A brief history on the Matra Djet

The Matra Djet is a French sports car originally designed by René Bonnet, he was a French engineer and race car driver who had created his own company called ‘Automobiles René Bonnet’ in 1961. The car started as a René Bonnet Djet in the year 1962, the car was named ‘Djet’ as the French could not pronounce ‘Jet’. The company Matra was well known for its presence in formula 1, 2 and 3 and they were even successful in Le Mans. Matra entered F1 in the year 1968, the same year Jackie Stewart was a serious contender, and the car’s most innovative feature was perhaps its aviation inspired fuel cell. It was unfortunately banned, they always used Cosworth and Ford engines.

Coming back to the Djet, the Djet has distinction of being the first mid-engine sports car, even before the De Tomaso.  The first ever cars were called CRB1 and CRB2, for Competition René Bonnet. It even had disc brakes on all corners.   De Tomaso's Ford-powered Vallelunga was the second car to rear mid- engine cars. The Djet made its name by participating in the various endurance races, the car took part in the Le Mans 24 hrs race in the years 1962, 1963, and 1964.

The car had a bar bone square tube steel frame that mounted completely independent coil spring suspension, the rear featuring twin coil-over shocks per side. Under the hood there was a Renault 8 engine, a 1.1L engine mounted longitudinally. It had a 10.2:1 compression ratio and two-barrel Zenith 32 NDIX carburetor. This aluminum-head engine made 70 hp and 65.5 lb-ft of torque. The power was sent to a 4-speed synchromesh transmission. The weight distribution of the car was 48/52. The cars exterior was sleek with rounded wheel arches, the body was made out of fiber glass and had a drag co-efficient of 0.27. This light body gave it an amazing power to weight ratio, the low drag meant a high-top speed.

the Renault engine

 Automobiles René Bonnet would end up producing only 200 of these cars. René Bonnet went bankrupt in 1964 by the commercial failure of the Djet the little stake that he had was bought out by Matra sports. During the ownership of René Bonnet 4 versions were built, and under the ownership of Matra sports the jet 5 and 6 were built. The name Djet was now replaced with Jet and Bonnet name was dropped. The final version of the Matra Jet 6 was brought in the year 1967. It had the new 105 bhp, 1255 cc engine of the R8 Gordini 1300.

The problem for a long time with the Djet and Jet was that they were not taken care of that well, with a lot of these cars were used for their true purpose that was racing. This ultimately affected the cars in the long run.

the side profile resembles a renault alpine a110

this is a renault alpine a110

The interior of the car looked like a small studio apartment with real wood on the dash and steering wheel, the gauges had real metal. It is an undeniably interesting car due to its French design and quirkiness, this can be seen with the rising price tag for the older 64, and 65 models.

 

matra F1 car