If you don't like Simcas...LOOK AWAY!!!!

[boobydoo]

Last week was the International Simca Meeting in Bastogne, Belguim.

 

A friend and I travelled down in the 1100, catching the Dover-Dunkirk ferry (cheap at £20 a head with Norfolk Lines) on Thursday, stopping at Ostende for dinner and arriving at Bastogne at 2am ( and rather embarrasingly having to get the hotelier out of bed to let us in!!) .

 

The Simca performed the 700 mile round trip impeccably on less than two tanks of fuel despite the roads in Belguim being as bad as over here for potholes.

 

About 350 Simca-Talbots turned up for the weekend from as far afield as Denmark and Czech republic.

 

Spare parts were on sale but hideously expensive....Tagora rear light lens £150!!...."Talbot" badge £25!!....Solara wing mirror £85!!....but I did manage to get 4 new plastic wheel centres for the Tagora GL for £50 as the ones on it currently are cracked.

 

The weather was pretty bad...cold and rain, but here's some of the piccies I took for all you lovers of French 'shite'.....

 

Nice 1100Ti spotted in the town centre...

 

Tagora diesel...one of 6 that turned up....

 

Mint Rancho in fetching beige...

 

One of my favourites at the show...a lovely early dutch Horizon with fabulous stripy seats...

 

Fully restored MINT Simca van from the UK...late one on an A reg...

 

This green 2-Litre was rather tasty...

 

...but this is the one I'd have taken home. A late 'Talbot' badged one with the later black grille and wide rubbing strips. Almost sporty looking in a Chrysler 2-Litre sort of way. They were never marketed as 'Talbots' in the UK, always staying as Chryslers until 1981!!

 

This 1982 Czech 1100 appealed...again, badged a Talbot 1100 and lovely nick....

 

Talbot Samba with Tagora grille looking rather odd...

 

Solara Pullman...apparently a French special edition along the lines of the Rapier in the UK...

 

A rare sight in Britain.. two Simca 1501's in Kingfisher Blue...lovely

 

Lurking down a side street in Bastogne...this was a 1308GT in as new condition...my favourite car of the whole weekend!!

 

Matra M530...never seen one of these before! What a beaut!!

 

Another pristine Horizon in the town square...

 

This Swiss Tagora GLS was 'out the box' ...the owner spent hours polishing every inch of it while his two kids sat in the back bored stiff......

 

Simca Arondes...very pretty cars, I think...

 

UK Samba in Baltic Blue...

 

1200 coupes

 

One of three Czech Tagoras at the show...this one an SX in Cascade Blue a colour which really suited the car...

 

Seventies Chrysler 180 in glorious 70s orange!!!

 

Rare Aronde Utility...

 

Me in the 1100 ready for the journey back to Blighty!!!

[brammy777]

Fantastic shots. Its great to see so many in top condition. That Samba from the UK has a familiar plate, was it on ebay recently?

[TagoraSX]

Very nice.That blue Tagora is very tasty.

[barrett]

If you don't like Simcas...LOOK AWAY!!

I'd say that applies to exactly no one here!Awesome pics, it fills me with a deep warmth that such a thing as a Talbot/Simca rally exists...

[trigger]

Wow!, That looks like a great weekend away!, I love that English Blue Simca van!

 

I picked up a model of a Simca 1000 SL (?) at Beaulieu at the weekend, It was a bargain £2!.

 

 

[Claypole]

That Matra is gorgeous. (a quite check and they are gorgeously expensive and rare too).

[michiel]

Nice set of pics, but do you have a link to your photostream so I can see them a bit bigger? Merci!

[GJR 11L]

What an absolutely fabulous trip away that must have been. I'd have a Tagora in an instant if a decent one could still be found on an average UK trader's plot, but one night I went to bed and the next day all the Tagoras had vanished. Were there any of those rear-engined 1000s there, like the one Trigger just bought in miniature? I would have been about 12 or so when a school mate's Mother bought one of those and we sometimes got a ride home in that instead of my Mum's Fiat 500 which, at the time, just wasn't the car to be seen in! The Fiat's still with the family and I keep meaning to exhume it some day from its dry storage, but I'd bet that mate's Ma's Simca is long gone.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

What a selection of honeys, I'll have the orange 180 or the blue Simca van please, I would LOVE one of those vans due to their sheer eye-popping hotness!

[Electric Leyland]

WOW. Is this an annual meeting? If so I know where I'm planning next year's holiday. This has to be the best single marque car do in the world. More pics please! Especially any of the Simca 1000 variety (standard spec ones not the Rallye if poss), my favourite Autoshite vehicle of them all. Think I'm right in saying no one on here owns one. In fact has anyone ever owned one, or even just driven one?

[michiel]

Here's a link to a Dutch bloke's pics.

 

Pic%20is%20dead,%20damn.

 

 

'Quelle miel'.

[dollywobbler]

WOW. Is this an annual meeting? If so I know where I'm planning next year's holiday. This has to be the best single marque car do in the world. More pics please! Especially any of the Simca 1000 variety (standard spec ones not the Rallye if poss), my favourite Autoshite vehicle of them all. Think I'm right in saying no one on here owns one. In fact has anyone ever owned one, or even just driven one?

