To Drive In '75 Edition: Matador Or Grabber Maverick?
It goes without saying- well, hell, maybe it doesn't, but that won't stop us- that, after the first installment of What To Drive In '75, we'd want to do a Choose Your Eternity matchup featuring the two selected cars. Unfortunately, we couldn't find an Oleg Cassini Matador at any price, and the cheap Grabber we found was a '74, but we've attempted to capture the spirit of the thing here. Now, the Matador won the WTDI75 poll by a pretty solid 2/3 majority, but that was make-believe... and this is Hell!
The great thing about the Maverick is that every hopped-up hardware hooliganism you can perpetrate on a Mustang can also be applied to the cheaper horse (unfortunately, it also means all the early Mustang's many suspension drawbacks apply to the Maverick as well, but anyone who's watched "Bullitt"- which was a documentary, right?- can tell you that leaf springs and funky front control-arm geometry are actually the way to go in a handlin' machine!). And the Grabber Mavericks were pretty sharp-looking cars for their era, so someone who started by handing over $1500 cash for this 1974 Ford Maverick Grabber would need only to drop in more engine and a 4-speed to be well on his or her way to vintage Ford coolness. The body and interior don't look too bad, and its California location means that rust probably isn't a huge deal... unless the trunk leaks.
Of course, $1500 is a lot of money for a Maverick, right? Every dollar you save on the initial purchase price is a dollar you'll be able to spend on a badass engine updrade, and what could be more badass than a wild 401 stuffed into this 1975 AMC Matador? You know, the kind of 401 that requires a big hole in the hood for a tunnel-ram intake... and with a purchase price of just $500, you'll have money for such engine goodies. This Matador seems pretty straight, though we don't hear much about the interior and the fuel system is "gummed up" (probable translation: rock-hard petroleum decay products on everything ever touched by gasoline). And, hey, buyers within 200 miles of Spokane can get delivery for the price of gas and dinner!
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