Simca

Ariane - 1960

The Simca Ariane is a rather unknown car. It was produced between 1957 and 1963 and was a scaled down version of the luxurious Vedette. It marked a transitional phase of the Simca company. The Simca company started out in 1934 with the production of FIAT cars in France, and was rather successful. After the second world war Simca started developing its own cars, starting with the 1951 Aronde. In 1954 Simca took over the French Ford branch, mainly because the factory needed the extra production capacity. The Ford-developed Vedette was a welcome addition to the expanding Simca model range, as were several Ford France engines. The Vedette was the luxury car in the range and the Aronde was aimed at the lower middle class. The need was felt for a model filling the gap between the Aronde and the Vedette, and so the Ariane was developed and introduced in 1957.
In 1958 the American Chrysler company, looking to expand into Europe, bought 15% of the Simca shares and by 1963 Chrysler was the major shareholder. Chrysler stopped the production of the Ford France derivatives in favor of the newly developed 1000 and 1300/1500 models that became a huge success.
RitzSite offers you a small overview of the Ariane on these pages, the French car with an American heritage.

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