Simca pulled a random Aronde off the line and ran it for forty days and forty nights straight at Montlhéry — 100,000 km covered, and more than 30 international records broken.
Lead trim: 9 Aronde 1221 cc OHV four (44.5 bhp)
Simca Aronde1951–1955
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Simca Aronde yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactSimca pulled a random Aronde off the line and ran it for forty days and forty nights straight at Montlhéry — 100,000 km covered, and more than 30 international records broken.
The Simca Aronde was manufactured by the French automaker Simca from 1951 to 1964: Simca's first original design (earlier models were all more or less based on Fiats) and the company's first unibody car. "Aronde" means "swallow" in Old French, chosen because Simca's logo at the time was a stylized swallow. There were three generations, the 9 Aronde (1951–1955), the 90A Aronde (1955–1958) and the Aronde P60 (1958–1964), some 1.4 million Arondes being made in total and largely responsible for Simca becoming the second-biggest French automaker at the end of the 1950s. The first Aronde debuted in the spring of 1951, with only a few hundred pre-production cars distributed to carefully selected "guinea-pig" buyers and the full production version becoming available for sale in October 1951 after the Paris Motor Show; it had a moulded plastic dash-board which looked very modern next to the metal dashboard of its most obvious competitor, the Peugeot 203, and from early 1952 the battery was under the bonnet rather than under the front seat. It was fitted with a front-mounted 1221 cc 44.5 bhp (33.2 kW) engine from the Simca 8 with a Solex 32 carburetor, delivering power to the rear wheels via a traditional four-speed manual gear box with synchromesh on the top three ratios. Body styles ran from the 4-door saloon to a hardtop coupé, coupé, convertible, 3-door estate, pickup and van. Wheelbase 2,440 mm (96.1 in), length 4,070 mm (160.2 in), width 1,560 mm (61.4 in), height 1,520 mm (59.8 in).
Collectors Spotted in the Simca Aronde Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Simca Aronde yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
One published trim in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Aronde 1221 cc OHV four (44.5 bhp) | 1951–1955 | 1.2 L Inline-4 | 44.5 hp | — | — | RWD | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
Simca sold a stripped-down Aronde overseas as the "Outremer" — aimed chiefly at Algeria, at the exact moment that colony was fighting its war for independence.
In its final year, the 90A Aronde added a pair of chic Facel-bodied 2-seaters — the Océane cabriolet and the Plein Ciel coupe — dressing up Simca’s family car as something far more glamorous.
Simca pulled a random Aronde off the line and ran it for forty days and forty nights straight at Montlhéry — 100,000 km covered, and more than 30 international records broken.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
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