Talbot Simca Matra Rancho Goes for a Drive
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2024
- The car that accidentally created the 'Lifestyle' vehicle sector, originally the French Simca-Matra Rancho and then the Talbot-Matra Rancho was a 2 wheel drive that looked like an offroader.
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Pretty sure most of us only recognise this because we had the Matchbox or Corgi version as a kid 😂
Yep!!
I found out about this car because I watched a video on a great channel called "Big Car", about the Renault Avantime, and MATRA, and another video on a channel called "World Cars Evolution", about the SIMCA company evolution through time and this car appeared :)
It looked so cool and reminded me of the Land rover Discovery 2 that my had used to own, I have many find memories in my childhood from that car so I love this shape of car, this one was around way before the land Rover
Since it's a French vehicle, I wonder if there is a Majorette version?
Specifically for Dutch viewers: Bassie & Adriaan ;)
Owned an orange one in the 90s - really great car let down by being incredibly unreliable. It was on its 3rd gearbox when I owned it.
Holy shit, it looks brand new, and actually actually looks modern!! WHAT THE
Adriaantje!
The Dutch children's duo Bassie en Adriaan drove a Rancho for a few series in the late 70's. It made the rare Rancho a very famous car in the Netherlands. Even to this day.
Hahaha, remembered that, after watching the shows of Bassie and Adriaan, it was my most favorite car in my childhood.
Was looking for this comment 😅
Living in the U.S. this is the first of these I've ever seen and as the driver of a 20 year old Subaru Outback this appeals to me immensely. It can't be any worse to drive than the 1971 VW van I had in the early 80's that was remarkably good on some pretty rough trails despite the shifter and steering being quite vague on the pavement. I love it!
Subaru Outback - good choice sir.
What a whacky but lovely car! It does actually look like a mini Discovery! It’s very appealing and definitely a refreshing difference. It’s actually nicer than any of the tedious modern crossovers. Great video Matt!
There was a lot of 'idea exchange' between the orininal Range Rover, this and the Discovery
@@furiousdriving It's a crossover … between a Skoda Yeti and the Popemobile
i loved my matchbox rancho SO MUCH when i was a kid..
ikr
Same here 👍
I prefer the corgi version
I was gonna say. Only remember playing with the toy car replicas.
Yep had an orange one, went with me everywhere when I was a little kid.
My teacher had one in 1982. ( so you were right in saying that every school car park had one. It was bronze) Love it. I’ll take 2 😍
It looks surprisingly modern and even quite pretty. I suspect if this vehicle was made today (with updated engine and mechanicals ), it would sell very well. I certainly prefer the bodyshell to things like the rather dumpy Dacia Duster.
Kinda like the Jimny....
Unfortunately VW cancelled the Skoda Yeti... Which sold well, as basically an updated Rancho.
The simca looks pretty flat on the height for being a big vehicle.
@@OsellaSquadraCorse .
My taste exactly 👍
@@OsellaSquadraCorse I agree, the Yet was infinitely more fun to look at than the broing, plain vanilla VAG standard design Skoda Karoq that replaced it.
I'm amazed it hasn't rotted away. My parents inherited a Simca hatch this thing is based on and it was a complete rustbucket. My dad used to joke about needing a sledgehammer to engage first gear.
In one of my other comments, I mentioned that I had a wealthy second cousin who was something to do with Formula 1, who bought one of these new in the 1970s (before he went on to buy one of Ayrton Senna's old cars - well, he WAS wealthy!). The Rancho was great fun. But, also, my divorced mum also had a Simca 1100 on which this was based, and I used to service it for her in the late 1970s when I was a teenager (when I was slim enough to crawl under one), and it was a total rust-bucket. I don't remember how long it lasted, but not very long.
@@horsenuts1831 Those Simca cars lasted about 5-10 years max before they rotted out.
Near the Northsea they desintegrated like a sugarcube that gets wet.
Remember Simca cars were the cheapest to buy car brand in Europe at that time and also used that Russian steel Fiat and Alfa Romeo used.
That Russian steel Fiat got for helping the Soviet union (Lada) was good for construction, not for making sheet steel out of it for car production.
Fiat 127, Alfasud, Simca 1100.
You jus could hear them rust away.
It took Fiat decades afterwards to get rid of the masters in rust stigma.
Simca/Talbot was discontinued by PSA to get rid of stigmas.
Alfa Romeo went bankrupt due to rust/strikes and Fiat was forced to take over Alfa Romeo by the Italian goverment.
