The
Simca Aronde was a
family carA family car is a car classification used in Europe to describe normally-sized cars. The name refers to the fact that these cars are suitable for a family to go shopping or on vacations. Most family cars are hatchbacks or saloons, although there are MPVs, estates and cabriolets with the same...
manufactured by the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
automakerThe automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells the world's motor vehicles. In 2008, more than 70 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles were produced worldwide....
SimcaSimca was a French automaker and marque, founded in 1934 by Henri Théodore Pigozzi . Simca was originally affiliated with Fiat, but later, after a period of independence, when Simca bought Ford's French branch, became increasingly controlled by the Chrysler Group, in 1970 becoming a part of...
from 1951 to 1963. It was Simca's first original design (earlier models were all to a greater or lesser extent based on
FiatFiat S.p.A., an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial and industrial group based in Turin in the Piedmont region. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli. Fiat has also...
s), as well as the company's first unibody car.
"Aronde" means "
swallowThe swallows and martins are a group of passerine birds in the family Hirundinidae which are characterised by their adaptation to aerial feeding...
" in Old French and it was chosen as the name for the model because Simca's logo at that time was a stylized swallow.
There were three generations of the model: the
9 Aronde, made from 1951 to 1955, the
90A Aronde, made from 1955 to 1958, and the
P60 Aronde, which debuted in 1958 and continued until the model was dropped in 1964.
The
Simca Aronde was a
family carA family car is a car classification used in Europe to describe normally-sized cars. The name refers to the fact that these cars are suitable for a family to go shopping or on vacations. Most family cars are hatchbacks or saloons, although there are MPVs, estates and cabriolets with the same...
manufactured by the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
automakerThe automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells the world's motor vehicles. In 2008, more than 70 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles were produced worldwide....
SimcaSimca was a French automaker and marque, founded in 1934 by Henri Théodore Pigozzi . Simca was originally affiliated with Fiat, but later, after a period of independence, when Simca bought Ford's French branch, became increasingly controlled by the Chrysler Group, in 1970 becoming a part of...
from 1951 to 1963. It was Simca's first original design (earlier models were all to a greater or lesser extent based on
FiatFiat S.p.A., an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial and industrial group based in Turin in the Piedmont region. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli. Fiat has also...
s), as well as the company's first unibody car.
"Aronde" means "
swallowThe swallows and martins are a group of passerine birds in the family Hirundinidae which are characterised by their adaptation to aerial feeding...
" in Old French and it was chosen as the name for the model because Simca's logo at that time was a stylized swallow.
Generations
There were three generations of the model: the
9 Aronde, made from 1951 to 1955, the
90A Aronde, made from 1955 to 1958, and the
P60 Aronde, which debuted in 1958 and continued until the model was dropped in 1964. Some 1.4 million Arondes were made in total, and this model alone is largely responsible for Simca becoming the second-biggest French automaker at the end of the 1950s.
9 Aronde
The first Aronde debuted in 1951 and was fitted with 1221 cc engine from the previous Simca model, the
Simca 8The Simca 8 was a French car made in the early 1950s, available as a sedan, coupé or cabriolet. It was a Fiat 508C "nuova Balilla" made in France....
. Body styles consisted of a four-door saloon, a three-door estate and a two-door
coupéA coupé or coupe is a closed car body style, the precise definition of which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and over time...
coachbuiltA coachbuilder is a manufacturer of bodies for carriages or automobiles.The trade dates back several centuries. Rippon was active in the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Barker founded in 1710 by an officer in Queen Anne's Guards, Brewster a relative newcomer , formed in 1810. Others included Hooper, H. J...
by Facel. The latter was subsequently replaced by a coupé based on the saloon Aronde body, called
Grand Large. The 9 Aronde had a favorable reception in the French market: by 1953, total sales had passed the 60,000 mark.
The car had independent suspension at the front using coil springs, with a live axle at the rear with semi-elliptic leaf springs. Hydraulically operated drum brakes were used all round.
A car tested in France by the British
MotorThe Motor - not to be confused with an Australian magazine with the same name - was a British weekly car magazine founded on 28 January 1903. It was absorbed by its rival Autocar in 1988...
magazine in 1951 had a top speed of and could accelerate from 0- in 30.2 seconds. A fuel consumption of was recorded. The test car was reported to cost 970 Francs on the French market. It was not at the time available in the UK but the price was converted to £657.
90A Aronde
The second-generation Aronde debuted in October 1955. Externally it had an updated 9 Aronde body, with restyled front and rear ends. More importantly, the new Aronde was powered by the 1290 cc
Flash engine. New trim levels, marketed as
Elysée and
Montlhéry (named after the
Autodrome de MontlhéryAutodrome de Montlhéry is an automobile racetrack, officially called L’autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, located across the towns of Linas Bruyères-le-Châtel and Ollainville, outside Paris in the southside....
) appeared. In October 1957, two new versions joined the Aronde range: the
Océane, a two-door
convertibleA convertible is a type of automobile in which the roof can retract and fold away, converting it from an enclosed to an open-air vehicle. Many different automobile body styles are manufactured and marketed in convertible form....
, and
Plein Ciel, a
hardtopA hardtop is a term for a rigid, rather than canvas, automobile roof. It has been used in several contexts: detachable hardtops, retractable hardtop roofs, and the so-called pillarless hardtop body style.-Detachable hardtops:...
coupé, both with bodies by Facel. In January of the same year, the 500,000th Aronde was made, and the cars were now exported even to the USA.
An Aronde Elysee was tested by the British magazine The Motor in 1956 and was recorded as having a top speed of and could accelerate from 0- in 23.9 seconds. A fuel consumption of was recorded. The test car cost £915 including taxes on the UK market. In 1960 they also tested one of the Montlhéry models. This had a slightly higher top speed of , faster acceleration from 0- in 19.6 seconds and a better fuel consumption of . The test car cost £896 including taxes on the UK market.
P60 Aronde
The P60 Aronde saloons, presented in September 1958, had an all-new, modern-looking body. The estate was also updated with the new front end, but retained the earlier rear. A new coupé joined the range - the
Monaco - while a new, inexpensive version of the Elysee, powered by a 1090 cc engine, was added under the name
Etoile. A new engine, the famous
Rush 1.3 L unit with a five-bearing
crankshaftThe crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation...
, was fitted to the Arondes beginning from October 1960. A 70
hpHorsepower is the name of several non-SI units of power. It was originally defined to allow the output of steam engines to be measured and compared with the power output of draft horses. The horsepower was widely adopted to measure the output of piston engines, turbines, electric motors and other...
version of the engine, called
Rush Super, debuted in September 1961 in two models - the
Montlhéry Speciale saloon and
Monaco Spéciale coupé.
A five door P60
station wagonA station wagon is a passenger automobile with a body style similar to a sedan, or saloon, but with the roofline following the full, sometimes extended rear cargo area and sometimes an extra row of sometimes rear-facing seats, ending with a more vertical door than on a hatchback.Also sometimes...
was produced by
Chrysler AustraliaChrysler Australia is a trading name for DaimlerChrysler Australia/Pacific Pty Ltd. It is the importer of Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles for sale in the Australian marketplace...
from 1962 to 1964. This model, which was unique to Australia, was based on the four door sedan and featured an extended roof-line and a tail-gate fitted with a wind-down window .