A new Westfield kit will cost you £41k.
Mine is a little more optimistic: "The first 80% of a project takes 80% of the time. The other 20% takes the other 80%".
My 507 re-body Questions.
- Thread starter Duncodin
- Start date
Thank you Tony for taking the time to post all those pictures in your other post. I think I've decided on the AS-7630 which looks a lot like yours with the swing-out arms and selection of pads.
That's exactly how my days go except for the trying to look busy as I'm usually under the Z3 or thinking up something mad to do to it
Though I failed yesterday as she had me repairing the bathroom sink waste
I used to work at a Chrysler (Talbot) garage and would've liked a Bagheera.
Tony.
Tony.
No need to go far for parts. Oily parts on a bagheera come from the bog standard simca/talbot parts bin. For example engine is the 1294cc Simca 1100 Ti and later S ans X models had tbe Chrysler Alpine 1442cc. I put a 1600 Solara engine in mine.
Last edited:
Did you see many bagheeras?
Only 2, which were brought in for MOT by squaddies from Kirton Lindsey Barracks. One had a problem with the flip up headlights which we repaired using some Lotus parts.
Tony.
I've never worked on a lotus. I'd have thought they'd have electric motors. Bagheera is a vacuum diaphram affair. Suck one side of the diaphram for up. Suck the other side for down.
That's what this car had, Vacuum operated ones.
Tony.
Tony.
Agreed about the oily parts. We had three Chrysler Alpines in four years and kept the wheels, radiators, etc when they were scrapped. I was thinking more about the under-bonnet frame and handbrake cable that I bought at M. Delcourt's place in Paris. Our local Chrysler dealer in Berkshire was very helpful as they had the relevant microfiche- but then they closed down.
The Matra Enthusiasts Club was/are very helpful as well.
I was never sure about that back disk brake. I suspected, at the time, that it came from sunbeam/avenger chrysler 180 or something like that. Under bonnet frame - there wasn't much there. Cross member and torsion bar suspension from Simca 1100 and a simple cradle for spare wheel and a flattray for the battery. The rest was just flat sheet steel
Sunbeam and Avenger had drum rear brakes, and IIRC (it's been a long time mind) the 180/2 litre did too.
Tony.
Tony.
It always confused me did that brake. Pain to get the piston retracted to fit new pads. It's like a Renault Alpine kinda thing.
Stop talking about Bagheeras. i really loved those cars. Much more talk and I'll be scrapping the idea of a 507 kit and start looking for a matra.
I wonder if I could get a 2.2Ltr Tagora engine in a bagheera. 
Somebody Stop me.
Why not go the whole hog and chuck the lightweight Alloy V6 lump from a Tagora, Peugeot 607 or Volvo in one?
Tony.
Tony.
Last edited:
Now to go out and buy the missus something nice so that she can't moan about me spending money on that 507 kit.
So you had/have a bagheera?
I never had one
Had a '74 and '77 Avenger, a 78 Alpine S (Neptune Blue) 1980 Alpine GL (Cherry Red)
1979 Horizon, 1984 A.Reg. Solara GLS 2-tone green.(2nd owner. Owner from new said he would sell me it one day, and he did).
Tony.
Had a '74 and '77 Avenger, a 78 Alpine S (Neptune Blue) 1980 Alpine GL (Cherry Red)
1979 Horizon, 1984 A.Reg. Solara GLS 2-tone green.(2nd owner. Owner from new said he would sell me it one day, and he did).
Tony.
Herewith a chapter from my latest (unpublished as yet) book "A Lifetime in Cars" currently comprising 156 vehicles. No pictures in this clip.
Matra-Simca Bagheera
capacity 1442cc manufactured1980 driven in1993
With the birth of our daughter I thought I would investigate the possibility of a three-seater car. The car in question was a Matra Simca Bagheera. There was a synergy due to having the same engine as the disposable motoring Chrysler Alpines we’d been using and thus we had many spares. I bought it locally from where it appeared to be in a sorry state with streaks of green all over it. It obviously hadn’t been used for some time. However, after the application of a bucket of detergent suds, it started to look quite smart per the pics here. They were taken just before a contact who had a flat bed truck with a winch delivered it for me.
The Bagheera has a sleek grp body bonded to a steel monocoque chassis with a Chrysler 1442 engine with two downdraught Zenith carburettors mounted amidships behind the seats. The main storage is in the front of the car but there is a small boot behind the engine. Its main problem is that the untreated steel rusts inexorably. There remain some good examples available but they would have needed extensive anti-rust treatment from new or a fair amount of later repair.
I got it running and did drive it locally but every time I came to work on it, the sills would be full of water. As I couldn’t keep it dry, I felt that I was fighting a losing battle and decided to let it go. It was one of 50 that had been legally converted to Right Hand Drive and deserved to be preserved.
Raising the headlights was achieved with a system that relied on the engine providing lower than atmospheric pressure to a vacuum tank that was also prone to rusting.
On one of our trips to France, I did visit the Delcourt garage in Paris and buy a replacement bonnet frame, the one on mine having rusted away. M. Delcourt bought up a lot of the available Matra spares from the factory in Romorantin. His yard was very impressive with a row of the later Murena bodyshells stacked up. Being galvanised, their exposure to the elements was preparing them nicely for primer. In their turn they suffered from rust in the rear suspension arms due to the poor quality steel used.
I attended the Paris RETROMOBILE show a few times by coach with the Matra Enthusiasts Club who remain an invaluable resource for anyone interested in or wishing to purchase/drive/maintain these idiosyncratic French cars. A feature of one show was the presence of a 2884cc V8 engine which had been made using two of the basic 1442cc engines cut, welded and geared together. It never made it into production.
Matra never produced a RHD version of the Bagheera at the factory although there were the 50 subsequent UK conversions previously mentioned and I know of one RHD Murena
A little acknowledged fact- Matra Automobiles produced the grp bodyshell of the Espace for Renault for many years and versions of that car. They even bear a Matra manufacturer’s plate so should strictly be called Matra Espaces. I did visit the old flax mill in the centre of Romorantin where the original Matra factory was located. Since then a museum has opened there. Also when I visited there was a large space age factory on the edge of town producing the Espace composite bodyshells. That has now gone as Renault started using steel for the Espace bodies with the Mk7 version.
Matra also produced the bodies for the ill-fated Renault Avantime there- a super spacious concept that failed to find enough buyers. Only 8500 were built, the factory closed and Matra Automobiles went into liquidation.
Matra were also in F1 50 years or so ago. My 1978 Alpine S was one of the best cars I ever had. At that time my eldest brother had an MGB GT and he thought it was the dogs. My 1442cc Alpine was quicker, faster, cornered much, much better and was loads more economical than that pile of crap.
Tony.
Tony.