Facel Vega Excellence

The Excellence was a luxury saloon automobile unveiled as rened, well built, nor had they the 'panache' of a
by Facel-Vega of Paris, France, at the Paris Auto Show Facel-Vega. Although the Excellence could match the
in October 1956 to rave reviews by the motoring press.
wheelbase of most full-sized American cars of the time,
Production started in 1958 and lasted until the company it was considerably shorter, narrower, and most of all,
lower. Its comparatively compact measurements gave
ceased production in 1964. The car was based on an elongated chassis from the Facel Vega FV Coup. It was the it the edge in the handling department, which came in
handy, especially under European road conditions.
only four-door model the company ever made. Production ended after only 156 cars had been built. The low In an article for the November 1985 edition of
production gure is a direct result of the cars exorbi- Collectible Automobile Magazine, noted automotive histant purchase price. When new, it cost about as much as torian Richard Langworth stated his opinion that The
four Citron DS saloons, which themselves were hardly Excellence is a large vehicle...better suited as a car of
to be considered cheap cars. The towering price could State rather than a daily driver. How he came to this
still be boosted by ordering optional equipment, which conclusion despite the unanimously positive reviews regradually became available over the cars production run, garding the roadability of the Excellence from the consuch as power steering, power brakes, electric windows, temporary motoring press as well as its owners, has been
wire-spoke wheels, and air conditioning.
a matter of debate ever since.

1.1 Chrysler connection

Design

Powered by contemporary Chrysler V8 engines, like

other Facel-Vega cars, the initial Excellences were tted
with the famed Hemi, which Chrysler discontinued for
the 1958 model year. Facel-Vega continued to use those
engines until stocks were depleted in late 1958. From
then on, the V8 powered Facel-Vegas were powered by
the Chrysler RB Wedge big-block engines.

The Excellence featured some styling elements usually

found on American cars of the era, like tailns, the
wraparound windshield, and the hardtop roof without
B-pillars. But the overall design was distinctively European, with its stacked quad-headlights and rakishly low
prole. Its low beltline and comparatively high greenhouse predicted the automotive architecture that became
mainstream in the late Fifties, and lasted throughout the
Sixties. The Facel-Vega Excellence also incorporated a
pillarless four-door mechanism, allowing the car to be
designed with rear-hinged suicide styled rear doors for
easier access and egress. This layout could also be found
on the limited production Cadillac Eldorado Brougham,
which was unveiled later in 1956, and on the massproduced 1961-1969 Lincoln Continental.

All Chrysler powered Facel-Vegas could be had with

either the Pont--Mousson built four-speed manual, or
the Chrysler built Torqueite three-speed automatic.
Whereas the American automatic transmission was optional for the Facel-Vegas, the French manual gearbox conversely became optionally available in selected
Chrysler high-performance models.

2 May 1958October 1958 (Model

'EX')

Inside, the car had a lavish interior with seats covered in

aromatic leather, a fake walnut dashboard with full instrumentation, and a make up kit located in the back of
the centre armrest, consisting of a chrome-handled brush
and comb, and two perfume bottles, the latter albeit being supplied empty by the factory. Still, the interior was
not nearly as roomy as one would expect from a car with
a wheelbase exceeding three metres.

While the Paris Show Car of 1956 was tted with a 331
CID (5.4 Litre) unit, the initial batch of production Excellences was equipped with the monster 392 CID (6.4
Litre) version of the Chrysler Hemi V8, shared, among
others, with the Facel Vega HK500, and Chryslers own
Imperial. Facels could either be ordered with the Pont-Mousson built four-speed manual, or the Chrysler built
Torqueite three-speed automatic. Contemporary road
tests showed, that they performed equally well with either gearbox. Arguably the most powerful Excellences to

The Excellence was a top performer and could hold its

own among the best GTs Europe had to oer. Some highperformance American cars, most notably Chryslers 300
'letter series models, could probably outrun an Excellence in straight-line performance, but they were neither
1

EXTERNAL LINKS

ever hit the roads, these were genuine 140 mph cars. Al- But a complete re-styling of the car would have been prolegedly a mere eleven 'EX'-series cars were built, seven hibitively expensive, especially given its low production
of which are known to survive.
gures. Of these EX2 models, only eight were completed, when production nally ceased for good.

