In yesterday’s post on the recent International Simca-Matra-Talbot Rally held in southern England, we saw the progression of Matra’s heritage from its sports cars of the ’60s to the Renault Avantime luxury MPV. This report will focus on Simcas, and the company’s path to becoming the dominant partner in Chrysler Europe. Many of these cars deserve the full CC review but here’s a taster of the show, and the Chrysler Europe story.
Chrysler Europe was a combination of the British Rootes group (Hillman, Humber, Sunbeam and Dodge trucks), the French Simca Company and the Spanish Barreiros, a builder of trucks and diesel engines and an assembler of US Chrysler products for the Spanish market. Simca had steadily grown in independent capability, progressing from building Fiats under licence to buying Ford’s French operations and subsequently becoming a true all-round manufacturer.
The earliest cars on display were the Simca Vedette, a large (for Europe) four door saloon inherited by Simca when the Ford’s French operations were purchased in 1954. The new 1954 Vedette had a much more contemporary style and the option of a 2.3 litre side-valve V8, derived from the baby flathead Ford V8-60 engine, as well as a three-speed gearbox with a column shift and live rear axle.
In 1957, Simca significantly updated the Vedette, with a longer body, bolder grille and ubiquitous tailfins. The older car continued with the 1.3 litre engine from the smaller Aronde, under the name Ariane and car went on to have long life, being further facelifted and produced in Brazil as the Simca (later Chrysler) Esplanada, until 1969.
Simca’s first independent product, not based on a Fiat design or inherited from Ford, was the Aronde, manufactured from 1951 to 1964 in various guises. (PN’s CC here)
The first cars are distinguished by the large central element of the grille, looking a little like the central third headlamp fitted to early Rover P4 saloons.
The black car is a 1955 Grand Large Coupe, with a three–piece wraparound window and pillarless side window arrangement.
Later cars gained a revised roofline, larger windscreen and slightly calmer body styling creases, as well as larger engines and a range of trim packages as options, such as the Montlhery shown here. The plot clearly worked–by the end of the 1950s, Simca was France’s second best-selling brand.
From 1957, to the end of Aronde production in 1962, Simca offered a Coupe and Convertible version of the car, built around the same principle mechanical elements and bodies by Facel. Rather confusingly, the Coupe was called the Plein Ciel, or Open Air, and the Convertible as the Océane.
There were the inevitable range of changes over the years, but the essential elegance of the car shines right through continually.
Although it was a two-seater, it is easier to think of it as Sunbeam Rapier competitor rather an Sunbeam Alpine or MGB alternative.
Simca broadened out into the small car market in 1961, with the rear-engined Simca 1000, or Simca Mille in French, saloon. (CC here) This was compact (even by European standards) and was developed from a concept Fiat had outlined to replace the Fiat 600, but which was offered to Simca’s Directeur-General Henri Pigozzi by Giovanni Agnelli. At the time, of course, Fiat was still a large but not controlling shareholder in Simca, so this was not necessarily surprising.
The concept was like similar many cars of its time, ranging from various Fiats to the Hillman Imp, the Renault 4CV and of course the Beetle. Engine at the back, small boot in the front, compact four-seat cabin and in the case of the Simca, some right-the-first-time (maybe Corvair inspired?) styling.
Simca developed the car gently over the following years, with a sequence of front grilles (for a rear engine car!) and ultimately, performance-oriented Rallye versions. The Rallye concept of a high performance, compact car, matching closely to the Mini Cooper, was carried on by Peugeot with the later 106, 205 and 306 Rallye variants into the 1990s.
Simca also produced the 1000 Coupe, which may be the one of the most attractive rear-engine sports coupes ever. The styling was actually by Giorgetto Giugiaro, whilst he was at Bertone, and the car evolved to have a 1200cc engine and 109 mph capability, moving it from being a Fiat 850 Coupe competitor towards being more of a match to the Renault Caravelle and Floride.
Simca’s next larger car was the 1100, an unassuming and low profile car that deserves greater recognition as being the template for the mid-size hatchback, with a transverse engine with “end-on” gearbox within a five-door hatchback body. It has been covered well on CC previously, but one more view of the distinctive rear end is always worth sharing.
And have you seen one with a bonnet and grille like this mock up? It had been prepared by a French owner as an homage to British car stylists; what if Rootes had adopted the Simca 1100 in 1969?
