On Matra: La Murena, le Début de la Fin

"Nauraushaun" (nauraushaun12) 04/28/2020 at 19:00 • Filed to: None

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The Matra Murena. The beginning of the end. Truly, Matra had gone from strength to strength, increasing sales by five fold or more with each new model. The Murena would spell the end of that growth.

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 five. (Parts !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ).

Model name in huge script on the nose - a Matra staple by this point

Also known confusingly as the Talbot-Matra Murena (Italian for Moray - like the eel!) it is a car that inherited much from the Bagheera. From the 3 seat single row layout, to the hatchback shape, to even the model number. Bucking the trend of each new model increasing by 10 on the previous model, the Murena only bumped the Bagheera’s code of 550 by a tiny bit, to 551 and 552. Even development models like the 540 and the 560 8-cylinder prototype got suitable jumps in model number. The fact that the Murena was given a new name to market but an internal code that’s almost identical perhaps says it all.

But this may not be a bad thing - the Bagheera was a successful and lauded model, so perhaps a refresh and some fault correction could go a long way. The biggest issue with the Bagheera was chassis rust under those rustproof panels, which the Murena solved by being the first production car to use galvanised steel for all chassis parts. To solve power woes the Murena was offered with larger 1.6 and 2.2 litre Simca engines including a dealer installed Préparation 142 package that boosted power to 104kW, making this the most powerful Matra yet to hit the road. Even so, many Murenas including all the earlier cars (ie. the ones reviewers got a hold of) were lesser spec cars. While the handling was much appreciated, the car was said to have required more power yet again. The Préparation 142 package would give the car the power it deserved, and was to be made standard for the final model year as the Murena S (possibly to help move stock as production winded down) but this cream of the crop model would only find its way into 480 or so buyers.

It’s a pretty car! It’s maybe a bit too short to be classically beautiful, but that whispers of its light weight and agile handling. Imagine that the engine fits in that tiny space between the door and the rear wheel!

Another thing kept from the Bagheera was the oddball 3-in-the-front seating arrangement, though it was improved upon. The Murena came with 3 proper seats, rather than the 2+1 arrangement on the previous car, if you care to make such a distinction. The 2 passenger seats were separate units, with the middle one capable of folding down to become a rather large arm rest, making things nicer when you’ve only got 1 passenger in the car. This answers the question of which passenger seat your sole passenger would take - the one furthest from you, all the way across the car!

3 actual seats. And snazzy they are too

Worth mentioning is a curious list of prototypes and other developments that sprung from the Murena. This sort of thing has precedent, earlier Matras have had weird fashion-based models and prototypes. We have:

A version with 16v and 132hp, sure to fix the power problem if the Murena S didn’t

A Murena with the MS81;s Matra Formula 1 V12, and about damn time

A 4WD Group 4 development

A targa topped car, the Murena Chapron Chimère

A Murena kitted-up to look like a BMW M1

Some of these were further developed than others. Some even have photographic evidence below.

Is Murena M1

So, did the improvements over the successful Bagheera make the Murena a success? Not exactly. Sales seemed reasonable, around 4000 cars a year for the first two years, but it wasn’t on track to meet the sales of the Bagheera and it wasn’t to last. Production ended in 1983 (after just 4 years to the Bagheera’s 8), with sales continuing through 1984.

But I think this abrupt end says more about the company than the car. In 1983 the contract with PSA ended, Matra parent company CEO Jean-Luc Lagardere bought the Matra car division back and struck a deal with Renault to produce the Espace in the factory in Romorantin. This spelled the end of the Murena, but brought volume, consistency and profits to the company and off the back of their own innovative design, as we’ll see in a future post. Even so, Matra was never to produce another road going sports car - the days of the plucky Djet and innovative 530 had come to a close.

And one last tidbit - there’s a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! near me in Melbourne, Australia. No more than half an hour away from me, the owner has had it for some 32 years but has moved on to an Alpine. Looks fantastic, though I’m not sure the rarity justifies the price, especially given it’s not the desirable 2.2.

Those who know their French cars will know that this is not quite a chronological piece! This skips over the Rancho which appeared years before the Murena. But the Murena follows so sweetly after the Bagheera, it had to be done, and the Rancho is really the first chapter in the Espace story. That’s where we venture next.

Apologies for the break in Matra posts! Despite how it may seem, a lot of research goes into these bits and it’s hard to crank them out consistently at the end of each work day! I filled my weekend with time-consuming semi-fulfilling crap and took a bit of a break. Onwards.

Jb boin > Nauraushaun 04/28/2020 at 20:22

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Compared to the prices here this one seems expensive but its seems clean and has been fully restored ; its missing interior pictures to be fair.

You can find one with the same color, the 2.2, 50000km less, nice PLS wheels (a defunct French wheelmaker) and a not so bad Politecnic bodykit for 9900€ and various small things to fix.

It seems that Politecnic which is literally at less than 5Km from where i grew up (and my mother still lives there) still sells body kit and various parts for them.

It also seems like they did homologate a prototype for the group B in 1981 .

I really like the color-combo of this one .

This one is just Fierrari WTF level !

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Bonus :

When engine covers where still part of the engine and not a plastic bit over it !

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Nauraushaun 04/28/2020 at 21:19

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I wrote an article about the Murena some time ago here on Oppo and I thought “Hey it was just a year or two ago I wrote a piece on this car!” but no.......No, it was 2014. I don’t know how I lost track of time that badly, but this piece was made over 6 years ago - https://oppositelock.kinja.com/cars-that-time-forgot-talbot-matra-murena-1492025699

Glad to see I’m not the only one crazy enough to embrace the Matra Madness.

Nauraushaun > Jb boin 04/29/2020 at 17:56

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I’m not sure about the wisdom of trading the hatchback for buttresses and a flat engine cover, and I’m certainly not sure about the mock-Ferrari stuff.

The thing about Ferraris is they have big engines back there that take up your storage space. They’re faster, but expensive and less practical. In the hatchback and the 3-seater layout and the modest engine size and light weight, Matra wanted to create a spacious, practical, useful, affordable mid-engined sports car. Why undo that? Why pretend it’s something it’s not?

Jb boin > Nauraushaun 04/29/2020 at 19:10

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Its the same thing as the fake Ferraris made from Pontiac Fieros, they have the engine at the right place to make it look like a supercar that have a flat nose and its way cheaper to buy than the real deal (it was probably made when the used Murenas were way cheaper than now) but i agree that its stupid and terrible looking.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Nauraushaun 05/01/2020 at 19:17

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The only vehicle I have ever been in that sat three in the front is the Ford Ranger. It was somehow better than the rear seats, which should not be called seats at all.

Interesting piece about the Murena. It is a good thing that it was just a revamped and improve Djet, but too bad that the good engine wasn’t available in time. They should have developed it first and tested it in the Djet like Nissan is doing with the new Frontier’s engine.

Nauraushaun > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 05/02/2020 at 02:25

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I think it’s fairly common on utility vehicles right, the bench? I once sat in a Hilux with 3 up front.

Unheard of in sports cars though.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Nauraushaun 05/02/2020 at 12:07

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But this wasn’t a bench but two bucket seats with an armrest that turned into a seat. I’ve seen it a few times in pickup trucks but it is separate from a bench. And the Ranger was much smaller than most of the cars that did this, which technically allows it to seat 5 but you would have to be insane to try. I once fit  3 and never again.