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52-831: Simca acquired the Poissy factory from Ford France (Ford Société Anonyme Française, the French subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company ), along with the model line, in 1954. The Vedette was therefore initially still marketed as the Ford Vedette . The Vedette was manufactured in Poissy until 1961 and the Ariane until 1963. After that, production continued in Brazil until 1966, when the Vedette finally evolved into

104-566: A V8 version of the old bodied car, with the Aquillon 84 engine, and badged as the Ariane 8, joined the range, replacing the Trianon. 1959 brought a new option, the Rush-Matic automatic transmission , which featured two modes: Rush (fully automatic) and Road (manual gear selection). The same year, assembly of the Vedette started at Simca do Brasil. Also during 1959, a new top-of-the-line model joined

156-414: A faded yellow), no chrome, no trimmings, and a very simple interior. As a silent protest the car was named after the place the order to create this model came from: The Palácio da Alvorada , the presidential palace in the capital Brasília . The spartan car found very few takers, in spite of its lowered price, with only 378 examples built in the two years it was available. The Simca Profissional succeeded

208-518: A grand view. Marly was chosen. Robert Berger has demonstrated that the design of Marly was a full collaboration between Jules Hardouin-Mansart and the Premier peintre du Roi Charles Le Brun , who were concurrently working on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Mansart's elevations for the pavilions were to be frescoed to designs adapted from a suite that Le Brun had recently drawn. The frescoed exteriors of

260-654: A joint venture with the Mathis company forming Matford in Strasbourg and Asnières. The new company name was Matford SA. Ownership was split 60%/40% with Ford having the larger share. The new company was controlled directly by Dearborn which was important to Maurice Dollfus , the president of Ford France, who was keen to avoid finding himself reporting to Percival Perry , President of Ford of Britain in Dagenham, England. Relations between Mathis and Ford became difficult during

312-637: A large car called the Ford Vedette. The Poissy plant was large and there was capacity for further expansion. The Vedette was a larger car than anything that Simca had on offer at that time. These points attracted Pigozzi, who decided to take over the entire factory, along with the rights to the cars manufactured there. The cars appeared at the Paris Motor Show in October 1954 on the Ford France stand, but there

364-415: A post-war France tax policy intended to heavily discourage cars with engine sizes above 2-litres put a damper on sales. In 1947 the company produced 3,023 of its 13CVs, which in 1948 increased to 4,270 units. The Citroën was far more plentiful, as it was being produced at more than three times the 1948 production rate of the 13CV. These production volumes were far below those envisaged when the Poissy plant

416-475: A revolutionary design of twelve pavilions built in matching pairs flanking the central sheets of water, which were fed one from the other by formalized cascades ( illustration, right ). After the French Revolution , about 1800, the château was sold to a private owner. He demolished it in 1806 after his factory there failed. The hydraulic "machine" that pumped water for Versailles was also demolished. Only

468-661: A workshop in the quai Aulagnier in Asnières-sur-Seine near Paris until 1927. Model As were made from 1927 to 1931 and Model Ys from 1932 to 1934. The company also imported the US-built V8-powered Ford Model B , but import taxes made them very expensive and so not very popular in France. In 1934 Maurice Dollfus , the head of Ford Société Anonyme Française (SAF), was looking for a larger manufacturing plant and reached an agreement with Emile Mathis to enter into

520-748: The Brussels Motor Show the cars were still appearing on the stand of the Belgian Ford importer, sharing the space with models imported from Ford of Britain . The acquisition by Pigozzi took place in July 1954, just when Ford was poised to launch its new, modern Vedette, with a four-door saloon body of "American" style, much like the contemporary British Fords or Vauxhalls . The car was powered by an unusually small 2351 cc sidevalve V8 engine called Aquilon (" North wind ") in France, derived from Ford's Flathead engine family , whose displacement positioned

