Matra, Gone But Not Forgotten – Musee Espace Automobiles Matra

Matra - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra

Jalopy Musee Espace Automobiles Matra Museum visit.

The name Matra should resonate with any historic racing fan, famous for Formula 1, sports prototypes and engines. There’s nothing quite like a Matra V12 and there probably never will be. Matra, coming from Mécanique Aviation Traction, was a small French company with it’s home in the pleasant town of Romorantin-Lanthenay, Loire-et-Cher. Sitting on the Sauldre river the town is rather pretty, with the old buildings overlooking the banks. The town centre being on a small island, Matra on the Eastern side of the river being in close proximity.

Matra was originally founded in 1945 by Marcel Chassagny, originally producing armaments. The car division appeared in 1964, designer René Bonnet getting into financial difficulty during the production of his Djet. The cars were built by Matra in their home of Romorantin, they made the fibreglass bodies and bonded it to the steel chassis. These would later be built under the Matra name replacing that of René.

Jalopy Musee Espace Automobiles Matra Museum visit.

The name Matra should resonate with any historic racing fan, famous for Formula 1, sports prototypes and engines. There’s nothing quite like a Matra V12 and there probably never will be. Matra, coming from Mécanique Aviation Traction, was a small French company with it’s home in the pleasant town of Romorantin-Lanthenay, Loire-et-Cher. Sitting on the Sauldre river the town is rather pretty, with the old buildings overlooking the banks. The town centre being on a small island, Matra on the Eastern side of the river being in close proximity.

Matra was originally founded in 1945 by Marcel Chassagny, originally producing armaments. The car division appeared in 1964, designer René Bonnet getting into financial difficulty during the production of his Djet. The cars were built by Matra in their home of Romorantin, they made the fibreglass bodies and bonded it to the steel chassis. These would later be built under the Matra name replacing that of René.

Production of cars finished in 2003 with Renault discontinuing the Avantime. Pininfarina bought the remains and Matra Automobile Engineering, which contained the testing and prototyping divisions This showed some glimmer of hope they would return, but sadly it was not to be and Matra were sold again.

The factory closed in 2003, having since been demolished to make way for housing and a what looks like a school. The main entrance attained listed building status and has been preserved and restored. It’s a rather nice building too, rumour has it that it will be come apartments, I’d better put my name down. You can make out the shape of the entrance through the scaffolding.

Production of cars finished in 2003 with Renault discontinuing the Avantime. Pininfarina bought the remains and Matra Automobile Engineering, which contained the testing and prototyping divisions This showed some glimmer of hope they would return, but sadly it was not to be and Matra were sold again.

The factory closed in 2003, having since been demolished to make way for housing and a what looks like a school. The main entrance attained listed building status and has been preserved and restored. It’s a rather nice building too, rumour has it that it will be come apartments, I’d better put my name down. You can make out the shape of the entrance through the scaffolding.

Matra Factory Entrance Romorantin Lanthenay
Matra Factory Entrance Romorantin Lanthenay

The rear view is less obscured, I have a thing for old auto factories, I wish more can be preserved like this.

Matra Factory Rear - Romorantin Lanthenay
Matra Factory Rear - Romorantin Lanthenay

Heading

The Musee Espace Automobiles Matra is the other side of the town, a short walk away and housed in a rather nice bright and airy building.

Outside the Matra flowerbed was quite nice and it thankfully isn’t a real car unlike in some places, this was made from oil drums and other reshaped metals.

Matra - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra Entrance - Romorantin Lanthenay
Matra - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra Garden - Romorantin Lanthenay
Honda NSX Youngtimers - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra

Inside there are collections of race cars, road cars, prototypes and the hall of engines. You may have noticed the Honda NSX at the front of the museum, with the available free space there are guest exhibitions and this was the turn of Youngtimers Magazine. 

The interior was regular Bagheera, with the three abreast seating. This was originally going to have a central driving position, but it’s still seriously cool. Those seats are really comfortable and the driving position is good too, Matra pre-empting a current design fad with a flat bottomed steering wheel.

