The Ford Cosworth DFV-powered car (engine 3000 cc, estimated at around 420 bhp (313 kW)) took Jackie Stewart to the Formula One World Championship title in 1969.

The car, designed under the direction of Gérard Ducarouge and Bernard Boyer,[2] was built at Matra's Formula One base at Vélizy-Villacoublay in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, though the final completion with the Cosworth engine was done in the Tyrrell workshop of East Horsley near Ripley, UK.

Although built by the French constructor Matra, the car was run by the British Matra International privateer team of Ken Tyrrell and, as such, remains the only car not entered by a works team to win the Formula One World Constructors' Championship as well as to help a driver win the World Drivers' Championship.

Only two MS80s were assembled in 1969, a third monocoque was built but remained un-assembled until the EPAF company made it a complete car in 2006.

In a 2006 issue of Motor Sport magazine, Stewart referred to the MS80 as the nicest-handling F1 car he had ever driven.