The cars : Matra-Simca Rancho development story

The 1977 Matra-Simca Rancho is one of those wonderful cars that made more of an impact than anyone realised at the time of its launch.

Today, no-one would bat an eyelid if a manufacturer launched a chunky-looking, van-based lifestyle vehicle with looks that hinted at off-road ability – but, back in the late 1970s, this was radical stuff. Here’s its story.


Matra-Rancho: on the style trial

The Matra Rancho was France’s first serious attempt at a multi-purpose utility vehicle. It came not from one of its major car companies but from Matra, one of the few small-scale specialist producers based in the country. The Rancho was a result of Matra’s growing confidence from being under the corporate wing of Chrysler.

The Matra-Simca Bagheera had been well received by the press and was selling well, and the company decided that it was ready for expansion. Matra was an innovative company – whatever it produced had to reflect this forward-thinking, imaginative philosophy.

However, Matra also needed to develop a car that would not only fit neatly into the Chrysler range but also attract new buyers. The mechanical parts of the new car would naturally come from Simca, Matra’s industrial partner.

Crisis leads to economical niche cars

The company was apprehensive that the aftershock of the 1973 Oil Crisis would reduce demand for sports cars. At the same time, it noticed the success of the Range Rover – a strong seller in spite of its thirsty V8 engine. Matra reasoned that there could be a market for a car that looked as rugged as the Range Rover, but which was smaller, cheaper, lighter and more economical.

Chrysler, which had owned Simca since the 1960s, supported the idea. The Simca 1200 Campero may have influenced that decision, a Simca 1100-based utility vehicle produced by a Spanish dealer. Chrysler is reported to have taken one back to France, pulled it to pieces and decided that the concept bore further investigation.

Matra – already looking for something to build alongside the Bagheera and taken by the idea of a mini Range Rover – was only too happy to pick up on the idea.

Inspired by Spain, based on a van

It launched into the development of a similar project to the Campero, based upon the 1976 Simca 1100 VF3 (above), a commercial version of the small car with a roofline raised by 8.0in. The idea of basing the new Matra on the front-wheel-drive Simca 1100 platform was a sound one.

It was produced in large numbers, the French public loved it and its mechanical bits were tried and tested. It also meant that the new car could be developed within a limited budget.

The new car was christened P12 and was developed into a faux off-roader with many of the styling attributes associated with the Range Rover such as its horizontally-split tailgate.

Launched with a storm

It was launched in Europe as the Matra-Simca Rancho in May 1977 arriving on the British market in May 1978. Most of the rear body was made from a fibreglass clad steel frame with large picture windows in the sides and large rear tailgate. The back seat was 10cm higher than the front seats to give back seat passengers a sense of adventure!

Underneath, it was pure Simca 1100, based on a reinforced Simca/Dodge 1100 Pick Up chassis made longer and stronger aft of the front doors. That meant the Rancho shared its torsion bar front and rear suspension with the 1100, but it was fitted with an 1442cc 80bhp Simca 1308/Chrysler Alpine engine.

This helped propel the new car to 91mph although fuel consumption was fairly high as the car was only slightly more aerodynamic than a brick. The brakes came from the high performance Simca 1100 TI, the doors, front wings, windscreen and wings from the 1100 Pick Up and the dashboard from the hatchback 1100. Unique sports style wheels were fitted along with large plastic bumpers and grilles over the lights.

Cool details all over

Two spotlights were mounted on the front wings, next to the windscreen pillars. These only worked with the ignition switched off! On top of the steel roof over the front two seats was a matt black plastic roof rack. This was to provide additional storage space and to try and disguise the sudden change in roofline between the Simca-derived cab and the glass fibre rear extension.

Matt black wheel arch extensions, side rubbing strips, bumpers and window frames were fitted to give the Rancho an aggressive yet practical appearance – even the steering wheel was black.

