On Matra: La M530, la Voiture Des Copains!

"Nauraushaun" (nauraushaun12) 04/22/2020 at 19:00 • Filed to: None

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The first real Matra, the M530. No, not the missile, that’s the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for which the car was named. No, no not the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , that’s a completely different car by the same company. Sort of.

I’m going to do a few brief posts about the history of Matra. Because cheap mid-engined cars are cool, and French cars are weird, and I need something to do. Also car content on Oppo can’t hurt. This is part three. (Parts !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ).

Maybe it’s a good time for some more back story. Yes, before Matra bought out René Bonnet and moved into automobile production, and even after, they made missiles and all sorts of things. The sound barrier was first broken in horizontal flight by a Matra powered plane, they’ve built satellites, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , electric scooters, trains, and funded a football team. This sort of frames the Matra car business more accurately. They were not really a scrappy startup trying to get funding together to build cars, they were a conglomerate that saw an opportunity, purchased said scrappy startup, and produced cars for as long as it was profitable. Maybe less noble than someone like De Tomaso, founding a company under his own name to do his own thing. But he was born rich anyway and how noble is that really? Conglomerate or not, the cars were fascinating so perhaps the end justifies the means.

I think the droopy low-slung body work makes the rollover bar stick out a bit much. Would’ve looked rad in roadster form with maybe a lower windshield

Launched in 1967, the M530 was developed to be more appealing to the public, to non-racers than the Djet, a “voiture des copains” - a car for friends? Okay. This design brief actually yielded some very interesting results. The design was to be mid-engined, with both a usable boot and 2+2 seating - the prior Djet being a 2-seater.

Let’s pause here and consider the gravity of this decision. I will now list every mid-engined 4-seater sports car I know of:

Mondial, GT4, Uracco, Eclat, Elan +2, Evora, Merak, Khamsin, Kyalami, Indy

This is not a big list, just 1 since the Mondial died in ‘93 . The MR 4-seater is a tricky thing to pull off, yet in the early days of the mid-engined road car, Matra are shooting for the moon, building something that would only be done a handful of times in the next 6 decades. When you consider also that the M530 was slightly shorter than the 2-seater Djet before it, yet came with and engine that was some 350cc bigger, it almost seems a miracle they got it all to fit. Certainly it was a tight package.

Anyway, this of course left precious little room for the engine. To make it all work a compact Ford V4 engine was chosen, though at 1.7L it was to be a bigger engine than any Matra or DB that came before. This is ironic as DB had just recently dissolved, partially over disagreement of whether to use Renault or Panhard engines, Automobiles René Bonnet being formed to stick with Renault. Yet shortly after they’re using a Ford powerplant.

These exploded shots highlight what I think is a strength of the car, its smart packaging. It’s small, it’s tight, but it’s got a boot and back seats. They did it. Who needs a practical FR layout when you’ve got M530?

Shout out to Petrolicious for doing this gorgeous shoot, and providing some great shots of a car rarely shot well.

Interestingly, for the first few years of production, the vehicles weren’t fully constructed at the Matra factory in Romorantin that built the Djet. The chassis was built by Carrier in Alençon (South-West of Paris,) and assembly was undertaken by French coachbuilder Brissonneau et Lotz at Creil (Northern France). Only in 1969 was production consolidated to the Romorantin factory. I think both the Ford engine and the decentralised production speak volumes of the environment this car was designed and developed in. Free from the bias of one man and the confines of his factory, Matra had the flexibility in supply and manufacturing to produce this car to a higher standard than was possible for the Djet and those before.

This is a very MR2 approach. The Djet had a big open cavity that was shared with the cabin, but this rear mounted flap that’s separate to the engine is what I’m used to. It’s a nice separation of concerns, where the concerns are your luggage/groceries and carby engine fumes.

The M530 had a few different versions through its life, though many less than the Djet. The biggest change was the M530SX, which had fixed headlamps rather the ultra-fashionable hidden lights of the other cars, which were actually Renault 16 lights mounted on flippy bits, and a fixed roof as well. Some would call this a lighter, stiffer performance model, but I believe it was all done to cut costs and chase the cheaper MG MGB GT and the lighter, quicker Elan +2. Aside from the SX, all M530s came with a targa roof. Gone was the weird almost-targa-top of the Djet, replaced with a more conventional affair - a removable panel spanning the entire space from windshield frame to rollbar. I’ve found precious little information on the roof itself, but photos suggest that while some models had a single removable panel, others had 2 panels with a split in the middle. Not a t-bar, more like a Carrera GT where the panels meet of their own accord and are split to make storage easier. I’m not sure whether the panels are stored in the frunk (like an AW11), trunk (like a 300ZX), behind the front seats (like an SW20), or even above the engine under the glass cover, but doubtless the split made this an easier problem to solve.

Removing the targa top and hidden headlamps. Might have made it prettier. Didn’t.

The true victim in this packaging is the engine, or rather, the man working on it

On the original M530A the rear window was a removable acrylic piece, which this car probably had. Was later upgraded to a glass screen that operated as a hatch, quelling these sorts of shenanigans.

Vignale presented a rebodied M530 coupe at the Geneva show, then painted it yellow and showed it again in Turin. Handsome.

