MatraSport Forum

Hi guys, I’ve been bored over the xmas period and have been tidying all my Matra bits and bobs, I have catalogued all the bills for my car for the last 20 years, organised all the MEC magazines, and sorted through the many reviews, press articles, etc that I’ve got from the early 80's. I’m wondering if anyone has any Murena reviews that I don’t, if so I’d be willing to trade. I'll put a list below of all the ones I have and if anyone could add any missing one that would be great.

UK Matra Murena Reviews
-----------------------------
1. Autocar, April 1981, Well Packaged Sports Car.
2. Car, May 1981, Murena the Marvellous.
3 Motor, July 1981, Talbot-Matra Murena.
4. Alternative Cars, February 1983, Murena Amour.
5. Alternative Cars, June 1983, Murena French Lessons.
6. Alternative Cars, July 1983, RHD Murena Impressions.
7. Autocar, 13 August 1983, Musicians Murena, RHD Murena Turbo.
8. Alternative Cars, December 1983, Murena Prep 142/S.
9. Sports Cars Monthy, March 1986, Matra Bageera & Murena.
10. Thoroughbred & Classic & Cars, June 1986, Beauty and The Beast.
11. Specialist Sportcar, March 1988, Murena Feature.
12. Sportscars Illustrated, December 1990, Murena - The Matra with Magic.
13. Classic and Sportscar, July 1990, Profile - Matra - Bagheera & Murena.
14. Classic and Sportscar, July 1990, Buyers Guide - Matra - Bagheera & Murena.
15. Popular Classics, January 1991, Murena comparison.
16. Classic Cars Magazine, November 1999, Matra Murena 2.2 buyer's guide.
17.Practical Classics November 1999, Side by side - mid engined sports cars - Fiat X1/9, Porsche 914, Lancia MonteCarlo, Toyota MR2 and Talbot Matra Murena.
18. Classic Cars, November 1999, More for your wedge - Lotus Excel v Alfa GTV6 v Murena - buy yourself a bargain.
19. Classic & Sports Car, February 2003, Matra Murena vs Lancia Beta Montecarlo: Mid-engined shootout between these forgotten baby supercars.
20. Practical Classics March 2005, Your Cars – Matra Murena.


A few more UK reviews needing more details? Can you help?
----------------------------------------------------------
21. Gran Turismo (don't know date) - RHD Murena 2.2 Turbo.
22. A Review from a Magazine I can’t find the info for, Titled Explosive Plastique.
23. A Review from a Magazine I can’t find the info for, Titled French Dressing

French Reviews
--------------------
1. Gazoline, Oct 2001, Matra Murena - Sportive Bridee
?. A Review from a Magazine I can’t find the info for, Titled Et Pour Quel Quues Chevaux de plus...

Ive highlighted the ones i have in bold

ok ive scanned the ones i have and could email them if wanted, but i'd really like more if you have them and could do the same. It makes great reading, not a bad review really, the murena really is a forgotten gem!

I would very much like a copy of them, but im afraid I don't have any to trade.

Well I dont mind sending them to you, let me know your email address and i'll send them, it might be over a few days as theres lots but hope you enjoy them, thanks, David

we could also put them in the vault ?

/Lennart

Thats a great idea but im not sure if the magazines would aprove, not that i can see why (I think some dont even exist anymore). I do object to people charging top prices for these mags on ebay and the like. so if your interested then send me your email and i'll forward them on. Thanks for the interest and if anyone does have a copy of the reviews i dont have let me know.. Thanks guys, David

In trying to send these things out ive realised my scanner is saving each page to a Jpeg of 2 to 3 meg, what the best easy way of making these smaller?

Classics magazine may 2001: "red hot coupés" Murena 2.2 vs mazda RX7 :D vs porsche 924. When interest i can try to scan it.

A copy of that would be cool, just dont do what i did and keep the resolution down or the files will be huge! If you need any of  mine let me know.

