Matra's sports prototype program had struggled through the MS660 era to translate engineering ambition into outright victories. The MS670 changed that equation decisively. Developed for the new Group 5 regulations, it arrived at Le Mans in 1972 already capable of winning. The car was run under the Matra-Simca partnership and prepared with the full resources of the French manufacturer's motorsport division.
The MS670 appeared for the first time at the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans, Matra's sole championship round that season. Four cars were entered: the older MS660C for Jean-Pierre Beltoise and Chris Amon, and three MS670s for François Cevert and Howden Ganley, Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill, and Jean-Pierre Jabouille with David Hobbs. Pescarolo and Hill won the race outright by a lap over Cevert and Ganley. Beltoise and Amon retired with engine failure, and Jabouille and Hobbs retired with a broken gearbox. Matra earned twenty championship points and finished seventh in the overall standings — a narrow points haul from a single entry but a Le Mans win of enormous symbolic weight for the French team.
The 1973 campaign opened at Daytona, where the trio of Cevert, Beltoise, and Pescarolo shared an MS670 but retired with engine failure. Development brought the MS670B into service, and it became the dominant car of the season.
Pescarolo and Gérard Larrousse emerged as the team's strongest pairing. They won at Vallelunga, Dijon, and Zeltweg, and secured a second consecutive Le Mans victory — Matra's defining achievement of the era. Jabouille and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud took third at Le Mans. Cevert and Beltoise also contributed podiums, including third at Dijon. At Watkins Glen, the final round, Pescarolo and Larrousse won again while Cevert and Beltoise retired. The MS670B delivered Matra its first World Championship for Makes title with 124 points.
The 1974 season saw the introduction of the MS670C. Matra again ran two-car entries across the calendar. Jarier paired with Jacky Ickx to win at Spa; Beltoise and Jarier won at the Nürburgring and Watkins Glen, along with the 1000 km of Le Castellet and 1000 km of Brands Hatch; Pescarolo and Larrousse won at Imola and Zeltweg. The 24 Hours of Le Mans witnessed a four-car entry that also incorporated the new MS680 for Beltoise and Jarier, but only Pescarolo and Larrousse — MS670C — and Jabouille and François Migault reached the finish, first and third. Matra's third straight Le Mans victory confirmed the car's supremacy in long-distance racing.
Matra scored 140 championship points in 1974, retaining first place and completing back-to-back World Championship for Makes titles. At the end of the season, Matra withdrew from motor racing entirely, closing one of the most successful chapters in French motorsport history.
The Matra-Simca MS670 remains one of the most accomplished endurance racing cars of the 1970s. Its three consecutive Le Mans victories — 1972, 1973, and 1974 — placed it among the elite machines in the race's history and gave France a dominant period at its most prestigious circuit. The sustained partnership of Pescarolo and Larrousse, who between them won or podiumed in the majority of rounds during the championship years, became emblematic of Matra's disciplined approach to endurance competition. The car's legacy endures as the foundation of Henri Pescarolo's celebrated Le Mans record and as a monument to what French motorsport achieved at the highest level before Matra's withdrawal.