The Jean Guichet/Nino Vaccarella Matra MS630 at Le Mans in 1969, they finished fifth in the race won by the John Wyer Ford GT40 driven by Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver.
Matra’s progression up the Le Mans results was underway. A pair of DNFs for the two 2-litre BRM P56 V8 powered MS630s in 1967 wasn’t improved upon by the Johnny Servoz-Gavin/Henri Pescarolo MS630 V12s in 1968 (puncture, accident). Fourth and fifth places in 1969 was more impressive, the Jean-Pierre Beltoise (JPB) / Piers Courage MS650 Spider was a lap ahead of the Guichet/Vaccarella MS630 Coupe. Matra would get there soon enough of course, Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill (below) won the classic race aboard an MS670 from teammates Francois Cevert and Howden Ganley similar car in 1972.
Two of the team MS670s in the garage at Le Mans in 1972. The MS73 circa 450bhp 3-litre V12 is a stressed member of the monocoque chassis, note the light tubular frame to support the rear bodywork, the five speed transaxle is ZF.
The third member of the Le Mans team was an MS660C crewed by Jean-Pierre Jabouille and David Hobbs, DNF gearbox after 278 laps in the final hour.
Jean-Pierre Beltoise lines up for the start of the July 1968 British Grand Prix aboard his Matra Sports Matra MS11 V12. Q11 and 14th in the race won by Jo Siffert’s Lotus 49B Ford.
The best placed of the Matras was Jackie Stewart’s Ken Tyrrell/Matra International MS10 Ford DFV in sixth. See here for a piece on JPB; https://primotipo.com/2015/01/15/r-i-p-jpb/
Francois Cevert tips his Matra MS670B into a right-hander at Dijon in during the 1000km enduro in 1973.
He and JPB finished third in the race won by Henri Pescarolo and Gerard Larrousse in another MS670B. See here for a piece on Francois’ formative years; https://primotipo.com/2014/11/07/francois-cevert-formative-years/
Unlike 1972 when Ferrari and Matra shadow-boxed – Ferrari won everything but didn’t contest Le Mans and Matra won Le Mans but didn’t race anywhere else – Matra won a clean fight with Ferrari in 1973. They again won at Le Mans, the MS670B driven by Henri Pescarolo and Gerard Larrousse were the star crew of the year. Matra won five of the ten World Sportscar Championship rounds, narrowly taking the title from Ferrari, 124 points to 115.
Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, Matra MS6 Ford 1-litre F3 car during the 1967 Monaco F3 GP weekend.
JPJ won heat one and Pescarolo the other in the second Matra Sports entry, with Henri in front of Jean-Pierre in the final by six-tenths of a second, with Derek Bell’s Brabham BT21 Ford another half-second in arrears.
While Brabhams were again 1967 Top F3 Dogs in the UK and Sweden, Matras won the French (Pescarolo), Italian (Geki Russo) and the Argentinian Temporada (Beltoise) titles.
Amon and Matra, what should have been never quite was!
Chris won the non-championship 1971 Argentine GP which was a portent of ‘front two row’ qualifying pace over the ensuing two years but 11th in the ’71 World Drivers Championship and 10th in 1972 was a poor dividend not really indicative of the pace of the car and driver.
Chris should have won at Clermont in 1972, as it was, pole and fastest lap there, and fastest lap at Nivelles was about all the driver and team took away from the season, withdrawal as a team from F1 followed. Very sadly. Feature piece about the MS120 here; https://primotipo.com/2014/07/06/venetia-day-and-the-1970-matra-ms120/
Jacky Ickx won the first European F2 Championship in 1967 aboard Ken Tyrrell Matra MS5 and MS7 Ford FVAs.
Here he is at the Nurburgring over the August 6, German GP weekend in an MS5 which was outted with suspension failure, I wonder why!? More on the MS7 in this piece on Johnny Servos-Gavin; https://primotipo.com/2016/09/02/johnnys-talbot/
Jackie Oliver won the F2 section of the race, he was fifth overall in a works Lotus 48 FVA. Denny Hulme won the race from Jack Brabham in a Brabham Racing Organisation BT24 Repco 1-2, Alan Rees was the second placed F2 home, seventh overall in a Brabham BT23 FVA.
Ickx won the championship from Frank Gardner’s works Brabham BT23 and Beltoise’ MS5 and MS7, but the F2 Star was – as ever – graded driver, Jochen Rindt with five wins of the ten rounds aboard his Roy Winkelmann run Brabham BT23 Ford FVA.
Jackie Stewart, Matra MS80 Ford – the 1969 drivers and constructors champions – from Bruce McLaren, McLaren M7C Ford at Monaco in 1969.
Jackie retired with a broken UJ and Bruce was fifth in the race won by the Mayor of Monaco, Graham Hill, in his Lotus 49B Ford, for the fifth time. It was the crazy weekend when the CSI/FIA banned high-wings after Friday practice, see here; https://primotipo.com/2015/07/12/wings-clipped-lotus-49-monaco-grand-prix-1969/
Matra International and Stewart won the respective titles with victories at Kyalami, Montjuich Park, Zandvoort, Silverstone and Monza. See here for more on the Matra MS80; https://primotipo.com/2016/07/01/matra-ms80-ford/
Jack Brabham at Daytona in 1970, where he was 10th in the Matra MS650 he shared with Francois Cevert. It was Black-Jack’s final season, later Australian taxi-competition duly noted.
Relieved of management responsibilities – he had sold his half share in Motor Racing Developments and the Brabham Racing Organisation to Ron Tauranac at the end of 1969 – the wily campaigner attacked his final season with great vigour, knowing he had Her Indoors to look forward to on a more regular basis when the family returned to Australia.
