Clubs:
MECUK the main English speaking club covering all Matra cars
Matra-Passion the main French Club
Club-Djet
Amicale-Matra530
Avantime-Gallery
Vectorboard for 505GTI Turbo resources
Portals:
Matrasport has a huge amount of information and links together with a forum covering all Matra cars
Matra Sites:
Matra Museum
MVS Venturi:
I recently found this fascinating article. News to me was that the original Venturi prototype used the turbo version of the N9TL from the 505GTI Turbo which was replaced for production because it was underpowered, by the PRV V6.
It also says that the PRV V6 was originally designed as a V8 but lost a couple of cylinders in the '70's fuel crisis. The same is true for the Maserati engine used in the Citroen SM. This accounts for the slightly odd beat of my V6 Espace which sounds like a Laverda 3 cylinder motorcycle.
Read all about it at Pistonheads
And there's one more car that relied on the N9 engine, the extraordinary BX4TC. This was partly developed by Politecnic on Citroen's behalf which may explain the engine - it was under development at the same time as Politecnic were busy tuning the the Murena. Read about it here Citroen BX4TC
I've always tried to avoid dealing directly with Matra gearboxes because transmissions are a very specialised art, especially when the contents of the box may vary so much. So I was pleased to receive details from Harry Martens in the Netherlands. Harry specialises in the CX gearbox used in the Murena and will both rebuild them and modify them to Quaife specs. www.ds-vitesse.com