Have You Ever Heard of – The Matra Djet?

You probably should have as the Matra Djet has the distinction of being the first mass-produced, mid-engined sports car ever made. Quite the accolade, but you could be forgiven any lack of previous century French car manufacturer knowledge as it’s quite a rarity, with less than 1500 or so being built over a five year production run. You could be forgiven for drawing a blank with the car but what about Yuri Gagarin, the famous Russian Cosmonaut? Surely he jogs the old memory box. Well, he drove one and if it’s good enough for the first man to venture into space then it’s certainly good enough for us. He was gifted one by the French government in 1965 upon arriving in the country and clearly enamoured, subsequently took it back to the Soviet Union with him.

Somewhat adrift in a sea of Ferraris and Aston Martins the Matra Djet actually paved the way in the ’60s for the tidal wave of mid-engined performance vehicles to come, proving that if you wanted your car to handle well then you better stick the engine slap bang in the middle of it. This particular French fancy was initially available with an 1108cc, four-cylinder Renault engine churning out a whopping 70bhp, later cars received a Gordini-tuned 1255cc lump that upped the horsepower to 90. Whatever the engine installed though, all of the power was sent to the rear wheels via a four-speed manual gearbox.

You may scoff at sub-100bhp figures but the Djet was incredibly light thanks to its fully fibreglass body and tubular frame. Not only that but it was slippery so-and-so too, with a drag coefficient of around 0.25, which is a very good number as far as aerodynamics are concerned. These characteristics combined enabled even the smaller-engined Djets to achieve a top speed of over 100mph. It was technically pretty advanced for the time as well with fully independent suspension and disc brakes on all corners. The weren’t messing about.

Conceived by French car maker René Bonnet in 1962, the Matra Djet was originally called the Bonnet Djet, with monsieur Bonnet adding the D at the front for fear of his French compatriots mispronouncing the name (something this English writer living in France can attest to). Sadly Bonnet wouldn’t stick around due to financial difficulties and so Matra, who were already providing the bodyshells and factory space for production of the cars, made the logical decision to take over in 1964 and continued production of the Djet until 1967.

At the time, Matra was known for its aerospace endeavours rather than any automotive exploits but following the acquisition of René Bonnet Automobiles the Matra Automobiles division was founded which would prove to be enormously successful, winning both the Formula One driver’s and constructor’s championships in 1969 as well as multiple titles at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the early ’70s. Not bad.

In this brief, interim period the Djet would undergo some design changes care of former Simca engineer and designer Philippe Guédon. Along with some suspension and braking improvements the car was also enlarged and fitted with the Gordini-tuned engine and then re-released as the Matra Djet V S. Production of the Djet would continue until 1967, going through a grand total of 9 different iterations during its lifetime. Beginning with the original 1.1-litre Bonnet Djet and progressing to the Jet IV utilising the Bonnet name and then continuing in 1965 with the Jet V and 6 under the Matra banner. The D was dropped from the name at this point and these later cars were the most accomplished – capable of almost 125 mph at full chat.

Bearing more than a passing resemblance to the slightly earlier but similarly designed light-weight, glass-fibre bodied Alpine A108, the Djet was a handsome car and thanks to its low curb weight was considerably spritely for the time. Whilst not particularly refined (the cabin was incredibly noisy due to the lack of any kind of sound deadening) it was a trend-setter and should be remembered as such. Not only that but Matra themselves continued to be a successful player in the industry going on to develop and produce the wildly popular Espace for its first three generations as well as having a hand in the design of the the Renault Avantime.

Today the Djet (or Jet) remains a rare piece of automotive history, the legacy of which still resonates throughout the industry as it did for the years immediately following its release. A mid-engined, lightweight, fibreglass-bodied sports car still ticks as many boxes nowadays as it did back in the ’60s and although not quite as space age as it may have seemed upon release, the Djet has rightly earned its place in the automotive history books. However, finding one today might be a concept that is a little out of this world.