 The Vedette was joined in 1952 by its upmarket counterparts, the Vendôme, and Comète sports coupé, cars that were not shared with any other Ford subsidiary.In November 1954 Ford merged the entire French operation to Simca at first keeping 15.2 per cent of the company but selling this share as well in 1958.Apart from the plant, Simca also acquired plans for a new Vedette, with the 2351 cc V8, which was made until 1961 (with a substantial modernisation for 1958) as Simca Vedette (although still marketed in some markets as Ford for some time).