Simca’s underappreciated mid-liner under the spotlight.
Editor’s note: This piece first appeared on DTW in March 2017 as part of the Simca Theme.
The Simca 1300/1500 stepped elegantly into the Aronde’s shoes yet, despite good looks and strong sales, it never really escaped the rather ‘grey’ reputation bestowed by its casting as the universal anonymous saloon in Jacques Tati’s 1967 film Playtime. The casual seeker after knowledge might therefore too easily conclude that the mid-size Simca’s sole contribution to the advancement of the automotive art was the availability, in the estate cars only, of a Formica-faced boot floor which could double as a picnic table.
The reality is that it was a well-balanced product, both in engineering and style, for which Simca adopted ‘best’ practice, rather than joining the technological revolution which was sweeping through the car industry in the late fifties and early sixties, one which saw even conservative businesses like BMC, GM, and Rootes trying to Continue reading “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie”
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