Today we feature another French producer of quite different type of
Luxury sports cars. Facel produced these vehicles between 1954 to 1964.
The company was named after the original metal stamping company
FACEL, and the company’s first model, the Vega, named after the star,
was introduced at the 1954 Paris Auto Show. The cars were advertised
with the slogan For the Few Who Own the Finest.
The marque Facel Vega was created in 1954 by Jean Daninos, although
the Facel company had been established by the Bonzavia Company in 1939
as a subcontracting company for the aviations industry. FACEL (Forges et
Ateliers de Construction d’Eure-et-Loir, in English: forge and
construction workshop of the department of Eure-et-Loir) was initially a
metal-stamping company but decided to expand into car manufacturing in
the early 1950s. Facel entered the automobile business as a supplier of
special bodies for Panhard, Delahaye and Simca.
Small numbers of other special bodied cars such as a Bentley were
also made, and Facel made the pillarless coupé bodywork for the
Simca/Ford Comète. Around 45,000 Comètes were built, this lucrative
contract enabling Facel to market a car of their own.
The Vega production cars (Facel FV, later and more famously the
HK500) appeared in 1954 using Chrysler V8 engines, at first a 4.5-litre
(275 cu in) DeSoto Hemi engine; the overall engineering was
straightforward, with a tubular chassis, double wishbone suspension at
the front and a solid driven axle at the back, as in standard American
practice. They were also as heavy as American cars, at about 1,800 kg
(3,968 lb). Performance was brisk, with an approx 190 km/h (118 mph) top
speed and 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in just under ten seconds.
Most cars were 2-door hardtops with no centre pillar, but a few convertibles were built.
The 1956 model was improved with a bigger 5.4-litre (330 cu in)
Chrysler engine and updated transmission and other mechanicals. In the
same year production began of a four-door model, the Excellence, with
rear-hinged doors (suicide doors) at the back and no centre pillar. The
pillarless design unfortunately made it less rigid and the handling was
thus poorer than that of the two-door cars, and surviving examples are
rare.
1959 models had even bigger engines, a 5.8-litre (354 cu in) and
later a 6.28-litre (383 cu in) Chrysler V8, and were quite a bit faster
despite their extra weight. The final evolution of the V8 models came in
1962 with the Facel II, which was lighter, with sleeker, more modern
lines, substantially faster still, and famously elegant.
In 1960, Facel entered the sports car market with the Facellia, a
small car similar in size to the then popular Mercedes 190SL. Facellias
were advertised in three body styles: cabriolet, 2+2 coupé and 4-seat
coupé, all with the same mechanicals and a 2,450 mm (96.5 in) wheelbase.
Styling was similar to the Facel HK500, but with rather elegant (though
fingernail-breaking) flush door handles.
Following Facel Vega’s demise several of M Daninos’s styling cues
were “borrowed” by Mercedes-Benz. Prices were roughly US$4,000 for the
Facellia, US$5,500 for the Facel III and US$6,000 for the Facel 6.
With the idea of creating a mass-produced all-French sports car
competing with the Alfa Romeos, Facel moved away from American engines.
The Facellia had a 4-cylinder 1.6 L DOHC engine built in France by Paul
Cavallier of the Pont-à-Mousson company. The engine had only two
bearings supporting each camshaft, using special steels, as opposed to
the usual four or five. Despite the metallurgical experience of
Pont-à-Mousson, this resulted in excessive flex, timing problems and
frequent failures. The engine was pronounced a disaster and the Facellia
with it. Company president, Jean Daninos having been obliged to resign
in August 1961 in response to the company’s financial problems, the new
boss, a former oil company executive called André Belin, gave strict
instructions to the after-sales department to respond to customer
complaints about broken Facellia engines by replacing the units free of
charge without creating “difficulties”. The strategy was intended to
restore confidence among the company’s customer base. It would certainly
have created a large hole in the income statement under the “warranty
costs” heading, but it may have been too late for customer confidence.
The troublesome engine was replaced with a Volvo P1800 powerplant in
the Facel III, but the damage was done. Production was stopped in 1963
and despite the vision of it being a “volume” car only 1100 were
produced, which is Facel’s highest production number.
Facel lost money on every car they built, the luxury car side of the
company being supported entirely by the other work done by Facel
Metallon, Jean Daninos’s obsession being very similar to that of David
Brown of Aston Martin.
The small Facellia met with little success and the losses from this,
due to strong competition at the luxury end of the market, killed off
the company. Facel left the car market completely in 1964. What was,
according to some, the best small Facel, the Facel 6, which used an
Austin Healey 2.8-litre engine, came too late to save the company, fewer
than 30 having been produced when the French government scuttled the
endeavour.
Prominent owners of Facel Vegas included Pablo Picasso, Ava Gardner,
Christian Dior, Joan Collins, Ringo Starr, Max Factor Jr, Joan Fontaine,
Stirling Moss, Tony Curtis, several Saudi princes, Dean Martin, Fred
Astaire, Danny Kaye, Louis Malle, The President of Mexico, François
Truffaut, Robert Wagner, Anthony Quinn, Hassan ll King of Morocco,
Debbie Reynolds, The Shah of Persia, Frank Sinatra, Maurice Trintignant,
Brian Rix and French Embassies around the world. Race-car driver
Stirling Moss would drive his HK500 from event to event rather than fly.
In the 1989 film “Dealers”, Paul McGann, as Daniel Pascoe, drove a Facel ll.
A Facel Vega HK500 appears in computer-animated form in the film
Ratatouille (Pixar, 2007), driven by one of the main characters.
The range consisted of; Vega FV, Facel Vega FVS, Facel Vega HK500,
Facel Vega II, Facel Vega Excellence, Facellia, Facel III and Facel 6
Initially successful, the company failed after the début of its mechanically troubled Facellia model.
Top Gear video here.
Facel owners club.
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