On Matra: La Rancho, le Découvrable

"Nauraushaun" (nauraushaun12) 05/01/2020 at 19:00 • Filed to: None

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It’s time we talked about the other side of Matra. As well as the line of sports cars, Matra had a wild streak: a desire to make a lifestyle vehicle. Something unique, practical and fun. It started with the Rancho.

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

God this is a cool shot. Really shows the market they wanted the car to resonate with

The idea of the Rancho was much the same as the Subaru Crosstrek or any number of modern SUVS - to give the appearance of capability. It wasn’t a rugged workhorse like a Defender or Hilux, or the Range Rovers it was intended to undercut, but you wouldn’t mistake it for one. It was based on a car, the popular Simca 1100, and had car-like civility. But it came out in 1977! This is a relatively modern idea, one that took off somewhere around the CR-V in the 90s, and now makes up the bulk of vehicle sales and associated profits - but it’s an idea that Matra put to market decades earlier.

In some ways it’s a very Matra way to do innovation. It wasn’t a moonshot in terms of creating an entirely new car from scratch to prove an idea, it used bits and bobs from other companies to save costs, and yet create something special. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! took uninspiring Renault engines and gearboxes to create the world’s first mid-engined road car, as the Rancho took a plain economy car and turned it into a whole new type of vehicle.

Simca 1100 - lineage clearly visible in that snout

The incomplete Simca 1100 utility would leave Simca’s Poissy plant near Paris on a truck, to be taken to Matra’s Romorantin factory and finished as a Rancho alongside the Bagheera/Murena production line. Like many modern SUVs (and their cousin, the lifted AWD wagon) the Rancho had body mouldings, slightly increased ride height over the car it was based on, and some other goodies like fog lights mounted in the bull-bar. Unfortunately all Ranchos were FWD 1.4L 4-cylinders which limited their effectiveness off road despite what the advertising would have you believe. But there was a more capable Rancho Grand Raid model which came with a winch up front, a roof-mounted spare, an LSD and undercarriage protection, only available in a sort of matte green/yellow. There was also a Découvrable (“discoverable” - not Discovery, not quite) version with fabric windows at the rear that could be rolled down for a proper safari look, and a Rancho AS with no rear seats for commercial use.

Open Découvrable next to windowy Grand Raid

Despite endless jokes about its limited capability off the road, the Rancho was a runaway success, selling 57,792 vehicles between 1977 and 1985 - more than the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! it would share a factory with (which had been Matra’s best selling model so far), and far more than the later !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . While it’s a shame they didn’t make the kind of sales that SUVs bring in today, nor get credit for kicking off the trend, even so it’s a big stepping stone in the fate of Matra. They’d made a car that wasn’t their bread and butter mid-engined sports car, and proven that the burgeoning recreational vehicle segment was ripe for plundering. It was to give them all the confidence they needed to leave sports cars completely and start a whole new vehicle segment. We’ll delve further into this next time.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Nauraushaun 05/01/2020 at 19:09

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That lead image is just a great all around photo. Nearly as good as this write up. Nice work!

The whole concept was just too far ahead of its time I think, but I can’t think of an earlier example. Interesting.

Nom De Plume > Nauraushaun 05/01/2020 at 19:35

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This might have been the most interesting Matra yet.

RallyWrench > Nauraushaun 05/01/2020 at 19:36

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Someday I WILL have one of these in America.

Jb boin > Nauraushaun 05/01/2020 at 19:43

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Very nice job as always.

Just a note : Découvrable can indeed be translated as discoverable but its not this meaning of découvrable that its used here for.

If i am not mistaken, in English it only means that “something that can be found”, in French there is a second more litteral meaning of découvrable which is “with a cover that can be removed” : The préfix “ dé ” is used for negation and couvrable means coverable ; its this definition that is used here.

This definition of découvrable is also a synonymous of décapotable ( convertible ), a capote being initially a cape with a hood but nowadays mainly meaning a soft-top or in popular language a condom.

And just for fun : convertible is usually translated cabriolet but its also acceptable to used convertible in F rench instead of cabriolet or décapotable but convertible is mostly used to mean “ canapé convertible ” which is a “ sofa bed ” (and a synonymous of it is... “ canapé-lit ” which is the litteral translation of “ sofa bed ” ) .

Rufant > Nauraushaun 05/01/2020 at 19:48

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Some kids would get dropped off at the same school bus stop as me in one of these. I could only dream how much more exciting their lives must have been compared to mine. 

Jb boin > Jb boin 05/01/2020 at 20:15

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And the title should be “ la découvrable ” and not “ le découvrable ” as ou used “ la Matra Rancho ” before.

