The Matra Djet is the original mid-engine marvel.
Mid-engine proportions may be familiar now, but in the early Sixties, the Djet looked as exotic as can be.—the “D” is silent—is the creation of designer René Bonnet, co-founder of Deutsch-Bonnet. Unveiled in 1962, it was the world’s first mid-engine production car. It’s also so obscure that people frequently forget it exists, instead dubbing the Porsche 550 Spyder of the Fifties the first mid-engine production car.
Sure, the engine looks like anything else from the era. It’s where the four-cylinder sits in the chassis that’s such a big deal.We took the Djet out to the Natchez Trace Parkway south of Nashville—a smooth, gently curving road that doesn’t go anywhere. And it was a revelation. René Bonnet and Matra got the mid-engine thing right straightaway. You don’t so much steer the car through corners as ease it, so instinctive is its handling.
This Djet was the base model, with 70 hp from its lightly modified Renault engine. An available Djet V S got Gordini upgrades for 94 hp. Seventy is plenty, given that the Djet only weighs around 1500 pounds. Redline is, uh, unmarked, so I took the Djet to just 5500 rpm, and it had no trouble maintaining a good pace, even passing slower traffic on the freeway.
Perhaps it just wasn’t much of a thing outside France. This was the era when the “global car”—one car for all, or at least lots of markets—was a new idea, and the Djet was never sold in the United States. Then there’s Matra itself. The company had huge success in formula and sports-car racing, but it abandoned motorsport in 1974. By the Eighties, it was designing and building cars for Renault, notably the Espace minivan.
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