By now I’m half in love with this car. I don’t really want or need back seats, but it’s just so packaged and so neato how they got it all in there, in such small dimensions in such an early time. I’d never buy obscure 60s French when I can have reliable 90s Japanese, but...hey this car can do everything mine can, why not?

Next up, the Bagheera. 70s, wedge, cool. See you there.

** I have discovered that my super-cultured French titles should have “la” not “le”. Both mean “the”, but the former is masculine, the latter feminine. This is tricky for inanimate objects. Trains, trucks, vans, vehicles, taxis are “le”. Busses, cars are “la”.

** I have also discovered !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ! Yes, ‘tis harder to read than English, but not impossible and I wonder what gems are contained there.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Nauraushaun 04/22/2020 at 19:11

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Not going to lie, despite the weird proportions (look at that front overhang to rear overhang!), that is one gorgeous car....Matra are really cool....such an under-rated car company! I think the Djet is my favorite....did you ever see Jason Torchinsky’s video of the Djet?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3X6DKTC3ec

Fun fact, the Renault Avantime was styled by Matra!

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Nauraushaun 04/22/2020 at 19:27

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Was this some sort of promotional photo? I really like how artsy it is put together. Very French in the same way old Citroen ads were unmistakably ghallic. You are making me fall in love with a plucky automobile company that I had never known before and I know was doomed to fail.

I also think the fact this was an official commission is strange. The car is not conventionally beautiful (I like it though) and this polarizing abstract geometric paint job pretty much highlights everything people might not like about the way it looks, at least in photographs.

Nauraushaun > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 04/22/2020 at 20:05

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I’ll get to the Avantime ;)

I did see that, found it in my research for yesterday’s post! Very cool, great to see someone going into some detail about such a car.

They’re sort of cute in a French way aren’t they :)

Nauraushaun > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 04/22/2020 at 20:08

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It’s sort of hard to say. I just found it somewhere. If it’s promo material it’s some 50 years old. I think it is, it really looks to be deliberately showing off features in a promotional sort of way, like the pretty headlight sertup and that hand torch thing.

You’re so right actually. The headlights are such a weird shape and that bulbous rear arch she’s highlighted in blue really isn’t the car’s best angle.

So French though!

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Nauraushaun 04/22/2020 at 20:14

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For sure, I love small Italian cars and classic French cars...modern ones have sortof lost their way a bit...still cool, but not AS cool to me.

Nauraushaun > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 04/22/2020 at 20:23

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I agree. The world has changed a lot. People don’t want weird cars so much and there’s less need for it since all modern cars are so capable. It meant that the French brands lost money and went through endless mergers and re-mergers, to the point where they’re sort of all part of the same company.

Which is great for a lot of reasons, but it won’t give us little cheap 2+2 MR targa top sports cars. Ever again

Jb boin > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 04/23/2020 at 02:48

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While big brands can now hardly make low volume performance cars , there are still some small production less than a ton rear-mid engined cars such as SECMA , PGO or De La Chapelle .

I particularrily like the SECMA F16 Turbo which has 225HP for 657Kg and no ABS, ESP or traction control and cost about the same as a mid-range non-GTI Golf and uses mostly off-the-shelf parts from Peugeot (engine and gearbox from the 208 GTI ) :

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And as a nice sidenote, the best selling sportscar (not including “hot” versions of non sportscars ) last year in France was the Alpine A110 ( https://fr.motor1.com/features/410793/sportive-vente-france-2019/ ), selli ng more than twice the volume of the second best-selling, the MX5 (3172 vs 1245 ) and almost 10 times more than the Porsche 718 Cayman+Boxster (446).

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Jb boin 04/23/2020 at 11:55

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Ooo, that’s nice news on the Alpine A110...I LOVE the classic A110 an quite like the current one....gorgeous cars! One of the few modern sports cars I would really want to own...

As for those other companies, never heard of Secma or De La Chapelle, actually! I have heard of PGO, very cool little things!

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Nauraushaun 04/24/2020 at 07:39

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It is very sad...we’ve lost all the interesting designs to bland, boring homogeneity :(

Nauraushaun > Jb boin 04/24/2020 at 17:58

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Those brands are interesting, even if the cars are a tad...unpretty. It’s still good to see.

Wow! That’s good news! Still not huge sales but it’s good to see the French buying the French!

Jb boin > Nauraushaun 04/25/2020 at 03:55

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In Europe, you can homologate small production cars (EC Small Series Type Approval) that have   less than 1000 units sold per year by only having to do one crash-test instead of 6 different and less stringent rules (ABS and ESP and airbags are not required for example) .

So it means that small manufacturers (i believe that SECMA has between 20 and 30 employees) cant sell more than that if they dont want to costs to skyrocket.

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I forgot to mention the   MPM Motors Erelis which is a coupé based on a Russian design that cost around the same price as a base Clio.

LongbowMkII > Nauraushaun 05/03/2020 at 00:30

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A mid engine 4 seater you overlooked is the lotus Evora 

Nauraushaun > LongbowMkII 05/05/2020 at 07:34

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You are correct! I don’t know how I forgot the easiest one, it’s still in bloody production. I watched a Doug vid on one the other day and remembered, wondered if anyone would pick me up on it.

Kudos to you. I’ m gonna edit that in