Born in Turin, Made in France: 1964 Simca 1000
It pays to have friends in high places. Henri Pigozzi, who grew up in Turin but founded Société Industrielle de Mécanique et de Carrosserie Automobile (Simca) in France, had known Giovanni Agnelli, head of Fiat, and his family for decades. This familiarity gained him entrée to Fiat’s secret development department when he visited his home town. In the mid-1950s, when Fiat was designing a car to move upmarket, and Simca was looking to move downmarket, Pigozzi took a liking to Fiat’s mockup of a boxy sedan – just one of Fiat’s potential successors to the 600. With the Agnelli family’s permission, Pigozzi was allowed to develop the sedan. Mario Revelli de Beaumont, head of Simca’s design department, split his time between Turin and Poissy for two years, working with Felice Boano to produce the Simca 1000. The well-balanced, cheeky little car was launched at the Paris Motor Show in 1961. This example runs but needs work. Its new owner can collect it from Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Thanks to Zappenduster for sending in this tip – we love oddballs like this!
While the new Simca was being built, the company was also developing an overhead valve four-cylinder for its engine bay. Water-cooled, mounted in the rear, and displacing 944 ccs, it was good for about 35 hp. Over time, Simca produced multiple variants of this engine to power several of its models – which is good news for Simca restorers in need of engine parts. The gearbox is an all-synchro four-speed manual driving the rear wheels. The gas tank is located behind the passenger; with all that weight in the back end, oversteer should be no surprise. This car does run, but the seller notes that work will be required before it can be driven.
The interior is so… French! The slip-slidey front seats in two-tone upholstery, the single Veglia gauge that resembles an old-fashioned alarm clock, the fluted plastic two-spoke steering wheel – what’s not to like! Note the door panels reverse the color pattern of the front seats. Swanky. This car comes with new tires and several parts collected over years of ownership – but from my experience gathering parts for our Panhard (thanks to Barn Finds reader Dominique!), a visit to France would be invaluable toward rounding out your Simca parts pile.
That Triple-A sticker is so apropos! The bumper is bent – dang. And the seller notes rust in the driver’s floor and battery pan. But if tackling a French car project is on your bucket list, this one is reasonably priced at $2000, cash only. Find it here on craigslist. Does charm transcend value here, or do you take a more pragmatic view of this project?
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Comments
This is designed very similar to the Renault R10 I learned to drive in. What I’m trying to figure out is, I can see the gas pedal, but where is the brake and clutch pedal at? I see a switch on the floor, (starter switch maybe), but no pedals. I like these quirky cars, but would be willing that most of the parts are made of unobtainium.
The tail lights are the ones used on the early MK 1 GT40 Fords. That is probably the only thing that they have in common. I know I had a GT40 for 32 years
You must be related to Lou Fageol, a serious racer! Am I right?
Yes; I have a great interest in racing cars and the folks who raced them. Had a few and still do.
GT40 tail lights came from the Mk 1 Ford Cortina. They are dome-shaped and have three dividing bars. These pan-shaped lights are from a Fiat 850, mounted upside down.
The taillights are shared with the LeMans winning Ford GT!
Fifty-three or 54 years ago I parked a ’64 Simca 1000 on its roof in a parking lot in Burbank, California. Gawd, in spite of all the Ferraris, Bentleys, Jaguars, Porsches over the years, I still love Simcas!!
This one predates it and has the early round taillights but when the square-taillight midcycle facelift was done for 1969 it became the first volume-production car sold US market with amber rear turn signals, allowed under the newly enacted FMVSS 108 from the start which preempted the previous state-level vehicle lighting regulations which in some cases might well have stipulated red rear blinkers.
Looks like a mini-Corvair.
I bought one of these in 1970 from the running cars section at the local junk yard. It ran, as in, it started and sort of drove but that wasn’t its intended fate. As teens we regularly took cheap cars to the sand pits. This one couldn’t climb the hill due to clutch slip. Probably why it was in the junk yard to begin with. Drove It back to the junk yard and got $10 for it. $40 loss but it would have been fun.
Pat – these are easy to work on, very conventional engine design.The only thing we might see as unconventional today is the centrifuge oil filtering system – the crankshaft pulley is hollow and has the oil pumped through it. The spinning pulley caused the dirt and sludge to collect in the circumference of the pulley. Simple to remove the pulley cover, clean the muck, and put it back together! The oil seals around the pulley are critical though – if they wear, you will quickly lose all your oil and lubrication. Mike F – I got to where I could put a clutch in in about an hour, not a big deal
WoW
I just mentioned our lill frenchies yesterday (one was this
same color too). As 1 in a long line of Mom’s kidm0biles (school, practice, scouts, dinner’n home wrk) the Dauphine, 16 (or 10?) and others in there (no vedub Bug as to the 2dor only).
I’m surprised no 1 mentioned the Maxwell Smart (opening scenes each wk)
connection (him drivin dwn the set of stairs, thru the narrow alley, etc). I love the French/Italian car connections~
I had one in college, bought cheap, no title. It had an extra pair of wheels/ tires, so we welded them together on the back, unbolted every thing we could, until just a skeleton, then dune running til it blew up.it was fun.
I had a ’66 GLS in the same blue. Dad knew about these cars and I bought in ’76 as my high school car. We got it running and off I went with town and country horn settings, a Jerry can as the low fuel light. Incredible fuel economy for that time. Easy to work on but parts were something else to get. Certain amount of witchcraft and sorcery in the hydraulics and wiring. Best seats in any car. Really fun to drive.
….surprised to see my name mentioned, thanks Michelle! These cars, like the R8 from Renault are still popular rally (vintage) cars and they are a blast to drive. There are quite a few YouTube videos on the internet. This could be a fairly easy project at a reasonable cost.
OMG! You just brought back a long forgotten memory. I learned how to drive at age 11 in a mid 50s Hillman. A British car, I believe. But around the same time, my brother had a 1956 or ’58 Simca. Cute little car, drove it a couple times.
Don’t know what it was with my brother, he had the Hillman, the Simca and a Crosley before he moved on to a late 50s early 60s Ford F100 that he souped up and then a 1967 GTO after he got out of the Marines.
Then he got married and it was downhill from there. 😄
I always wanted one of these. Very similar to the 3 Renault 10s we had in our family. If I didnt just buy a Metropolitan I would be all over this. Cool little car.