French Cars | Classic Cars

Archive for the ‘French Cars’ Category

Citroën 2CV

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

Even though the first prototypes of the car were already built in 1939 the Citroën 2CV wasn’t introduced to the public before October 1948.

From 1949 to 1990 3,868,631 limousines and 1,246,335 vans were built. The vans were never officially sold in the UK but a few right hand drive examples do exist. They were originally built for the Belgian post office whose postmen preferred them to left hand drive cars as they could step straight out onto the pavement.

Citroen 2CV © flickr/exxodus

Right from the beginning the 2CV was a commercial success and already a few months after it went on sale there was a two-year waiting list. Second-hand 2CVs were even more expensive then because the buyers didn’t have to wait to get one.

The low-priced car was designed to enable two peasants to drive about 220 lb (100 kg) of goods to the market across muddy unpaved roads and to use no more than 3 litres of petrol to travel 100 kilometres (62.14 miles). Besides that the 2CV should be able to drive across a field without breaking the eggs it was carrying in a basket. And it should be a fairly cheap car.

The early cars had a 375cc engine developing 9 bhp, from 1955 on the 2CV was supplied with a 425cc engine producing 12 bhp and from 1963 on even 16 bhp. The most powerful 2CV came on the market in 1986 and produced 29 bhp.

2CV Bijou © flickr/Draco2008

In the Citroën factory in Slough the glass fibre coupé ‘Bijou’ was built as an attempt to satisfy British buyers who found the 2CV too radical. The attempt failed and only 211 cars were produced.

Due to the low price and the fairly low tax, the 2CV soon became very popular with university students in Germany.

In 1981 the 2CV Charleston in dark red and black came on the market as a limited edition. It was the first 2CV with front disc brakes.
As the Charleston was a great success it became a full model in 1982 in different colour schemes.

In 1961 the four-wheel drive 2CV Sahara was first sold it was equipped with a second engine in the rear also having a separate fuel tank. The 2CV Sahara could be driven with either the front or the rear engine or with both engines and became very popular with off road enthusiasts. Only 694 cars were built.

Tags: 2CV Bijou, Cars, Citroen, Citroen 2CV
Posted in French Cars | Comments Off

The Peugeot 205

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Of course the Peugeot 205 is not as old as many other classic cars but it certainly is a modern day classic.

The predecessors of the Peugeot 205, which belonged to the Series 2, were the 201, built from 1929 to 1937 and the 202, built from 1938 to 1949. During WW2 no cars were produced. In 1948 production started again and the 203 that was launched in 1948 was the only vehicle built by Peugeot until 1954. From 1965 to 1977 the Peugeot 204 was manufactured and was pretty modern with its front-wheel drive.

Peugeot 205 ©flickr/Jaeger-Meister

The real predecessor of the Peugeot 205 with regard to the vehicle category was the Peugeot 104 which was launched in 1972. It was the first compact car made by Peugeot.

To break even the project M 24, out of which the Peugeot arose, started in 1977.

The car should appeal to a large number of customers and should have an up to date body style. In an appealing body, improvements in the fields of weight, stability, space and aerodynamics should be combined. Not an easy mission but manageable with computer-based technology.

It was also planned to use different kinds of engines in one car. One of them were GTI and automatic-transmission types. Engines were available from 33 kW (44 bhp/45 PS) to 94 kW (126 bhp/128 PS). The smaller engines were modified versions of the engines used in the Peugeot 104, Talbot Samba and Citroën Visa.
But also new engines were developed for the 205. For the XY7 the cylinder head of the stronger XY8 was combined with elements of the smaller XW7 engine. The TU series was related to the AX engines used by Citroën. From 1984 on the XU engine was used.

The transmission of the smaller engines was also modified and the GTI types got newly developed 5-speed transmissions.
After having worked on design studies for 2 years a car was built that combined timelessness and aerodynamics. A high standard was also applied for the passenger compartment. Security was as important as aesthetics.
Indeed the Peugeot 205 was one of the most successful Peugeot cars and between 1983 and the end of production in 1998 about 5.3 million cars were built.

Tags: car, Classic Cars, Peugeot
Posted in French Cars | Comments Off

Simca 1100

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

The Simca 1100 was built from 1967 to 1982. It was the first front wheel drive car manufactured by Simca.

The design of the car was very advanced, featuring a hatchback with folding rear seats, disc brakes, independent front and rear suspension by torsion bars and rack and pinion steering. The body was welded to the frame rather than bolted.

Simca 1100 LS©flickr/FaceMePLS

The cars were equipped with Simca Type 315 overhead valve engines with 944 (45 PS / 33 kW), 1118 (50/52/60 PS / 37/38/44 kW), and 1294 (62/75 PS / 46/55 kW) cc, depending on year and market. A stroked 1118 cc engine displacing 1.2 litres was introduced to the UK market in 1971 and in limited quantities also sold in the USA.

The Simca 1100 had a four speed manual gearbox and there was also a three speed semi-automatic gearbox available which required manual shifting but had an electronically activated clutch.

The Simca 1100 had room for 5 people and three and five door hatchbacks, three door estate car and a van were offered.
In France the Simca 1100 was very successful but didn’t sell to well in non-European export markets.

The Simca was introduced to the American market in 1969 as Simca 1204 and was available as LS or GLS trim, hatchback, or estate for less than $2,000. Air conditioning and the three speed automatic gearbox were optional. It was not a success and Simca withdrew from the American market in 1972.

Tags: car, Simca, Simca 1100
Posted in French Cars | Comments Off

SIMCA

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

SIMCA (Société Industrielle de Mécanique et Carosserie Automobile) was founded in 1934 by Henri Théodore Pigozzi.

In 1935 the company started producing FIAT cars under license. First the Fiat 500 Topolino which was sold under the name of Simca 5 in France. Untill 1950 the Simca 8 and the Simca 6 followed. Under German occupation during WW2 SIMCA amongst others had to produce parts for the NSU-Kettenkrad, a small military vehicle.

In 1954 SIMCA bought Ford’s French branch and it became the most modern car factory in Europe. With 15 percent of shares Ford became a shareholder of Simca.

The former Ford models Vedette and Comète became Simca Vedette and Simca Comète Monte Carlo. One year later the production of the Simca Comète Monte Carlo came to an end but the Simca Vedette was produced until 1961, in Brazil even until the end of the 1960s.

In 1951 the Simca Aronde was first sold followed by the Simca Ariane in 1957. In 1961 the Simca 1000 was produced and from 1963 on the 1300/1500 series. The Simca 1100 built in 1967 was the first model with front engine and front wheel drive.

In 1958 Chrysler bought the 15 percent shares held by Ford and in 1959 Simca bought the French Talbot-Lago company. In 1971 Chrysler owned almost 100 percent of the Simca shares mostly by purchasing them from FIAT. The company now was officially called Chrysler France but the brand name Simca was still used.

In 1978 Simca was sold to Peugeot S.A. which still built the models until 1986 under the brand name Talbot. The last Simca design was the Talbot Arizona which was sold as the Peugeot 309.

The Aronde, the Simca 1000 and the front engined 1100 compact car were the most popular pre-Chrysler models.

Tags: car, Chrysler, Ford, Simca
Posted in French Cars | Comments Off

Classic Cars