Matra Bagheera

In short

• Built from 1973 to April 1980 at Romorantin; 47,802 made.
• Transverse mid-mounted Simca engine: 1,294 cc with 63 kW (84 hp), and from 1975 1,442 cc with 67 kW (90 hp) in the Bagheera S.
• Three seats in one row: the driver's seat plus a two-place bench on the passenger side.
• 19 glass-fibre-reinforced polyester panels on a steel chassis that had little corrosion protection.

Matra Bagheera at a glance

Matra and Simca: the 1969 agreement

The Bagheera replaced the Matra 530, the first joint project under the agreement signed between Matra and Simca in December 1969. Simca was by then controlled by Chrysler, which held 77 % of its shares. Matra sold its car division to Chrysler Europe in the early 1970s; after Peugeot bought Chrysler Europe, Lagardère bought it back in 1983.

Development of the three-seater

Development began in 1970 under the code M550, led by Philippe Guédon with Jacques Rousseau and with direction from Marc Honoré. Jean Toprieux drew the first shape, Jacques Nochet refined it, and Antonis Volanis shaped the instrument panel and steering wheel. Guédon's idea for the seating came from a trip in a Ford Taunus: the driver sits in a normal seat, and two passengers share a single bench on the right.

Eleven prototypes were tested in climates from Mauritania to Lapland, and development was finished by the end of 1972. For production, the rear suspension was redesigned with trailing arms and transverse torsion bars, replacing the prototype's layout. The name came from the panther Bagheera in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.

Simca engine in the middle

The engine came from the Simca 1100 Ti, which also supplied the front suspension, the gearbox and many other suspension parts. In the 1100 the engine drove the front wheels; in the Bagheera it sat transversely behind the cabin, so the car became mid-engined.

With 63 kW and 895 kg, a base Bagheera has about 70 kW per tonne, and an S about 67 kW per tonne at 1,000 kg; the power-to-weight calculator puts these figures next to modern cars. A more powerful project, the U8, combined two Simca four-cylinder blocks into a 2,588 cc engine of 126 kW, but Chrysler Europe refused it because of the fuel crisis and its own finances, and only three were built.

Polyester body on a steel frame

The body consisted of 19 panels of glass-fibre-reinforced polyester, made by a low-pressure, high-temperature pressing process and bonded to a pressed-steel chassis. The panels themselves do not rust, but the chassis had little corrosion protection, and many cars suffered from chassis rust. Early cars also had water leaks and mechanical faults that hurt sales, and in 1975 the German motoring club ADAC gave the Bagheera its "Silver Lemon" award for the worst new car. Matra fully galvanised the chassis of the Murena that followed.

Versions and special editions

Sales, prices and the end

Production reached 65 cars a day by late 1973, and more than 10,000 were sold within about eighteen months, by June 1974. The Bagheera won the 1973 Style Auto Award. In Germany in 1974 it was priced between its obvious rivals:

In other words, the Bagheera cost DM 208 more than the Manta SR and DM 292 less than the Alfa Romeo coupé.

After PSA took over Simca, the car became the Talbot-Matra Bagheera for its final year. Production ended in April 1980 at 47,802 cars, and the Murena took its place. The Peugeot side of that story is told in the history of Peugeot.

Romorantin after the Bagheera

The Bagheera was the start of a long run of unusual cars from Romorantin-Lanthenay. The Murena of 1980 followed with a fully galvanised chassis, and the Rancho was an early SUV. Matra's partnership with Renault then produced the Espace people carrier, launched in 1984; Matra built its first three generations, while Renault made the fourth in-house. At its peak, the plant built 60,000 vehicles a year.

The last Matra-built car was the Renault Avantime, in production from 2001 and a poor seller. On 27 February 2003 Matra Automobiles announced that Romorantin would close a month later, and the car division was declared bankrupt. Pininfarina bought the engineering, testing and prototype businesses in September 2003 as Matra Automobile Engineering and sold its stake to Segula Technologies on 13 January 2009.

Choosing a Bagheera today

• Chassis: the main weakness is rust in the steel frame under the polyester body.
• Engine: the S with 1,442 cc has the most power; the 1,294 cc engine was dropped in 1979.
• Rarity: the Courrèges (661 built) and the X and Jubilé (1,440 together) are scarce.
• Shape: the 1973–1976 cars have the original body and the lower drag coefficient of 0.33.

Other French and European sports cars of the decade are in the 1970s classics section.

Photo gallery