Movie star, sex kitten, global celebrity, animal rights advocate and political provocateur Brigitte Bardot has passed away. Although she had four husbands and a total of seventeen romantic relationships, there were only two significant cars in her life: this 1954 Simca Type 9 Weekend Cabriolet, and the car that replaced it, a 1959 Renault Floride convertible, which she kept for the rest of her life. How’s that for automotive monogamy?
But that’s not to say BB didn’t find herself in and around a lot of other cars in the ’50s and ’60s.
The Simca was actually the prototype Weekend Cabriolet, built by FACEL Metallon on a cut-down Aronde unibody. It was essentially an open version of the Simca 9 Coupe DeVille. In a prescient move, Simca gave this car to 19-year-old fledgling actress Bardot, soon to become the international sex symbol Brigitte Bardot.
She acted as a spokesperson for Simca and was often photographed in it, smiling or pouting. Bardot owned and used the car for some six years, at which point she gifted it to her good friend and neighbor César Baldaccini, a leading French sculptor.
You might think Bardot might go in for something more powerful and exotic—like this Ferrari 375 MM commissioned by film director Roberto Rosselini for his wife Ingrid Bergman—than her 1200 cc Simca or the 850 cc Renault. But it certainly made a nice back drop to the back side of Brigitte at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. Yes, she loved to go barefoot whenever possible.
Here’s Brigitte in her Simca cabriolet and first husband Roger Vadim in his Lancia Aurelia Spider, photographed for Paris Match in 1956 in Saint-Tropez on the set of “And God Created Woman”. That was the movie that vaulted her to big-time stardom.
Bardot dropping or grabbing her purse from what looks to also be Vadim’s Lancia Aurelia Spider.
Making a dramatic exit from a Simca Chambord, powered by an 84 hp version of the small Ford flathead V8 (V8 60).
Bardot’s true automotive love and life partner was a white 1959 Renault Floride cabriolet (called Caravelle in the US). There’s a significant number of photos with the two of them together, and she always looks happy to be in it, or on it.
It’s not like the Floride is ever going to steal the scene…
Under BB’s bare feet sat the little 845 cc four that belted out all of 37 hp, although a Gordini modified version with 40 hp was available. In 1962 the Floride/Caravelle received an all-new 956 cc engine with 48 hp and in 1964 a larger 1108 cc version upped that to 55 hp. It seems that 37 hp was plenty for Brigitte.
Perhaps her love of small “underdog” cars was related to her great love for dogs and all animals? Bardot made animal rights the passion of her life. She quit her career in movies at the height of her fame and turned all of her energies to the cause of animals.
Well, there also seems to have been a Rolls-Royce in her life, which hardly qualifies as an “underdog”.
This looks like a different Roller. There’s no accompanying information but it might be speculated that she was riding in it in Spain or somewhere when she saw this skinny dog and had the driver stop so that she could feed it. The reason I guess Spain is because of that Dodge Dart, which was built in Spain from 1965 to 1970 by the Barreiros company.
Bardot in a scene from Contempt, a New Wave film directed by Jean-Luc Godard in 1963. She’s looking a bit less than thrilled leaning on a splendid Alfa Romeo 2600 Spider. These were built between 1962 and 1968 with a body by Touring, designed by Rodolfo Bonetto.
This shot didn’t come with any info, so I’ll let you all take a shot at it, including the car.
This one is easy to identify, being an Austin-Healey 100-6 roadster. Is she concerned about hitting that other car or just annoyed?
A plebian Renault Dauphine shares this shot with BB and her then-current paramour. 
Showing off that famous smile (if not much else) out the window of a Citroen DS.
A Mini’s little 10″ front wheel is perfectly framed between BB’s famous legs.
In the ’70s with a Morgan.
Looking a bit less than happy in front of a Citroen 2CV.
Very 1968, both the clothes and the new Corvette Sting Ray
A Lancia Flavia Convertible designed by Giovanni Michelotti at Vignale makes a suitable perch for BB.
That covers all the shots I could readily find of Brigitte with various cars, so we’ll close out with a few more shots of her and her beloved Renault Floride.
Is that true automotive love when you see it?
Who needs an exotic car when you’re this stunning?
Here’s a shot quite some years later. Bardot was comfortable in her skin and didn’t really care what the public thought of her in her later life, including some rather controversial right-wing opinions and being convicted five times for inciting racial hatred. She knew what she liked (and didn’t) and the Floride was certainly one of those.
Related CC reading
Curbside Classic: 1962 Corvette – The Marilyn Monroe Of Cars by me
Curbside Classic: 1967 Buick Electra 225 Convertible – The Jayne Mansfield Of Cars by me
Curbside Classic: 1966 Renault Caravelle – Drama, Intrigue, A Man Named Exner and Disappointing Sales by Jim Grey
She was quite sexy and I appreciate any older pictures of her. Amazing she held onto that Renault. I always see Sammy Davis Jr. sitting in a Floride when I Google it but never Brigitte. What the hell is wrong with the algorithm?
You had a tiger by the tail when you got involved with her.
Thanks for this. Seeing the cars of Bardot is much better than a video I attempted last night…the cars of “Colonel” Harlan Sanders. A vast chasm of difference.
My father periodically mentioned Bardot, although his time of awareness better coincided with Bardot’s time in the spotlight.
What cars? 😉
The Rolls, Ferrari, Vette, and Dart work for me.
I think the Simca looks better but vehicular endearment is an incredibly subjective thing .
She’s cute yes but not all that and a bag of chips .
-Nate
Same here. Love or hate her outspoken beliefs, to her credit, she wisely went a different path at the height of her fame, and it seemed to have worked well for her, certainly in terms of living a very long time. Way too often, these extraordinarily beautiful women cling to the vain hope their looks will always carry them throughout the entirety of their lives and, with rare exceptions, it simply doesn’t work that way.
