Matra

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Note: Mátra is also a mountain in Hungary.

Mécanique Avion TRAction or Matra was a French company covering a wide range of activities mainly related to aeronautics and weaponry which from 1994 was a subsidiary of Lagardère Group and which now operates under that name.

Matra was owned by the Floirat family. The name Matra became famous in the 1960s when it went into car production by buying Automobiles René Bonnet. Matra Automobiles produced racing cars and sports cars, and was very successful in racing.

1 Lagardère involvement
2 Matra Hautes Technologies
- 2.1 Divisions (as of aérospatiale merger)
3 Matra road cars
- 3.1 Street models
4 Matra racing history
- 4.1 F1 Drivers
5 Other activities
6 References
7 External links

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Lagardère involvement

By merging with various companies Matra CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère built around Matra a group diversified in medias, weaponery, high technologies, aeronautics and formerly in automobiles and records production and distribution. Matra was privatized in 1988, with Lagardère holding 6% of the stock and by 1992 25%.

In 1992 Lagardère was radically restructured; acquiring more shares in Matra from Floirat, Daimler Benz and GEC, and Hachette from loirat, Crédit Lyonnais and Aberly. Lagardère merged Matra and Hachette to form Matra Hachette, of which Lagardère held 37.6%. Following a share swap in 1994 Lagardère held 93.3% of Matra Hachette’s stock. In 1996 Matra Hachette was formally merged into Lagardère.

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Matra Hautes Technologies

Matra Hautes Technologies (Matra High Technology) or MHT was the defence arm of Matra. The company was involved in aerospace, defence and telecommunications. In February 1999 Matra Hautes Technologies merged with Aérospatiale to form Aérospatiale-Matra. On July 10 2000 Aérospatiale-Matra became part of EADS.

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Divisions (as of aérospatiale merger)

Matra Défense
Matra Systèmes & Information
Matra BAe Dynamics (50% British Aerospace)
Formed in 1996, Matra BAe Dynamics brought together the missile business of BAe (BAe Dynamics) and half of the missile business of Matra Défense. (The other half remained as Aerospatiale Matra Missiles).
Matra Marconi Space (49% GEC)
Matra Espace was the space division of Matra which merged with the space operations of GEC (Marconi Space Systems) in 1989 to form Matra Marconi Space. In 2000, it was merged with the space division of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) to form Astrium. This was later renamed to EADS Astrium
Matra Nortel Communications (50% Nortel)

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Matra road cars

The Matra name was first used for road cars with the Renault-powered Matra Djet (pronounced "Jet"), which was an update of the Bonnet Jet.

The Djet was replaced with the Matra 530, which was powered by a Ford Taunus V4 engine. Matra also developed a close partnership with Simca in the 1970s, producing Simca-engined sports cars such as the Bagheera, the Murena and the Rancho, an early type of SUV - albeit that it was two-wheel-drive - which was based on the Simca 1100 pick-up bodyshell. This car remained in production into the '80s, after Simca's takeover by Peugeot.

In 1984 Renault launched the Matra built Espace, a car conceived at Chrysler UK<ref name="lewin">{{cite book

 | author=Lewin, Tony
 | title=How to Design Cars Like a Pro: A Complete Guide to Car Design from the Top Professionals
 | publisher=Motorbooks International
 | year=2003
 | id=ISBN 0760316414}}

</ref>, and designed originally for Chrysler production in partnership with Matra, the car became a popular success.

After the failure of the Renault Avantime (designed and built by Matra), on February 27, 2003 Matra annouced its intention to close its automobile factory in Romorantin. In September 2003, Pininfarina SpA acquired Matra Automobile's engineering, testing and prototype businesses. The company was subsequently named Matra Automobile Engineering

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Street models

Matra Djet
Matra 530
Matra Bagheera
Matra Murena
Matra Rancho (United Kingdom: Talbot Matra Rancho)
Renault Espace
Renault Avantime

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Matra racing history

In the mid-1960's Matra enjoyed considerable success in Formula 3 and F2 racing with (especially) its MS5 monocoque-based car, winning the French and European championships. In 1967, Jacky Ickx famously amazed the F1 establishment by clocking in the 3rd-fastest qualifying time of 8:14" on the German Nürburgring in his 1600cc MS5 F2, which was allowed to enter alongside the 3000cc F1 cars. In the race, he failed to finish due to a broken suspension. Matra then really entered Formula One in 1968 and Jackie Stewart became world champion driving a semi-official Cosworth-powered Matra MS80 entered by the British Tyrrell team in 1969. The firm was also successful in endurance racing with cars powered by its own V12 engine. The Matra 670 won le Mans in 1972, 1973, and 1974.

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F1 Drivers

Jackie Stewart (1968-1969): 25 GP, 11 victories, world champion 1969
Jean-Pierre Beltoise (1967-1971): 47 GP
Chris Amon (1971-1972): 23 GP
Henri Pescarolo (1968, 1970): 15 GP

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Other activities

Matra produced a home computer, the Matra Alice.
Matra created an automatic (driverless) light rubber-tired metro, the VAL
Matra attempted, and failed to produce a personal rapid transit system, Aramis.

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