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Electric vehicles (EVs) are all the rage right now.
The Sound Of Silence
A vehicle with an internal combustion engine produces noise – to be precise, the engine produces noise. This is because when it’s working, the engine is continually producing controlled explosions that are used to power the vehicle. We’re all familiar with the different roars, growls and rumbles coming from different engines, with some enthusiasts being able to tell vehicles apart simply by their sounds – and some mechanics making their initial diagnoses on what the engine sounds like when it’s running. Quite a few of us have something of a fondness for different engine notes, especially those that produce low grumbling noises.
However, it’s a different story when it comes to EVs (here, we’re talking about battery electric vehicles or BEVs and hybrids when they’re running on their electric motor). Electricity makes no sound, so when an electric motor is running, there is very little noise produced. This could be though of as one of the advantages of an EV – and if you’ve tried to get some sleep when the local boy racers seem to be having a drag race on your street at 2:00 a.m., you’d probably agree. However, it can also be a disadvantage.
Simca: A Forgotten Marque?
The first car I ever owned was a Simca. Before I owned it, I had never heard of the marque, and my dad, who had helped me find this set of wheels to get me to a summer job, described it as the French equivalent of a VW Beetle or a Mini. After that summer of using the Simca to get to my holiday job, I ended up selling it and using the money to buy a fridge, which I needed for my new flat. I have never heard or seen any other Simcas since then. Needless to say, there is that part of me that, now that I have left my student days well behind me and am probably officially middle-aged, is kicking myself for selling it (the fridge is also long gone). Especially as now, it would be worth a lot more than a refrigerator, given that would have been a fairly rare classic car. The same could probably be said by most of us about our student cars.
I cannot remember the model of Simca that I owned. However, a quick crawl through the range of images online suggests that it was probably a 1000 or 1100. Given that the engine was at the front (I remember almost ritually checking up the fluids every week on a Thursday, opening the bonnet to do so), I can therefore conclude that it was a 1100, as the 1000 had a rear engine, like a VW Beetle.
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