572-712: The Présidence as the top-end model, Chambord as the mainstream model and the Alvorada , later renamed Profissional , as a base model, mainly marketed towards taxi drivers. There was also the Jangada station wagon, based on the Marly. The cars were eventually replaced by a version with new sheetmetal, called the Simca Esplanada . The Simca Chambord and its derivatives were built by Simca's Brazilian subsidiary, Simca do Brasil . Based on

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624-684: The Simca Alvorada , the Simca Profissional had no distinct range of chassis numbers. Production figures are thus mixed in with those of the Simca Chambord . The Profissional was discontinued in 1966, as the Chambord range was replaced by the new Esplanada. Total: 50,833 Following an announcement in July 1959 that it would assemble and market Simca models in Australia , Chrysler Australia produced

676-612: The Simca Ariane . While this was welcome news for Volkswagen , for example, Simca do Brasil was not exactly pleased with the idea as the brand had established itself comfortably in the luxury car sector, in a way that Simca back in Europe never managed. Having had no plans to launch a cheap car, with no other options available, Simca do Brasil reluctantly created an entry-level version of their successful Simca Chambord. The Simca Alvorada appeared in 1963 with just two colours as option (grey and

728-431: The Simca Esplanada following Simca's takeover by Chrysler . In the early 1950s, Henri Théodore Pigozzi was looking to expand the manufacturing operations of his Simca company, which was enjoying much success at the time, thanks to the popular Aronde . At the same time, Ford was seeking to divest itself of its French subsidiary, Ford SAF, which had a factory in Poissy, close to Paris , where it had been manufacturing

780-517: The Simca Vedette Marly joined the line-up and the whole range was revised. A new license plate holder was added to the front bumper and the rear license plate now concealed the fuel tank filler. A peculiar addition was a pedal-operated windscreen washer , while other more ordinary changes included a second odometer , also known as a 'trip meter', for measuring partial distances. The Versailles and Régence were made even more comfortable with

832-482: The 1960s, Simca do Brasil gradually introduced parts produced by local OEM parts suppliers. In 1961, the Chambord received an improved engine with 90 hp (67 kW) and 15% more torque, a slightly shorter differential. 98% of the parts were of Brazilian production. A special version, called the Tufão (whirlwind) featured some additional luxury items in its interior. 42,910 units of the Chambord were built up to 1966, and

884-651: The Aronde, Simca marketed different trim levels of the Vedette under different model names, this time with references to the grand period of baroque in French history. The basic version was called the Simca Vedette Trianon , the mid-level was the Simca Vedette Versailles and, at the top of the range, the Simca Vedette Régence . An option on all versions was a large glass moonroof that slid into

936-602: The Royal Hunt. In 1688 the Grand Abreuvoir à chevaux was installed on the terrace, a mere "horse trough." Throughout the rest of his life, Louis continued to embellish the wooded park, with wide straight rides, in which ladies or the infirm might follow the hunt, at some distance, in a carriage, and with more profligate waterworks than waterless Versailles could provide: the Rivière or Grande Cascade dates to 1697–1698. Versailles

988-740: The Simca Alvorada in 1965. That year, the Brazilian government created a new public financing tool through its publicly owned bank Caixa Econômica Federal that would allow Brazilians to finance their vehicle over four years with a monthly interest rate of 1%. This obviously was to attract a new range of clients and Simca do Brasil looked into how to make the Alvorada even cheaper in order to make it attractive for, for example for taxicab drivers. The Simca Profissional thus appeared in 1965 with three colour options (yellow, green and cream white), no chrome (even

1040-569: The Vedette Beaulieu through to 1962, using both fully imported and locally sourced components. Ford SAF Ford France (formerly, Ford SAF , Ford Société Anonyme Française) is the French subsidiary of the American automaker Ford Motor Company , which existed as a manufacturer under various names between 1916 and 1954, when Ford sold the manufacturing business to Simca . After 1954

1092-489: The Vedette range, the Présidence , featuring a luxurious interior, a radiotelephone (a European first) and a continental kit . French coachbuilder Chapron built two 2-door Présidence convertibles for a governor of one of the French colonies . Chapron had another order the next year, to build two four-door convertibles for the French President Charles de Gaulle . The Beaulieu was dropped in autumn 1960, but

