primotipo…

Olympia Racing Car Show…

Model Venetia Day tries to get comfy atop the monocoque of Matra’s 1970 F1 challenger, the MS120. This famous shot was taken on the preview day of London’s Racing Car Show at Olympia in January 1971. The compound curvature of the Matra is more than matched by Venetia’s lissom lines, the raincoats of the ‘snappers seem apt, all struggling with the correct focal length of their shot.

Matra MS120…

Jackie Stewart won the Drivers and Constructors World Championships for Matra in 1969 with the Tyrrell Team’s Ford Cosworth powered MS80. Matra entered F1 with Ken Tyrrell’s team in 1968, his cars were Ford powered, in addition their own V12 engined MS11 debuted.

In 1969 Matra focussed on developing their V12, the MS80 was designed for the Ford DFV only, the strategy was successful, few new teams have won a World Championship so soon.

Commercial Considerations…

For 1970 Matra went it alone running cars powered by the French aerospace company’s own V12. Matra boss, Jean Luc Lagarde, did a deal to sell his Matra 530 sports car through the Simca dealer network. Simca were owned by Chrysler, who were not about to have a Ford engine powering ‘their racing car’.

Tyrrell was offered the  MS120 for 1970. Stewart tested the car at Albi but felt that the DFV was the more competitive engine and after most of 1970 running a customer March 701, Tyrrell’s own Ford DFV powered cars made its debut, with Stewart taking two more titles in 1971 and 1973. Tyrrell and Stewart were correct in their assessment, Tyrrell’s first Derek Gardner designed 001 was similar in many ways to the MS80 which was always one of Stewart’s favourite cars.

MS120 Design…

Chassis Designer Bernard Boyer created a new monocoque with cockpit sides and upper surfaces shaped to use the airflow over the car to develop downforce. New approaches to aerodynamics in 1970 by the March 701, the stunning wedge shaped Lotus 72 and the MS120 were stark contrasts to  the cigar shapes of the 1960s. The other aero approach was the pregnant-coke-bottle adopted by the BRM P153 (see picture of Rodriguez in Monaco) to get the fuel load as low as possible in the car.

Front suspension geometry was developed directly from the MS80 but the wheelbase was 10cm longer due to the difference in length of Matras V12 relative to the DFV.

Matra’s 48-valve, 3-litre V12 was further developed by Gerard Martin’s team with a new block, which, DFV style, allowed the engine to be attached directly to the rear bulkhead of the monocoque to  carry the loads of the rear suspension and Hewland FG400 five-speed transaxle. The engine developed around 435bhp @ 11000rpm, about the same as the DFV, but it was lighter and more fuel efficient.

The DFV was the-engine of the 3-litre formula, Ferrari’s flat 12 its only true competitor over the longer term and even then it was hamstrung by the chassis which sometimes carried it…the DFV had no such problem given so many teams used the ubiquitous engine.

Drivers and Results…

The MS120s were driven by Frenchmen Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Henri Pescarolo in 1970, they finished 9th and 12th respectively in the Drivers Championship. Whilst both were fast, neither was an ace, Matra finished seventh in the Manufacturers Championship. Jochen Rindt won the drivers title posthumously and Lotus the constructors for points gained by both its old 49 and revolutionary, new 72.

1970 was a very competitive season with the Brabham BT33, BRM P153, Ferrari 312B, Lotus 49 and 72 and March 701 all winning  Grands’ Prix. The MS120 was a little heavy, was thirsty and lacked the reliability of much of its competition, JPB had five retirements out of 13 rounds and six top-6 finishes whilst Pesca had three retirements and four top-6 finishes.

The team lacked  an ace behind the wheel and someone with real depth of F1 testing and race experience to be able to fully develop the car. French Car, French Engine, French Sponsors and French Drivers all sounds great and made political sense given the Government funds involved, but in reality, in 1970, they needed Ickx, Amon, Rodriguez, Rindt or Stewart. Of course this analysis excludes drivers rusted-on to their own teams.

Withdrawal from F1…

Matra withdrew from F1 as a chassis constructor at the end of 1972, despite blinding speed shown on occasion by Chris Amon in 1971-72. They eventually won Grands’ Prix as an engine supplier in Ligier chassis in the late 1970s and into the 1980s.

The 3-litre V12 was  fabulous, its screaming note one of racings most evocative, shrill best. It also achieved endurance success, the French company winning Le Mans in 1972-73-74 with its ‘670’ series of cars.

Matra’s were superbly designed, distinctively different and exquisitely built racing cars, the aeronautic background of the company was obvious in the execution of the cars construction. The Grand Prix scene was the poorer for their absence, but from a commercial perspective it was mission accomplished for Matra with an F1 Constructors Championship and three Le Mans victories on the trot.

The other car behind Venetia is a Surtees TS9 by the way, or perhaps you didn’t notice…

Etcetera…

Short History of Matra Sports…

http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/con-matra.html

Photo Credits…

The Cahier Archive, Getty Images

Finito…