Quote:
Originally Posted by kznyc2k
I'm a bonafide car nut albeit a younger one, and I've never heard of a Simca. Should I feel embarrassed??
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Hard to say what someone should know on any given subject. I have known a lot, but cannot prove it because I have forgotten almost as much as I have known.
In the States, car manufacturers and their extensive dealership networks worked hard to promote their own businesses to the exclusion of brands popular in Europe and to a lesser degree Asia. Post WW2, the American public's eyes widened when servicemen returned from overseas with morsels of continental auto offerings. Quaint air-cooled Beetles substantially impacted American auto tastes. It did not hurt that US auto manufacturers had ownership stakes in many Euro manufacturers. Chrysler, being one such example.
The Simca ad criticizes rear-engine and front wheel drive cars that were still a novelty in the US. It is interesting that Simca was already producing, or set to produce, those criticized designs, and of course, Chrysler went on to produce its own version of front engine-front-front-wheel drive cars. General Motors had a different take on the competition with the Corvair. We now return to our regularly scheduled broadcast . . .
1960 - Austin Healy Sunbeam (no caption) Catch pan protects linoleum.
1962 - Frank Millard's Sports Car Center in Encino. (Who wore red, Frank or Roy?) Maury Wills, pictured in MG Midget, wore Dodger Bleu.
Lapl