Bienvenue, chers amis, to ze second partie of ze tour. We kick things off with a very neat early ‘60s 2CV van, but fair warning: the turnout was pretty limited, Citroën-wise. By which I mean that there were quite a few about, but many were just plain old 2CV saloons, and I wasn’t about to take pictures of tin snails all day, lovely though they may be.
So here’s the 2CV’s unloved flat-twin sister, the 1967-83 Dyane – the only one I saw there, incidentally.
Far more interesting was this late model Ami 6 (1961-69). Flaminio Bertoni, designer of the Traction Avant, the DS and the 2CV, really ended his career on a strange note.
The Ami 8 (1969-78) was the facelifted version of the Ami 6, featuring a slightly tamer front end and abandoning the reverse-canted backlight. This is the wagon version anyway, which was pretty much unchanged in the rear from the Ami 6.
The Citroën LN (1976-78) and LNA (1979-86) are justly despised by fans of the double-chevron as a poor excuse for a city car-sized Cit, being merely a Peugeot 104 three-door with an air-cooled flat-twin under the hood. This grotesque green gaffe in an LNA, sporting the Visa’s larger 650cc engine.
Not sure what a Visa is? It’s this – Citroën’s own design, as weird and idiosyncratic as it should be, also based on the Peugeot 104 platform. They were made from 1978 to 1988 and available with either an air-cooled 2-cyl. or a water-cooled 4-cyl. This is the ultra-rare (circa 2300 made) 1983-85 Découvrable version by coachbuilder Heuliez.
It wasn’t all small fry Citroëns, though. One notable Traction Avant: a superb 1952 (but pre-facelift) 6-cylinder car with an original interior and less than 40,000kms on the odometer.
It might be legally mandated that any classic car meet in France must contain at least one DS, I’m not sure. Just in case, here’s one.
This pristine GS (1970-79) was far more interesting to me. Perhaps is was the sleek, unadorned flanks. Or the quirky interior. Or the fact that this was a (now rather rare) semi-automatic 3-speed car. That’s it for the Citroëns – no SM to be seen, sadly. There were CXs, but none that really caught my attention. Because of all the other stuff on display…
I mean, there was a Ford Vedette Découvrable! Couldn’t pass that up, could I? French Fords, made between 1935 and 1955, were an odd proposition. The postwar Vedette was somewhat successful, but not quite up to Dearborn’s expectations. Thus the whole operation was sold off to…
Simca! The new Vedette, still sporting the old flathead V8-60, carried on through to 1961.
There were a lot of Simcas – a really nice surprise! Almost made up for the lack of Panhards. This superb Aronde Grand Large (1953-58), perhaps the first series-made French hardtop, was just the tip of a substantial iceberg.
If the saloon-derived hardtop was too common for you, the racier Facel-built Plein Ciel (1957-62) could be ordered instead – for a hefty premium.
The Aronde had a long career (1951-64) and several facelifts. The final and most extensive one came for MY 1959 and was known as the P60. Nice way to go on a father-son outing…
The combination of a nicely laid-out dash and a simpler front end design makes these the most desirable four-door of the species, in my opinion.
The Aronde was replaced by the 1300, launched in early 1963. This was the last car Simca founder H-T Pigozzi saw to completion, and the last before Chrysler took full control over from Fiat. This is an early car (1963-66) – a real well-preserved one, too!
The 1300’s more luxurious and powerful stablemate was the 1500. Both of these über-classic saloons got a slightly bigger tail in 1967 and carried on until 1976.
The 1300/1500 were also available as wagons – one of the best-looking long roof French cars of the ‘60s/‘70s. This is a late model, circa 1973-75, displaying the carmaker’s typical plastiwood interior décor for that era.
Few Simcas are truly rare and fewer still were real sports cars. The Italian-made Abarth-Simca 1300 manages to tick both boxes. Only the chassis, which came from the Simca 1000, could be said to be of French origin, but everything else, engine included, was made or substantially modified by Abarth. Extremely expensive when new, very few of these exotics were made.
On the other hand, Simca churned out 1100s like sausages for eons (i.e. from 1967 to 1981). The TI seen here was a sort of hot hatch before those were a thing.
In a similar way, the Matra-Simca Rancho was arguably the first CUV, though only FWD and based on the 1100 van’s capable underpinnings. On a sunny day, that interior must be quite the greenhouse though.
Chrysler on the front and Simca on the back: the 1307/1308/1309 summed up the Chrysler Europe’s confused brand management strategies – if indeed there was a strategy, which remains up for debate. I believe this is a ’79, so Talbot badges were about to be applied as well.
Similarly, this seems like a very late model Bagheera S (1973-80), sporting the 1307/1308’s taillights there.
Seeing a Talbot Tagora (1981-83) is always a special event, given how few were made. This was a Diesel car, as are most survivors nowadays.
