The History of Matra: Innovative Minivan, Sports Car Creators

based on an article by Keith Adams; thanks to Julian Marsh for additional information

Matra (Mechanique-Aviation-TRAction) grew out of CAPRA, a small aeronautical contracting firm which had been based in the free French zone; it changed its name to Matra in 1942, and built guided missiles in the post-war years. As Matra became a force in aeronautic research, it became clear that it could, like Saab, apply its technologies and skills to motorsports.

In 1965, Matra bought René-Bonnet, which made Renault-powered sports cars, and threw itself into an ambitious race and rally car programme. Its first model, the Djet 5, was a contination of the René-Bonnet Djet line, and the first Matra car to roll off the Romorantin production line. Only 916 Djet 5s were built, all powered by a 1.1-litre Renault-Gordini motor.

The first Matra road car was the Matra 530, a replacement for the Djet. This was the first car designed entirely by Matra, and its attention to aerodynamics shows its heritage. The targa roof was ahead of its time, as was the top speed: 110mph from an uninspiring V4 Ford engine mounted centrally.

The 530 paved the way for an alliance with SIMCA, to produce the Matra-SIMCA Bagheera sports coupé in 1973. The Bagheera sported a mid-engined layout and three-abreast seating; it was a stylish coupé that carried over some of the M530's engineering, saving money by using off-the-shelf SIMCA parts. The engine came from the SIMCA 1100 (1442cc), but the Bagheera comfortably topped 100mph.

The Bagheera was a commercial and critical success, but it was not popular outside of France due to rusting spaceframes and other quality issues.

Jackie Stewart won a world championship at the wheel of a Matra-Tyrrell and back-to-back Le Mans victories in 1973/74, boosting Matra’s reputation.

The Bagheera was facelifted in 1976, and then followed by the Matra-SIMCA Rancho, a pseudo-offroad vehicle with rugged styling, a plastic body, and two-wheel drive which sold in reasonable numbers. The Rancho dipped heavily into the SIMCA parts-bin, cutting its price.

In 1978, Chrysler pulled out of Europe to avoid bankruptcy, selling its substantial holdings to Peugeot, which re-branded its new acquisition to Talbot; the name was applied to the Rancho. Peugeot maintained a partnership with Matra when the new Murena appeared in 1981; it used the same structure as the Bagheera. The Murena had two four-cylinder engines: a 1.6-litre version (92 hp) of the Bagheera S engine (as later used in the Alpine and Solara), and an optional 2.2-litre (118 hp) development of the Chrysler 2-Litre unit. Styling was organic and streamlined with a final Cd (co-efficient of drag) rated at 0.328, which in 1980 was good (though inferior to the earlier Dodge Charger Daytona).

The styling and accomodation of the Murena were praised, and the its handling was particularly lauded, but straight-line speed was slow for the price. Peugeot vetoed numerous improvements and finally let Matra market an aftermarket tuning kit, which boosted power to 142bhp but was expensive to buy and install. After a production run of a mere 10,680, the Murena was officially shut down, and Peugeot dissolved their partnership with Matra; Renault took over where Peugeot had left off.

In development at Matra at the time was a small van that would become very popular: a one-box multi-purpose vehicle, which would have been powered by a range of Talbot engines, whilst using many carry over parts (such as headlamps, grille, interior fixings). This started out as, essentially, a larger version of the successful Rancho, created from the larger platform.

Renault saw the concept, embraced it, introduced it almost unchanged (down to the Alpine-esque headlamp/grille arrangement), and went on to produce hundreds of thousands of them. It was the Renault Espace.

The Renault Espace started out as the Matra P11, and was envisaged as a replacement for the Matra-Rancho. After approaching other manufacturers, including Citroen, it evolved into the P20 (having been re-modelled by Philippe Guédon, and revised to use the Renault 18 platform). There was still much SIMCA in the styling; the lean-forward nose, for example, came straight from the Chrysler Alpine, according to original designer Geoffrey Matthews.

Matra built the first three generations of Espaces, but when the model was taken "in-house" by Renault in 2001, the company started producing the Avantime. When it became clear that this was not selling and Renault were going to pull the plug on the operation, Matra tried to cut a deal with MG Rover to produce a version of this car for the British to sell. That deal fell through, and the Matra production line was dismantled for sale in 2003.

After talks with MG Rover had failed, Matra shut down the production line of the Renault Avantime; soon after, Matra was saved when Pininfarina bought them. (Thanks, Glen Pérez, for this information.)

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