In the Netherlands there was a super popular TV kids programma called ‘Bassie & Adriaan’ about a real circus clown and an acrobat for many years and they used this car on their adventures catching ‘bad guys’.
Matt: I wasn't planning on doing a wiper test today....Hubnut left the chat
Ian would have raged over that 'triangle of doom'!
@@660einzylinder more like a Wedge of Indifference.
I can't help but notice how far the N/S wiper is away from the edge of the windscreen at the top of its sweep. That's a massive unswept area which would be in front of the driver in an LHD example.
I saw that too! Cant be right can it,i mean the passenger wont see a thing🤔
We had a Simca in the US. It was as though Simca TRIED to make them rust. Many cars rust, but Simca took it to an all new level. Everything rusted. The straw that broke the camels back for my father was that the lights would rust shut, such that you could not change bulbs- Without drilling out the screws.
Always wanted one of these! Ahead of its time. Bought a BMW Gran Coupe yesterday and yet today its this Rancho i am watching videos of....
"according to Chrysler's press office, this isn't an SUV. This is a multi pursh puss leisure vehicle" bless ya
RAAAAANNNNNCCCHHHHOOOOOOOO!!!!
Not even watched it yet but it's my favourite car ever and I'm really excited!
I have been seeing these even when they were nearly new, and always wanted to know what they drive like! When the Discovery was released, like you, I was immediately reminded of this car.
They drove very well, quick and stable to say they were a small engine chunky car. I dove one around 180 miles the first time in 1981, non stop from central London to Yorkshire. I was quite impressed how good it was at motorway speeds.
Fantastic! My dad nearly bought one of these - he had a friend with one - we thought it was great, and the boot was huge - you could get a drum kit in the back, without dismantling it!
My Dad had a brand new1979 Dodge Simca high top van as a works vehicle which was very similar to the Matra Rancho, your video brought back memories from the door handles, switch gear and rubber floormat. And of course as probably all car fans had, I had a miniature corgi Rancho model, I'm sure mine is still up in my loft
Excellent video Matt
My mother used to drive a Simca 1000 in the late 70s, and a Talbot Horizon in the 80s. The later was a version of Chrysler Horizon and the engine of the former were mounted for a long in the Peugeot 205.
LOL, WOW!!! You never cease to amaze me, FD!!!! Although I am American and have never seen one in the metal, I had the Corgi Juniors version (original metallic copper version) along with the Matchbox version that I think was not officially sold in the US market. I just loved that model when SUVs were not de rigeur. Now that SUVs are all the rage here, I still have an affinity for the original, sensible-seized vehicles. Alas, this was never a 4 x 4......
SUV’s today are all generic, soulless people carriers. There’s no comparison with this design icon. They are not desirable or worthy. It’s a shame that these cars didn’t sell in huge numbers.
Friend of mine had one as his first car back in the late 80's in the same colour but missing its reverse gear. Road trips had to be planned carefully 😆
There was one of these in my street when I was a kid. It looked like the future back then. I guess it was looking at what it has inspired.
I was in love with it, it was just so different from everything else on the road.
The Rancho and the Range Rover started something big.
I always liked the shape of the Rancho, but have never actually been in one. So thankyou for giving me a glimpse of what it is all about.
I always thought these things looked like off road Pope-Mobiles 😂
I drove an identical X registration one in 1981, that was only a few weeks old. It was my mate's Rancho I drove back to South Yorkshire from King's Cross Station. We had a day at the London Boat Show. Setting off home at midnight with 6 of us in it, it didn't hang about on the deserted M1 drive.
I always wanted my dad to get one of these , the closest we got was when my mum rear ended one with our Renault 16 😂.
When I was old enough to buy one they were pretty much all rusted away , so my dream never came true.
The Espace was developed by Matra but styled at Chrysler's Whitley studio to be based on the Alpine when they were owned by Chrysler and when Peugeot took over they sold Matra to Renault who re-engineered it to be larger and use the underpinnings from the R25.
As for the driving dynamics of the Rancho, it's based on a car introduced in 1967.
This is great - thankyou. My dad worked as a service/bodyshop manager in a large Chrysler-Talbot dealership which sold a number of these. The original demonstrator was finished in a mustard colour and was surprisingly capable off road - within reason of course. A popular update is the 5 speed PSA gearbox which is less clunky and was used in the series 2 Horizons, Alpines and Solaras, . The Rancho was ahead of its time in many ways and a lot were converted for wheel chair users due to the rear height advantage.
my lord, i've been waiting for a detailed review of one of these for years! I think before you would only find a slideshow on youtube.
