One weekend,750 miles and a Chrysler 2 -Litre.

[boobydoo]

Well, last weekend was the 2012 International Simca Meeting in Wesel, Germany, and as the Chrysler 2-Litre had been behaving itself of late, I thought a little jaunt across the channel would be in order.

 

I left on Thursday, braving the rush hour traffic to get to Dover for the 12 o'clock ferry to Dunkerque. All seemed in order and I had high hopes that I wouldn't get stranded on the hard shoulder in remote Belgium!

 

Here I am at Dover in a 'seventies saloon dwarfed by Nissan Note' shot.

.

 

The trip across Belgium and Holland was equally unevenful, keeping at a steady 60mph, although a wrong turn off the motorway at Antwerp did add a good 30 minutes to the journey. Although it's quite a big car, I would have liked the driver seat to go back more as my right leg was too high on the accelerator and for a whole 5 hours I had bad right buttock muscle ache!

 

There wasn't a lot of tat to be seen on the journey there, apart from a nice Merc in a suburb somewhere..

 

Oh! And look what I followed for a few kilometers...can you guess what it is?

 

Although the event was taking place at a local campsite, I opted to stay on the outskirts of Wesel in a nice hotel cos camping aint really my bag.

 

I give you one grotty campsite , tents and caravans piled one on top of the other, all inhabited by mulleted, tatooed germans with pesky kids bawling, noisy radios and general pain in the ass-ness....

 

...or nice country hotel with crisp, clean sheets, beer garden and cooked breakfast thrown in. Mmmm...yes please!

 

On Friday morning I explored my surroundings, 'Chrysler style'...arm out the window ( it was baking hot!) ipod on the go...but Wesel seemed a rather soulless place. A sign entering the town claimed 750 years of history but I saw begger all apart from a fairly standard cathedral. The High Street was a horrible generic concrete affair and there were retail parks a-plenty. However, someone was living the Autoshite dream...shopping at Aldi in a Chrysler 180!

 

When I arrived at the Meet proper I decided to have a sneak about the campsite to find hidden gems...of which there were a few!

 

Rather nice seventies combo...but that caravan looks like it might really pong inside.

 

And this could be a scene from the late eighties...Solara and Horizon with ratty Simca 1301.

 

A very rough looking family eyed me suspiciously as I walked past the next combo....they're all sitting behind the Citroen van, so had to lurk out of sight to ping a photo.

 

I have a strange fetish for soiled pink towels so couldn't resist this beauty.

 

Then there was this! Ooh, I say!

 

There was a bed in the back of this..a French version of a Marina Sun-Tor kind of thing.

 

I'd timed my arrival at the site just as everyone was leaving for a countryside jaunt.....buggerations! However , I did manage to snap a few as they exited under the hallowed archway of Talboty-ness!

1950s Simca thingumy-bob...Chambord I think.

 

Simcas galore...and a rare, collectable Simca pushchair.

 

Woof! Dutch Tagora with probably Dutch people in it.

 

1100 pick up, Horizon and Aronde. The woman in the white skirt was a blithering nuisance. She kept jumping out and shouting at people she 'supposedly' knew. Very attention seeking and deffo one to steer clear of on any Grab-A-Granny night at the local boozer.

 

Here she is again. The beady eyed of you might notice a pretty yellow coupe in the corner..I missed that and am not sure exactly what it is.

 

This bus had come all the way from Slovakia.There was actually a Simca Aronde in the boot at the back.....I saw it later !

 

Some more fancies...

 

I decide then to have a gawp at some of the static cars on display. A nice Simca 1301 to start.

 

This little Matra sports was lovely!

 

There were relatively few un-modded 1000s there....even this one has some 'nice' alloys on it.

 

Time to 'Guess The Interior'. Any ideas?

 

Here's the outside.

 

Early seventies 'hot hatch'. 1100 TI

 

Nice standard one. Proper chrome wheeltrims...none of the nasty, plastic dinner plate designs that were to follow a decade later.

 

This is the Samba section now.

 

This immaculate Tagora was Swiss. Not a mark on it.

 

This one was 15,000kms from new!! A GLS but with SX alloys.

 

What do you think to the two-tone job on this? It was never standard...but I quite like it!

 

There was agood showing from the Czech Republic. I've mentioned before that the car was a popular luxury model over there.

 

One of the guys nearly swooned when he saw my right hand drive one and he quickly produced a RHD accelerator cable he'd probably been trying to get rid of for donkeys years.. Mine for 10 euros! i also managed to snaffle two extremely rareTagora GL hubcaps...15 euros the pair, so not too bad.

 

There were a couple of other Brit cars there...this early Horizon...

 

...and a poorly Rancho that was having a head gasket replaced after overheating on the journey down,

 

I was attracted to this nice early 1100. A Simca enthuiast reckons they only did this greeny-gold colour for a few months in 1970, so a rare treat!

 

A GLX , denoted by a black grille and sporty wheel trims. Well sporty-ish. Just black plastic really.

 

Finally, a beige Rancho. There were relatively few there...and only one Solara and NO Mk2 Alpines. Not a one! Maybe I'll take my red W reg next time, to even things up.

