djet matra
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A Matra Djet V in perfect condition auctioned in Portugal

PHOTOS MATRA DJET V: RM SOTHEBY'S

This 2019 the 50 years of the Porsche 914. A tribute in which it has been repeated a lot that it was "The first production car with a mid-engine". As always, when you have to choose the first in something, the dispute is served, and that is the René Bonnet Djet was already presented in 1962 with the engine just behind the driver's neck. However, can we qualify it as a series car?

You could say yes, although obviously not at the level of the 914. After all, the Djet was a small, almost artisanal sports car that he knew at least 9 versions throughout his only 6 years of life going through two different companies. A puzzle for lovers of genealogies of which less than 1600 units were manufactured, all of them equipped with engines bought from Renault.

djet matra

However, despite all this little chaos, the truth is that the Djet was truly a pioneer for its time. Independent suspensions with double arms, disc brakes on all wheels, fiberglass bodywork, a careful aerodynamic coefficient of only 0 ... All structured around a central engine that, of those, was only seen inside the world of competition.

LIGHTWEIGHT, AERODYNAMIC AND WITH CENTRAL ENGINE. FULL OF NEWS

René Bonnet tried to be the continuation of the DB company. A small French manufacturer that in 1938 began to build racing cars, also producing some series sports cars. To relaunch sales, René Bonnet appeared at the 1962 Paris Motor Show with what he expected would be his star car: the Djet.

The first two versions launched that year were equipped with 1-liter four-cylinder C1E engines. The same than the R8 of the moment. And well, although even in the most powerful units they only reached 80CV ... The truth is that the Djet exhibited a behavior of the most sporty thanks to its little more than 600 kilos. Of course, despite these credentials it was an easy car to control for any driver. The reason must be found in the place where the engine was installed.

This was placed in a central position. Something never seen in a car that was going to roll beyond the circuits. This provision made the Djet a much more controllable sports car than its unpredictable rivals with an engine slung behind the rear axle. Something that not only occurred in the Porsche 356, but also in the Alpine A108 from Renault. Thus the things the Djet had all the ballots to triumph among an audience with sports desires but without the expertise of a professional pilot.

OUTSTANDING IN ENGINEERING, SUSPENSION IN ACCOUNTING

The success or failure of a new car is not only measured by the quality of its engineering, but also by how profitable it is. While in the first the Djet was truly a pioneer, in the second it was a huge problem. Its cost of handicraft production was so high that It was sold for the same as a luxurious Facel-Vega Facellia, curiously another financial disaster of French origin.

So things, just two years after the introduction of the Djet, René Bonnet became the property of Matra. A company created in 1937 for aeronautical purposes, but which led to space, military and even sports car racing when they began to experiment in this sector with the purchase of René Bonnet in 1964.

The year of the purchase Matra launched two new series of the Djet with the intention of saving it. They widen the bodywork, improve the interior, manage to lower their price by streamlining the assembly line ... Things are starting to improve and, in fact, produced from 1964 to 1968 more than 900 units of the Djet V series. Just one of them is the protagonist of this news.

MATRA DJET V. THE MOST PRODUCED SERIES

With 70CV and a weight of only 615 kilos, the Matra Djet V was the most popular series, complemented with two other more sporting whims. Especially the Jet 6, equipped with the same engine as the R8 Gordini and capable of climbing up to 105CV and 210 km / h.

For a moment the Djet seemed to be here to stay, and even had a publicity spike when Matra gave a unit to Yuri Gagarin during his visit to France in 1965. However, the 1967 launch of the much more versatile and salable Matra 530 made the Djet go down in history in 1968.

djet matra

Nowadays it is not known exactly how many units of the René Bonnet / Matra Djet have survived. Getting a unit of this French sports pioneer is really difficult, so On September 20, the auction of a Portuguese unit of the Djet V was highlighted in perfect condition, which even preserves the original wheels. The deck fell by 36.800 euros. A figure that is not bad at all considering the symbolic value of a model that, in its time, began to break the taboo of putting the engine in a central-rear position.

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Written by Miguel Sánchez

Through the news from La Escudería, we will travel the winding roads of Maranello listening to the roar of the Italian V12; We will travel Route66 in search of the power of the great American engines; we will get lost in the narrow English lanes tracking the elegance of their sports cars; We will speed up the braking in the curves of the Monte Carlo Rally and we will even get dusty in a garage while rescuing lost jewels.

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