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26 March 2003: The death of Jean-Luc Lagardère last week was widely reported in the financial press, as the group which carried his name was one of the biggest in France, with a turnover in 2002 of E13.2 bn. Its principal involvements are in Aviation (Airbus), Publishing (Hachette) and Defence (Matra). However, his important contribution to the world auto industry was somewhat overlooked.

After some years with Dassault Aviation, he joined Matra in 1963 as director general and founded Matra Automobile the following year, concentrating firstly on racing cars. Success followed, with Jackie Stewart becoming F1 World Champion in a Matra in 1969. Matra cars went on to win the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1972, 1973 and 1974. The company also built successful passenger cars, the Bagheera, Murena and Rancho.

His biggest automotive success came in 1984, when he persuaded Renault to accept Matra's design proposal P23 for the Espace people carrier. In total, 872,000 examples were built by Matra for Renault over the next eighteen years. With the Espace, a whole new sector of the car industry was founded - the MPV or multi-purpose vehicle.

	March 2003 - by Ferdia O'Dowd
Espace innovator dies 26 March 2003: The death of Jean-Luc Lagardère last week was widely reported in the financial press, as the group which carried his name was one of the biggest in France, with a turnover in 2002 of E13.2 bn. Its principal involvements are in Aviation (Airbus), Publishing (Hachette) and Defence (Matra). However, his important contribution to the world auto industry was somewhat overlooked. After some years with Dassault Aviation, he joined Matra in 1963 as director general and founded Matra Automobile the following year, concentrating firstly on racing cars. Success followed, with Jackie Stewart becoming F1 World Champion in a Matra in 1969. Matra cars went on to win the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1972, 1973 and 1974. The company also built successful passenger cars, the Bagheera, Murena and Rancho. His biggest automotive success came in 1984, when he persuaded Renault to accept Matra's design proposal P23 for the Espace people carrier. In total, 872,000 examples were built by Matra for Renault over the next eighteen years. With the Espace, a whole new sector of the car industry was founded - the MPV or multi-purpose vehicle.
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