Société Industrielle de Mécanique et Carrosserie Automobile – well that sounds pretty French, doesn’t it? It shortens to Simca, and in English it would read: Mechanical and Automotive Body Manufacturing Company, which doesn’t sound very French at all. In fact the Simca company began life in 1935, when it was established by the Italian company, Fiat. From its inception in 1935 until as late as May 1963, Simca was controlled by the Italian Henri Theodore Pigozzi, who at least had French given names! He had actually begun his association with Giovanni Agnelli by becoming his ‘scrapman,’ sending old car bodies to Fiat for recycling.
Fiat cars were being assembled in France under Pigozzi’s supervision from 1928 to 1934, so predictably enough Simca produced Fiats under licence. These were initially badged as SIMCA-Fiats but otherwise differed little from their Italian-built brethren.