CC recently looked at the Simca 1301 and 1501, the replacement for the Aronde.
Beaulieu did not disappoint in the selection offered, with first and second series cars in evidence, including this pristine and atmospheric (far left) example, complete with recorded French music broadcasts from 1966.
The 1501 was also offered as an estate, and was perhaps the last European estate (rather than SUV) to have a 2 piece split tailgate. There is something appealing about this example–what I call the “patina of authenticity” .
To many people outside the organisation, Chrysler Europe first came to public notice in 1970, when the first car badged as a Chrysler was marketed in Europe. The Chrysler 180 was a perfectly conventional, but contemporary, 1.8 litre saloon, aimed at the Opel Rekord, Peugeot 504, Fiat 125 and maybe even the BMW1800 saloon. It fell between the Ford Cortina and Zephyr in size, in the same way that the Vauxhall Victor FD did, and in many ways was a very similar car to the Victor.
It was essentially a British-developed car, but with a Simca engine. The car replaced the Simca 1501 in France and Europe, and extended the Chrysler UK offering upmarket, into a section of the market in which Rootes had not participated since the Humber Hawk was discontinued in 1967. Indeed, Rootes’s original plan had included a 2.5 litre V6 version of the car, which was stillborn.
Europe also got a 1.6 litre version, known as the Chrysler 160 and in 1972 there was a 2 litre version, known as the Chrysler 2Litre, offered exclusively with a vinyl roof and Borg-Warner 3 speed automatic. With the exception of Spain, where it was a popular taxi, it bombed. There are only three (180 and 2 litre combined) still registered in Britain, so to see two cars from the Czech Republic was quite special. After all, the first car I moved under power and solely under my control was my father’s 2-Litre. Děkuji vám, že jste svůj vůz v České Republict!
The next Chrysler Europe product was a lot more successful, though–the 1975 Chrysler Alpine, known as Simca 1307 and 1308 in France and most of western Europe. This was a hatchback, essentially a lengthened Simca 1100 with larger engine, either 1.3 or 1.45 litre options, very sharply styled by a UK team led by Roy Axe. Personally, I think it has aged very well, and certainly better than several other contemporaneous designs (for example, the Renault 18 or several Japanese competitors), and it was one of the first cars to have the plastic bumper/valance assembly we now take for granted.
By the standards of the British family car market of 1975, this was clearly one of the better products available, with the stylish, flexible and comfortable interior, pretty decent handling and sound economy. For the engine size, it was fairly powerful, if a bit noisy (the tappet adjustment lasted only a few months each time) and the driving position slightly cramped by the low roof height and consequent low-mounted steering column.
This car was good enough for something else–the offer by Chrysler to assemble it in Britain was enough for the British government to give Chrysler UK £125m (say $1400m now) of grant aid to keep the UK facilities open, and fund the development of the Hillman Avenger-based Chrysler Sunbeam hatchback.
The car had a good reception on the market, selling very strongly initially, and winning (European) Car of the Year in 1976.
The Alpine was facelifted in 1980, with new headlights and grille, and the much-needed option of a 1.6 litre engine and five-speed gearbox. The range was expanded by the addition of the Talbot Solara saloon version at the same time, in a range that matched the Alpine.
By 1983, Talbot (as Peugeot had rebranded all the European operations purchased from Chrysler in 1978) were trying many ways to get business, one of which was to append (in the UK at least) old Rootes model names to the Alpine and Solara. So the basic models were the Alpine and Solara Minx and upmarket variants were Rapiers. The Alpine is now a very rare sight on the UK’s roads, and indeed across Europe, largely because of corrosion–the number left in the UK is probably well under 100.
There was, of course, one last variant of the Simca 1100 that will be recognised across North America. The Chrysler Horizon was arguably one of the first US-European scale world cars, ahead of the 1980 Ford Escort and the Cavalier (Chevrolet or Vauxhall J-car of 1981).
Actually, whilst there were many common features, there were many that were market specific, like everything under the body from engine to transmission and suspension, as well as major elements of the interior and the expected trim differences. Paul has highlighted many of these in his CC of the Omnirizon. I have to say though, that I suspect the appearance of the European version is closer to that originally planned by Roy Axe than the rather fussy American versions, largely due to the required 5 mph bumpers.
The Horizon was initially produced at the Simca factory in Poissy, in Paris, but UK production started at the former Rootes factory in Coventry in 1980, and also in Spain, where mostly diesel engined variants were built.
