A Blue, 1971 Matra MS120 Formula One car being driven down the "Grand Avenue" at the 2016 London Classic Car Show
The Matra MS120 was the fifth and final Formula One car produced by Matra (following the MS9, MS10, MS11, MS80 and MS84).The MS120 was later developed to become the Matra MS120B, Matra MS120C and Matra MS120D. The car was built at Matra's Formula One base at Vélizy-Villacoublay in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, designed under the direction of Gérard Ducarouge and Bernard Boyer. For 1970 following the agreement with Simca, Matra asked Tyrrell to use their V12 engine rather than the Cosworth. Jackie Stewart got to test the Matra V12, but since a large part of the Tyrrell budget was provided by Ford, and another significant sponsor was French state-owned petroleum company Elf, which had an agreement with Renault that precluded supporting a Simca partner, the partnership between Matra and Tyrrell ended. Matra kept Frenchman Jean-Pierre Beltoise, and New Zealander Chris Amon joined Matra using the Matra MS120B specification version for 1971. Beltoise was in difficulty following the 1971 1000 km Buenos Aires; racing for the Matra sports car team; he was involved in the accident in which Ignazio Giunti died, and Beltoise's international racing licence was suspended for some time. Amon won the Non-Championship Argentine Grand Prix and finished fifth in the first round in the 1971 season in the South African Grand Prix. Beltoise returned for the Spanish Grand Prix finishing sixth and Amon finished third. The Monaco Grand Prix was a bad race with both retiring with differential failures. The Dutch Grand Prix saw Beltoise ninth and Amon retiring after he spun off. Then came the French Grand Prix which was Matra's and Beltoise's home race, with Amon fifth and Beltoise seventh. Next, the British Grand Prix saw Beltoise seventh and Amon retiring with an engine failure. The German Grand Prix saw Matra only entering Amon and retiring because of an accident.
Size: 4966px × 3349px
Location: ExCeL London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock, London, E16 1XL
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -quarters, 1971, 2016, 3000, aluminium, amon, avenue, beltoise, bernard, blue, boyer, car, cc, chris, classic, ducarouge, engine, f1, formula, french, front, gerard, grand, jean-pierre, london, matra, monocoque, ms120, naturally-aspirated, show, v12, view, élizy-villacoublay
