The Matra 670 B brings the ACO exhibition a touch of “bleu de France”, the colour that embodied French motorsport until the 1970s.
The first Matra 670 appeared in 1972, the year that engine size was set at 3 litres for prototypes, leading to the withdrawal of the Porsche 917, which had been victorious the two previous years.

Over the next three years, the superb roar of the Matra V12 set the tone for the Le Mans 24 Hours. 1972 was also the year Henri Pescarolo returned to the Matra fold. Before moving over to Swiss team Filipinetti with their Ferrari 512 in 1971, the ‘man in the green helmet’ had raced Le Mans for Matra from 1966 to 1970. He really captured race-goers’ hearts with his fantastic night-time performance in 1968, when he drove under the rain with no windscreen wipers!

Matra embarked on a programme to boost French motorsport in the mid sixties and introduced a new generation of drivers – Beltoise, Cevert, Larrousse, Jabouille and, of course, Pescarolo. In 1972, French president Georges Pompidou came to watch the start of the race, which saw three Matras out at the front at the end of the first lap and marked the first of the team’s fabulous hat-trick of wins, really putting French motorsport back on the map. Pescaralo also became the only French driver to take three consecutive Le Mans wins – in 1972 (with Graham Hill), and 1973 and 1974 (with Gérard Larrousse) in different versions of the Matra MS 670.
After its outstanding triumph, Matra quit endurance racing to take up a new challenge in Formula 1, led by the late Guy Ligier.

Rétromobile exhibition, 3–7 February 2016, Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles. The ACO stand is located on the walkway between Halls 1 and 2.2.

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO | Translated from French by Clair Pickworth

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, SATURDAY 15 JUNE 2015, START At the wheel of the #7 Matra MS 670 B, Henri Pescarolo (at the wheel) and Gérard Larrousse made the racees theirs right from pole.