Brickyard Legends Team presents :
Abarth Simca 1150SS
The Simca 1000 was a small, rear-engined, four-door saloon manufactured by the French automaker Simca
from 1961 to 1978. The car was inexpensive and, at the time of launch, quite modern, with a brand-new
inline-4 watercooled engine of (at this stage) 944cc. Production began on 27 July 1961, with the official launch
taking place at the Paris Motor Show on 10 October 1961. Use of the RR layout was a first for Simca, although
leading auto-makers in France and Germany had been applying it to mainstream small cars for more than
a decade. In addition to the rear engine, the fuel tank of the Simca 1000 was located in the rear, behind the rear
passenger seat. This gave the car a 35/65 front/rear weight distribution, with an extremely light and nimble
front end and a responsive oversteer on curvy roads.
Abarth in Turin was interested to materialize the Simca-Abarth GT LeMans racer successes with Simca compact,
by boosting them the way Cooper had done with the Minis. The Simca Abarth 1150SS was released in Turin car
show 1962 and was available in four versions : 1150 (1137cc, 55PS @5600rpm, disc brakes front),
1150S (1137cc, 58PS @5600rpm, disc brakes front), 1150SS (1137cc single carb, 65PS @5600rpm, disc
brakes all around.) and jeverly of the crown, 1150SS Corsa (1137cc double carbs, 85bhp @ 6000rpm,
higher compression ratio and power assisted disc brakes all around). Last two models had option for factory
installed 6 speed gearbox, which was borrowed from Abarth's Le Mans racer (Abarth-Simca 2000GT) based on
Simca Platform. All Abarth versions left from Simca factory in Poissy as stardard 1000 models, went to Turin
to Abarth's factory where they were stripped down and completely rebuilt for ordered spec.
Originally Abarth versions were planned to be developed and kept as top end models in the line up, but in 1965
Chrysler bought majority stake of the Simca factories and Abarth's relationship to Fiat caused the co-operation
to end. Also the Abarth's very mild success in 1964 Le Mans had it's effect on happenings. As the Renault 8
took the track racing in france national level by storm soon after this, it took 8 years before next go-fast
variation of Simca 1000 was seen. (And Rallyes have their mod and story of their own coming soon to hunt
down some TC-76 machinery.
)
From 1963 to 1965, only ten complete cars is known to be finished, but due later turin factory escaped
engine and other part numbers, it has been expected that 50-100 cars run was planned. Nevertheless,
real 1150SS is extremely rare and even well made replicas aren't offered in bring-a-triailer in every month
basis. Only 2 of the cars were made with Corsa specification and only single car was equipped with
6-speed box. Corsa was extremely expensive and the only 6-speed ever made costed almost 4 times the
price of stardard 1000.
The real 6-speed Corsa car was ordered by finnish importer of Simca for Ice track racing, but unfortunately
it did not well to that purpose. 6-speed was a bit cranky in gear select and changing gears all the time did
not fit racing in slippery surfaces. Eventually the engine was tried to overbore in under 1300cc class, but it
did not help. Later on engine was reworked again, by piping the cylinders, it was returned to original size,
but due high compression ratio and pistons, the pipes tended to move, which again caused more problems.
Eventually the whole car was more or less forgotten until Belgium Abarth Museum was able to buy it and
restored it in it's original glory. In it's best tune, engine was benched about 120bhp. This car is featured
in skins with Number #33
The car in game notes:
This car was a real odd ball and even if it has some extremely high tech specs for it's time (six speed
gearboxes are now becoming as stardard in compact cars), It was not a big success. However this
hunting ghost of independent Simca keeps facinating people and quite few replicas have been built and
most of them are still actively raced. What makes it more interesting, as the manufacturing counts are
so low, 1150 SS series were not homologated to more than group 5 (the homologation papers had been
started and three first pages exists, but it was never completed), which makes them face some a lot
faster competition. So, why this car is so special then? well, you need to find it out by yourself.
It's
one of the most fun (or dangerous if you would be driving this thing in real world) you can with four wheels
by far. In game physics took quite few spins to make it fit in game without losing too much of reality basis.
Once again, this car seems to be in slower side in it's class (TC-65) but in right hands it has been proven
to be in same second with original Abarth 1000TC and upcoming 1965 Mini Cooper 970 S.
Credits :
- papag21 : 3d, mapping, file structure, template, skins
- Nappe1 : physics / hdc, eng, grb
- Gravin : Physics / suspension
- hkhoy : skins
- jandri : sounds
- Ney.Dias : testing
NOTE:
- this car works fine with original, unmodified GT Legends, but to get all out of it, you will need upcoming
menu patch, which enables 6th gear ratio setup in car setup screen. (Info and link will be posted to
comments later on when it's available.)
Installation instructions:
- extract folder to \GTL\
Enjoy
--> Altbierbuden version.
- You need the Altbierbuden Carclasses to run this Mod.
- using the Simca Rallye 2 gearbox
Favoured: 0
Auto nochmal über die Nordschleife prügeln, so wie Mitte der 70er in echt mit dem Simca RII, der wohl der würdige Nachfolger dieser heißen Abarth Creation wurde. Ich kann das Fahrverhalten absolut bestätigen und die Fahrphysik ist super umgesetzt.
