Simca 1000
| Simca 1000 | |
|---|---|
1973 Simca 1000 GL
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| Overview | |
| Manufacturer | Simca |
| Also called | Simca 900 Simca 4 CV Simc'4 Simca 1118 Simca 1005/1006 |
| Production | 1961-1978 |
| Assembly |
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| Designer | Mario Boano |
| Body and chassis | |
| Class | Small car |
| Body style | 4-door saloon |
| Layout | RR layout |
| Related | Simca 1000 Coupé/1200S |
| Powertrain | |
| Engine |
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| Transmission | 4-speed manual all-synchromesh |
| Dimensions | |
| Wheelbase | 2,220 mm (87 in) |
| Length | 3,785 mm (149.0 in) |
| Width | 1,473 mm (58.0 in) |
| Height | 1,335 mm (52.6 in) |
| Curb weight | 730 kg (35% front) |
The Simca 1000 is a small, rear-engined, four-door saloon which was manufactured by the French automaker Simca from 1961 to 1978.
The origins of the Simca 1000 lie not in France but in Italy. Simca’s President-director general, Henri Pigozzi, had been born in Turin and had known Fiat’s founder, Giovanni Agnelli from 1922 till Agnelli’s death in 1945: the Agnellis still controlled Fiat. Fiat would remain Simca’s dominant share holder till 1963. Pigozzi remained a regular visitor to Fiat’s vast Turin operation throughout his time at the head of Simca, and when Pigozzi visited it was as an honoured friend.
Following the launch in 1955 of the well received Fiat 600, Fiat’s development department, still headed up by the legendary designer-engineer Dante Giacosa, set about planning for its successor. The replacement foreseen would be a little larger and more powerful than the current car, reflecting growing prosperity in Italy at the time. Two projects were run in parallel: “Project 119” was for a two-door successor, building on the strengths of the current model, while “Project 122” was for a more radically differentiated four door successor. The entrance to the inner sanctum of Fiat’s Development Department would have been blocked to most visitors, but Pigozzi’s privileged relationship with the Agnellis opened even these doors, and during the late 1950s he took a particular interest in the Department. It became clear that Pigozzi’s intentions to extend the Simca range further down in the small car sector aligned closely with Fiat’s own “Projects 119” and “122”, intended to build a presence upmarket from the Fiat 600. Pigozzi obtained the agreement of the Fiat directors to select one of the six different rather boxy four-door clay models and mock-ups that then comprised the output of “Project 122” to be developed into Simca’s new small car.
The styling department at Simca was headed up by Mario Revelli de Beaumont, another Italian expatriate who had transferred from General Motors in 1955 but who had been born in Rome back in 1907. Dividing his time between Fiat’s Industrial Design Centre at Turin and Simca’s Styling Centre at Poissy, Revelli de Beaumont spent the two years between 1959 and 1961 working with Fiat’s Felice Mario Boano, developing the Simca 1000 to production readiness. Although the surviving prototypes differ in detail, the basic architecture and boxy shape of the car had evidently been “right first time” and the Simca 1000 of 1961 is entirely recognizable as the model that Pigozzi had selected from Fiat’s “Project 122”. In the meantime, in Italy the Fiat 600 continued to sell strongly and there was little sense of urgency about investing to replace it. Management evidently decided that a four-door replacement for the 600 would represent too big a jump from the existing car. However, in 1964 the fruits of “Project 119” became public with the launch of the Fiat 850.
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