Like the Alpine two years earlier, the Horizon had a great start in the market and won (European) Car of the Year in 1976. However, the failure of Chrysler Europe in 1978 and the subsequent branding changes, some basic deficiencies in the car, such as very heavy steering, some odd ergonomics and increasing and improving competition showed its age.
And final the new Talbot was the Samba supermini, based very closely on the Peugeot 104Z, and built mostly in a three door format. To add a bit of glamour to the image of the Talbot range, a Cabriolet was also offered, with a convertible roof engineered by Pininfarina, who were long established as Peugeot’s specialist of choice for such cars. From 1982 to 1984, 13,000 were built, with the majority sold in France where it became a cult hit with the young and glamorous in Paris.
The Talbot name died in 1986 with the end of the Horizon and Samba, and to many people, Simca and Rootes died then as well, although the Horizon’s Simca engines endured to 1991 in the Horizon-based Peugeot 309. Peugeot continued production at Coventry until 2006, producing Peugeot 306, 307 and 206 models for the UK and some other European markets, and the Simca factory at Poissy is still going strong, for PSA Peugeot-Citroen.
Related reading:
1956 Simca Aronde CC: French Training Wheels
Simca 1000 CC: The Franco-Italian Baby Corvair
Simca 1100/1204: Best Small Car of 1971?
Simca 1301/1501: The Conventional but Good Looking Simca
Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni: Detroit Finally Builds a Proper Small Car
The wire wheels on the Plein Ceil look familiar… Robergel?
That UK registered Grand Large Coupé, the black one was advertised years ago for verylittle money, I saw the ad back then.
Anyway, those early Arondes are still everywhere around France to be found in barns.
They are strong as hell and not very rustprone cars.
Simca were Always good in providing a decent car for a very decent price, the 1100 series were very popular, espcially because they had a lot of different levels like the Special with two extra beams in the grille and the real fast one a GTI avant-la-lettre was the 1100Ti, it had four extra lights, and Dunlop alloys as standard.
We were stupified when the Horizon came on the market as the 1100 successor.
It did not break any hearts, or sales records.
Simply because all models were plane-Janes.
Gone were the cooler dahsboard for the hotter versions, the extra lights, the alloy wheels, so you were able to identify the ‘better’models, Chrysler made a very, very expensive mistake.
They tried to save something with their electronic ignition, who cares, men want gauges, men want wheels men want extra lights !
This is what we want :
What I want to know is, do these cars *sound* like Chryslers when started?
like a bucket of nails thrown on a washboard?
Didnt the Horizon win COTY in 78?
The Arondes are sure good looking cars. The 70s and 80s stuff doesn’t have the same appeal to me. They suffer from, in my opinion, too large and too square headlights. Comes off a bit characterless at least to these eyes used to North American cars. The European Ford Capri has the same issue with the square headlights.
No Talbot Tagora?
I had hoped to see some Tagoras (Tagori?) there, but they were none on the day I went.
I did see a great example at another show last week, which will be coming to CC soon
Quite the comprehensive telling of the story, Roger. You have been filling in some gaps for me on Chrysler Europe. I recall seeing precisely one Simca 1100 when I was in maybe 5th or 6th grade of school. It was a snowy day and I remember the front wheel spinning as the driver pulled away from the curb – how odd, I recall thinking.
Interesting how Chrysler was able to have the best selling car in France, then muck things up to the point of dumping the whole operation in a fire sale. Your segment on the Horizon makes clear the debt the US company owes to Simca’s engineering work on the 1100. The L and K cars were years ahead of Ford and GM competition when it came to offering “modern” front drive cars with good fuel economy and efficient packaging. And no European Horizons with woodgrain sides? 🙂
That Grand Large coupe and the Aronde coupe and convertible are my favorites. The Aronde’s taillights look like they were lifted straight from a 1955 American Plymouth.
That sim a 1100 shut gets around ,lol
Amazing how long the Vedette’s main body structure lasted, though that Esplanada looks like it stole a Rambler Ambassador’s nose. Very informative article in general about a history that’s always been a little bit mystifying!
As far as world cars, didn’t the GM T cars beat the Horizon to market by a bit? Plus the revised Omnirizon didn’t go on sale here until the ’78 model year.
You’re right: the Chevette came out for the 1976 model year. While she was single, my wife had one, which is why she became a Toyota customer afterwards.