And now, some action  ;D here is what I have:

(http://sweb.cz/michaltalbot/Fr1.JPG)
(http://sweb.cz/michaltalbot/Fr2.JPG)
(http://sweb.cz/michaltalbot/Fr3.JPG)
(http://sweb.cz/michaltalbot/Fr4.JPG)

(http://sweb.cz/michaltalbot/De1.JPG)
(http://sweb.cz/michaltalbot/De2.JPG)
(http://sweb.cz/michaltalbot/De3.JPG)
(http://sweb.cz/michaltalbot/De4.JPG)
(http://sweb.cz/michaltalbot/De5.JPG)

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot1.jpg)

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot2.jpg)

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot3.jpg)

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot4.jpg)

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot5.jpg)

(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot6.jpg)

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot1.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot2.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot3.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot4.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot5.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y96/matramurena/redhot6.jpg

Bart: WOOOOW! Very nice pictures. But why they compared 1,6 vs. 2,3 vs 2,0 I mean, why they didn't use Murena 2,2 ???

My thoughts exactly.  Shame they didn't use a 2.2.

And nice reg.plate on Murena - PRC in Czech means the same as F.u.c.k.  ;D

His comments about the Rancho are pretty nasty.  He obviously never drove one ???

As usual Matra were well ahead of their time.

I have a copy of this magazine.  This car is for sale at the moment - it does not have a turbo on it though as it was sensibly removed many years ago.  The RHD conversion used a steering box not a rack!!

Roy

Do you have a scanner ?::)

I have started to send these reviews to Lennart Sorth (not sure if he'll thank me due to the size) and I think he will post them on his site so everyone can look copy at their own free will.

on the contrary.
THANK YOU - THANK YOU  - THANK YOU :-)

I have plenty of space on my mailserver (which is also the server where MatraSport runs) - and it is connected using 100Mbit, so just go ahead and make my day.

I will process the files to a good quality/filesize compromise and put them in the vault.

/Lennart

Ahh so it IS true... Size doesnt matter!!  ;D ;D ;D

HI Lennart

If I have any articles that are not on David's list I will get them scanned and send them to you.

ahh - that reminds me of that wonderful Hélène Mahieu .... erhm I mean *Renault* commercial that ran in the UK some 10 years back :) - "just 4 centimeters of extra Va Va Voom" or however it went :-)

Anywayup, size *does* matter, all have their preferences and I have thus made them smaller. :-)
I chose 100 pixels vertical and 90% jpeg, plus some filtering:

   http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Murena/vault/scan/

I'll add the files as they arrive.  Lewisman, just go ahead, I'll try to keep up :-)

/Lennart

Good work old boy! I'll send some more now I know your getting them and can do something with them..

I'm going to see if I have I OCR software somewhere  at home, could be fun to make the reviews into a document, so it could be translated. I think I'm not the only one here that don't speak english, french and german fluidly....

If anybody has any scans of fairly good quality, i would very much like to try them out in the OCR-prog, Michals scans was scanned on a too low resulotion....

Came across some sellers brochures on a Matra site in Portugal, will try and see if a can get a hold of them tomorrow an post them here. I belive they were dutch.

And Roy has kindly sent it to me - with an amendment written by him in 1984:
     http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Murena/vault/scan/GTmag.pdf

/Lennart

I wonder if they have any "legal" papers for that conversion!!?

Sorry for the VERY long wait, Ive now scanned all the matra road tests and offer them to all who want them. These are not small files so beware. Let me know if anyone wants to host them..

PS I'd still like any of the missing ones from my list!

Practical Classics has just acquired a Murena 1.6.  It is an import that has not yet been UK registered.  Watch Staff Car Sagas for more information.

I expect to get full internet (at last) over the next few days so anyone who wants/needs them let me know

I have also found 2 x original adverts for the Murena

I'm not sure if anyone is interested but I have now all my Matra mazazine reviews in PDF format, anyone wishing to have them, please email me and i'll forward them on, anyone wishing to hoast them on their site, even better!

Hi David

I would appreciate a copy of your magazaines.

Cheers

David