In 1968 OTL Fiat and Citroen signed the Pardevi agreement that amongst other things included the Fiat 242 / Citroen C35 later Sevel, while the French government would attempt to encourage Peugeot and Renault to become more intertwined via various projects including the X "Suitcase" engine (that later became the PSA TU), Douvrin and PRV V6 (including PRV V8 - which Peugeot later continued to want for the Peugeot 604 for US sales pre-fuel crisis) that would later be joined by Volvo (who originally planned to develop Redblock based 6-cylinder, V8 and diesel engines), along with a stillborn Peugeot-Renault luxury car project under a neutral brand known as Project H / 120 (for the French government, bosses and elites, etc - which may have potentially entailed reviving Hotchkiss as opposed to the costs of starting up an all-new brand).
Fiat would end up acquiring Lancia and later Alfa Romeo, Citroen would acquire Maserati before itself being acquired by Peugeot in OTL.
What if there was more tactical Franco-Italian co-operation between the above carmakers where at minimum the likes of Citroen and Alfa Romeo are still independent, yet still collaborate with other carmakers in some areas?
The POD would be in the early-60s with Citroen already having a mid-sized car via an earlier Citroen C60, not getting involved with NSU on the Wankel engine (never establishing Comotor), still acquiring Maserati and signing the Pardevi agreement yet developing a 1600-2000cc Flat-4 via Panhard or Fiat (by way of Lancia).
Fiat and Citroen basically swap Lancia and Maserati at some point (though both still have some ties to both marques), leaving an independent Citroen to get involved with Peugeot-Renault on the PRV V6 / V8 (in place of the Maserati V6 plus stillborn V6-based V8 that is instead used by Maserati) and possibly replacing the air-cooled Flat-4s for its C60 replacement via a deal with Alfa Romeo for its water-cooled Alfasud Flat-4 engines.
It is possible ATL Lancia produces an Alfasud-based slightly-LWB three-box saloon successor to the Fulvia below the Beta via a deal between Citroen and Alfa Romeo, while the ATL Lancia Gamma and Citroen CX would be more closely intertwined as originally intended in OTL with the alternate Citroen SM being more related to the Citroen CX with possible PRV V6 (or even PRV V8) power or later on.
Interestingly in OTL it seems Fiat and PSA collaborated on what became the Fiat FIRE engine (with a 3-cylinder version being used in the Citroen Eco 2000 concepts), until Peugeot found it cheaper to develop the X "Suitcase" engine into the PSA TU engine (and also had to deal with being forced to absorb Chrysler Europe).
It also seems Peugeot had a bit of a rough time in the 1970s due to being forced to first acquire Citroen and later Chrysler Europe, which negatively impacted its own product plans including an alternate Peugeot 305 (part 1, part 2, part 3) not based on the previous 304 and a possible mid-1970s introduction of the PSA XU engine.
Maserati under Fiat meanwhile would butterfly away the De Tomaso years and allow Fiat to push Maserati upmarket compared to OTL Lancia, with an ATL RWD Maserati Quattroporte basically replacing the Fiat 130 at the luxury end along with with RWD cars including an ATL 3-Series challenger that is more reliable compared to the OTL Maserati Biturbo and with a more sophisticated chassis, while Fiat makes the switch to producing FWD cars.
Not sure where the likes of Panhard would fit into this complex ATL scenario perhaps it is canned as in OTL, maybe Citroen allows it to develop a Flat-4 engine and 4-door body for the Panhard 24 as well as utilizes Citroen's ATL ties with NSU to develop a Flat-4/6 engined NSU Ro80-based replacement for the Panhard 24 (in the event NSU's own experimental Flat-6 engine during the Ro80 project had ties to Citroen). Another possibility is Panhard being merged with Lancia.
Fiat themselves meanwhile in the possible absence of Lancia, could have potentially done much more with Autobianchi as an ATL analogue of post-Fiat Lancia that manages to absorb Neckar (aka NSU-Fiat) as well as used for an earlier FWD push via an early-60s Heilbronn-developed (aka NSU-Fiat) small FWD hatchback precursor to the Autobianchi A112 known as Tipo 07* and a production version of the FWD Fiat 123 E4 prototype** (that is launched together with the Autobianchi Primula instead of being dusted off and introduced as the Autobianchi A111).
So the ATL Autobianchi range (plus Neckar aka NSU-Fiat) would resemble as follows in the 60s.