In the early 80s, both my parents had Simca 1100s, so watching this video is a part-way trip down memory lane for me. The door cards and handles are exactly like I remember them (although in different colours), and the dashboard of my mother's 1976 Simca 1100 is a mirror image (Germany) of this one (my father's 1974 model was pre-facelift, so the dashboard was different). I almost forgot about the top-opening glove-box, but now I fondly remember rummaging in it. The steering wheel, however, was different. The one in this Rancho looks more (but not exactly) like the one in my first car (which was a 1976 Simca 1307 - also known as Chrysler Alpine), which also shared the outer door handles (as did my mother's 1100 - also a facelift change). And I remember those handles causing some minor problems in winter at sub-zero temperatures: sometimes the inner plate was frozen in its position, so you couldn't open the door. And if you managed to press it after all, there was a chance that it got stuck in the opening position, so you couldn't properly close the door until it was unfrozen.
I usually don't like SUV-like vehicles, but I've always liked and still do like the Rancho. Maybe because back then it was so unusual, maybe it's just Simca/Chrysler Europe nostalgia. Anyway, thanks for sharing this with us.
I can’t imagine how jealous Mr Hubnut will be!!!
Exactly my thoughts!!!
Nah, not enough rust on this and it's not crap....anyway Hubnut is too busy doing anything but tinkering nowadays, cameraman for his girlfriend.......
I wondered when one of these would turn up on your channel Matt, these are rare cars now and I don’t remember seeing many of them when they were current, people were more interested in the saloon and estate cars of the period, how things have changed now!
I can just hear hubnut now. "Gopping Triangle of Doom and a massive Corner of Disappointment!" with the LHD wipers🤣
For me, one of the most mythical of beasts. I had the Matchbox and Corgi models with all the opening parts (the models you always liked best as a child) so, thanks to them, a car that has always intrigued me. Yet I don't think I've ever seen one in the metal. So rare now that the models probably outnumber the real ones.
I love that view down the bonnet with the spotlights too.
As well as the Discovery, I can see where the Skoda Roomster got its inspiration from too. Another quirky car that thankfully wasn't an SUV
Probably the most practical car in the world! No Tech, just magic!
Wow my dream car. Still have a toy version of this one. Always wanted to soup up the engine, fit a cage, upgrade suspension etc and turn it into a full-blown over lander vehicle.
I can remember when you could pick up a mint Rancho, in the late 80s, for well under a £1k; it was between this and a Renault Fuego for me, the turbo-dialed Renault won.
Woah a ticky Talbot.. Those 1442cc engines were great, but at least in the Alpine/Solara they had a very distinctive ticking noise from the camshaft, this was generally considered to be a consequence of the engine being slanted to fit the low bonnet line of the Alpine. More Alpine nostalgia in that dashboard .
I remember every Simca was ticking like no tomorrow when I was young. Apparently a design weakness.
first drive without licence..great car
A local newsagents bought one yrs ago , in a lime green colour , they had a bad rep and were considered abit crap , but they were unique, at the time , nice to see one so clean , cheers Shane uk 🇬🇧
I worked as a sales manager at a main dealer. We only took one from the factory and it sat in the showroom for over a year! When people saw how poor the build quality was they just left pretty damn quick! Rust was apparent as they came off the lorry.
I seemed to recall the body being predominantly fibreglass....?
I had a toy one, in green. I've never seen a real one! Great to see this.
Do you know what? I think I had the very same toy. Can't remember who made it. Could have been matchbox. I also had a blue triumph acclaim. You could push the door mirror in and the front wheels would turn🤣
Johnny Smith would love this, me I remember them liked the looks but anything french has me breaking out in hives.
CN if this is still yours, kudos to you for keeping it looking like new all these years. No mean feat. :)
RS (I owned its twin back in the 80's you may remember). All the best to you and yours.
I remember my dad lusting after this car after seeing Jack Douglas driving one on the ITV Sunday evening tv show Shillingbury Tales back in the ‘80’s.
I've always been fond of these, I remember a neighbour had one when I was a kid and I also had a Corgi toy car of one
There is a blast from the past. Bloody loved these.
I had one, exactly the same color, in the 80's in France.
Lovely vehicle, with the windsurf board on the roof.
The problem with the metallic front and the fiberglass rear was the difference of decoloration over the years.
Good morning from Mcr. Niva in Greece where very popular. Lada still exports to Greece and they still make the Nivas as they made them back in the 70s
Crikey, that’s a blast from the past. Can’t remember when I last saw one pf those. Nice find Mr. Richardson. Can’t help but feel that your friend, Mr. Lloyd, might disappear against those tweed seats. Stealth!
