Simca 8 (Huit)

Alastair Browne

Alastair Browne

Active member
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Dec 3, 2003
Messages
498
Location
Sydney
I was down in Adelaide from Sydney for the Bay to Birdwood last year (taking part in my Singer Gazelle) when I came across a Simca 8 in the paddock at the start. This car was beautifully restored with a maroon exterior and a light tan interior. In fact it was by far the best car resto that I have seen in a while and certainly the first of this model that I have seen in Oz.

I never did speak to the owner but I was drooling over this wonderful car for quite a while listening to comments from passers by, one of whom called it a Simca 'Hewitt'! I cracked up at their purported french pronunciation.

Alastair
 
Singer

What model Gazelle do you have.
I imported one into Adelaide from New Zealand and then drove to Perth in 1977.

It was a convertable. I tracked it down in Perth and the holder of it was to give me first option however it disappeared east some where.

Interested to findout where it ended up.

Graelin
 
Simca 8 [Huit]

Graelin said:
What model Gazelle do you have.
I imported one into Adelaide from New Zealand and then drove to Perth in 1977.

It was a convertable. I tracked it down in Perth and the holder of it was to give me first option however it disappeared east some where.

Interested to findout where it ended up.

Graelin
Click to expand...

Simca, Grae. S-I-M-C-A. Not Singer. :wink2: :wink2:
 
Alastair Browne said:
I was down in Adelaide from Sydney for the Bay to Birdwood last year (taking part in my Singer Gazelle) when I came across a Simca 8 in the paddock at the start. This car was beautifully restored with a maroon exterior and a light tan interior. In fact it was by far the best car resto that I have seen in a while and certainly the first of this model that I have seen in Oz.

I never did speak to the owner but I was drooling over this wonderful car for quite a while listening to comments from passers by, one of whom called it a Simca 'Hewitt'! I cracked up at their purported french pronunciation.

Alastair
Click to expand...


Totally agree, It's great restoration of a very unique car in Australia and won it's class at the 1st Australian National Simca Meet that was held in Adelaide 2001. Ther is another similar car in Adelaide which is totally original with wart's and all, it was great to compare the two cars.

Some Car This Simca

JP.
 
Graelin

I know we are supposed to talk froggies here but my Singer is a 1959 Gazelle Series 3, powder blue with grey stripe. If you tell me the colour scheme of your convertible I can probably track it down. We have 3 convertibles in the NSW club

Alastair
 
Colour

Alistair
The one we had was blue with a white flash, unfortunatley someone had repainted it non original iridescent blue.
In NZ we had a hunter gearbox fitted and last time I saw it it still had the Bridgestone Radial tyres fitted in 1976.
I have a diary of driving it across from Adelaide and also some slide 35mm pics of the car on this trip.
I did follow the only other one in Perth one day till he stopped and he put me onto our old one. The chassis numbers of our NZ one and the WA one were he said one number apart!

Thanks Alistair

Graelin
 
Simca 8 [Huit]

Headline.."Wildebeest Employs a Pincer Movement of 1 to Recapture Simca Thread".

My first venture into the Frog car scene was via the Simca 8-1200 or Huit as it was later known.
Mine was reputedly a 1952 model,definately post W11. The prewar models had a few differences, rear wheel arch shape, no stone trays ? behind the bumpers and different wheels.

They had a few odd features that are now being claimed as design breakthroughs. Pillarless bodies and flashing low fuel level light. My sister was bragging about the latter on her new Camry. Given a swift put down!

The "bling" of that time was a beautiful polished cast alloy "waterfall" grille with thin vertical bars, a lovely enamel SIMCA badge and topping it off was a stylish swallow mascot on the bonnet. I would love to have these items now to just hang on my wall. :cool:

Mechanically the Huit was a carry over of a FIAT design. Simple alloy head pushrod 4 of 1200cc. Thermo syphon cooling system. Solex 32mm carb.
Transmission was 4 speed on the floor. As is common with Fiat they had a disc, rubber, universal or cardan jointed tailshaft with a "sudden death" hand brake drum on the rear of the gearbox. :eek: The brake drums were finned alloy, a work of art. They worked too, the Europeans did brakes well even then.

My own experience with the Simca 8 included being pulled up by the local motorbike cop for going a trifle fast. No fine, just told me "to take it easy because these little things are quick". I should have got this in writing! :)
I had a coming together with the local milkie in his Fordson 10-10 van. I wrote off all the lovely previously described "bling". Thinking it would spend the rest of its life with a chicken wire grille I was amazed when the panel beater located all the new parts! Amazing when you think they might have sold six of these cars in Aus.

Surprisingly there were two Huit in Kalgoorlie and fellow Simcaphile "Westair" recently told me of owning one here in Perth.

There now, WB.
 
Wildebeast and Graelin

Firstly, Wildebeast, many thanks for filling us in on your ownership of a Huit. I suppose, like many, I was amazed at the attention to detail these cars had. Obviously this is a fascinating car and I'm surprised there has not been more interest in it. I wonder if there are many left in France?

Secondly, Graelin, your car may be owned by a friend of mine in the Singer Car Club of NSW. It is still blue with a white stripe and looks great. The person who owns it is a great restorer and whilst he hasn't done much yet, I am sure it will be done some time in the future. It's last outing was to Bathurst over Easter for the Singer National Rally where it was driven by his son. I don't know anything about the engine or engine nos but I could find out for you in due course should you wish.

Alastair
 
Alistair

I would not know any numbers of the car now. So thanks for offer unfortunatly it will not help me. I can just fill in some history I guess for your friend.
The car sat for many years in an upholstery shop in Armadale Perth while a dispute over repairs took place. I visited it several times over the years hoping to one day buy it back into the family each time leaving my contact details.
There were a number of parts like radiator grill still stored with it, I stripped those off a wreck in Perth in 1977 while on holiday from NZ.
I hope that he has our old car and this fills in some history.

Graelin
 
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