The Simca 1000 was basically a rear-engined economy car designed in the late 1950's to supplant the Aronde series, Simca's mainstay from the early 1950's to the early 1960's. The Bertone-bodied coupes were an attempt by Simca to continue it's tradition of special coachbuilt vehicles based on their ordinary family cars. Earlier special Simcas included cars bodied by Pininfarina in the style of early Ferraris, and cars bodied by Facel in the style of the lavish and expensive Facel-Vega coupes. The 1000 Bertone coupes borrowed most of their style cues from a one-off Ferrari that Nuccio Bertone designed personally for his own use, and to add some excitement to Bertone's stand at the 1962 Geneva motor show. The car was also the subject of much attention from Enzo Ferrari himself and Nuccio Bertone's main rival - Sergio Pininfarina. This was the same show at which the 1000 Bertone Coupe debuted. Though the proportions of the Simca are unlike those of the Ferrari, many cues from the Ferrari were retained in the design of the pert and pretty Simca Coupes. This particular car is quite rusty (most Bertones are) but still salvageable.

This mid-sixties 1000 runs and drives, but is currently parked among a gaggle of spare parts and parts cars. The 1000 was considered a mainstream automobile when it was new, even to Americans - but nowadays it's tiny and square and ends up in unusual places - this one was once used as a parade car by a Shriner's group and festooned with painted clown faces. A light, efficient, and fun to drive car - they deserved better. The 1000 was also a good performance platform. Fiat helped with some design aspects, and Italian tuner Carlo Abarth loved them - making many Simca race cars in the early sixties. The gearbox had input from Porsche and the suspension from Abarth - the result was that the 1000 was firmly a drivers' car, even after the relationships with Fiat and Abarth ended in the early sixties. Often overshadowed by the equally boxy Renault R8, the 1000 was the better car out of the box until Amedee Gordini got ahold of the R8 and Renault started equipping them with larger engines.

SIMCA is an acronym for "La Société Industrielle de Méchanique et de Carrosserie Automobile" - as a company it was an offshoot of another acronym producer - FIAT. Simcas were originally Fiats built under license in France. The Simca 5, at left, is a rare bird indeed. Just 30 of them were sold here in this form - later cars with different bodywork were slightly better sellers, but were never volume cars either. The Simca 5 was one of the early Simca's - it was directly derived from a Fiat (the topolino). The Simca Aronde was the first Simca to be developed without major input from Fiat. It was at one time France's best selling car and it became Simca's best selling model in America - a popular car after the 1958 recession which sent many American buyers looking for smaller, more economical cars. No doubt it's appeal was linked to it's American touches and practicality. It was also much better in urban areas than a big American cruiser - they were popular in cities. This car came from Detroit. Sadly, there's alot of rust under the seemingly-good bodywork.

Not all Simcas were related to Fiats. This is perhaps one of the most unusual cars ever made - it's a Simca Vedette. In the late 1940's, Ford of France developed a new, small V8 car - a 3/4ths' scale 1949 Mercury really, and completely new - incorporating a very small V8 to complete the American-car-in-miniature ruse. This car was called the Ford Vedette. There were also special coupe versions called the Comete. But at that time Ford was attempting to consolidate it's European operations into two camps - Germany and England. So Ford of France was essentially made redundant and the factory at Poissy was sold to Simca - along with the design of the Vedette.

Simca restyled the car to look more like a mid-1950's American car - and the Simca Vedette was born. The Vedette looked exactly up to date in this incarnation - rather like the 1957 Chryslers, in fact - but smaller. Thus Simca made an American car in France that looked like a smaller American car with all the American touches. But it was really an import. Buyers didn't know quite what to think of it and the V8 was not a hot seller. So Simca also launched a Four-cylinder version called the Ariane. This helped the Vedette and about 170,000 Vedettes and Arianes were sold. But not very many in the states. Simca also managed to incorporate a popular American trend at the time - the tendency to rust.