October 1958July 1961 (Model

'EX1')

The domestic market price quoted for the car at the EX2s
rst Paris Motor Show, in October 1961, was 72,500 new
francs for a car with automatic transmission.[1] The same
money could at that time buy more than twelve Renault
Dauphines.[1]

For model year 1958, Chrysler discontinued the Hemi engines, and after stocks had dried up, Facel-Vega started
using the 361 CID (5.9 Litre) Chrysler 'Wedge' head V8 5 Discussions with Studebakerengines. Why Facel-Vega didn't go for the top-of-thePackard
line 413 CID (6.9 Litre) engines remains a mystery, but
the French road tax system, which is based on engine displacement, is often cited as an explanation.
Following the proposition of a New York based conglomBe it as it may, a 361 powered Excellence was anything erate wanting to revive the luxurious Packard brand in
but a slouch. It had the same nominal horsepower output 1959, Facel-Vega boss Jean Daninos entered into negoas the Hemi it replaced. The more faint at heart may be tiations with Studebaker-Packard Corporation president
pleased to learn, that from late 1959 onwards, an Excel- Harold Churchill. The idea was to badge-engineer the
lence could be stopped via optional power disc brakes up Excellence with Packard nameplates and the trademark
Packard Ox-Yoke grille, using Packards new for 1956
front.
and powerful V8s, and market it through the more exThe 1958 - 1961 Excellences were the most numerous of clusive Studebaker-Packard dealers in North America.
the bunch with 137 examples being built.
However, Daimler-Benz, which already had a marketing partnership with Studebaker-Packard, using Studebakers dealership network to sell its Mercedes brand of
4 July 1961June 1964 (Model cars in the United States, objected to the plan. Mercedes
never got used to selling their brand next to a working
'EX2')
mans car, Studebaker, but also did not want oor competition for its luxury 300 model. Churchill realized that
The Excellence received its only signicant facelift in he could never get the same cash stream from Facel-Vega
1961. It now came with a bigger 383 CID (6.3 Litre) en- that he did from Daimler-Benz, and the whole project was
gine, rated at 390 hp, a mindboggling gure back then, es- abandoned. The Facel-Vega Excellence-cum-Packard
pecially for a saloon car. However, no signicant gain in did make it to the planning stage, but contrary to popular
performance could be noted in contemporary road tests, belief, not a single actual prototype was built. However,
and the initial Hemi-powered cars remain the fastest Ex- a number of Excellences were imported to the USA by
private owners.
cellences ever built.

6 In popular culture
A Facel-Vega Excellence appeared in the 1959 movie
Count Your Blessings starring Deborah Kerr and Maurice
Chevalier. Other Excellences make brief appearances in
the 1961 movie Goodbye Again, the 1963 movies Le
temps des copains and Love Is a Ball, the 1972 movie
Slaughter, and the 1990 movie Dancing Machine. All of
them were non-EX2 versions.
Rear view of restyled Excellence EX2, showing the more muted
tailn design.

The 'EX2' lost its wraparound windshield and the tailns

were severely clipped, which resulted in a considerably
less amboyant appearance. Despite these measures, the
Excellence did not gain signicantly more modern looks
in general. It rather lost some of its previous elegance.

7 External links
Facel Vega friends in Germany
Motorbase prole
Facel Vega Excellence Homepage (French)

3
US Facel Vega Collectors Club
Best Classics - Facel Vega (German)

Sources and further reading

[1] Automobilia. Toutes les voitures franaises 1962 (salon

Paris oct 1961) (Paris: Histoire & collections). Nr. 19:
Page 48. 1200.

9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1

Text

Facel Vega Excellence Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facel_Vega_Excellence?oldid=681404970 Contributors: Mboverload,

Stude62, Giraedata, Robert Fraser, ApolloBoy, Huw Powell, RussBot, Malcolma, Mardus, Khazar, Cydebot, Bigjimr, Charles01, R'n'B,
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9.2

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File:Facel_Vega_Excellence_EX2_2.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Facel_Vega_Excellence_
EX2_2.jpg License: CC BY-SA 2.0 Contributors: Facel Vega excellence Original artist: eric from/en Normandie

9.3

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