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1144-596: The Vedette, the first Brazilian Chambord left the production line in March 1959. It featured a standard 84 hp (63 kW) V8 engine, a 3-speed gearbox with the shifter located on the steering column, and was assembled from parts imported from France. Related models included the Simca Présidence, Simca Rallye, Simca Jangada (a station wagon based on the Simca Marly ), Simca Alvorada , and Simca Profissional . Throughout

1196-457: The addition of central armrests (Versailles in the rear only, Régence in front and rear), while the Trianon was simplified, losing bumper guards and chrome windscreen decor. In 1957, an option of the Gravina automatic clutch was added, along with better brakes and more direct steering. The Trianon regained the chrome decor around the windscreen, while the other models acquired slimmer tail lights and

1248-479: The bumpers were painted in dark gray, no trimmings), the already very simple interior of the Alvorada was downgraded further with plastic seat covers, the door covers were dark, untrimmed cardboard screwed onto the metal. But the Profissional was 30 percent cheaper than its far posher brother, the all chrome and leather Simca Chambord . The production numbers of this version apparently were never documented and, unlike

1300-411: The car into the " 13 CV " French tax class. Equipped with a two-barrel Zenith-Stromberg 32NX carburetor , it produced 75 hp (55 kW) for the first generation. Power was transferred to the rear live axle through a three-speed manual transmission with column shift . The Vedette had independent front suspension (by MacPherson struts ) and drum brakes on all four wheels. As with

1352-811: The cars to clear. The small-engined 4-cylinder Ariane, of which 166,363 were produced, survived until 1963. Simca would not return to the luxury executive car market in Europe until 1970, when production of the Chrysler 160, 180, and 2 Litre started. The model was continued for longer in Brazil , where the Ford-sourced Aquilon 2.4-litre V8 engine underwent a number of improvements, first increasing power to 100 hp (the Tufão version), then to 140 hp (called Emi-Sul due to its hemispherical combustion chambers , as used in Chrysler's Hemi engines ). Trim levels included

1404-451: The current of the Seine moving fourteen vast paddle wheels, was a miracle of modern hydraulic engineering , perhaps the largest integrated machine of the 17th century. It pumped water to a head of 100 meters into reservoirs at Louveciennes (where Madame du Barry had her château in the 1760s). The water then flowed either to fill the cascade at Marly or drive the fountains at Versailles —

1456-528: The engine output gradually rose to 120 hp (89 kW). These more powerful Chambords had an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 14.3 seconds and a top speed of 160 km/h (99 mph). In November 1966 Simca introduced the Esplanada at the Salão do Automóvel , Brazil's sole motor show, as a replacement for the Chambord. The Simca Alvorada was a radically stripped-down version based on

1508-436: The entire French operation to Simca at first keeping 15.2 per cent of the company but selling this share as well in 1958. Apart from the plant, Simca also acquired plans for a new Vedette, with the 2351 cc V8, which was made until 1961 (with a substantial modernisation for 1958) as Simca Vedette (although still marketed in some markets as Ford for some time). The Poissy factory has an interesting later history - after

1560-512: The factory failed in 1806, the château was demolished and its building materials sold, including the lead from its roof. Napoleon bought back the estate the following year; the empty gardens and the surrounding woodland park still belong to the State. At the end of the 19th century, several connoisseurs purchased leases on the individual garçonnières , cleaned up the overgrowth, recovered some bruised and broken statuary and recreated small gardens among

1612-408: The familiar four-door sedan/saloon, chassis with front half bodies were also made available to coachbuilders, who built a number of coupé, cabriolet and station wagon adaptations. The 13CV was valued by customers for its interior space, comfort, style and performance. However the car’s fuel consumption also put it at a competitive disadvantage against the market leading Citroën 11CV . That coupled with

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1664-478: The foundation of Jules Hardouin-Mansart 's small château the pavillon du Roi remains at the top of the slope in Marly park. Napoleon bought back the estate in 1807, and the park belongs to the state. The works at Marly were begun in the spring of 1679, on 22 May, before Louis had moved his court permanently to Versailles. The king was looking for a retreat on well-wooded royal lands between Versailles and Saint-Germain-en-Laye that were well-watered and provided