The Alpine is still a handsome car, & reminds me of its competitor, the Passat/Dasher.
I think the longevity of the Vedette body was mainly financial necessity. Maurice Dolfuss, the Ford SAF managing director, had really overestimated the Vedette’s sales potential after the war. There was some market for it, but the Vedette was too big and too thirsty for many people, so sales were not nearly enough to sustain Ford SAF’s operations. Dearborn figured that designing a smaller car (which would have had to be pretty much clean-sheet) would be throwing good money after bad.
I believe the Mk2 Vedette was mostly done by the time of the Simca deal, so Simca essentially inherited it. I assume Simca’s main motivation in the acquisition (which if I recall correctly was really more of a stock swap not involving a lot of actual cash) was the Ford SAF factory and facilities rather than the product, but since the revised product was nearly ready to go, why not? (Buy a factory, get a free car.)
Still, it ended up lasting a remarkably long time for an American castoff that never sold outstandingly well in Europe.
I’d seen some sources state that the Vedette was based on an “austerity” postwar Ford design for the US market; the car that was too small and austere for the US was too big and ruinously expensive to own in postwar France.
Of course, the same source seemed to identify the stillborn GM Cadet and the Holden 48/215 FX as the same car….nope. Nice symmetry, though, since that car, the same size as the Vedette, was just right for postwar Australia.
The Cadet was not related to the Holden; about the only things they had in common was unitized construction and the fact that their engines were about the same displacement. However, the Mk1 Vedette was indeed developed as Ford’s U.S.-market Light Car, the design for which Maurice Dolfuss decided to buy even though the U.S. version had been canceled in 1946. The production car was metricized and had various minor changes to incorporate French electrical components and so forth, but was otherwise recognizably the same design.
The Light Car projects at Ford and Chevrolet were both canceled primarily because it became clear there was no way to build them for significantly less money than the standard cars, which was a losing proposition. It was a different story in countries like France, which had horsepower taxes based on displacement and were still rationing gasoline.
The problem with the Alpine/1307 was weak powertrains. It’s a shame, too, because there was a lot of like about them otherwise.
As for the Horizon, it’s weird that “heavy steering” was THAT big of a deal. A lot of cars had heavy steering at low speed; I don’t understand how that could torpedo a car’s competitiveness. I wish the US version were more faithful to the Simca/Chrysler, with the blocky taillights and torsion bars. But they did get the trip computer from highland park as well as some other technology which I’m dying to remember at the moment.
It was a truly good car which deserved a richer parent and more success.
FWIW, I remember that when the U.S. Horizon came out, Car and Driver insisted that power steering — which was optional and the customary Chrysler finger-light, no-feel variety — was not only unnecessary but spoiled the car.
Not sure if there were changes, but the power steering in my mother’s 1980 Horizon was far from the old Chrysler one-finger kind. It was in the modern school which required real effort to move the wheel. I recall not really liking it at the time, but then I liked the old-style Mopar Full Time power steering. Also, being front drive, even with power steering, the steering wheel would return to center with some wicked power when you accelerated after rounding a corner.
This was from ’78 or thereabouts, so it might have changed. I can’t speak to it — my parents had a Horizon for a while in that period, but it was a stripped model that didn’t have power steering.
Well for perspective, how would you compare it to the PAS in your old GTI?
Good question. It’s been a long time but the VW had great road feel, better than the Horizon. Both seemed to have similar effort. The Horizon also made you fight against engine torque, which I don’t recall so much in the GTI, which was odd given the VW’s big power advantage.
I’m not sure if the European Horizon got optional PAS but it had an entirely different front suspension, one which was apparently heavier and bulkier than the US struts.
…perhaps that accounts for the difference.
I can assure you from experience that the steering in the Horizon was heavy, very heavy, and dominated the low speed driving characteristics of the car.
Power steering was offered later; when power steering came to the Alpine/1308 around 1980 it was one of the, if not the, first in its class to have it. I remember a friend with a Cortina Mk3 saying “power steering on a 1600cc car – whatever next!”
Oh I should’ve read your comment before commenting above. Looks like the Euro Horizon DID get PAS.
…but were versions with manual steering still fun to drive once you picked up the pace?
In NZ we had the Talbot Alpine with the 1442(??)cc engine. At the time it was a snappy performer. It might sound like a smallish engine for a vehicle of that size, but the truth of it was that it performed quite well in the road test evaluation reports at the time and it was was notably quicker than competitor 1600’s..
