1938 SIMCA Huit #48
Pilots: V. Camerano, R. Robert
Team: Victor Camerano
Race: 11th overall (3rd in S 1.1 class) at Le Mans in 1938
Spark - S8728 (resin)
Published 09/12/25
Henri Pigozzi founded SIMCA (Société Industrielle de Mécanique et Carrosserie Automobile), in November 1934. Interestingly, Pigozzi was FIAT’s General Agent in France, so SIMCA was a FIAT branch in France. The first cars to come out of their Nanterre plant were the FIAT 508 Balilla and 518 Ardita, in 1935. However, they received SIMCA-FIAT 6CV and 11CV badges. In 1936 they released the SIMCA 5 (a version of the FIAT Topolino), followed in 1937 by the Huit. The Huit, or Type 8 (huit means eight in French) was SIMCA’s version of the FIAT 508C-1100. The Huit was a small family car available as a saloon or cabriolet. Released in November 1937, in the following summer Pigozzi organized a 50,000 km (!) endurance test for the car. That consisted of 10,000 km lapping the Montlhéry circuit, 20,000 km on open roads and 20,000 km through Paris streets.
A brilliant publicity stunt, as the Huit performed flawlessly. One of the reasons for the good performance was the powerplant used. SIMCA used a 1089 cm³ inline-4 with 2 valves/cylinder driven by a side-mounted camshaft, using rods and rocker arms. Fed by a Solex 30 mm carburetor, it delivered 24 kW (33 hp), through a 4-speed manual synchromesh. In contrast to the original 508C, at first the Type 8 was only available in two body styles. It came out as a 4-door berline (saloon) or a 2-door cabriolet. The berline version was curious with no central pillar between the front and rear door. The front doors were hinged at the front, while the rear doors were hinged at the back. That allowed easy access to the interior with both doors open. At launch, the berline cost 23,900 Francs (or 25,900 for the “Grande Luxe” version).
Being a rebadged FIAT didn’t help much in terms of popularity. Even so, the Huit sold well enough, and was available until 1951. One person that took interest in the Huit was Victor Camerano, who saw the car’s potential in endurance racing. Before WWII, the smaller classes were very competitive at La Sarthe. So, he bought a brand new Huit, painted it in French-blue and slapped #48 on and took it racing. And he did quite well: finished 11th overall, and third in the S 1.1 class.
In scale, Spark made another duesy. A nifty model with a great paint job and VERY nice details. Interesting to note, I don’t think I’ve seen before a pre-60s Le Mans model car with tire markings 🤔. Even so, I don’t think this one will be very popular among collectors. After all, it wasn’t a winner and you could say it’s almost an oddball. Therefore, I guess this one will only be for the Le Mans nuts.