I never knew that Matra made trucks; they are more the
"militaro-industrial" concern than anything else, with a
missile-cum-satellite aerospace core and lots of other stuff such as CAD
software and related hardware (they once were Sun's distributor in
France when the former was still a small silicon valley firm). They used
to have some semiconductor facilities which provided much of Renault's
electronics, and which, after a few mergers, became part of AEG, the
electronic arm of Daimler Benz.
Automotive-wise, they are probably better known for the introduction of
the minivan in the European car industry, with a prototype ready about 3
months later than Chrysler. History has it that said prototype was first
shown to Peugeot's top brass, who were not interested, and then to
Renault, who partnered with Matra (they brought the mechanical bits and
the dealer network, while Matra assembled the minivan in their
Romorantin plant) to bring it to the market.
As for the :Murena and the Bagheera, I don't know which engines were
used in those cars: they could very well be Peugeot's.
As for Matra's future automotive projects, there is a rumor of a
luxo-coupe in the works, with Renault as the industrial partner...
-- Jean-Marc Calvez, jmcalvez@club-internet.fr Grenoble, France_____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to PEUGEOT-REQUEST@PADUI.ORG with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the message body. Leave the subject line blank. _____________________________________________________