MatraSport Forum

The association Bagheera-café located a New Old Stock of Bagheera chassis plates.
New, original, genuine and just waiting for the stamping
Any model available.

Peanuts 15 € + delivery price (and the Euro is going down )

But ... it's a "all of nothing" deal.
And so far we struggle to reach more than 20 % of the stock

So, if you are interested, let me know  ;)

Some people are making quick decisions :
For the X3550 4X and the X6550 6X, only italian versions are still available

Assuming they are suitable for a Series 2 Bagheera, please let me have 4 items if possible. Thanks. Andy Owler.

PayPal would be easiest for me. Monaie in the post!

Serie 2 ...

Then which ones ?
- X3350 7X4...
- X6550 7X4...
- X 6550 8X4...
- X6550 9X5...
- X6551 9X5...
- X6552 AX5...
or even X6553 AX5...

Or should I have a look at your chassis numbers ?  ;)

OK, I knew it was too easy! I need to check.

Andy Owler

No need.

It'll be 4 times the X6550 7X4....

And if you check, you'll see that Baggy Grey ends with a 1  ;)

Spyros wrote...It'll be 4 times the X6550 7X4....

Right again! These are the chassis numbers of all the S2 Bagheeras we have owned (* indcates those still in our family).  All are righthand drive conversions except for Joe and Pink.

* Grey 7021 (purchased RHD new in 1978)

* Joe 5978 (Competition car)

* Rouge 7025 (Sister-in-law Jennie's car)

* Ginge 7118 (Son Philip's car)

Wreck 7137 (largely dismantled but many parts retained including the scuttle with the stamped number - future space frame Bagheera??))

Blue 7044 (Donated to a MECUK member when I ran out of space)

6     3236 (Bagheera #6 also donated to a MECUK member. This car had an original Hodec name plate - I forget the number). I wonder why is this number so far out of sequence??

Baggy Pink (Dec 2009) was an S1 and I do not have her numbers to hand.

Andy

Because you have it incorrect Andy.  That chassis was 407236 .  I saw it when John Allan had it and yes I saw the Hodec plate on it too.  If you check the chassis list in the magazine (RHD articles) you can see it is the last RHD in the list.

Roy

Roy wrote....If you check the chassis list in the magazine (RHD articles) you can see it is the last RHD in the list.

I don't have your article nearby. Why is it the last on the list? I had always assumed that it was an early conversion! Is the list not in numerical order?

Andy

The list is in numerical order of chassis number.  So they go from 406990 to 407240 from what we can tell.  It would be highly unlikely the cars would have been parked in anything like numerical sequence in the compound.  So the order they took the cars from storage for conversion would have been totally random.  No-one went looking for the next in sequence of a particular colour when a RHD conversion was required!

It's the same as the engine number sequence in the chassis being random.  A batch of engines would have been delivered to Matra from Simca and put in a store.  When an engine was required on the production line, they would simply fetch one from the store.  No-one bothers to check if it the next in numerical sequence!  They simply pick the most convenient one.  C'est la vie.

Roy

Maybe they were working the "LIFO" stock control system? (Last In, First Out") That would make sense!

Thanks anyway!

Andy

Well there may have been some of this effect by chance, but if you study the list again, and note the registration numbers along with the VIN you can see which were the early conversions ('R' registrations) or late ones with stock that had stood for well over a year, and they are random through the range.

Roy

There is something else to tell the older ones.
The waranty date.
This is the date the car was sold and was kept up to date by Matra in order to stop to provide a waranty after 6 months

Spyros wrote... There is something else to tell the older ones. The waranty date.
This is the date the car was sold and was kept up to date by Matra in order to stop to provide a waranty after 6 months....

Our new Bagheera had 12 months warranty! This was, and is still, normal In the UK.

Where do you find the warranty date?

Andy

In the Matra files, last column

I said 2 stupid things :
The last column was the country code : 006 = Angleterre
The former column = waranty date but is empty for UK cars.
I only have the expedition date for UK cars

I suppose they expected Chrysler UK to keep that sort of information. It would still be interesting!

Potential big problem with Baggy Joe - possible blown head gasket. I'm off to take the compression pressures now - fingers crossed!

Full story later

Andy