Accessories available included a third back seat. Although the final production car was front-wheel drive only, Matra did experiment with four-wheel-drive versions. With the limited development budget available, developing a 4×4 was not really a viable option – in any case, 4×4 would have meant extra weight and fuel consumption.

…But no four-wheel drive

However, the Rancho did come with a sump guard just in case owners were fooled by the looks into heading for the hills. The company had also hoped to replace the 1442cc carburettor-fed engine with a 1600cc fuel-injected unit – again, another plan that remained but a pipe dream.

It was the lack of four-wheel drive that was perhaps the biggest disappointment of the car, which certainly looked every bit the part of the go anywhere, do anything type of vehicle that would appeal to upwardly mobile adventurous young people.

Publicity photographs invariably featured people using their Rancho to indulge in various outdoor sports in what were obviously supposed to be out of the way places. Unfortunately, with just front-wheel drive and a ground clearance limited to six inches, the Rancho had no more chance of getting through the jungle or across the steppes than, say, a regular Simca 1100…

Compromised but fun

Britain’s Motor magazine described the Rancho as: ‘well equipped and fun to drive’. However, its overall view was that: ‘it is a compromise: more capable than the average estate but difficult to take seriously as an off-road vehicle’.

However, it did  have lots of style as well as lots of room and made an interesting and good-looking alternative to the other options that were available in the late Seventies for those with demanding leisure interests.

This growing group of car buyers had a choice of an estate car version of a regular saloon or a small van – maybe with windows cut into the sides later! Chrysler’s Press Department described its as: ‘a multi-purpose leisure vehicle’ and the Rancho came fourth in the 1977 Car of the Year competition.

Form over function…

The Rancho soon found favour with buyers, especially in its native France, who appreciated its huge interior space and limited off-road ability. Car magazines tended not to understand the Rancho, questioning why it should look the way it did, while not being able to back up the macho image with genuine off-road ability.

Buyers, on the other hand, understood it immediately… form over function! At the British launch Chrysler said: ‘the Rancho has become a very fashionable car in which to be seen along the boulevards of Paris’. The Rancho may not have had the capability of a Land Rover, but it cost 20 per cent less and looked like it cost 20 per cent more.

In 1979, its name changed from Matra-Simca Rancho to Talbot-Matra Rancho (above) to reflect the change in ownership of the parent company. At the same time, the Rancho was offered with a low compression petrol engine, the idea being to allow lower octane petrol to be used which was useful for support exports to those countries where petrol was generally of a lower grade than that available in France.

In October 1980, the Rancho gained electronic ignition, a special economy-tuned carburettor, a slightly lower differential ratio and a radio. However, 1980 was also the year that the seeds of the Rancho’s demise were sown.

From Rancho to Espace – PSA’s loss is Renault’s gain

During 1980 Matra had developed project P18 as a replacement for the Rancho (below). This was a much larger concept than the Rancho although it was based on the Talbot Solara floorpan which was itself based on the same Simca 1100 chassis that underpinned the Rancho.

Parent company Peugeot didn’t feel it had the money to develop the new project and Matra was turned down. Matra then approached Renault with its new idea, and La Regie immediately took up the option on this promising new design.

That meant the end for the Matra Murena. The three-seater sports car was seen as competition for its Alpine and Fuego models and so Renault demanded that production of the Murena was stopped before the P18 could be produced. Just before Christmas 1983, when the Matra factory closed down for the holidays, the last Murena – a red 142bhp Murena S – rolled off the production line.

The plant was converted to produce the P18, which became one of Europe’s most influential cars – the Renault Espace, Europe’s first people carrier.

Matra and PSA fall out

The relationship between Matra and Peugeot had become increasingly strained thanks to it burgeoning co-operation with Renault. Sales of the Rancho had been more than the double the forecasts. Comparatively low development and production costs meant that the Rancho was also the most profitable Matra until the Espace.