But as i am not sure if the Matra Rancho is a boy or a girl it might be the other way around (both le ), in French its “la voiture” ( la is the feminine form of le ) but its “le SUV”, “le camion” (the truck), “l’automobile”... which is ambivalent (but its “ une automobile ”, so its feminine) :)

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Long story short, you got to choose if a Rancho is a boy or a girl (not sure it can be non-binary) but it seems to be usually treated as a girl which i think is a cool thing .

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Nauraushaun 05/01/2020 at 20:16

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Great write-up! I never knew about those fender-mounted auxiliary lights, those are cool...especially in ‘Selective Yellow’ like in the first photo! :D

Hudson Hawkish > Nauraushaun 05/01/2020 at 22:24

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Hey!  Prince....  With a gun. 

PyramidHat > Nauraushaun 05/01/2020 at 22:26

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God this is a cool shot. Really shows the market they wanted the car to resonate with

Foppish sorts that hang out with armed Prince impostors?

Nauraushaun > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 05/02/2020 at 02:10

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Oh you’re too kind!

It was ahead of its time in some ways, fascinating car. Shame it’s confined mostly to Europe.

Nauraushaun > Rufant 05/02/2020 at 02:10

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Wow! Where was this out of curiosity?

Nauraushaun > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 05/02/2020 at 02:20

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They’re aimable they are ;) I call it a very French thing to have yellow lighting. French or Japanese

Nauraushaun > PyramidHat 05/02/2020 at 02:20

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Precisely

Nauraushaun > Nom De Plume 05/02/2020 at 02:20

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I’m really more into sports cars. This is an interesting vehicle, but the MR cars take my interest more keenly.

Nauraushaun > RallyWrench 05/02/2020 at 02:21

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Nothing stopping you! They’re old enough, surely some must be over there!

duurtlang > Nauraushaun 05/02/2020 at 03:33

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Nah. All Matras other than the Murena are gone. Rust have eaten them whole many decades ago.

To be fair, if you look long and hard enough you might find a restored one. They are very rare though.

Rufant > Nauraushaun 05/02/2020 at 04:04

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Hampshire, England 

Cé hé sin > Nauraushaun 05/02/2020 at 06:09

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Rust for one...

Cé hé sin > duurtlang 05/02/2020 at 06:11

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Well, two of those in the pictures were pictured recently, so it’s a start...

Cé hé sin > Nauraushaun 05/02/2020 at 06:12

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Grammatical point: I’d guess that it was le R ancho because sufficiently removed from a car to have a sex change . Like la Clio, but le Captur.

Nom De Plume > Nauraushaun 05/02/2020 at 08:44

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There are sports cars and there are sports vehicles.  Sadly this is neither much like the current crop of SUV.  Which is what makes it interesting.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Nauraushaun 05/02/2020 at 08:49

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Aimable? Like ‘American police car fender search lights’ type aimable? :D

I have some selective yellow fog bulbs in my Accent....gets quite foggy here at times in Nova Scotia, where I live on the coast, and they are good in inclement weather and fog!

Jb boin > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 05/02/2020 at 20:17

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In French someone “ aimable ” is someone kind and polite (but its not pronounced the same).

T hese lights are probably aimable both in French and in English at the same time as they would not allow themselves to be lit up while other cars are on the road .

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Jb boin 05/02/2020 at 21:06

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Ah, didn’t know that, and yeah, I don’t figure they would be road-legal lights.

Jb boin > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 05/02/2020 at 21:25

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I dont know at the time what was the legislation but nowadays you can get fined if you use your foglights while there is no fog around and all “additional” lamps are not to be used on open road but for offroad use or private roads, why not.

And you simply fail inspection (every 2 years starting when the car is 4 years old) if your lights are not pointing correctly in front of the car, too high or too low, too bright or too dim or simply if they are not correctly mounted .

And our police cars dont have projectors like in the US (at least not that i know of).

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Jb boin 05/02/2020 at 22:02

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I live in Nova Scotia, Canada :)

If your lights are incorrectly aimed here you fail inspection as well, and they give you so many days to get it corrected and to get an inspection again, I believe.

You’re not supposed to have fog lights on here either, but as long as they are just your fogs the police don’t really mind if they are on when the weather isn’t had...it doesn’t really hurt or blind anyone as they aren’t as bright as your main headlights and are aimed lower anyway. A lot of cars over here use fog lights as DRLs anyway.

Any additional lights like LED bars or the ones on the top of the fenders on that Rancho being turned on while driving on the road would give you a fine though.