- Autobianchi "Tipo 07" (aka NSU-Fiat developed A112 precursor)
- Autobianchi Primula: Albeit with 1585cc (124 Series) engine
- Autobianchi "123 E4" (aka earlier A111): Albeit with 1585cc (124 Series) engine and fastback hatchback variant akin to the 123 E1 prototype***
Link
*- See page 275 in above link
**- Search "124 E4" in above link
***- See page 283 in above link
Fiat would end up acquiring Lancia and later Alfa Romeo, Citroen would acquire Maserati before itself being acquired by Peugeot in OTL.
What if there was more tactical Franco-Italian co-operation between the above carmakers where at minimum the likes of Citroen and Alfa Romeo are still independent, yet still collaborate with other carmakers in some areas?
The POD would be in the early-60s with Citroen already having a mid-sized car via an earlier Citroen C60, not getting involved with NSU on the Wankel engine (never establishing Comotor), still acquiring Maserati and signing the Pardevi agreement yet developing a 1600-2000cc Flat-4 via Panhard or Fiat (by way of Lancia).
Fiat and Citroen basically swap Lancia and Maserati at some point (though both still have some ties to both marques), leaving an independent Citroen to get involved with Peugeot-Renault on the PRV V6 / V8 (in place of the Maserati V6 plus stillborn V6-based V8 that is instead used by Maserati) and possibly replacing the air-cooled Flat-4s for its C60 replacement via a deal with Alfa Romeo for its water-cooled Alfasud Flat-4 engines.
It is possible ATL Lancia produces an Alfasud-based slightly-LWB three-box saloon successor to the Fulvia below the Beta via a deal between Citroen and Alfa Romeo, while the ATL Lancia Gamma and Citroen CX would be more closely intertwined as originally intended in OTL with the alternate Citroen SM being more related to the Citroen CX with possible PRV V6 (or even PRV V8) power or later on.
Interestingly in OTL it seems Fiat and PSA collaborated on what became the Fiat FIRE engine (with a 3-cylinder version being used in the Citroen Eco 2000 concepts), until Peugeot found it cheaper to develop the X "Suitcase" engine into the PSA TU engine (and also had to deal with being forced to absorb Chrysler Europe).
It also seems Peugeot had a bit of a rough time in the 1970s due to being forced to first acquire Citroen and later Chrysler Europe, which negatively impacted its own product plans including an alternate Peugeot 305 (part 1, part 2, part 3) not based on the previous 304 and a possible mid-1970s introduction of the PSA XU engine.
Maserati under Fiat meanwhile would butterfly away the De Tomaso years and allow Fiat to push Maserati upmarket compared to OTL Lancia, with an ATL RWD Maserati Quattroporte basically replacing the Fiat 130 at the luxury end along with with RWD cars including an ATL 3-Series challenger that is more reliable compared to the OTL Maserati Biturbo and with a more sophisticated chassis, while Fiat makes the switch to producing FWD cars.
Not sure where the likes of Panhard would fit into this complex ATL scenario perhaps it is canned as in OTL, maybe Citroen allows it to develop a Flat-4 engine and 4-door body for the Panhard 24 as well as utilizes Citroen's ATL ties with NSU to develop a Flat-4/6 engined NSU Ro80-based replacement for the Panhard 24 (in the event NSU's own experimental Flat-6 engine during the Ro80 project had ties to Citroen). Another possibility is Panhard being merged with Lancia.
Fiat themselves meanwhile in the possible absence of Lancia, could have potentially done much more with Autobianchi as an ATL analogue of post-Fiat Lancia that manages to absorb Neckar (aka NSU-Fiat) as well as used for an earlier FWD push via an early-60s Heilbronn-developed (aka NSU-Fiat) small FWD hatchback precursor to the Autobianchi A112 known as Tipo 07* and a production version of the FWD Fiat 123 E4 prototype** (that is launched together with the Autobianchi Primula instead of being dusted off and introduced as the Autobianchi A111).
So the ATL Autobianchi range (plus Neckar aka NSU-Fiat) would resemble as follows in the 60s.
- Autobianchi "Tipo 07" (aka NSU-Fiat developed A112 precursor)
- Autobianchi Primula: Albeit with 1585cc (124 Series) engine
- Autobianchi "123 E4" (aka earlier A111): Albeit with 1585cc (124 Series) engine and fastback hatchback variant akin to the 123 E1 prototype***
Link
*- See page 275 in above link
**- Search "124 E4" in above link
***- See page 283 in above link
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