However, Peugeot took a fair slice of the profit on each car. Despite this, Matra took the strategic decision to end production of the Rancho in 1984 and concentrate its efforts on the Espace. This was a wise decision because Espace production soon climbed to 300 cars per day. It became the most produced car in Matra’s history, taking that record from the Rancho.

Matra Rancho in hunting mode

The Rancho remained on sale until early 1985. Even though Matra was increasingly focused on the P18/Espace project from 1980 onwards, it did not neglect the Rancho. The Rancho Grand Raid was launched in 1980 and intended for use over rougher country than the standard model.

It featured a limited slip differential to try and mitigate the limitations of front-wheel drive only in slippery conditions. Other additional equipment included floor protection, electric windows and tinted glass, a front-mounted electric winch capable of hauling a 1200kg load and heavy duty tyres.

More variations on a theme

The Grand Raid, which was never sold in Britain, was offered in Matt Green only with Safari Beige trim. Two more versions were also announced in 1980: the Rancho X was a more luxurious model with metallic paint, alloy wheels, tinted glass and posher trim, while the limited edition Midnight was a special model available only in black.

The latter model was the only Rancho to feature chrome trim, albeit restricted to the door handles, a bull bar at the front and the side rails of the cab-based roof rack. A mere 100 are believed to have been made. Neither the X nor the Midnight made it across the Channel.

There was also a special French-market only version, designed to exploit French tax laws that smiled favourably on utility vehicles. It had the rear seats removed, giving more load space, and was marketed as a workman’s truck.

Opening up…

The Rancho Découvrable appeared in 1981. It featured canvas sides and rear to the rear compartment in an attempt to create a more Jeep-like vehicle. Two colours were offered – green or brown.

Seats were vinyl trimmed rather than the cloth used on the fully-enclosed versions. No more than two hundred examples were built, most of which ended up on the Spanish Mediterranean coast and in the Greek islands.

The Rancho’s legacy…

Just under 56,700 Ranchos were built between 1977 and 1985. Unfortunately, none of them were particularly well protected against rust and, as a result, there are surprisingly few Ranchos left running either in Britain or in Europe.

Although the rear section, being made of fibreglass, lasts well, the same cannot be said of the rest of the car. Particularly tasty areas for the Rust Bug were the floor, wings, front doors, bulkhead, windscreen surround, rear chassis, front chassis… The engines last well though. If you see one, it is a nice gesture to complement the owner on what is a true labour of love.

The Rancho’s contemporary French competitors, apart from regular estate cars, were soft roaders such as 2CV-based Citroën Mehari and the Renault Rodeo, based on the Renault Four. These were rather crude and much less powerful in comparison to the Rancho. However, neither offered more ability in the rough stuff than the Rancho as both were front-wheel drive.

Premium priced in its day

In Britain, the car was priced to compete with much bigger cars. In 1978, when it was launched, the Rancho was priced at £5650 – which put it up against such competition as the Volvo 245DL at £5357 and the Citroën CX 2400 Safari at £5428. The Rover 2600 may not have had as much space but its payload at 1268lb was much greater than the Rancho’s 1025lb.

Having said that, a Range Rover would have cost £8528… Real 4X4 competition did not really exist below the Land Rover. The Japanese baby 4X4s such as the Suzuki SJ410 and the Daihatsu were only starting to appear on European roads and were firmly marketed as working cars.

Subaru was only just becoming known outside of Asia. The Russian Lada Niva was perhaps the most realistic competitor to the Rancho, offering true off-road ability with its coil sprung four-wheel-drive chassis and tough 1600cc engine. Its price was, like all Comecon cars, extremely competitive. Build quality wasn’t too good, but the Nivas did have at least some protection against rust.

The Rancho’s influence on the automotive world was not immediate but, in time, it made its mark. The tough-looking Rover Streetwise and the generations of crossovers that followed, and which litter our streets today, are clearly evidence of that.

Keith Adams

21 Comments

  1. I was immediately reminded of this car when I first saw the original Toyota RAV4 in 1994- it might have been the plastic cladding, or the fact that its 4wd mechanicals came from a car and not a truck.

