Le mercredi de Matford

"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse) 08/05/2015 at 15:58 • Filed to: Matford

1

1

In part whatever of my occasional series on car makers that hardly anyone has ever heard of, we come to Matford.

The badge is a clue in that there’s a Ford in there.

Matford came about in prewar France when French maker Mathis found themselves possessed of both financial difficulties and a large factory in Strasbourg and American maker Ford needed somewhere to expand into.

The answer was a joint venture, logically enough combining the two names. The new enterprise busied themselves in the production of Francified American Fords fitted with 2.5 and 3.6 sidevalve V8s which reappeared postwar in the Ford Vedette and Comete. The first model was the Alsace, subsequently they were named the 13CV and 21CV after their fiscal hp classes (yes, just like a little Citroen later). In 1940 a new war intervened, Mathis fled to America and Ford moved the machinery to Cologne the better to help with the German war effort (yes, Ford supplied both sides. Business is business). Ford established a new plant in Poissy which following various changes of ownership now belongs to PSA and makes their smaller models.

So, let’s see a few Matfords.

Have a cute little cabrio

A cute little type 82A coupé

A cute little Type 82 berline with conventional doors. Some had suicide ones at the front.

A less cute F 917 truck (the Wehrmacht took over many of these)

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

A break de chasse (I’d go for this one)

A hot rod type thing. Matford do tend to lend themselves to this.

Another one

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Cé hé sin 08/05/2015 at 16:07

0

One assumes that a lot of the go-faster parts for ‘37-on Fords are a clean bolt-up, so making a hot rod Matford probably is probably among the easiest jobs of that kind in the world. It’s among the most well-explored ground in auto modification there is.

Slightly different front fenders and cowl, very little else. Common parts down to the headlight housings.