Looks nice Roy. If I wasn't selling mine I would defenitely get one.
Just one comment. Couldn't they write MATRA and MURENA instead of TALBOT etc. on top?
What about the ventpipe on the original? How is that handled?
Regards. Jon.
Hello Jon,
Thanks for your comments. As I explained in the posting, the castings were made long before Matra came into this. The cover was made originally for this engine when it was a racing version of the Simca 180/2-litre and if we now wish to change the lettering, that would mean altering or making new casts, which would increase the costs. At this time I wish to see just how much genuine interest there may be at this price point. If we had at least five people seriously interested and ready to pay the current price, then I would go back to Marcel and ask what would be the price if we wished to have some different lettering on the cover; but for now they would be using the existing casts which keeps the costs down.
However, the word 'Talbot', it is in fact correct anyway. The engine was made by Simca which in 1979 was renamed Talbot, and the Murena was sold as a Talbot-Matra Murena, and Talbot is therefore authentic. A similar thing happened in the seventies with some Bagheera owners removing the Simca part of the name, but now as a rare car originality counts, and owners have been going back to having Matra-Simca on their Bagheera.
We should be proud of what Simca and Talbot allowed Matra to achieve. If not for them, we would not have had the fabulous and still unmatched Murena!
With regard to the crankcase ventilation, I knew this one would need modifying as it does not have any at this time, (it wasn't intended for a road car engine) but it will be easy for me to do the modification myself. If we have some more made the cost stated would include a vent hose connection.
Roy