Renault Espace
The final Matra built Espace III came off the line in late 2002. Totalling all series
they had produced almost 900,000 Espace and become market leaders in their
category - yet were virtually unknown since the only place the Matra name could
be found on the vehicle was on the chassis plate.
Eventually it became prototype P18 using
a transverse Simca 1600cc engine and
was capable of being adapted into many
configurations by moving around or
removing any combination of five
individual rear seats.
The Matra-Simca Rancho introduced in 1977 turned out to far more popular than
even Matra envisaged, selling at double the expected rate, and yet it was no more
than a Simca 1100 Pick-up conversion to what these days would be termed a
'Crossover' vehicle. Consequently, when Matra decided to replace it, the new
vehicle was to be purposely designed. The initial idea developed from the Rancho
concept but with the design starting from a 'clean sheet' and not from adapting any
current vehicle. This was 'Project Orange'.
One of the important original design
criteria was to produce a vehicle that
would be a luxury car and not a
converted van like some of the vehicles
beginning to appear in America and
Japan.
One consequence of this, was there would be no sliding side doors. The rear side
doors were to be normal opening like any other conventional car. This concept
vehicle was offered to Simca France - their partners at that time. Unfortunately
Simca were in financial trouble and about to be taken over by the Peugeot-Citroen
PSA group and Talbot France as Simca became known, turned the concept down.
This decision showed how bad things were at Simca/Talbot France - they
desperately needed some better models in their line up and yet they had little
money to produce any new models. However, they were being offered a great new
vehicle which is just what they needed, and at a cost much less than starting from
scratch themselves, as all the initial work had been done, yet they still turned it
down! So Matra took the idea to Citroen, but they also rejected it, possibly as they
were now in the same PSA group and maybe it was a corporate decision.
Matra knew they had a great concept so
instead of letting it die, they took it to rivals
Renault. Here at last was a company that
recognised the potential of what was on
offer, and they started negotiations to a
joint venture to produce this new type of
vehicle. The powertrain was changed from
transverse to longitudinal to take the
Renault Douvrin powerplant and
transmission similar to the Renault 21, and
the new prototype P23 finally became the
first Espace released in1984.
Initial sales were slow since the public were unsure of the idea, but the motoring
press could see the potential from their road tests and reported enthusiastically
on it. Sales then started to take off. Towards the end of the first five year
contract between Renault and Matra, Renault knew they wanted to continue with
a second version, so a face-lifted version, called the Espace I Phase 2, was
produced to keep the first model going until a completely new series II Espace
could be brought to market. The Phase 2 announced in 1988 was to get a Renault
corporate look to the front, to further integrate it into their model line-up and
other improvements were introduced at the same time. One model, the Quadra
was to have permanent four-wheel-drive, not as an off-roader, but to give it the
capabilities to cope with snowy and icy roads in the mountainous regions of
southern Europe such as the Alps, but also in places like Germany or
Scandinavia, enlarging its potential market. The Quadra was the very first
vehicle to use a carbon fibre single piece propshaft to drive the rear axle saving
weight and cost over the conventional split two-piece propshaft with centre
bearing. The Quadra was popular enough in Europe that it continued on the
Series II until 1996 although it was only available in RHD in the UK for the Series
I Phase 2.
The series II Espace continued to be
produced by Matra at Romorantin
with collaborative assistance from
Renault, with more options including
a V6 engine, automatic transmission,
and air rear suspension, becoming
available, widening its appeal, and
the sales continued to increase.
Although other companies now
started to produce rivals, the Espace
with its superior design, remained the
top seller in Europe.
It was the most successful vehicle Matra had produced, and towards the end of
the second contract Renault again wished to continue, so work was started on
the series III. This was introduced near the end of 1996 and the design changed
to a transverse power unit for the first time, freeing up even more room inside.
Again there were new design features, like the heater intakes on the outside
mirrors, separate heating to left and right of the interior, and a huge central
storage box that was possible because the heater was no longer mounted there
as with most conventional cars.
Demand continued to climb and sales were so
high that the Matra factory was reaching its
capacity, and some were now being built at
the old Alpine works in Dieppe. Eventually
Renault decided that for the fourth
generation, they would need to mass produce
it at one of their factories to obtain the
quantities they required, so ending an 18
year successful collaboration.
Project Orange
Espace Series I
Espace Series II
Grand Espace Series III