1716-533: The front ornament was replaced with a new design. Fender-mounted V8 badges were introduced but, although the whole range featured the same V8 engine, the new badges appeared on the fenders of only the Régence and Marly. After three years in production, the Vedettes were given new names and a new, elongated body, with a more ornate front end and large tailfins , making the cars even more American-looking than before. This

1768-482: The incorporation of Ford SAF into Simca, it was also a subject of Simca's takeover by Chrysler in the 1960, and during the 1970s it manufactured the first (and, as it later turned out, only) French-made car to bear the Chrysler brand, the Chrysler 180 . At the end of the decade, Chrysler in turn divested its European operations (including Poissy) to PSA , which first rebranded the Poissy production to Talbot . Finally, in

1820-470: The later 1930s with Ford, as the majority investor in the Matford partnership, insisting that development and production of the by now aging Mathis model range be discontinued. Ford had commissioned a new plant of its own at Poissy in 1937, with the stated intention of pulling out of the Strasbourg based Matford project. By the time the Poissy plant came on line in 1940, France had been invaded. Poissy itself

1872-646: The new body, the Versailles was replaced by Simca Vedette Beaulieu and the Régence by the Chambord , while the estate retained the Vedette Marly name. The three-year-old body of the previous Vedette nevertheless continued in production but it lost its V8 2.4-litre engine. In April 1957, fitted with the 1.3 L Aronde engine, the old body now clothed a new model in the Simca range, the Simca Ariane . Later, in October 1957,

1924-477: The other models remained unchanged until the 1961 model year, when they received new seats, new chrome decor, and the engine was fitted with a new anti-vibration crankshaft. French production of the V8-engined cars ended in the summer of 1961, by which time 173,288 had been produced, although a Simca Chambord was exhibited at the Paris Motor Show in October of that year, suggesting that Simca still had some stock of

1976-632: The otherwise somewhat severe buildings created a richly Baroque ensemble of feigned sculptures against draperies and hangings, with vases on feigned sculptural therms against the piers — all in the somewhat eclectic Olympian symbolism that Le Brun and the King favoured everywhere at Versailles. The decor of the pavillon du Roi featured Apollo , the Sun King's iconographic persona, and Thetis . Other pavilions were dedicated to other Olympians, but also to Hercules , and to Victory , Fame and Abundance . Construction

2028-462: The posh Simca Chambord as a result of a demand by the Brazilian government of President Juscelino Kubitcheck that every car manufacturer must offer an affordable basic version within their range. The idea was to give as many Brazilians as possible the possibility to own a car. The concept of a very basic version of the Simca Vedette had been previously attempted in Simca's home country France, with

2080-652: The residuum was renamed "Ford France" and became an importer of models such as the British -built Ford Anglia and the West German -built Ford Taunus . The company was formed in Bordeaux as Société Française des Automobiles Ford in 1916 by Percival Perry , the head of Ford of Britain . Like other European Ford subsidiaries, Automobiles Ford initially assembled the Ford Model T and this continued at Bordeaux until 1925 and then at

2132-550: The roof, called Vistadome The Vedette range was still marketed under the Ford brand in some markets, including the Netherlands and Germany , until 1956. As the new model caught on, Simca was able to increase production from the 150 daily achieved during Ford's ownership of the factory to 250 cars a day. Pigozzi maintained a schedule of year-to-year model revisions, much like US manufacturers. For 1956, an estate version called

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2184-653: The ruins: Alexandre Dumas, fils and the playwright and collector of 18th-century furnishings Victorien Sardou . The Cour Marly of the Louvre museum was inaugurated in 1993. It contains mostly works of art from Marly, displayed on three levels. Providing a sufficient water supply for the fountains at Versailles had been a problem from the outset. The construction of the Marly hydraulic machine , actually located in Bougival (where its inventor Rennequin Sualem died in 1708), driven by