We’re almost done for the day, just a couple of lovely Facels before we go, starting with this Volvo-engined 1963-64 Facel III drop-top. Too bad the company took over two years to switch to reliable Swedish power instead of trying to make their own (highly flawed) motors – a fatal misstep. But what a beauty.
Last but certainly not least, the 1962-64 Facel II, the final iteration of the big Mopar V8-powered coupés that made Facel-Véga a legend. Perhaps the most impressive car of the whole show…
That’s it for the domestics – same time tomorrow for a few imports, ok?
Some very interesting cars in there, at least from my (American) view. It’s interesting how many different angles and shapes many of these have compared to the more flat and less fussy American cars. But I guess we did have some strange ones as well such as the Edsel and others. I just find these more interesting to look at.
I was, uh, quite taken by the “grotesque green gaffe” Citroen LNA at first when I saw your pictures of it. And still am, I’ve decided; it was the 1970s, a car could be whatever it wanted to be and needn’t be bound by cultural stereotypes and preconceptions anymore. The white wheels set it off nicely too.
To continue the rhapsody in green, however, I was also quite taken by the Simca longroof, I cannot recall having seen that car in that format previously, tres chic!
I have begun to wonder though, as good and revered as the 2CV is (not disputing that), and how un-loved the somewhat red-headed stepchild Dyane is (kind of a Beetle vs Super Beetle thing in my mind), is the Ami6’s modern-day popularity and seemingly ubiquitous presence/mention (there often seems to be one around) entirely due to its quite extravagant styling? Or was it considered a good and interesting car despite the styling?
The boxy Tagora’s interesting as well and I think those are two Murena’s next to it, but what are the red and identical but other colored car just past those? Also boxy like the Tagora but the front looks slightly more upright.
Another great episode and one I wasn’t really expecting, somehow not considering these other French marques yesterday.
Probably a Chryslet/Talbot Solara, sedan version of the 1307/8/9 (Alpine in the UK) 5 door hatchback.
Definitely a Solara, which was only ever a Talbot, never a Chrysler or Simca.
Any car show featuring Solaras, Tagoras (with the ordinateur de bord option!) and Bagheeras is A Good Thing
The Talbot was a grab-bag of narrow Peugeot rear underpinnings, PSA switches and a carbureted version of the Volvo 262’s Bosch fuel-injected V-6. The Volvos even got a ZF automatic fitted behind that very block. Nevertheless, I would be undecided between a Tagora, the Ami 8 and the Dyane, as my top three favorites
Why no edit function anymore? Meant was the Talbot Tagora, of course
The appendage to the left of the Visa’s steering wheel would have fascinated me as a kid. I would have loved to sit there and play with it. Actually, I’d like to do that now!
Me too! 🙂
Next to Paris, as one of the largest French-speaking cities in the world, it made sense for the City of Montreal to support the French auto industry.
,,,and we tried hard to make a sport version of it:
What a marvellous show! I didn’t comment yesterday, as I was waiting for the Citroens, but somehow I had forgotten about Simca.
I’m always amazed by the Ami6. Words just fail me in trying to describe it. Only Citroen in the 1960s could have produced such a design without ‘normalizing’ it – I mean, imagine what any other manufacturer would have done if this had seriously been put forward as the new model they needed!
That P60 Aronde – I remember them from my childhood. I was always fascinated by Simca wipers as a kid – always parked one up one down. Weird. We never got the later ones in Australia, as Chrysler concentrated on Hillmans instead. Then Mitsubishis. The 1300 and 1500 look quite nice, though there’s something odd about the rear end treatment; the round taillights look a bit odd here. But as for rebranding the later ones as Chrysler (which I understand had little brand equity in Europe at the time), and later Talbot of all things – why didn’t they just stick with Simca?
Did Virgil Exner perhaps secretly design for Citroen and never told us?
More lovelies and exotica, but I’m a man of the people (as long as the people are all in agreement with me, of course), so I must choose the Bagheera – who doesn’t want to be driven sportily on a beanbag seat? – and the GS. Bit obsessed with the GS since first I saw one in about ’74 as a six year old, and that’s only grown, possibly meaning I’ve not improved since then – some may argue such with reference to convincing details – or that it as intriguing as the day it first appeared (unlike your present interlocutor).
It’d be the light blue Ami 6 but they’re all wild and wonderful .
In the 1970’s I knew a guy who’s V8 Vacel Vega’s engine expired, he foolishly scrapped the engine then wanted it fixed cheaply (like $200)…….
-Nate
Looking through the interior shot of the white Aronde P60 there is what looks like a fender-less pick-up hot rod? Would like to see that.
As a bit of closet Simca fan (related to Rootes but with a French accent and a beret), I’d have been all over this show. Hard to pick a favourite – perhaps the Simca 1300 (a rare sight now) or even that Ford Vedette.
I think I’ll need to put Bazas on the calendar for 2024!
Whatever it started out as, that “hot rod” pickup has an Olds V8 in it….