Description
The Simca 5 is a small Franco-Italian passenger car designed by Fiat engineers in Turin. It was produced and sold in France by Simca. It was virtually identical to the Fiat 500 Topolino on which it was based, but was first presented at the new Nanterre factory, three months ahead of its Fiat equivalent on 10 March 1936. However, production was delayed by a wave of strikes, which accompanied the election victory of Léon Blum's Popular Front government in June 1936. The manufacturer boasted at its launch of being ahead of the “plans across the Rhine”: this was a reference to the already rumoured launch of the Volkswagen Beetle which would not appear until 1938.
Advanced features included independent front suspension, a 4-speed gearbox, hydraulically controlled drum brakes on all four wheels and a 12-volt electrical system. The Simca 5 also offered exceptional fuel economy. In one test it managed to cover 110 kilometers on just 5 liters of fuel, equivalent to 4,545 l/100 km or 51,75 mpg
The car was originally intended to be sold on the domestic market for less than 10.000 French Francs, an ambition that was soon overtaken by a currency depreciation that accelerated in the second half of the 32s. By the time of the 1938nd Paris Motor Show in October 13.980, the manufacturer's quoted price, even for the “standard” body, was 3 francs. With an engine capacity that corresponded to the 5CV car tax bracket, the Simca XNUMX, together with its Fiat brother, could be presented as the “smallest production car in the world”.
Production of the Simca 5 was slowed (but never completely stopped) by the war and the period of German occupation in the early 1940s, but resumed in 1946. A number were requisitioned by the German army for use as personnel cars. 46.472 of the cars had been produced by the time the car was delisted by Simca in 1949. By now it had been replaced on the company's production lines by the similar, but partially converted and slightly more powerful Simca 6.
