From Matra to Led Zeppelin
02/12/2019
In 1970, Jean Pierre Beltoise started the Grand Prix season with the Matra-Simca MS 120 and finished in ninth place with a total of 16 championship points. The performance is therefore remarkable, as the then aircraft and armaments company Matra (Mécanique Avion Traction) had not only developed and built the car itself, but also the engine, a 3-liter V12, with comparatively little "manpower".
In the Matra Museum somewhere in the middle of nowhere in France (41200 Romorantin, 17, rue des Capucins), this fantastic car can be admired and sometimes even heard along with many other interesting objects.
The engine sound of the 12 cylinder recorded during a lap on the race track is so sensational that you would like to play this music every night to fall asleep.
Unfortunately, these great times are "passé", as the French used to say, because today they only "fart" around the circuits as hybrid or electric cars.
Now the ivy is slowly growing out of the engines, which have probably fallen silent forever. But thank goodness there are still historic events where you can still hear and see these incredible cars and their real engines.
It's like music, because even in our part of the world there are now various vintage radio stations where you can still hear the good old songs from Pink Floyd to Uriah Heep and Led Zeppelin every day.
