Matford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matford was a car and truck manufacturer in France from 1934 to 1940.

In the 1930's, the Ford Motor Company was quickly expanding its European production. Before 1934,a front wheel drive version of Ford Model Y had been produced with an 8 hp engine under the marque Tracford. In 1934, Mathis had financial problems while Ford wanted to increase production and the Mathis plant in Strasbourg seemed to be more suitable than the one in Courbevoie where Tracford had been produced. A joint venture of Ford and Mathis was created under the name of S.A. Française Matford which copied the style of contemporary British and American Ford models and soon became one of the biggest competitors of Mathis. The plan had been to produce the Matford models alongside those from Mathis but in reality few of the latter were actually made.

Mathis production stopped in 1935 and a range of V-8 engined Matfords was put on the market which were very similar to the American Ford Model 48s with their V-8 3622cc engines. A unique French design appeared in 1936 with the Alsace with a choice of a 2.2 or 3.6 litre V-8 engine. The 1937 models featured a V-shaped windscreen and a cabriolet was also launched joined in 1938 by an estate car. Matford ceased car production in 1940 with the build up of truck orders for the French army. Because of its proximity to the German border the Stasbourg factory was moved while a new one opened at Poissy near Paris in 1939 and the links with Mathis were severed.

The firm was reorganised in 1940 under the name Ford Société Anonyme Française and this company used the Ford trademark instead of Matford.

Matford cars achieved success at the Coupe de Dames (1936) and at Monte Carlo (1938).