2236-504: The second half of the 1980s, the Talbot brand was axed and Poissy became one of the most important production sites for the Peugeot brand and continues to be today. Ch%C3%A2teau de Marly The Château de Marly ( French pronunciation: [ʃato də maʁli] ) was a French royal residence located in what is now Marly-le-Roi , the commune on the northern edge of the royal park. This

2288-695: The war the company re-introduced the smaller 2,225 cc V8-engined Matford model, but it no longer carried the Matford name. The car was known in France as the Ford 13CV, although subsequently it is also called more formally the Ford F-472 and, after the first 300 had been produced, the Ford F-472A. The car’s handling had been criticised in the 1930s, and vehicles produced from 1946 benefitted from anti-roll bars at both ends as well as hydraulic brakes, which combined to make it easier to control through corners. In addition to

2340-457: Was completed by 1684, though the overcharged painted programmes were simplified and restrained in the execution. The Sun King attended the opening of the completed hydraulic works in June 1684 and by 1686 development was sufficiently advanced for the King to stay there for the first time, with a selected entourage. The theme of Marly was that it was a simple hunting lodge , just enough to accommodate

2392-727: Was filled in and grassed in 1728. During the Revolution the marble horses by Guillaume Coustou the Elder , the Chevaux de Marly , were transported to Paris (1794), to flank the opening of the Champs-Élysées in the soon-to-be-renamed Place de la Concorde (they are now displayed in the Musée du Louvre , along with many other Marly sculptures). In 1799/1800, Marly was sold to an industrialist, M. Sagniel, who installed machinery to spin cotton thread. When

2444-454: Was no mention of the Ford name on the covers of the brochures offered to potential customers. The name "Ford" appeared just once, in very small print, on the final page, presumably in order to avoid confusing customers who would be expected to call the cars "Simcas" from 1 December 1954, the date set for the formal hand-over of the business. In export markets the name change was less immediate, and even in adjacent Belgium , in January 1955 at

2496-480: Was occupied by German troops on 14 June 1940. Ford's new plant there would spend its first years controlled by German automakers operating from Ford’s Cologne plant. Production was dedicated primarily to trucks and military vehicles, initially using existing French designs. After 1943 the plant began assembling "German" Fords for Cologne. Meanwhile, a small number of 13CV Matford V8 passenger cars, now branded as Fords, continued to be produced, at least until 1942. After

2548-412: Was part of a styling trend shown by most large European cars of that period, which were, to some extent, inspired by American styling, as tailfins appeared on Peugeots , Fiats , BMC models ( Pinin Farina -styled), Fords and even Mercedes-Benz cars of that era. The engine was uprated to 84 hp (62 kW) (now called Aquillon 84 ) but the fiscal qualification of the car remained unchanged. Using

2600-501: Was planned, and ever since the end of the war Ford’s French boss, Maurice Dollfus had been negotiating with US Management to be permitted to adapt a prototype developed in Dearborn in 1941. This model, launched in October at the 1948 Paris Motor Show as the Ford 12CV Vedette now replaced the F-472A. The Vedette was joined in 1952 by its upmarket counterparts, the Vendôme , and Comète sports coupé, cars that were not shared with any other Ford subsidiary. In November 1954 Ford merged

2652-408: Was provided with water from Marly. The famous description of Marly in the memoirs of Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon were written in retrospect and, for the initiation of Marly, at second hand; when Saint-Simon wrote, in 1715, Marly's heyday was ending, with the death of Louis XIV that year. Louis' heirs found the north-facing slope made Marly damp and dreary, and rarely visited. The "river"

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2704-529: Was situated west of the palace and garden complex at Versailles. Marly-le-Roi is the town that developed to serve the château , which was demolished in 1806 after passing into private ownership and being used as a factory. The town is now a bedroom community for Paris. At the Château of Marly, Louis XIV of France escaped from the formal rigors he was constructing at Versailles . Small rooms meant less company, and simplified protocol ; courtiers, who fought among themselves for invitations to Marly, were housed in

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