There’s a prototype of the U8 in the hall of engines, more on that later.

Back to Matra and in the foyer was a rather nice Bagheera, not a normal Bagheera, but the fabled U8. Built as a prototype only in 1973, the U8 was called as such due to the engine configuration, two Simca 4 cylinder engines joined by a common sump casting.. There were supposed to be three of these built, with this one remaining here at the museum.

Matra Bagheera U8 - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra
Matra Bagheera U8 Interior 3 Seats- Musee Espace Automobiles Matra
Matra Bagheera U8 Interior Dashboard - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra

Musee Espace Automobiles Matra – Youngtimers Exhibition

Moving into the main hall, there are a large collection, the Youngtimers taking up the central strip with a great collection of cars. and nice displays. The first time I was here there were a great collection of Citroëns, it’s worth checking what they have in if you’re planning a trip.

It’s good to have additional content as the Matra collection is relatively static, it does move about a bit, but introducing new exhibits would keep people returning.

 

But anyway, we were here for Matra.

Lotus Talbot Sunbeam - Porsche 911 - Youngtimers Exhibition - Musee Espace Automobiles
Peugeot 205 Rallye - Yountimers Exhibition - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra

The BMW E30 M3 was very nice and the Z3 M Coupe has long been considered a classic and for a modern car made in relatively few numbers. For those who aren’t into bikes the Kawasaki ZXR 750 is a bit of a legend. A totally analogue 750cc bike with carbs and a choke.

BMW M3 E30 - Yountimers Exhibition - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra

To the right side there are many of Matra’s production cars,starting with the Djet, the first of their production cars. The first car, the one in the rather fetching blue is a very early René Bonnet Djet. The Matra produced cars are to the left.

The yellow and orange cars are the replacement for the Djet, the M530 was designed to appeal to the non racing public. This offered a more practical proposition than the Djet by offering it as a 2+2 with a removable roof. The Renault powerplant had gone, with a 1.7 litre V4, 70 bhp engine from Ford being used. This unit ended up being used by SAAB too in their 96.

Matra Djet - M350 - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra
Matra M350 - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra

Matra At Le Mans

Just along from the early road cars there are plenty of examples of Matra’s racing heritage, and this is where most of the world would have encountered them. Sports racing prototypes, Formula 3, Formula 2 and Formula 1.

The fabulous sports prototype collection had the low drag MS640 from 1969. Only two were built, the first one designed to take to Le Mans never made it. Still in development it missed the official March test session, but got a special private test on the full circuit in April for the only time. Heading down the Hunaudières straight to Mulsanne, Henri Pescarolo hit 250 km/h and over a bump the car took off. He left the track cutting down several trees. The car was in many pieces but amazingly Pescarolo survived.

Car number two, which you see here was built in 1989 from the original molds found in the factory on a new chassis. Pescarolo tested the car to ever increasing speeds, Matra adjusting the aerodynamics gradually, altering the incline of the car with the nose pointing towards the ground. This was successful, but the car never competed, but it completed the aerodynamic study.

1969 Matra MS640 - Musee Espace Automobiles

The M650 to the left was the more successful replacement, which made it to the 1969 Le Mans, but didn’t win, which was the intention with the 640. However, with the 650 Matra did get a fourth place in the manufacturer’s championship in 1970.

Work continued and the MS670 Group 5 prototype was the success that Matra had been striving for. Winning the 1972 Le Mans with the two driver team of Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill. François Cevert and Howden Ganly coming second in another 670. Keeping Porsche from winning in not just 1972, but 73 and 74 too is quite an achievment.

1972 Matra MS650 - Musee Espace Automobiles

Matra Formula 1

Matra entered all Formula’s at some point, the pinnacle of Formula 1. Competing from 1968 to 1972, with Jackie Stewart being among their first and Chris Amon being their last drivers. Jackie won the driver championship in 1969 in a Matra MS80.

1969 Matra MS80 Jackie Stewart - Musee Espace Automobiles

The last F1 entry as a constructor was the MS120 in it’s A through D variants. But this was not the end of their involvement. The V12 engines lived on through many other manufacturers, notably Shadow and Ligier.

