Simca 5

The Simca 5 was a small Franco-Italian passenger car that Simca produced in France from 1936 to 1948. Fiat engineers in Turin designed it as the 500 Topolino, and the French car was virtually identical, although Simca presented it at its new Nanterre plant on 10 March 1936, three months ahead of the Fiat. Strikes that followed the Popular Front election victory delayed deliveries until October 1936. It had independent front suspension, a four-speed gearbox, hydraulic brakes on all four wheels and a twelve-volt electrical system, and in one test it travelled 110 kilometres on five litres of fuel. Because its engine fell in the 3CV tax band it could be presented as the smallest volume production car in the world. Simca built 46,472 of them before the Simca 6 replaced it in 1949.