Tag Archives: MS10

French Built Championship Winner – MATRA Ford MS80 #MS80/3

For 1969 MATRA CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère took a gamble to try and win the 1969 Drivers and Manufacturers Championships by suspending the entry of MATRA V12 powered cars by the works MATRA team and putting all of the teams efforts behind Ken Tyrrells Ford DFV powered MATRA International team cars.

MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

Even with all the focus being on the MATRA International Team cars the 1969 MS80 was not ready for the start of the season, fortunately the old Ford Powered MATRA MS10 was still good enough for Jackie Stewart to win the championship opening South African Grand Prix.

MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

The MS80 made it’s public debut at the non Championship Race of Champions from the Lotus 49 of Graham Hill. At the Spanish Grand prix run around the streets of Barcelona at Montjuich Park Stewart won again starting from starting from forth on the grid after the faster Lotus 49’s of Rindt and Hill retired at the same spot a few laps apart as a result of crashes caused by wing failures, and Chris Amon who lead Stewart by over 30 seconds retired with a seized motor after half distance.

Maydon, MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

At Monaco Stewart retired but then went on to win in Holland, France, backed up by team mate Jean Pierre Beltoise who finished second and Great Britain. In the German Grand Prix Stewart finished second to Jacky Ickx driving a Brabham before winning the Itallian Grand Prix at Monza.

MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

Stewart retired from both the Canadian and US Grand Prix by which time Ickx who won in Canada was too far back in the points standings to catch the Scot. Stewart finished 4th in Mexico to round out the season in which he won his first drivers Championship and MATRA International their only World Manufacturers title.

Maydon, MATRA MS80, Test Day, Mallory Park

Only two MS80’s were completed for the 1969 season, a Ford Cosworth all wheel drive MS84 was also built but this featured MS80 suspension and a unique space frame chassis and was used originally as a spare car to replace the older MATRA MS10’s.

MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

It is a credit to the determination of MATRA CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère to win both drivers and manufacturers championships that he sanctioned the building of the MS80 which featured fuel tanks that were integral to the monocoque that was reinforced inside by a number of transverse bulkheads, effectively splitting the fuel tank in many small interconnected cells.

Maydon, MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

It had been announced well before 1969 that for 1970 rubber bag fuel tanks would be mandated that precluded the use of many interconnected fuel cells, so effectively the MS80 was restricted to being a one season challenger at the end of which it was outlawed.

MATRA MS80, Silverstone Classic, Press Day

At the end of 1969 Stewart and Tyrrell decided that they wanted to use the Ford Cosworth DFV in 1970 and MATRA who had been taken over by French manufacturer Simca, a French Chrysler subsidiary, were adamant they wanted to return to V12 power for 1970. To date the MATRA MS80 remains the only car built in France to win the World manufacturers championship. Note: the Renault’s driven by Fernando Aonso to Drivers and Manufacturers Championship success in 2005 and 2006 were built in Enstone, UK in the same premises that are now home to the Lotus F1 Team.

Chassis #MS80/3 seen in today’s photographs was built up from an unused spare tub for owner/driver Ray Maydon, who is seen driving the car at a Silverstone Classic test day top and bottom and at a Mallory Park test day in the middle.

My thanks to Walter Melissen of the The Nostalgia Forum and Ultimatecarpage.com for his assistance in identifying the chassis number and owner driver of today’s featured model.

Thanks for joining me on this “French Built Championship Winner” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Abundant Noise – MATRA MS11

Last Tuesday I looked at the prototype Ford Cosworth powered MATRA MS9 Primer Car driven by Jackie Stewart for the Ken Tyrrell run Matra International team in the 1968 South African Grand Prix.

MATRA MS11, Donington Park Museum

This weeks car is the MATRA V12 powered MATRA MS 11 run by the works MATRA Sport team, what turned out to be the second prong of MATRA’s bid to win the World Constructors Championship in 1968.

MATRA MS11, Donington Park Museum

The Ford powered MS 10 and MS 11 had similar chassis however unlike the Ford DFV V8 the MATRA V12 was not a stressed member of the chassis meaning that the V12 was carried on a separate subframe for which two pontoons were built behind the rear chassis bulkhead as had been used on the 1967 MS7 Formula 2 car.

MATRA MS11, Donington Park Museum

Jean Pierre Beltoise was chosen to drive the car initially and he was joined later in the season by Henri Pescarolo in a second MS11 for the last three races of the season.

MATRA MS11, Donington Park Museum

The 390hp 60° V12 features 4 valves per cylinder and double over head camshafts per bank that are driven by a train of straight cut gears from the front. Disappointingly the V12 could not match the horsepower of the Ford Cosworth DFV first seen in 1967.

MATRA MS11, Donington Park Museum

The elaborate exhausts are said to make “abundant noise” described as either music or a shriek depending on your tastes when mechanical mayhem is unleashed.

MATRA MS11, Donington Park Museum

Beltoise tried the MS11 at the ’68 Spanish Grand but ended up driving Jackie Stewarts Cosworth V8 powered Matra MS10, in which he finished 5th, after the Scot had damaged his wrist ligaments in an earlier Formula 2 race.

Beltoise gave the MS11 it’s debut race at the following Monaco Grand Prix where he retired with bent suspension having qualified 8th 6 places behind the Ford powered MS10 which was now driven by Johnny Servoz Gavin, who also retired with accident damage.

The MS11’s best result came in the 1968 Dutch Grand Prix where Beltoise qualified 16th 11 places behind Jackie Stewart’s MS 10 and ended up finishing 2nd over 30 seconds behind the Scotsman on the occasion of MATRA’s first Formula One Championship win.

The MS11 never did beat the Cosworth powered MS10 in qualifying and in the races only beat the Ford powered car when it lasted longer. Henri Pescarolo’s best result in his MS11 was 9th in Mexico.

At the end of the 1968 season MATRA CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère made the wise choice to drop the V12, pending future development, and the works team and put all of it’s efforts behind Jackie Stewart and the Ford Powered MATRA run by Ken Tyrrell’s MATRA International that I’ll be looking at next Tuesday.

Thanks for joining me on this “Abundant Noise” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at the weekends Goodwood Festival Of Speed. Don’t forget to come back now !

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