NASCAR Inspired? 1976 AMC Matador Coupe (opens in new tab)

This 1976 AMC Matador is fascinating, primarily because I'm trying to spot the builder's inspiration, and I keep coming back to Bobby Allison's Penske Matador from the mid-1970s. No, this bad, all-black Matador doesn't have Penske's distinctive red, white, and blue paint job, but it does have (in some of the pictures) side-exiting exhaust, headers,...