Apart from his Brabham F1 program, he raced an F2 Brabham BT30 for John Coombs, contested the Indy 500, and had a program of World Endurance Championship rounds with Matra, see here for the detail; https://primotipo.com/2016/09/09/jack-and-francois-matra-ms660/
The quickie MS7 F2-derived F1 Matra MS9 Ford DFV was knocked together as an R&D machine in advance of the quintessential ’68 Ford powered MS10.
MS9 was raced at Kyalami to give Ken Tyrrell and Jackie Stewart a car in which to contest the opening 1968 F1 round in South Africa.
The car was purposeful in its military green primer and became an entrant in the Fugly Car Cup when fitted with an outsized front radiator, extra water tankage and cooler to cope with the ferocious African heat (below). All the hard work paid off though, Jackie drove the lash-up to third behind Jim Clark – the great Scot’s final F1 victory – and Graham Hill’s Lotus 49 Fords.
The MS9 was used only once again in a test at Albi before being set aside and ultimately restored, it resides in a private collection.
The definitive 1968 Ford V8 powered F1 Matra was the MS10, here at Spa with Jackie on his way to fourth place, and below at Rouen in the tragic French GP.
Jo Schlesser died in the new Honda RA302 that awful, wet day, while Stewart was third. Bruce McLaren won at Spa in his M7A and Jacky Ickx in France aboard his Ferrari 312, the only F1 race not won by a Ford Cosworth powered car that season.
Francois Cevert, Matra MS670B from Brian Redman, Ferrari 312PB at Le Mans in 1973.
Both cars failed to finish, the Icky/Redman car with engine failure after 332 laps, and Cevert/Beltoise after completing 157 laps before a puncture induced accident. The winning Pescarolo/Larrousse MS670B competed 356 laps, while the second placed Art Merzario-Carlos Pace driven Ferrari 312PB 350 laps. A convincing win indeed.
The tail shot below is of a 670B during the May 1973 Nurburgring 1000km weekend.
Both the Cevert/Beltoise and Pescarolo/Larrousse 670Bs retired with engine failure allowing an easy Ferrari 312PB 1-2, the Redman/Ickx pair in front of Pace/Merzario. Hewland gearbox this time, note the alternator driven off the rear of the transaxle.
Jo Schlesser during the 1966 German Grand Prix, F2 1-litre Cosworth SCA powered Matra MS5. Jo was third behind two other MS5s raced by Beltoise and Hubert Hahne (Tyrrell entry).
1966 was the year of absolute F2 dominance by the works Brabham Hondas raced by Brabham and Hulme. Sad story on Schlesser, more positively, I am in the process of assembling a feature on the man, will finish it soon; https://primotipo.com/2019/07/12/its-all-happening-3/
JPB won the 1965 French F3 Championship racing Matra’s first single-seater, the monocoque MS1 Ford, Jaussaud was second in another one. The early Matra single-seaters are covered in this piece; https://primotipo.com/2019/05/24/surtees-matra-1966-and-thereabouts/
JPB before winning the F3 round at Reims on July 4, 1965 – a breakthrough first victory for Matra – Matra MS1 Ford.
It was a slipstreaming ball-tearer of a 54 minute race too, JPB won by one-tenth/sec from Piers Courage’s Brabham BT10 Ford with John Fenning’s Cooper T76 Ford two-tenths further adrift!
In another year of Brabham F3 dominance, Matra grabbed a market toehold. JPB won the Trophy de Cognac at Reims in July, while Jean-Pierre Jaussaud took two more wins aboard his MS2 Ford in September, the Coupe de Paris at Montlhery and Coupe Internationale de Vitesse at Albi.
Henri Pescarolo at the Kyalami first F1 championship round in 1970, Matra MS120.
Henri finished the drivers world championship that year in 12th place, while JPB was 9th. Their best results were third placings at Spa and Monza for Beltoise, and at Monaco, Pescarolo. Matra were seventh in the manufacturers championship.
That year the Velizy concern chose not to build a Ford powered variant of their chassis raced so capably by Ken Tyrrell’s outfit in 1968-69, and Tyrrell/Stewart felt they were better sticking with a Ford DFV powered chassis, having tested the MS120 that winter. Initially Tyrrell raced customer March 701s, but by the season’s end the pace of Derek Gardner’s Tyrrell 001 Ford was apparent, and was delivered in spades in 1971.
JPB on his way to victory in the VII GP de Monaco Formula 3 GP in 1966, Matra MS5 Ford, from Chris Irwin’s Brabham BT18 Ford – five-tenths adrift – and John Cardwell’s Lotus 41 Ford.
That year Johnny Servoz-Gavin won the French title in another MS5.
Another one that got away from Chris…
He led the 1972 French Grand Prix on a mans track – Clermont Ferrand – to half distance, then copped a puncture which dropped him back to eighth, then worked his MS120D back up to third place. So close, again.
Credits…
MotorSport Images, LAT Photographic, Getty Images, MotorSport, oldracingcars.com, Wikipedia
Tailpieces…
Of course, one of the most erotic of all Matras is the black one, Tony Southgate‘s 1975 Shadow DN7 Matra.
An experiment that was over way too soon, here at Monza driven by Jean-Pierre Jarier, DNF fuel pump after 32 of the 52 laps from Q13. Clay Regazzoni’s Ferrari 312T took a very popular victory. See here for an article on the Shadow Matra; https://primotipo.com/2016/01/15/shadow-dn7-matra/
Finito…
primotipo... 