Great piece Roger, better than I could have hoped for and some cars I’ve never seen before. I will have to find a Centura to tell the Australian part of the Chrysler 180 story.
Hi John,
I’d love to see some Centura photos, as I’m hoping to do a 180 CC at some point, and the Centura’s an interesting part of that tale
Cool Simcas were a popular car in the late 50s early 60s in NZ an uncle had a early 60s Etoile for many years of trouble free motoring, I owned a late 50s Aronde which was mostly rust but went ok it caught fire but was still driveable. The only Arianne in NZ lives just around the corner from me along with a 1501 sedan Vedette and the 1000 we already saw, Yes somebody in Australia needs to find a surviving Centura I had one with 245 Hemi and 4speed very fast comfortable car but not particularly well built but that one is long gone.
The Simca’s were pleasant motorcars. They typified early to mid ’60’s european motoring pleasure that you just couldn’t find in cooking pot equivalent British cars of that time (even the Ford Anglia was lacking that flair with a dismal top speed of 73mph and virually zero standing start and mid-range accelerative capabilities). The europeans knew how to build decent small engines and attractive body styles.. even the later decade rear-engined Skoda and the Lada Niva appeared to develop a following of sorts. The Fiat 125T was an interesting NZ contribution.. in fact rule of thumb you could say that it took a 2 litre British car just to match the performance of a typical 1.5 litre european car of the mid-sixties (ie: the top speed of the Mk1 Triumph 2000 was identical to the top speed of the Fiat 1500 Crusader)
A friend drove a rounded Simca Aronde,was a very reliable car.Some Simcas here remind me of 1st gen VW Golf,1980 Autobianchi and even the 1960s Datsun 1000.Tall clean glasshouse,straight lines and great simple style.Has been many years since I saw a Centura in Australia,I doubt any exist,they were not big sellers in Oz.
There was a green 265 automatic out at Abels Bay near Cygnet when I lived there still in daily use, Ive seen one at a swap meet in Napier so at least one was sold in NZ but Centuras are fairly rare and the way they drive its not surprising very fast with little rear traction.
One of my mother’s uncles was a Simca -> Chrisler -> Talbot -> Peugeot mechanics. He owned for almost 40 years a spanish-built Simca 1000 which used as a farming aid. I begged him to give it to me when he wanted to get rid of it but he basically ignored me.
Then he still owns an extremely nice Simca 1200. Indicentally,that’s one of the first cars I drove. The best part was the hydraulically operated clutch, but registered in 1978, it is still used by my uncle. If I go to my mother’s region, this car needs to be featured here, painted in maroon and in almost Capsule state, as he seldom uses it but keeps the car in perfect condition as he bought all the spares for this car from his former work when he retired.
Thanks for another great read Roger.Some nice cars I’ve never seen before
Reliable they might have been but my recollection was that they never managed to shake off an utterly dull image. I believe one of Chrysler’s biggest mistake was not having something faster and glamorous up the range as well as not indulging in motorsports seriously. There were a number of Chryslers which might have served such purpose; the Aussie Charger was one and the Spanish Dodge 3700GT was another (see below).
Those remind me of a ’69 Dodge Coronet, but in slightly smaller scale.
Interestingly, the first time i saw one of those was being used in the 1989 ‘Batman’ movie (the Tim Burton version) as one of the cars driven by the Joker’s henchmen. At the time I had no idea what it was, obviously a mopar but of a type I’d never seen before. I didn’t get my answer until the internet era!
I always thought that car in Batman was just a Coronet with the wheel wells enlarged for big tires. Interesting to know it was a 3700!
I had kind of forgotten about it until I saw the movie again sometime in the past ten years or so. Looking it up led me here:
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_16572-Dodge-3700-GT-1972.html
And I learned something quite new that day!
here’s a pic I snapped in Roswell, NM a few months ago at A-1 Auto Salvage. I am not familiar with Simcas but this one looked like a late 50’s or so Beaulieu. It was rustfree and complete and goes up for auction on Sept 20th, along with the rest of the place. I though it was kinda neat, with 59 Dodge-ish taillight cues. I wish I would have gotten a frontal pic
Another excellent read Roger. Thanks for writing these up–the closest I’ve come to one of these is a Simca 1308 toy car by Majorette I found at an antique store about five years ago.