Heres a Lancia four door. The red car is a Simca four door. Can you imagine driving one of these with a rusted out floor . Wheelbase might stretch a little through the bumps .
I had a '58 Simca Aronde, bought it from a customer. (just a daily driver) I widened rear wheels, (14" all around) 'big & little tires', dual Solex carbs, shaved head, mild cam. 4 on the tree, great conversation starter... ("WTF kind of car IS this?") There was a roadster pilot pal who had a Morris Minor, (hopped up 4 banger, wide wheels, sharp) He wanted to race. I blew his doors off.
The Lancia Ardea (1939-1953) and the Fiat 508C/1100 (1937-1953) on which the Simca was based are wholly unrelated designs. Fiat and Lancia had no relationship then, except rivalry. Both cars are of body-on-chassis construction. It could be that both sourced the crémone-like door latch mechanism from the same supplier, though.
So thats what those latches are named. I have a few in a box somewhere here. I cut up a little Fiat Balilla 4 door a few years ago.
I assume they work on the crémone principle, i.e. upper and lower bolts which move in opposite directions. It occurred to me that it should be possible to rig latches to work on the espagnolette principle, by linking the cams of two modern rotary latches together with a shaft.
Coincidence, This pic showed up on prewarcar car this morning. Hispano Suiza without a B pillar. Smell the leather.
That's how the convertible top latches on a Panhard Z or PL (linked by 2 round rods with a threaded end for adjustment). I believe it's the same thing on the Renault Estafette trunk latch. By the way the manufacturer still exists to this day and still manufactures the same latches but there's a minimum order of 50 each to get the latche and the center espagnolette part. I know because I restored 4 of those Panhard cabriolet. Looking more attentively at the picture of the Simca and Lancia they appear to be the same one as the Panhard and Renault.
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