The Matra Bagheera is a sports car

Sports car

A sports car is a small, usually two seat, two door automobile designed for high speed driving and maneuverability....

 created by the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 engineering group Matra

Matra

Mécanique Aviation Traction or Matra was a French company covering a wide range of activities mainly related to automobile, bicycles, aeronautics and weaponry. In 1994, it became a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group and now operates under that name.Matra was owned by the Floirat family...

 in cooperation with the automaker Simca

Simca

Simca was a French automaker, founded in November 1934 by Fiat. It was directed from July 1935 to May 1963 by the Italian Henri Théodore Pigozzi...

 and design by Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 designer

Designer

A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...

 Antonis Volanis

Antonis Volanis

Antonis Volanis is a Greek industrial designer, born in Thessaloniki in 1948. He has mainly worked in France , where he cooperated with Peugeot, Matra , Renault , Citroën , Aérospatiale,...

. It was actually even marketed as Matra-Simca Bagheera to highlight the link, except for the final production year 1980, when it was re-badged Talbot-Matra Bagheera after Chrysler Europe

Chrysler Europe

Chrysler Europe was a division of the Chrysler Corporation that operated between 1967 and 1979.-Formation:In the 1960s, Chrysler sought to become a world producer of automobiles. The company had never had much success outside North America, contrasting with Ford's worldwide reach and General...

's demise and subsequent takeover by PSA

PSA Peugeot Citroën

PSA Peugeot Citroën is a French manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles sold under the Peugeot and Citroën marques. Headquartered in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, PSA is the second largest automaker based in Europe and the number eight in the world.-History:In December 1974 Peugeot S.A....

. Named after the panther

Bagheera

Bagheera the black-toned Indian Leopard is an animal fictional character in Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli stories in The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book...

 from The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book is a collection of stories by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–4. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six...

, the Bagheera was created using stock Simca components, including the engines, gearbox and suspension elements, but unlike the Simca cars it shared them with, it was a mid-engined car (the Simcas in question, Simca 1100

Simca 1100

The Simca 1100 is an automobile built from 1967 to 1982 by Chrysler Europe's division Simca. It was replaced by the Talbot Horizon.The 1100 was the result of "Project 928", started in 1962, finalized by engineers Philippe Grundeler and Charles Scales...

 and Simca 1307

Simca 1307

The Simca 1307 was the name under which Chrysler Europe launched its new large family car in July 1975.A modern, front-wheel drive hatchback, it was one of the first such cars in that class, along with the Volkswagen Passat, and became the 1976 European Car of the Year...

, were front-wheel drive

Front-wheel drive

Front-wheel drive is a form of engine/transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitudinal engine arrangement generally found in rear-wheel drive and...

).

The Bagheera's body was made of polyester

Polyester

Polyester is a category of polymers which contain the ester functional group in their main chain. Although there are many polyesters, the term "polyester" as a specific material most commonly refers to polyethylene terephthalate...

, mounted on a steel structure.