Look What's Parked Here - A Matra Simca Bagheera

Right around the corner from where I live in Mexico City, I just stumbled across a curious little car. Unlike the previous vehicles in my Look What's Parked Here series, it is not something that caught my eye immediately. However, after I kept walking past it several times, I could not ignore the unusual character of this car. When I didn't even recognize its name (that is, neither of its three names), I started getting more curious myself.

Matra and Simca make a Bagheera

For those of you who know your 1970's European cars, this shouldn't sound weird to you. Why would it? After all, the French engineering company Matra partnered up with car manufacturer Simca, likewise from France, to create a somewhat different kind of car, the Bagheera. Nothing strange about that... unless you are like me, who has never heard of these companies or the car they produced, in which case they may just as well be moons of Neptune.

Seventies Style with some Unusual Features

To be honest, I am not a big fan of the style of the future envisioned in the 1970's, which in a way contributed to that awkward 80's look I remember impacting my childhood. And this car certainly is pointing in that exact direction, with the hidden headlights, making it look like the car is sleeping until its eyes pop open in the dark. Also the 3-door hatchback may have been radically new at the time, but for me looking back, I consider it overexploited. So if it had been for these two characteristics, I don't think I would even consider it worth a post.

However, there are two things that clearly stick out about the Bagheera, which made me stop for a closer look as soon as I noticed. First of all, there are three seats in the front, side-by-side. This is something I only know from American pick-up trucks or old station wagons. But in case of a European (looking) sports car I found it highly unusual.

So while it may be cool for three people to sit in the front, so neither one feels excluded, upon a closer look I had to realize that there are few alternatives to that arrangement. That's because there simply is no back seat. Sure, in the case of most sports cars they tend to be so small that you may as well skip it entirely, and many of them actually do. However, in the Bagheera there is something else in its place, which is the engine!

Two Trunks and a Glass Panel for Sound Protection

So, if the engine sits where the back seat should normally be, what is under the front hood? You guessed it: a rather small storage area. But that's not enough, there is another trunk in the far back, behind the engine. Kinda like in a Tesla, except for both seem to me somewhat insufficient. But who cares? It's a sports vehicle for showing off style and performance, and not for moving furniture around. Now I'm imagining myself in one of the seats (preferably not the middle one, haha) while the engine is being brought to its max right behind me! Good thing there is at least a glass panel between motor and passenger area, but it is actually enough? I can only guess...

Not Much Legacy, only a Cool Memory

Even though the eccentric design and skillful marketing brought the Bagheera to initial popularity, with over 10,000 cars sold in the first 18 months, ultimately the car failed to have a lasting legacy. The reasons for this were multi-layered, having to do with the shifting ownership of its manufacturers (Simca was gobbled up by Chrysler before being sold to PSA a few years later), as well as the challenges of the fuel crisis of that decade. Other problems, such as a leaky roof, made the German automobile association ADAC award it the "silver lemon" award for the car with the most problems.

Indirectly, the Bagheera's susceptibility to water damage (and thus to rust) led to its increasing collectible value, seeing that the chassis of most models have rusted away by now. The mechanic in my street, who I consider the most likely candidate for owning this particular Bagheera, knows this no doubt, and is probably actively working on bringing it back to its former glory, before selling it for big bucks. I don't think I would be interested in more than a brief test drive with it, but I am certainly glad I noticed the uniqueness of this weird vehicle for a post.