To look at it more positively, animal rights advocates are at least well intentioned.
Intersting topic — found a few more pics online…
Bardot’s early films are great even now. The later stuff (i.e. from the mid-60s onward) is much less interesting, strangely enough. Guess that she felt the same way, as she quit acting in 1973…
Beautiful woman, for sure. But she did not age very gracefully.
In her home country, she also had a pretty solid run as a singer. Her duos with Serge Gainsbourg are worth a listen.
These are great; thanks for the additions.
The car many folks associated with her was the Mini Moke, along with the Renault Floride and the Simca Sport. But the Moke was a car she actually used on a daily basis when she was in St-Tropez, not a product placement or advertising campaign.
Thanks Paul (Tatra87)
For those interested in seeing more of Bardot and the Alfa Romeo 2600 Spider, Contempt can be seen on Tubi (yes, with commercials).
I just realized she passed away yesterday. What one misses when working on cars and cameras over the weekend. No news and the only TV being the 49ers. She had quite the impact on fashion, women, and animals. I vaguely recall being taken by her in the mid-60s while a young teen but then I saw Natalie Wood and knew I was going dark hair all the way.
Seems her daily driver was an old Renault 4L until quite recently, maybe mostly when doing animalright things.
Those photos of her posing with the Renault are stunning and I would say represent her at her physical peak. Quite something.
It appears that she held on to that car her entire life, but I guess mostly stopped posing with it, except occasionally as in the last photo here.
Great photos of a beautiful woman with beautiful cars.
Her first onscreen kiss with an American actor was with none other than Billy Mumy in the 1965 film, Dear Brigitte. He played a young math whiz with a crush on Bardot. He would then play Will Robinson on Lost in Space.
He went from getting kissed by Bardot to appearing with Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith) and a robot. That was all before he had even hit his teenage years.
And what Billy was doing, around about the time that Brigitte was in her peak, was appearing (along with Cloris Leachman…Phyllis, Frau Blücher (insert horse sounds here), etc.) in perhaps the best Twilight Zone ever…one that still resonates in our world of 2025/6.
It’s a Good Life – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Good_Life_(The_Twilight_Zone)
Sure to be on during the SyFy New Year’s Twilight Zone marathon in a few days (looks like 7:30pm Eastern on New Year’s Eve).
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/how-to-watch-syfy-twilight-zone-marathons-christmas-new-years-2025
It’s definitely what I’ll be doing NYE, this year as always.
Even as a kid around 1960/61 I was quite taken with her, she was incredibly radiant, alluring, and sensual, much more so than the sadly exploited MM. So much more exotic and sophisticated, no comparison in my eyes. Female sexuality personified.
And isn’t that Jack Palance in that Alfa 2600?
I think she may have sort of intentionally, or maybe even unconsciously, “let herself go” as she aged as a way of clearly rejecting a fame which was built strictly on appearance. After so much time in the public eye she clearly said publicly that it had been debilitating, and as a result I wonder if ongoing made little effort to she maintain her looks. She was certainly every bit as physically beautiful as, say, Raquel Welch who did make the effort to remain so, and did. BB wanted only to make the effort to do what she cared the most about and shunned the public eye. Though later much chastised for some rather unfortunate beliefs (she was uneducated in most respects after all) she did have some noble desires that she later prioritized to her credit. RIP BB
Re the photo where she’s getting in to an unidentified car – I think that’s her second husband’s (Jacques Charrier’s) Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider.
One of these:
https://www.southwood.co.uk/showroom/78/Alfa-Romeo-Giulietta-Spider-750D.html
She was hauntingly lovely. One amusing connection between BB and cars is the Ferrari 365 GT4 BB (1973-1984) really was named after her, Ferrari later admitting “Berlinetta Boxer” was just a cover story. All the engineers who designed the thing were men and, like men everywhere, were besotted with her; she was at the time the world’s most famous sex symbol and in the pre-TokTok era, that was quite something. She retired from the screen in 1973, two years after the 365 GT4 BB had first been displayed in Turin.
https://www.ferrari.com/en-EN/magazine/articles/the-365gt-4-secret
Thanks for that addition. Yes, and the Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer’s engine wasn’t even a boxer; it was a 180 degree flat 12. There’s an important difference.
Indeed, it’s a 180 degree “flattened” v12 which makes sense to engineers but must baffle etymologists; Coventry Climax was even more ambitious with their abortive Flat-16 which was two “flattened” 1.5 litre V8s. Curiously, the Ferrari website, while cheerfully acknowledging the technical differences, refers to the engine on various pages as “boxer”, “180 degree v12”, “flat-12” and “boxer-type”.
Excellent presentation. What Brigitte Bardot did not do was to submit to plastic surgery to look as if she was not aging. I admired her for this. I see nothing wrong in having facial rhytids. Neither did she. During the time that she was the international sexpot, she did a great job. Like her politics or not, she was her own person.
According to Google after BB gave her Simca Type 9 Weekend Cabriolet to sculptor César Baldaccini he eventually decided to crush it as part of his “compression” series of works. Here’s a picture I of it that was included in retrospective exhibit ten years after his passing.
That one is called “Dauphine” (César’s first “flat compression” piece) and was literally a Renault Dauphine “turned into art” with a hydraulic press; it was first shown in Milan in 1970. Brigitte Bardot’s Simca was a one-off prototype cabriolet and still exists.
Thanks ACB for the correction. I should have my due diligence by checking at least a few sources. I thought it strange that he would crush BB’s car unless she had a falling out with him or someone associated with it.
Thanks ACB for the correction. I should have my due diligence by checking at least a few sources. I thought it strange that he would crush BB’s car unless she had a falling out with him or someone associated with it.