Elf Scan 16: Matra MS 10 Grand Prix Car

The MS 10 was the first true F1 car designed by Matra. The French team was actually managed by Englishman Ken Tyrell, with Jackie Stewart as lead driver. Matra were in the midst of developing their own proprietary V12 engine, but sourced the Ford Cosworth DFV as an interim powerplant. In the end, the Ford V8 was to prove itself a reliable workhorse, powering Stewart to his championship the following season, in 1969.

Elf Scan 12: Matra MS 630

The V-12 powered MS 630 was Matra's first serious Le Mans contender. Campaigned in the tumultuous year of 1968, which saw the 24 hour race moved from June to September due to labor and student unrest, the MS 630 ran as high as second place before retiring due to a puncture in the 22nd hour!

Elf Scan 11: Jack Brabham

Compared to the young, budding, and mostly French talent on the Matra-Elf team, Jack Brabham was a very seasoned old hand in 1970.  The former F1 champ partnered with Francois Cevert as well as Pescarolo, Beltoise, and Servoz-Gavin, in long distance sports car racing for Matra. The results were less than spectacular.

Elf Scan 10: François Cevert

Cevert was famous for his natural driving ability and dashing movie star looks.  Here, his famous blue eyes bear a look of simultaneous intensity and eerie blankness as he mentally steels himself for his next track outing in the Matra sports prototype which he shared with none other than Jack Brabham at the 1970 Daytona 24 Hours. Born to a prominent Parisian Jewish family (his full name was Albert François Cevert Goldenberg), Cevert initially pursued motor racing secretly against his family's wishes. In 1969 as he achieved success in Formula 2, he reconciled with his family, and from there joined the Matra team. It wasn't long before he rose to F1, driving for Tyrrell as Jackie Stewart's number 2 driver and protégé.  A tremendously talented driver, he was never able to fully mature, as he was tragically killed at age 29 during the practice for the 1973 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. Ironically, Cevert had achieved his first and only F1 victory at that very same track in the 1971 US Grand Prix.

Elf Scan 9: Matra's 4WD experiment - the MS 84

At the same time that Jackie Stewart was dominating the 1969 Formula One championship in the Matra MS 80, the French team was also experimenting with a 4 wheel drive sister car, known as the MS 84.  Team Lotus was also experimenting with 4WD at the time with the Lotus 63, and also using the same Ford Cosworth V8 in their Lotus 49Bs. Much like Lotus, Matra ultimately found that 4WD added weight and complexity that did not pay dividends in terms of performance. It was the conventional RWD MS 80 that ultimately gave Stewart his first F1 championship.  The MS 84 is pictured above at what appears to be the Montlhery Autodrome near Paris.