Following the fuel shortages after the 1956 Suez Crisis head of Simca, Henri Theodore Pigozzi, lauched the Simca Projet 950 (and related Fiat Project 122) for an economical car to sell against Renault 4CV and 5CV cars. Styled inhouse with some 'transatlantic' flavours because of a possible launch in America, the styling was tweaked by Mario Boano. In 1961 Simca announced the Simca 1000 at the Paris Salon, a rear-engined, rear wheel drive car powered by a 944cc inline four cylinder engine. Later there were lower-priced versions with smaller engines, but in 1969 the Simca 1118cc engine was offered, and before the end of production a 1294cc version. In 1962 a Simca Bertone Coupe was announced and also 4 versions of the Simca-Abarth 1150. Simca offered a tuned version, the Rallye in 1970 with a 53bhp 1118cc engine. This was replaced by the 1294cc Rallye 1 in 1972, and by the 82bhp Rallye 2 in 1973. There was restyle in 1975 with rectangular headlamps, and a Rallye 3 version was offered from December 1977. The Simca 1000 ceased production in 1978 after almost 2 million had been sold.