Matra MS670
The Matra MS670 was a sports car prototype that Matra used from 1972 to 1974 in the World Sports Car Championship .
Development history and technology
In 1972 , Matra celebrated its first victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the MS670 . The French racing team pursued this goal for years with consistency and perseverance. At Matra, the decision was made early on not to build a 5-liter vehicle, but to concentrate on the smaller 3-liter class. The existing 3-liter 12-cylinder engine, which came from Formula 1 and was first used in the Matra MS11 in 1968 , made this decision easy, because this engine was also used in sports cars.
Racing history
After a change in the sports car regulations by the FIA , which banned the large 5-liter sports cars such as the Porsche 917 , the Ferrari 512S and the Lola T70 , from the international race tracks, the Matra concept was suddenly victorious at Le Mans. Ferrari also refrained from competing on the Sarthe, so that Matra's opposition was limited to a few aging Porsche 908s and the not yet fully developed Alfa Romeo Tipo 33s .
Matra celebrated a clear one-two victory with the MS670, the third-place Porsche 908 Langheck of Reinhold Joest , Michael Weber and Mario Casoni was 19 laps behind the winning duo Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill at the finish . Hill added the triumph at Le Mans to his two Formula 1 world championship titles and victory at the Indianapolis 500 . Second were François Cevert and Howden Ganley in the second of the four MS670 used.
Matra also had to accept two failures. The Beltoise / Amon MS670 failed on the first lap after an Amon accident. The race of David Hobbs and Jean-Pierre Jabouille was stopped by a damaged clutch after 278 laps.
In 1973, Matra fully entered the brand world championship and won the title with the MS670, now with development level B. The MS670 were successful again in Le Mans . Henri Pescarolo with new co-driver Gérard Larrousse was victorious for the second time and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and Jean-Pierre Jabouille finished third behind Carlos Pace and Arturo Merzario in a Ferrari 312PB .
1974, Ferrari had withdrawn completely from the sports car world championship, Matra triumphed again at Le Mans and won nine of the ten races in the world championship. The MS670 had reached its final expansion stage, and the last Matra sports car, the MS680 , was already being used at the same time . The victory at Le Mans was achieved again with the MS670. Henri Pescarolo won for the third time in a row, and Gerard Larrousse was his co-driver, like last year.
literature
- José Rosinski: Matra, La Saga . ETAI, Boulogne 1997, ISBN 2-7268-8301-X .