Matra Museum Hall Of Engines

Matra V12 engines sound like nothing else, whether in Formula 1 or sports prototypes you can tell when you hear a Matra V12. The howl travels a long way, even when at the Le Mans Classic.

In it’s 3 litre configuration, the V12 was made from 1968 until 1982, Matra ceased it’s racing operations at the end of 1974. They continued as an engine manufacturer until the parent company Talbot (who merged into the owner Peugeot) didn’t see any purpose for an F1 program.

In a separate room of the ground floor is the Hall of Engines. Not only where you can see the engines on display, you can hear them via an audio system with a V12 soundtrack.

Matra V12 - Hall Of Engines - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra
Matra U8 - Hall Of Engines - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra

The engines are things of beauty themselves, which is a nice thing when you consider they were there merely to provide high power to displacement ratios at a light weight.

Inside the hall there was an example of the U8. It is quite a neat take on the multiple cylinder approach with essentially what you’ve got to play with. They certainly aren’t the first manufacturer to do this, but I can’t think of one which used two counter rotating crankshafts to do it.

Matra U8 - Hall Of Engines - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra

Hall Of Prototypes

Downstairs in the museum is a collection of prototypes and some notable production cars and a few competition variants. The most obvious is the Bagheera, which was a successful product. Matra selling nearly 48,000 examples from Bagheera 1 through to the final Bagheera X and Jubilee. Some of these were converted to right hand drive by Wooler-Hodec in England. They apparently had 26 joints in the revised gear linkage and not a very precise gear change…

Matra Bagheera 1 - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra

Many prototypes were developed over the years, some truly radical ideas and certainly defy conventions. These two were my favourites, I certainly like the look of the first one.

Matra Prototype
Matra Prototype

The Espace, Built by Matra

Road cars continued with the launch of a revolutionary new product, the Espace. Built by Renault this innovative car saved the company. The innovation was down to British designer, Fergus Pollock, working for Chrysler Europe at the time. Matra doing all the development work to produce the car we came to know well. In the hall of prototypes there are several examples of this, along with some of Matra’s more unusual offerings. Some of these never got to production stage, but served as development exercises.

The Espace started as the P18 prototype, but soon grew into the Phase 1, which is a pretty rare car now.

Renault Espace 1
Renault Espace 2

The last generation of Espace that Matra produced still featured the trademark fibreglass, or GRP if you prefer, body. The first three variants were all produced at Romorantin, Renault brought the fourth version in house.

Renault Espace 3

Matra Murena

There were examples of the Bagheera replacement of course, the Murena. A serious evolution of the earlier car, the chassis now being completely galvanised and the engines being provided by Talbot, who owned Matra at that time. It was the Espace that stopped the production of the Murena as there wasn’t the space to make both. Turns out the Espace was to be a more profitable venture.

Another piece of innovation was the Rancho. Now it might not have seemed that way at the time, but Matra were nearly 30 years ahead of current manufacturers. There is a current trend for two wheel drive utility type vehicles. The closest I can think of is the first generation Skoda Yeti. A very Rancho like vehicle and it’s none the worse for it. Imitation is after all the sincerest form of flattery.

Matra Rancho - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra

Matra Renault Espace F1

Back to ground level and there was something quite famous, but for Renault. The spectacular Espace F1 was built by Matra to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Espace. The Espace had more in common with current Renault F1 offerings. A carbon fibre reinforced body was used with a Renault V10 from the FW15C. This is the only one of course.

Renault Espace F1 - Musee Espace Automobiles Matra
Renault Espace F1 - Matra V12

Matra – What Remains

Matra has a distinguished history, which has gone through quite a few changes. The defence part of the company, going through several transformations, eventually became part of Airbus. The company name still exists as part of the Easybike group producing electrically assisted bicycles.

Innovative, doing things differently to the rest, Matra could be the French Lotus, they are missed.

I can wholly recommend visiting the museum. Whilst I was there I saw families with children getting excited over what they found, even though they have probably never heard of Matra. I have been more than once, and I will visit again.

Simon

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