Matra was established in 1945 and immediately set to work on ambitious engineering projects, including a twin-engine aircraft intended to be the fastest propeller-driven plane in the world. By 1951 it had built an engine that broke the sound barrier in horizontal flight — the first time this had been achieved in Europe. During 1961, Matra became involved in the early European space programme as the first prime contractor for satellites, and in 1975 was awarded a contract by CNES and ESA to build the loading bay for the Ariane launch system.
In 1963, French businessman Jean-Luc Lagardère became CEO of Matra, a role he would hold for three decades. That same year, Matra acquired car manufacturer Automobiles René Bonnet, forming the basis of Matra Automobiles. The first production car to wear the Matra badge was the Renault-powered Matra Djet, an update of the predecessor Bonnet Jet.
Lagardère recognised the promotional value of motorsport and authorised the creation of Equipe Matra Sports, which entered French Formula 3 in 1965. The team enjoyed rapid success, taking victories in both the French and European Formula 3 and Formula 2 championships using the MS5 monocoque-based car throughout the mid-1960s.
Matra competed as a Formula One constructor from 1967 to 1972 and as an engine supplier between 1975 and 1982. The peak of the Formula One programme came in 1969 when Jackie Stewart, driving for the Matra-powered Tyrrell team, won the Drivers' Championship and Matra claimed the Constructors' title. That season, Stewart won six of eleven races with the Matra MS80.
In sports car racing, Matra competed from 1966 to 1974. The programme delivered its most celebrated results at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where Matra won outright in 1972, 1973, and 1974 — three consecutive overall victories. In 1973 and 1974, Matra also claimed the World Championship for Makes. At the end of the 1974 season, Matra announced a total withdrawal from all motorsport.
The road car division grew substantially under the partnership with Renault. After the Djet, Matra produced the 530, the Bagheera, the Murena, and the Rancho — an early type of sport utility vehicle. At its peak, the Romorantin-Lanthenay plant was manufacturing 60,000 vehicles per year.
The most commercially significant product came in 1984 with the launch of the Renault Espace, a minivan co-developed by Matra and Renault that proved a major commercial success across multiple generations. Matra built the first three generations of the Espace at Romorantin; when Renault decided to manufacture the fourth generation in-house, the loss of that business proved devastating to the division's finances.
In 2001, Matra co-designed and produced the Renault Avantime, a large coupé-van that sold poorly and was widely considered a failure. On 27 February 2003, Matra Automobiles announced the closure of its Romorantin factory, having been declared bankrupt. In September 2003, Pininfarina acquired Matra's engineering and prototype businesses, renaming the entity Matra Automobile Engineering.
Matra Hautes Technologies (MHT) was the defence and aerospace arm of the conglomerate. The division produced a range of missiles and ordnance including the R.530, Super 530, R.550 Magic, and Mistral air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles, as well as the Durandal anti-runway bomb. Matra also manufactured weapons in partnership with British firms, including the Martel anti-radar missile with Hawker Siddeley and the Matra BAe Dynamics joint venture for the ASRAAM programme.
In 1990, Matra Espace and GEC Marconi's aerospace division merged to form Matra Marconi Space. In February 1999, MHT merged with the French aerospace conglomerate Aérospatiale to form Aérospatiale-Matra. On 10 July 2000, that entity combined with CASA and DASA to form EADS, which would later become the Airbus Group.
From 1988, after privatisation, Lagardère steadily increased his personal stake in Matra. By 1994 the company had become a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group. With the collapse of Matra Automobiles in 2003 and the earlier absorption of its aerospace assets into EADS, the independent Matra conglomerate effectively ceased to exist — though several of its former assets continued to operate under the Lagardère name. Matra's triple Le Mans victory in the early 1970s and its Formula One championship in 1969 remain the most lasting marks of its motorsport legacy.