Heavy Weight Olé: 1960 Dodge Matador
1960 was a remarkable year of change in the lineup at Dodge dealers across the country. In with the new and out with the old — gone were the Coronet, Custom, Custom Royal, and Lancer; in their place were the Dart, Matador, and Polara which continued Virgil Exner’s Forward Look design cues and included short tail fins, jet pod tail lights and giant chrome baleen grilles. But the entire full sized lineup was now built with computer designed unibody chassis and featured underhood advancements like an alternator and slant-6 engines. For Dodge, the future was 1960. Find this 1960 Dodge Matador Polara offered for $12,900 in Tempe, AZ via craigslist. Tip from FuelTruck.
The Matador was nicer/larger than the entry level Dart and rode on the same 122 inch wheelbase as the top-of-the-line Polara and the DeSoto/Plymouth/Chrysler cousins. The Matador nameplate only lived for one year as sales of less than 28,000 units didn’t make the bean counters happy.
Powering this Matador is a 361 cubic inch “Super Red Ram” V8 that was rated at 295 horsepower and mated to a push button actuated slushbox. The inside of this old boat looks in decent shape, but there is some ickyness in the paint job applied by a previous owner.
See a better way to cruise around with tailfins? tips@dailyturismo.com
I sure like the way this looks, but a one year only, YIKES. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know how many one year parts that equates to… Talk about hens teeth..
Wow, what a dashboard! Parked on the overlook, arm around your girl and just the dash lights on to set the mood….
Cylon Basestar steering wheel FTW
These "eye of newt" styling era cars are rapidly going up in price. Build & quality were not often used to describe these cars, but drive trains were Chrysler stout.
My father's first new car was a black on red 1962 Dodge 440 Dart. I still wince when I see one. I loved my father very much, but his eye for a bargain ruled over his eye for coherent styling.
To keep it in perspective, he had a long term fixation for 52-56 Nashes. We owned all of them at one point or another in Queens, NY. Or so it seemed to a 5 year-old.
That dashboard/steering wheel combo is the tops, but I think the design team ran out of modeling clay in the middle of styling the tailfins. Instead of going out to get more they decided to call it a day and then never got back to finishing them before deadline.