Restoration of a MS11

[Lennart Sorth]

The UK company Zul-Racing are currently restoring a MS11 for a client - and they have
kindly started sending me pictures of the process :

http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Sports-Formula/Stories/Zul-Racing/index.html


Looks so simple and elegant.

Interesting, fascinating, fabulous, fantastic - what else ?  :-)

/Lennart

[Anders Dinsen]

Hmmmmm... wauw!!
It's wonderful to see that somebody has the money and energy to have such a beauty restored and that others has the passion to run a business like the Zul guys.

Magnificent.

A man+some suspension+BIG engine+four wheels = formula 1 racer from late 1960's

[Lennart Sorth]

It gets better
 - we're all (well, the MECUK) invited to visit them. Just have to contact them in good time, as they are often away ... racing classic cars on tracks all over the world. What a tough job ...  :-)

They are based near Donnington Park - which would be yet another great reason to visit the area :-)

[Anders Dinsen]

That's really nice of them!

It looks like it was fuel injected - mechanical. Look at all the fuel lines going to the trumpets. In one of the pictures, there's even a good view of an injector down a trumpet. Or am I wrong here? Fuel lines don't look like they are able to cope with any kind of pressure...  Anyone know anything about the technology?

Would be nice to visit them and have a chat...!

- Anders

[Lennart Sorth]

In one of the pictures, there's even a good view of an injector down a trumpet.

Indeed.

I have some other shots of (almost) the same engine here:
http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Sportsprototypes/M630/Gallery1/Med/ms80_01.html
http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Sportsprototypes/M630/Gallery1/Med/m630_04.html

And for the sake of this thread, I have just uploaded the full versions of those pictures too, - they are scans from the original negative. Not super sharp, but that the best my old camera/lens would do :-)

/Lennart

[Lorin]

The photos attached by Mr. Lennert Sorth are fantastic!  I am building a 'Tamiya' model of the MS11, and the more I learn, the more I discover I do not know; photos like these are worth their weight in gold.  If 'Zul' happens to send photos of the driver's seat before installation and you can attach them, I will sing your praises long and loud!

[Lennart Sorth]

I will add any pictures they send me - and hopefully we'll even be able to arrange a visit.

Wether I can be there is speculative, but if only the MECUK could go, then I'm sure we could get all the pictures we like

[krede]

Hehe.. to me it looks rather more like an areoplane then a racecar ! 

[Lennart Sorth]

more like an areoplane

Excactly ! - and this was indeed the reason Matra had so much success in Formula-1.
They were used to working with aeronautics and even space-technology, which made their approach so different.

[Lennart Sorth]

Just received two new pictures from Zul Racing - front suspension is looking more or less finished:

   http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Sports-Formula/Stories/Zul-Racing/index.html

/Lennart

[Lennart Sorth]

Hey -  joy oh joy

I just received another bunch of pictures, showing great details on the current state of the rebuild.

I wish I had the funds to have Zul Racing restore my Murena that way ... wow.

http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Sports-Formula/Stories/Zul-Racing/index.html

/Lennart

[Lennart Sorth]

They are really at it, up there in Derby at Zul-Racing.com - just look at the
pictures I just received today .

    http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Sports-Formula/Stories/Zul-Racing/index.html

The client owning this car btw has "several Matra Racing cars ranging from F2, Sports cars to F1"  ... interesting.

[Lennart Sorth]

Zul Racing are very interested in any pictures that can be found of this car - it is MS11 Chassis No 2, 1968.

All my stuff is currently packed in cardboard boxes (moving to UK by Feb 1) so I cannot help, but maybe some of you have access to such pictures ? 


I have recently upped the allowed attachment sizes, so a post on this forum may have up to 4 attachments, taking up a total of up to 3Mb. No single attachment may however exceed 2Mb, but that should make posting of larger pictures possible.


/Lennart

[Anders Dinsen]

Thanks for posting the pictures, Lennart... they are really interesting to see. Notice the solid brake discs for example. Also the aerodynamically shaped upper A-arm is interesting to see and shows how much they were aware of aerodynamics back then. It's also interesting to see how the damper and front spring is fitted inside the chassis, perhaps in an attempt to reduce drag? The geometries look very fixed, however, and not with any of the tuning options of newer race cars. Is it the anti-roll bar we can see behind the brake and clutch fluid containers? That looks reasonably easy to replace, though, and is useful to adjust for neutral steering. Rear end seems to have more adjustment options, however...

Interesting, interesting!

[Lennart Sorth]

I went to Derby to visit Zul racing this weekend - FABULOUS!
It turned out they are even restoring yet another Matra - a M670B !

The engine was not back from the engineshop yet, but within a a month or so, both cars are expected to be tested on Donnington Park - and hopefully I'll be there too.

Here are my pictures from the visit:
  http://www.matrasport.dk/Cars/Sports-Formula/Stories/20070210/index.html

/Lennart