My friend, Dave, had one of these back in the early 1980s. I thought it the most amazing vehicle I'd ever seen or been in. Would still love to have one today.
Great! As a kid I had Matchbox model and it was my favorite. To a point that I wanted to buy real one in my late 20s. Sadly never found a decent example..
I had a 1:14 scale model of this when I was a kid ... didn't know it was a real car
All right, Mr Richardson, own up, where did you find one of these, given that Ian Seabrook has been desperate to review one for years? Actually, this is almost identical to the one in the first episode of C.A.T.S. Eyes, so I think I want to drive one too!
I remember seeing one of these around Basildon back in the day when I was a kid. Really stood out.
Our Radio Rentals man in the 80s used to have one of these. I always thought it was really cool looking, and was rather disappointed when he changed it for a Vauxhall Astra Estate. We got an upgrade to an 18 inch Grundig colour television around the same time though, so it wasn't all bad. Great to see one again. Happy memories of happy days.
Love it. It's a Shame that so few are left. Great review of such a rare car.
My uncle from Netherland had this car many years and nearly 400 000 kilometres...Finished in sand beige and steering on normal side..When he came at first to visit us,we starred like crazy,what the hell is this?It was absolutely unusual vehicle we ever seen !!! He changed it later for Opel Omega first generation in dark blue...He never had a taste of cars (Renault 4,VW Beetle,Datsun Cherry...)
I had a turquoise one and loved it, fantastic room in the back for 2 bass cabinets and a full drum kit. Unfortunately it rusted it's way to the scrapyard.
I had a ride in one about 1979 at the Lympne Parachute Club, Pete Warden owned it, lovely looking car. You're right about the rust, this one has had issues in the past, hopefully properly sorted!
Always a cool looking motor. Someone had one in our road when I was a kid in the 80’s👍 We never knew the crossover would become so popular 😉.
What a surprise for today. One of my all time childhood favourite cars. i had so many models of them.
As a kid I always found it a cool car, it still is in a kind of way. Nice to see it back in this video !
Wow, I loved these and was in the back of a metallic green one in the 70's in a showroom, trying to get my Dad to trade in his Chrysler alpine for it, I'd never seen anything like it back then.
My friends sister worked for a promotions company in the early eighties and had a navy blue one with ‘Pernod, Free the Spirit’ logos on. We used to go round pubs giving away Pernod Free the Spirit T Shirts and merchandise.
i had one in 1987 , rubber floor very practical in country .rear headrests just poped out .All the rear seats could be unbolted to make into van , loved it until rust got it . Never had winch and only front wheel drive limited it
Yee haa! Brings back memories. So wanted one of these about 20 years ago. I may be old but it still looks " interesting".
I am 25 and want one of these in a tan? With plaid seats or full brown leather seats.. I been admiring this car for a long time
A Rancho !!!!!!!!! Blimey did you have to fight your way past Shergar and a unicorn to get to this little beaut?
I love the shape an quirkiness of the car. It's different from the rest, that makes is special (and wonderful in my opinion). In the past (
Fantastic, i really didn't think there were any of these left 'alive'.
Back in France as a 9 year old, my Uncle had a brand new one of these in Blue metallic. 1) I'd never known anyone to actually own a brand new car! 2) I was in awe of this cartoon-tank of a thing. The rest of France was driving in Renault 5/18/20, banged up Citroens etc and this thing arrived on the scene. A night drive in the countryside where they lived, with those swivel spot lights on top by the windscreen was uber cool !!
I hated these as a kid but now I respect them and wouldn't hesitate to drive one.
For at late 1970s design. This Is really futuristic. I have one in sight. Only one for sale here. Som maybe i should grab it. I like this car alot.
When I was a little kid every Sunday afternoon a Rancho was parked in the street. Little me always thought it was Dakar rally raid car! So cool to see one again! Matra always had very interesting cars. My dad had a Bagheera in yellow with a green interior.
A blast from the past Matt. I remember owning a simca 1100 and after coming across one of these ranchos in a scrap yard I replaced my dark grey driving seat with a white vinyl one and fitted perfectly. Cheap covers fitted . What a fantastic difference it made.
Shame about the rest of the car which was a hand painted rustic reck. Lol
Still looks good today! Not bad for an old Simca rehash.
I had a summer of driving one of these for a WWF balloon race. It was the late 70's and it was a loan, from a field, somewhere near Ryton. It was new, and arrived pre rust. It was gutless.