 

I got home without incident on Sunday night...here I am at Dunkerque. I got there really early and had to wait nearly two hours which was really boring. And then I couldn't find my ticket and they wouldn't let me on! Luckily at the last second, I found it , dropped down the side of the passenger seat. Panic over!

[SambaS]

WoW! I'd love to do the internationals one year. Too much stimulus at once I'd probably spontaneously human combust with excitement or something

[carlo]

Fantastic write up and pics as ever BD.

 

Love the red all over 180 (and yours of course). Those hubcaps with steel wheels really suit it. Also the white 1200S, one of my favourites.

 

Is the mystery yellow coupe a Ford Comete/Facel creation, or maybe a Simca Plein Ciel?

[dollywobbler]

Nice one. Boggles the mind to see so much rarity in one field! Some great cars there, and some equally impressive colours.

 

Here's an odd thing. On the Matra Rancho, they didn't move the front wipers for LHD/RHD, but it seems they DID move the rear wiper! That's just daft.

[skattrd]

Great pics and roadtrip, glad the motor behaved itself, looks like a good weekend.

[barrett]

487890983947.24/10! I love reading about people doing ridiculous continental journeys in their hopeless old chod, mega bravery points for doing it in something that not that long ago was giving you some serious reliability worries. Nice work!

 

Here's your mystery yellow coupe

Simca Coupé de Ville by kity54, on Flickr

[TagoraSX]

Excellent!

[warren t claim]

All this hardcore French has caused me to have "la petite mort" in my strides.

[michiel]

Hnng, great report!

 

 

= a 1956 Simca Versailles V8. Current owner since the end of april!

[Mash]

O M G

[Spiny Norman]

Most excellent pics Sir!

I'd rather forgotten what handsome beasts the old Simca 1301s were, that blue one is well smart.

[Mr Lobster]

Utterly wonderful, thanks for posting.

 

My eyes feel like they have had a massive feast and need a lie down to recover.

[Alexg]

Great work again

[trigger]

I loved your last road trip thread and this one is just as good!, Legend!

[theorganist]

Wonderful pictures, thanks for posting them. Looks like it was a wonderful trip, I would love to do something like that.

 

I wonder if that is the biggest gathering of Tagoras of evah!!

[hairnet]

 

**falls in a heap gently muttering/dribbling/catching fire**

[lancashireclamper]

Really really enjoyed reading that Sir, excellent pics and very well written,

I tend to forget these days that Simca's were a not unusual sight on our roads when I was a nipper, wonder what happened to my Uncle Chris' Simca van handpainted red with a starsky and hutch stripe roughly applied in a pub car park one heady summers evening.

(oh yes remember now, he scrapped it in 1982 )

[boobydoo]

Thanks for clarifying the unknown cars, guys.

 

I wonder if that is the biggest gathering of Tagoras of evah!!

 

I think I counted nine, which was the most I'd ever seen together. 5 dutch, 1 french, 2 czech, 1 swiss. And most were in lovely nick.

 

These numbers also reflect the poor turnout of French cars at the meet. They're miserable buggers aren't they! You'd think they'd support a meeting of one of their own manufacturers. You also tend to find that the French cars are in the most 'uncared for' condition.

The Dutch seem to take most pride...most of their cars are either nicely original or excellently restored and a pleasure to look at.

[Pete-M]

Top chodding.

 

We need more of this sort of thing.

[jonny69]

Excellent write up. I'll also award you 3.7 bonus points for attempting that in a pile that was giving you issues a while back. This should take your chod bravery points up to a miserable 487890983950.94/10

[cort16]

Great stuff, I never have enough confidence in my old chod to do anything like this.

 

It's amazing how small it looks here

 

 

Yet this one seems have trouble fitting into the space.

[Cavcraft]

Brilliant stuff Tony, cheers for sharing. Have to say I never really took to my dad's late (1980 I think) Alpine but an early model in metallic green defo appeals.

[HillmanImp]

Thats a great thread. Fantastic photos, looks epic.

 

I am not on drugs or owt but for some reason this car makes me think of Mr Meaker out of Rent-a-ghost:

 

[Skizzer]

Mr Meaker out of Rent-a-ghost

 

 

Like everyone said - thanks for a fantastic thread!

[r.welfare]

Great stuff. Question though.

 

I thought 180s/2-litres were all Simcas on t'Continent, yet the Czech-registered one outside Aldi that you papped is very clearly a Chrysler. Did certain countries call 'em Chryslers as well?

[boobydoo]

^^ They were all badged Chryslers til 1976, then continental ones got Simca badges on the back. A strange marketing move really as the Chrysler name was pretty much meaningless both sides of the channel.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two are just stunnaz.

[holbeck]

I salute you sir!

 

Plenty of quality shite there.

[holbeck]

I salute you sir!

 

Plenty of quality shite there.

[ProgRocker]

This little Matra sports was lovely!

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Wow, what a beauty.

 

Loving the old Chrysler/Simca 180s and 2 litres as always.