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In the mid-1960s Matra enjoyed considerable success in Formula 3 and F2 racing with (especially) its MS5 monocoque-based car, winning the French and European championships. In 1967, Jacky Ickx famously amazed the F1 establishment by clocking in the 3rd-fastest qualifying time of 8:14" on the German Nürburgring in his 1600 cc MS5 F2, which was allowed to enter alongside the 3000 cc F1 cars.
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| Spa Francorchamps 1970: Jean Pierre Beltoise 25 leads team mate Henri Pescarolo in 26 |
Matra entered Formula One in 1968 when Jackie Stewart was a serious contender, winning several Grands Prix in the Tyrrell-run Matra MS10 which competed alongside the works team.
The F1 team was established at Vélizy-Villacoublay in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. The car's most innovative feature was the use of aviation-inspired structural fuel tanks. These allowed the chassis to be around 15 kg (33 lb) lighter, while still being stronger than its competitors. The FIA considered the technology to be unsafe and decided to ban it for 1970.
Matra CEO Jean-Luc Lagardère made a radical strategic decision for the 1969 championship: The Matra works team would not compete in Formula One. Matra would instead focus its efforts on the Ken Tyrrell´s team (renamed Matra International) and build a new DFV powered car with structural fuel tanks, even though it would only be eligible for a single season.
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The decision was even more radical given that Matra was seeking a partnership with Simca, which would preclude using Ford-branded engines for the following year. Stewart won the 1969 title easily with the new Cosworth-powered Matra MS80, which was designed by Bernard Boyer and corrected most of the weaknesses of the MS10. It was a spectacular achievement from a constructor that had only entered Formula One the previous year.
France became only the third country (after the United Kingdom and Italy) to have produced a winning constructor.
Matra supplied chassis to Tyrrell's Matra International which ran with Cosworth engines for Stewart and Beltoise. The Scotsman won six races and the World Championship while Beltoise was fifth. Matra won the Constructors' title. At the end of that year Matra's automotive division was sold to Chrysler France and from then on the cars became known as Matra-Simcas.
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Amon was born as the only child of sheep-owner Ngaio Amon. On leaving school, he persuaded his father to buy him an Austin A40 Special, which he entered in some minor local races. He progressed to a 1.5 litre Cooper and then an old 2.5L Maserati 250F, but only began to draw attention when he drove the Cooper-Climax T51 which Bruce McLaren had used to win his maiden Grand Prix. |
| Chris Amon |
Matra's insistence on using the V12 in F1 meant that Tyrrell became a March customer in 1970 before beginning work on its own F1 car, while Beltoise and Pescarolo raced the V12-engined MS120s. They won a few hillclimbs but in F1 racing the only decent results were two third places for Beltoise at Spa and Monza and a third for Pescarolo at Monaco.The 1971 season saw the F1 team running New Zealander Chris Amon and Beltoise with Amon winning the non-championship Argentine GP in January in the MS120.
Chris Amon is widely regarded to be one of the best F1 drivers never to win a championship Grand Prix. His reputation for bad luck was such that fellow driver Mario Andretti once joked that "if he became an undertaker, people would stop dying". Apart from driving, Chris Amon also ran his own F1 team for a short period in 1974. Away from F1, Amon had some success in sports car racing, winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1966.
In 1995, Amon was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.
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MATRA MS120 AMON HANES T-SHIRT
BUY IT NOW £24.95 |
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| Close up of Chris Amon's Matra MS120 |
Despite never winning a championship Formula One Grand Prix, Amon won eight non-championship GPs, the Silverstone International Trophy, the 1000 km Monza, the Daytona 24 Hours, the Tasman Series and, perhaps most significant of all, the famous 24 Heures du Mans (alongside Bruce McLaren). Many of these races attracted some of Amon's otherwise more successful fellow F1 drivers, all of whom he was able to beat.
In Formula One, Chris Amon took part in 96 Grands Prix, achieving 5 poles, leading 183 laps in 7 races, reaching the podium 11 times and scoring a total of 83 Championship points. A biography 'Forza Amon' by journalist Eoin Young charts Amon's racing career and gives some insights into his personal life. The book makes clear one point on which Amon himself disagrees with most commentators, the issue of his bad luck. Amon has pointed out on several occasions that he competed for a decade and a half in Formula 1 and survived some serious accidents, notably in 1976, whilst others, including friends like Bruce McLaren, suffered serious injury and death.
Reflecting on the 1968 racing death of Jim Clark, Amon said: "If this can happen to Jimmy, what chance do the rest of us have? I think we all felt that. It seemed like we'd lost our leader".
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| A lovely rear |
DID YOU KNOW THAT NEARLY ALL THE CARS WE FEATURE ON THE RETRO FORMULA 1 WEBSITE ARE STILL COMPETING?
Below you will find the full list of 2011 events. Do not think just because the cars are worth £300,000 plus, drivers hold back. This is 'on the edge' racing at it's best. |
| MAY 13-15 |
RED BULL RING Austria, HFO Rd 2 & 3 |
| MAY 29-30 |
BRANDS HATCH UK, Masters Series
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| JUN 3-5 |
MONZA Italy, HFO Rd 4 |
| JUN 17-19 |
PORTO Portugal, Masters Series |
| JUL 1-3 |
BRANDS HATCH UK, HFO Rd 5 |
| JUL 22-24 |
SILVERSTONE UK, Silverstone Classic |
| AUG 12-14 |
NURBURGRING Germany, Masters Series |
| SEPT 2-4 |
DONINGTON UK, Masters Series |
| SEPT 9-11 |
NURBURGRING Germany, HFO RD 6 |
| SEPT 23-25 |
SPA Belgium, Masters Series |
| OCT 7-9 |
PAUL RICARD France, HFO Rd 7 & 8 |
| OCT 21-23 |
ALGARVE Portugal, HFO Rd 9 & 10 |
The FIA Historic Formula One Championship ™ is at the pinnacle of historic motorsport. Its fans get a taste of classic old school Formula 1 and thrill to the sights and sounds of the cars driven by legends such as Gilles Villeneuve, Nigel Mansell, Emerson Fittipaldi and Keke Rosberg.
The Championship features the great Grand Prix cars raced between 1966 and 1985 re-creating the spectacle of the legendary 3 litre Formula 1 era on the great Race Circuits of the World. |
The Masters Historic Car Series is for 3 litre F1 Cars built between 1968 and 1978. From the pre-ground effects and pre-turbo era of F1 racing, Grand Prix Masters promises fast racing and close competition. Running in four distinct classes, providing a series of double-header races, emotive grids from the likes of Tyrrell, Lotus, Matra, McLaren, Cooper, Surtees and BRM, compete over two separate races per weekend.
Grand Prix Masters relives a fantastic decade of Grand Prix racing, including the actual cars driven by GP stars such as Hunt, Fittipaldi, Stewart, Amon, Rindt, Hill, Reutemann, Beltoise, Cevert and Peterson. |
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| RETRO FORMULA 1 HAS BEEN FEATURED IN |
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ALL MERCHANDISE IS DESIGNED AND HANDMADE IN GREAT BRITAIN BY RETRO FORMULA 1
Please bare this in mind when ordering as a gift. Due to demand, despatch can take 3 to 10 days. If you have any doubts that your garment may not arrive in time, please email us. |
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