Video: Why was the Matra MS650 "The French Ferrari"
There was a time when sportscars were as beautiful as they were brutal, as elegant as they were epically fast. The arrival of the Group 5 machines ushered in this era of curvaceous, raucous, purpose-built 200mph endurance racing machinery, that the 3.0-litre machines that followed them in the ‘70s carried on.
Of course, you’ll remember our celebration of the Group 5 breed from 74MM last year, with hoards of top-level Porsche, Ferrari and Lola machinery taking to the circuit as they would have at La Sarthe nearly half a century ago. You may well also be aware that their 3.0-litre successors will be taking pride of place in a demo at 75MM in the next few weeks.
So to get a taste of the kind of machinery we would be dealing with, we got up close with the stunning French Matra MS650 as featured in the video above. Rob Hall gave us the tour of this crudely aerodynamically experimental, yet drop-dead gorgeous machine. Is this prettier than its fierce Italian Ferrari and Alfa Romeo rivals?
Matra
MS650
silverstone classic
