Simca Esplanada

The Simca Esplanada was a large car that Simca do Brasil built at its São Bernardo do Campo factory in Brazil from 1966 to 1969, launched at the 1966 Salão do Automóvel in São Paulo to replace the Simca Chambord and related models. Its platform traced back through the French Simca Vedette to the Ford Vedette, and its Emi-Sul V8, derived from the 1932 Ford flathead with Zora Arkus-Duntov's Ardun hemispherical heads, was the last of that design built for a production car. The interior had reclining leather seats and jacarandá wood trim, and the 140 horsepower engine had an electric fuel pump. After Chrysler took over Simca from August 1967 the car wore a built-by-Chrysler badge, and Chrysler headquarters dictated improvements to 53 mechanical details in April 1968. Production ended in 1969, when the Dodge Dart arrived; 12,040 Esplanadas were built, beside the Regente and GTX.