Matra Enthusiasts Club UK
I am the Murena technical advisor for the Matra Enthusiasts Club UK, which caters for owners worldwide of Matra road cars from 1964 to 2003, as well as the René Bonnet D'jets from 1961 to 1964. Matra, who supplied the D'jet bodies, took over Bonnet during 1964, continued the D'jet under the Matra-Sports name until 1968 when it was replaced by a car of their own design - the M530A.
The company:
MATRA, from Mechanique Aviation TRAction, is a large French company with international links, and includes Matra Communications, Matra Datavision, Matra Défense, Matra Marconi Space, Matra Hachette, etc. and of note Aerospatiale Matra, which is already a leading player in the European Space Agency, has signed an agreement with Marconi Space and DaimlerChrysler to form 'Astrium' which will be one of the world's leading space companies. Matra Automobiles was just a small part of the Matra group. N.B. The sole shareholder was the Lagardère group. It was not owned by Renault as many magazines have mistakenly reported! Matra Automobiles announced it's closure in March 2003.
The car marque:
Matra's previous model range consisted of mid-engine sports cars: the D'jet/Jet ('61-'68), followed by the M530A ('67-'72), (Matra-Simca) Bagheera ('73-'80) and (Talbot-Matra) Murena ('80-'84); plus the (Matra-Simca) Rancho ('77-'84) and the highly successful (Renault) Espace ('84-'02) multi-seater 'people carriers' - or MPV's as they have become known.
The last Matra was the Renault Avantime ('02-'03) a large luxury 4 seater coupé based on the last Espace chassis.
The Espace was originally conceived and designed by Matra Automobiles as the P18 prototype at the end of the seventies and initially offered to Talbot (previously Simca) France to replace the Rancho. When they turned it down, owing to a lack of spare funds and possibly foresight, Matra negotiated a contract with Renault instead, to supply the necessary mechanical parts, plus distribution through their dealer network, and the Matra P23 prototype became the first Renault Espace. The rest, as they say is history! With Renault taking over Espace production themselves for the first time, from 2003, Matra made the Avantime for a short time up to their closure.
FAQ pages, Contacts, Links, UK club meetings
How to join the club plus Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) click here. Update July '08
For links, and to find more about the other models in the Matra model range click here.
To contact other club officials or particular model technical advisors click here.
To see a list of meetings, mainly in the U.K., or the latest news. click here. Updated June '08
My Matra is the 1982 2.2 Murena shown here:
How to contact me
Email Me (just click on this link)
This site was last updated 2nd July '08
