History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek March 27, 1995; republished by the author
Two of the least frequently noted developments regarding automobiles in France were (a) it becoming illegal to honk one’s horn in Paris except in extreme emergency and (B) Simca’s purchase of Ford of France lock, stock and manufacturing plant in 1955. Simca not only got the real estate and the improvements thereon, but the rolling stock as well. This included the Facel-bodied Comete coupe and the Vedette four-door sedan.
The Vedette – “star” in French – had been around since before World War II, and although significantly reengineered and restyled for its 1949 reintroduction, it was still powered by a version of the Flathead V8-60.
But the 1955 Vedette, debuting on the Ford stand at the Paris show in late 1954, was all-new. Not only had it been restyled to look like its current American cousin (and its British and German Ford relatives), the Vedette also had a unit body and McPherson strut front suspension. The little V8 was retained as well, mounted at the front and driving the rear wheels through a column-shifted, three-speed manual transmission.
At least outside the company, there was some question about the Vedette’s future after Simca’s takeover. The Aronde, a modern but conventional model introduced in 1951, was selling well. But Simca’s Italian-born president Henri-Theodore Pigozzi no doubt envisioned the V8 Vedette as a flagship for a firm that had begun by building Fiats under license in France in 1932. The make, not the model, changed as the French Ford became a Simca.
However, Simca did call the V8 Acquilon (Eagle) and the McPherson suspension Stabimatique. The Vedette, available in basic Trianon, upgraded Versailles and top-of-the-line Regence models, as well as a Marly station wagon version, lived up to Pigozzi’s expectations. Although overshadowed in sales by the Aronde, the Vedette accounted for 44,836 of Simca’s 160,761 sales in 1956.
The Vedette didn’t come Stateside until 1957, and was then added to the Aronde variants imported (west of the Mississippi) by the Witkin-Wolf Co. Witkin-Wolf advertised the Vedette simply as the Simca V8 Versaille, calling it “the practical imported car…new…modern…and designed for today’s driving.”
“Several top professional race drivers recently put this car through many sizzling laps on a Southern California road race course and found that the Simca V8 ‘hangs on’ in the corners better than some sports cars,” said Witkin-Wolf’s ad. “All of the drivers praised the power and the handling of the car highly. Of course this car is not a racing car, but it is a car that can take a serious beating and provide that extra margin of safety when you need it.”
Road & Track said the Versailles should “have special appeal to U.S. car buyers because it resembles so closely the concept of what a Detroit car could be if emphasis were shifted from the gargantuan to the practical.” The magazine found the 2351 cc, 80-hp V8 would propel the 2540-pound Simca from 0 to 60 mph in 17.2 seconds and turned the quarter in 20.6 seconds. If that doesn’t sound quick, you’ve been living too long in the present. A VW beetle took 28 seconds to do 0-60 mph, but costs $1495 compared with the $2495 for the Simca.
The four-door Simca was roomier than the Volkswagen. Motor Trend noted in a test of a ‘59 Vedette, “seating is excellent and comfortable for four adults, and luggage space in the trunk is large enough for another passenger.”
Is not known whether Marie Willoughby carried any passengers in the trunk of the Vedette she bought in France in 1957 and brought home to California. The car is owned by Michael Pomerantz of Brookline Mass., and although trunk testing was deferred in favor of wheel time, the Vedette proved an impressive little sedan.
The bantam eight belied the performance numbers, the Simca merging easily and running with highway traffic. It coped well with Boston drivers on surface streets. Handling seemed adequate, though see above for testimony on performance at the limit. But the ride quality! The Vedette was at smoother than a peanut butter commercial and even a surprise speedbump didn’t crash the suspension against the bump stops. The struts and live axle (on seven-leaf semi-elliptics) glided the 6.40-inch wide, 13-inch diameter white sidewalls over the obstacle like a table knife over chunky PB.
The interior came from Dearborn’s playbook, with a horizontal band speedometer and a steering wheel with a half-circle horn ring. All else being equal, small outside means small inside, and the overall feel here is of a 3/4 scale model of an American Ford sedan. However Gallic touches included the dual-mode horn and controls labeled in French. The knob marked avert won’t prevent accidents, nor does the eclair knob provide pastries.
The Vedette was restyled for 1959 with a crosshatch grill, tail fins reminiscence of a ‘59 Rambler and gaudy bullet tail lamps. But despite V8 power, the Vedette never made much of an impact on the American market, perhaps because by the late 1950s, a flathead was old hat. Or maybe it was because Chrysler, which in 1958 bought the 15 percent share in Simca that Ford had taken as part payment for its Poissy factory, didn’t aggressively market the Vedette. Ironically, that meant Chrysler provided a warranty for a Ford motor, much as it would later with the Sunbeam Tiger Series II.
Simca built more than 100,000 Vedettes. As sales tapered off, Simca stop selling the model in the United States and Europe in 1961 (though sales continued in South America).
Production of the rear-engined Simca 1000 began in 1962. The 1000 hit the bull’s-eye on the European econobox market, but it was not le petite Amercaine and it was hardly an arrival to set Paris horns to blowing. Even if that had been legal.
The flathead Ford V-8 was a favorite of hotrodders in the ‘50s. Should the Vedette have been a hotrodders favorite? Or perhaps the “foreign car” enthusiast?
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