This was my favourite matchbox car😀. Mine was green. Never seen one in the flesh until now. I think it's rather cool.
My dad had a bright green one in late 70's. As a kid I hated it and called it "The Vegetable Van" But in retrospect the concept was decades ahead of its time!
Talking that ship with such a small rudder up to 55Mph was indeed furious driving!
Rather entertaining, cheers.
I had a matchbox one of these in red. With a boat on a trailer with it. Good Times
This will probably be your most viewed video ever
Great review Matt. Not often that I see a vehicle that I knew nothing about. Thanks for sharing this quirky, rare and unusual 'thing'.
'Landes' is the French for 'moors', btw...lol
My dad drove this care (same colour too) back in 1979 - 1980. It turned heads back then.
I attempted to do an MOT on one of these once
Car was bought in on a sat morning, they’d bought it day before with 9 months MOT on it ( this was important, period when ministry would normally be interested about corrosion was just for the first three months after the test )
Passenger footwell was made of roofing felt, various holes bodged / hidden everywhere
Now the best bit, I examined it on Saturday 3rd April, they bought it on the 2nd, the O/S sill was made up of filler and newspapers including a copy of The Sun dated April 1st, which seemed appropriate.
Customers had bought the car as a private sale so no comeback against the seller
BUT
remember the bit about three months ?
our local man from the ministry would normally back an examiner to the hilt of it was a genuine mistake but something like this really upset him
The car stayed with us and then with the owners permission and trading standards and the local police officer in attendance, the examiner and myself carefully removed anything that looked “ repaired” and we found newspapers everywhere including some from three months before it’s current MOT
with the witnesses that was enough for the tester to loose his licence as whilst they couldn’t say for certain when everything was done but that “repair” had definitely been there when examined and passed
That is one seriously rare car. Great to see!
I remember seeing a couple these in the late 1970 s or very early 80s and I realy loved the look and lusted after owning one simply on looks alone there was nothing like it on the roads back then and it just seemed so far ahead of it's time to me as a kid .
these were everywhere in the south of France when I holidayed there as a kid in the 80s
Yes, orange, blue and green especially
Ian from the Hubnut is wetting himself with joy and envy that you found this gem to test.
This car was in the Spring 2021 edition of Practical Classics magazine, in a feature about manufacturers' last cars (NSU Ro80 etc).
think this looks better now than it did before. And the baguette dash, genius!!!!
When I was a kid our neighbours had one of these. I thought it was called Macho Rancho. Still sounds better to me.
Macho macho van! I want to drive a Macho van!
Rancho and Bagheera. My two dream cars.
Fab! Thank you for this trip down memory lane. As a child of the 80s I had a toy one of these. It even had a split level tailgate! I remember these came in some wonderful colours too. Great work from Talbot (Simca?) for daring to be different. Definitely ahead of its time. My Dad had a Talbot Horizon from the same era which had equally heavy steering apparently and awful vinyl seats! Thanks for the review.
The instrument binnacle,wiper indicator stalks,steering wheel and various other dashboard switches all look the same as on the Talbot Avenger one of my mates had back in the 1980s
Elements of the dash remind me of the Talbot Horizon my Grandfather had when I was very young
I've always like these, they're brilliantly quirky
The advert 👌 was so cool.
In the playground, most kids dad had a Rancho, the other had had a Fuego.
MPVs grew from the seat belt legislation. The Rancho was a cute novelty car for yummy mummies on the school, fast food and shopping runs. It looked better than is was built or drove as you say in the report.
I had one of these in the 80s. I liked the styling and visibility. But it was rotten with rust. Cant be many still around
Wow. That brings back some memories...
My Dad had a Simca 1100 back in the late 70s. Absolute POS. Went to the scrap yard at 4 years old, because it was rusted to f***.
When they say, "They don't make 'em like they used to." Those of us who were there say, "Thank f*** for that!"
My Dad's latest car is off to the scrap yard on Friday - 16 year old Citroen C4 - just because it needs work for the MoT which costs more than it's trade value. Real shame, because it looks like a brand new car, still.
First one of these I ever saw did belong to a teacher at my school !, I thought it was some kind of weird fibreglass kit car until a couple of years later when it began to rust terribly. A very interesting and, I imagine, very rare car these days. Thanks for the review, very cool car.
My dad brought one. As a kid we loved it but lights kept going so we always used it in daylight hours...
Goodness I forgot about these!!! I remember seeing quite a few of these growing up in the 80’s!
Well Matt that's one way to get Ian jealous haha!
I think he may have done one, so now we're even!