I've driven TWO Simca 1000s. They're great. One was Rallye spec, the other had a supercharger! Neither were ridiculously modified though, and I got the impression that even the basic 1000 would be a really nice way to travel. Typical French comfort but felt capable enough on the bends too. Kind of like a Renault Dauphine but less likely to kill you (feels much more planted) and actually travels at a decent rate of knots. My tip for 'most under-rated classic of all time.'

[Rusty Pelican]

My mate Dave had one in the late 80s , painted with a roller in Datona yellow , great little cars , id roll about in one , It would be interesting to compare one with my Imps

[saabhappy]

The Chrysler 180/2 litre is a car I've a real soft spot for, and my French master/cricket coach at school had a 1000 and used to give 3 or 4 of us lifts to matches, so they bring back fond memories. The 1100 never seemed to sell too well over here, but the "shake that ass" rear end pre-dates the Megane by 30 years or so. A 1501 estate would be VERY nice.

[saabhappy]

How about this, torn from an old newspaper...

 

 

[mattblack]

We got the 'Pullman' edition here as well, at least on Horizions. IIRC they had a funky digital rev counter...

[155V6]

There's a Simca 1000 on my delivery route,LHD,orange & a sports exhaust.I've only seen it driving past though,so I don't know where it lives

[Mr_Bo11ox]

heres a 180 on LBC with a seized engine, 650euros

 

http://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/114813796.htm?ca=12_s

[boobydoo]

Here's the link for those who want to gawp at more pics in glorious...SIMCACOLOURAMA!!!

 

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50305748@N02/

 

 

I haven't downloaded the Simca 1000 ones yet...I'm a bit new to this photo-download malarkey!!!

[Mr Lobster]

Absolutely superb! 1100 van is lovely, that could definately come home with me.

 

 

Part of me feels slightly sad that I'll never be able to buy one of these ^ and cruise around 1960's France feeling impossibly cool.

[GJR 11L]

Uh, uh, uh, soft moaning, heavy breathing, DAMN! Kleenex please....

 

 

 

*Scuttles away to the bathroom to the strains of Labe Siffre's "It must be love".........* (The Madness cover version would do at a push).

[michiel]

Here's the link for those who want to gawp at more pics in glorious...SIMCACOLOURAMA!!!http://www.flickr.com/photos/50305748@N02/

Merci!

[Electric Leyland]

WOW. Is this an annual meeting? If so I know where I'm planning next year's holiday. This has to be the best single marque car do in the world. More pics please! Especially any of the Simca 1000 variety (standard spec ones not the Rallye if poss), my favourite Autoshite vehicle of them all. Think I'm right in saying no one on here owns one. In fact has anyone ever owned one, or even just driven one?

I've driven TWO Simca 1000s. They're great. One was Rallye spec, the other had a supercharger! Neither were ridiculously modified though, and I got the impression that even the basic 1000 would be a really nice way to travel. Typical French comfort but felt capable enough on the bends too. Kind of like a Renault Dauphine but less likely to kill you (feels much more planted) and actually travels at a decent rate of knots. My tip for 'most under-rated classic of all time.'

That's a relief, I was expecting them to handle awfully. So this increases my serious WANT even more for a Simca 1000. Top of my list, but I think the only realistic way is a Leboncoin tat rescue mission to French France.

[Alpineandy]

Typical French comfort but felt capable enough on the bends too. Kind of like a Renault Dauphine but less likely to kill you (feels much more planted) and actually travels at a decent rate of knots..

So like an R8 then

[AnthonyG]

IIRC the Simca 1000 ('Mille') was the top selling car in France one year in the early 1960s.

[VWPowered]

i love simca's, i had a talbot horizon many moons ago, all around the filler neck was crusty as sin a good 2 inches all round the cap, tonnes of glassfibre/filler couldnt save it rusting to pieces, so much so every time you hit a bump another crack appeared on want list is a tagora...

[boobydoo]

Simca 1000s do crop up here from time to time. There was one for sale recently, 1971 LS for £1995. Only done 19000 miles. Unfortunately a lot have been bastardised into "Rallye" replicas..so you do have to be patient for the original "lady owner" ones.I see that in this months Practical Classics, they reckon only twenty Simca 1100s survive. I think thats about right...I remember wanting to buy one in the early 80s, when they were only a few years old, but all the ones I went to look at were rustbuckets even then!!

[michiel]

I'm always amazed how many Simcas I see in old pics, like this one:

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

A great thing about Simcas is the name, 'Industrial Company of Mechanics and Coachwork', I would buy a car from a company with that name nowadays (if there was one). It certainly grabs hold of you emotionally and makes you want to buy their products.

[Electric Leyland]

I always wondered about the name. Sounds very skilled and brimming with expertise.

 

I've only ever seen one 1000 on ebay in the UK, an early 70s red one, non-runner on a patch of grass next to a lean-to. That was 5 years ago approx.

 

If you find on YouTube the House Of Fun appearance by Madness on The Young Ones (the "Kebab and Calculator" pub visit), there's a red Simca 1000 in the street, the square rear lights version.

 

EDIT: here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ympZ6TEPHk both cars about 15-20 seconds into the clip.