  2. The Corgi model with the rainbow on it?

    I wasn’t sure what it was – the Rancho was a very rare sight on the roads. I thought it was some sort of Range Rover.

  3. It is surprising that PSA did not exploit the Rancho more by selling diesel-powered versions featuring the 1.6 XIDL and 1.9 XUD from the Peugeot 305.

  4. Here in the Netherlands this car was loved because it was used in a very famous children show about the adventures of a clown and acrobat “Bassie & Adriaan”. They drove a red one with yellow dots for 3 of their movies. They even ended up racing it on the Zandvoort Circuit when trying to escape the baddies who were following them in a datsun 240z. Some footage at the end of this clip.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6yybUlwTCjw

  5. The 1.6L with 5 speed would have improved performance without costing at the petrol pump, better option would have been the XUD once it was available…. It would have made it even less affordable, its main drawback was its price list, it was among the most expensive French cars available at the time.

  6. This article is wrong – the Renault Rodeo was always available in 4X4, just like the Renault 4 on which it was based

  7. My late dad had one as a hand-me-down company car. He hated it. I only went in it a few times but I couldn’t see anything special about it, just tinny and noisy.

  8. I hadn’t realised how much of the front half of the Rancho had been carried straight over from the Simca 1100, very clever “accessorising” to make it so much more exotic than the humble hatchback/van it was based on!

    • It was actually a masterpiece of marketing. Selling what was basically a rattly Simca pickup with a fibreglass dog kennel on the back as an up-market faux off-roader – and getting away with it – is pretty good going.
      As I said a few years ago, Dad’s was a hand-me-down from one of the company directors who bred and/or showed dogs and in his case it really was a dog kennel. It’s nearly 40 years ago now but I think he replaced it with a Range Rover.
      Were all Simca engines noisy and rattly? I only had limited experience of whatever was in the Rancho and an equally bad Chrysler Alpine a colleague had as a company car.

  9. I have a Rancho, It’s in quite a poor state but I’m hoping to restore it in the near future but it definitely won’t be a weekend fix.

  10. This was actually a great concept. Simca / Chrysler has made maximum use of the components present. A low cost basic utility vehicle combined with an 1308 engine, 1100 ti brakes and interior components of the normal 1100, this combined with the sales price they must have made a considerable margin on each car. And to be honest, it looks very very good, it’s definately a pre cursor to all SUV’s of many decades later. Even the 4×4 benchmark Land Rover was inspired by the Rancho, optically the LR Discovery one (introduced some 17 years later!) is almost a copy of the Rancho.

  11. The Rancho was a car that could have come good if Peugeot were willing to invest in it instead of letting it wither away. Had the Simca engines been ditched in favour of a 1.6 Peugeot and a 1.9 XUD, the rust proofing significantly improved, a five speed Peugeot transmission and 4 wd fitted as standard, and the Rancho could have really taken off as a cheap alternative to a Range Rover. It was a good looking, spacious car and a clever concept, just it needed a lot of improvement.

  12. I remember reading an article at the time these cars were current which was all about how their ‘militaristic’ styling reflected the urban terrorism chic of the time. Italy and Germany, and I suppose the Basque country, had major problems with urban terrorists and the article saw the character of the car as reflecting this.
    It’s difficult for us to see this now as we’ve become so used to SUVs and 4x4s (which owe much more to military style than to rural style) dominate the market. The jeep, the army Land Rover and, reductio ad absurdum, the Humvee, have led us to where we are now. The Isis pick-up is another aspect of this.
    That guy was writing that article in more innocent days.

    • @ michael hine, we might not have had the Red Brigades over here, but in Northern Ireland the IRA and the Loyalist groups were an every day threat and IRA terrorism often spilled over into bombing campaigns on the mainland. The late seventies truly were a dire time and not an era most people would want to revisit.

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