Simca Aronde : la ferraille qui a enterré la Peugeot 203

Simca Aronde: The scrap metal that buried the Peugeot 203. How did a simple Italian scrap dealer, a man who started from nothing and bought old wrecks by weight, manage to build the car that would humiliate Peugeot and Citroën and propel Simca to second place among French manufacturers? This is the true story of Henri Théodore Pigozzi, born Enrico Teodoro in Turin in 1898, orphaned at the age of 14, who became the uncrowned king of the French automobile industry. From his beginnings in the scrap metal business to his meeting with Giovanni Agnelli, from the birth of Simca in 1934 to the audacious gamble of 1951: launching the Aronde, the first 100% French Simca, with its 6.5 billion franc investment, its pontoon body designed by René Dumas, its 1221 cc engine, and its incredible monocoque chassis. We will relive the exploits of Montlhéry, those 100,000 km covered in 40 days and 40 nights at over 100 km/h, shattering 37 international records; the stroke of genius of acquiring the Ford factory in Poissy in 1954 without spending a single franc; the rise to 225,000 cars per year; and the 1,400,000 Arondes produced. Then came the fall: Chrysler taking control in 1963, Pigozzi ousted from his own empire and swept away in 1964, the brand's slow decline until its demise in 1986. A French epic like no other. Music: Eyes of Glory - Aakash Gandhi and When Johnny Comes Marching Home - Cooper Cannell. The photographs are from archive.org and are in the public domain. Subscribe so you don't miss any of the upcoming stories about cars that have left their mark on France.