ID:206 is a
1959 SIMCA Vedette Chambord.
This model was produced from Oct. 1957 to Jul. 1961.
Originally it was a Ford Vedette manufactured by Ford Société Anonyme Française (Ford SAF) of France.
Buoyed by the success of their
SIMCA Aronde,
SIMCA (Sociéte Industrielle de Mécanique et Carrosserie Automobile), wanted to expand into the luxury car market.
They acquired a loss making Ford France in 1954.
So the Ford Vedette became the Simca Vedette.
The car had the Ford
Aquillon 84, a tiny 2.3 litre V8 that breathed through a 2 bbl Zenith carb and put out 84 bhp @ 4800 rpm. A 3 speed manual gearbox transferred power to a live rear axle. Top speed was 145 km/h. It had independent front MacPherson strut suspension.
For French tax purposes, SIMCA also plonked the 4-cylinder 1290 cc Aronde engine into the Vedette and called it the SIMCA Ariane. This car struggled to reach 120 km/h but appealed to taxi drivers. Ariane taxis were a common sight in Paris, those days.
Ford had a 60-acre plant at Poissy, 17 km from Paris, with 4,500 workers and 3,000 machine tools. This is where the Vedette was made. With the SIMCA-Ford combine, both Ford's and SIMCA's stocks climbed on the Paris Bourse and American Stock Exchange.
[ref: TIME magazine 27-Sept.-1954]
In the interesting SIMCA ownership story, SIMCA started in 1934 to build Fiats for the French market. In 1954 they acquired Ford's Poissy plant. In 1961 they sold the SIMCA factory at Nanterre to Citroën. Then they took over Talbot. Eventually SIMCA was sold to Chrysler and became Chrysler France in 1970. In 1978, Chrysler France was sold off to Peugeot!
Peugeot still manufacture at the Poissy plant.
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