Facel Vega

Facel S.A. was a French manufacturer of pressed steel

automobile components, later complete automobiles to
their own design, founded in 1939 to make components
for Bronzavias military aircraft. In 1945 in conjunction
with Metallon Facel began to make short-run special bodies, coups or cabriolets, for Simca, Ford, Panhard and
Delahaye.

Cresta II. September 1951 saw the introduction of their

Ford Comte. Production of the Comte ended in 1955
when Simca took over Ford France. The styling of the
Crestas and Comtes was developed into the shape of the
rst Vega.[1]

Scooter bodies, truck bodies, tractor bodies, jeeps

Monocoque bodies without a chassis became general for and smaller components
mass-produced cars and Facel lost their big customers.
French niche manufacturers ended production. Metallon
During the same period Facel-Metallon pressed out body
left the partnership in 1953. Facel set about designing
panels for: Delahayes army jeeps (painted and upholand making their own complete cars using engines made
stered) ; Simca, Delahaye and Somuas trucks (painted
by Chrysler, Volvo and Austin. Their rst design named
and upholstered); scooters by Vespa, Piaggio and MotoVega was shown to the public in 1954.
bcane; tractors by Massey-Ferguson and stainless-steel
Though initially successful Facel closed its factory in Oc- bumpers, hubcaps and grilles for Simca and Ford and for
tober 1964. Their Facellia model introduced in 1959 was Renault.[1]
under-developed and losses brought about by its warranty
problems became impossible to recoup. Prior to closure Aviation
Facel had been placed under the control of Sud Aviation
subsidiary SFERMA.
In conjunction with Hispano-Suiza Facel-Metallon and
Facel also turned out for Rolls-Royce combustion chambers in special metals for their jet engines.[1]

Business history

postwar coups and cabriolets

Facel, Forges et Ateliers de Constructions d'Eure-et-Loir,

was founded 20 December 1939 by Bronzavia, a French
manufacturer of military aircraft to make special components. Jean Daninos, technical director of Bronzavia,
had begun his career with Citroen where he assisted in the
design of the Traction coups and cabriolets. He moved
to Morane-Saulnier then to Bronzavia. During WW II
he worked with General Aircraft in USA who were using Bronzavia patents but he returned in 1945 and took
charge of Facel. Facel merged with Metallon, a tie maintained until January 1953.[1]

Panhard Dyna X dcapotable

Simca 8 sport cabriolet
Ford Comte coup
Simca 9 sport coup
Simca Aronde coup

2 Facel Vega

Daninos put Facel to the manufacture of short-run and

special complete nished bodies for the major French
brands. In conjunction with l'Aluminium Franais Fa- The marque Facel Vega was created in 1954 by Jean
cel designed the all-aluminium alloy Panhard Dyna X and Daninos (brother of the humorist Pierre Daninos, who
wrote Les Carnets du Major Thompson), although the Fathen built around 45,000 examples for Panhard.[1]
cel company had been established by the Bronzavia Company in 1939 as a subcontracting company for the aviaLuxury cars
tion industry. FACEL (Forges et Ateliers de Construction d'Eure-et-Loir, in English: forge and construction
A luxury car division was established in 1948. It made workshop of the department of Eure-et-Loir) was initially
various models of Simca Sport and drew publicity by de- a metal-stamping company but decided to expand into
signing with Farina and then building a special body on car manufacturing in the early 1950s.[2] Facel entered the
a Bentley Mark VI chassis. The car was named Bentley automobile business as a supplier of special bodies for
Cresta. The exercise was repeated in 1951 and named Panhard, Delahaye and Simca.
1

2 FACEL VEGA
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 nal
evolution of the V8 models came in 1962 with the Facel
Vega II, which was lighter, with sleeker, more modern
lines, substantially faster still, and famously elegant.
Facellia

Facel-Metallon bodied 1951 Bentley Mark VI

Facel Vega FV, HK500 and Facel Vega II

Main article: Facel Vega FVS
Main article: Facel Vega Excellence
Main article: Facel Vega Facel II
The Vega production cars (FV, later and more famously

Facel III

Facel Vega HK500 1961

the HK500) appeared in 1954 using Chrysler V8 engines,

at rst 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 live
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. Fully 77% of production
was exported, due to the punitive Tax horsepower system
in France.[2]
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.

Facellia F-2, 1959 to 1963

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 coup and 4-seat coup all
with the same mechanical parts and a 2,450 mm (96.5
in) wheelbase. Styling was similar to the Facel HK500,
but with rather elegant (though ngernail-breaking) ush
door handles. Following Facel Vegas demise several of
M Daninoss styling cues were borrowed by MercedesBenz. Prices were roughly US$4,000 for the Facellia,
US$5,500 for the Facel III and US$6,000 for the Facel
6.[3]
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 4cylinder 1.6 L DOHC engine built in France by Paul
Cavallier of the Pont--Mousson company (which already

2.2

Models

provided manual gear boxes for the companys larger

models). The engine had only two bearings supporting
each camshaft, using special steels, as opposed to the
usual four or ve. Despite the metallurgical experience
of Pont--Mousson, this resulted in excessive ex, 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 companys nancial
problems, the new boss, a former oil company executive called Andr 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 diculties.[4] The strategy
was intended to restore condence among the companys
customer base.[4] 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 condence.

3
the time of his death, Camus had planned to travel by
train, with his wife and children, but at the last minute
accepted his publishers proposal to travel with him.[9]
In the 1989 lm Dealers, Paul McGann, as Daniel Pascoe, drove a Facel ll.
A Facel Vega HK500 appears in computer-animated
form in the lm Ratatouille (Pixar, 2007), driven by one
of the main characters.
A Facel Vega Facellia appeared in the music video for
Caravan Palace's Dramophone.[10]

2.2 Models
Vega FV
Facel Vega FVS
Facel Vega HK500

Volvo engine

Facel Vega II

The troublesome engine was replaced with a Volvo B18

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 - still
enough to make this Facels 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 Daninoss obsession
being very similar to that of David Brown of Aston Martin.

Facel Vega Excellence

The small Facellia met with little success and the losses
from this, due to strong competition at the luxury end
of the market, killed o the business which closed its
doors at the end of October 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 with fewer than 30 having been produced when
the nancial guarantors withdrew their support.

2.1

Prominence

Prominent owners of Facel Vegas (mainly of Facel IIs)

included Pablo Picasso, Ava Gardner, Christian Dior,
Herb Alpert, 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, Franois Truffaut, Robert Wagner, Anthony Quinn, Hassan II, King
of Morocco, Debbie Reynolds, the Shah of Persia, Frank
Sinatra, Maurice Trintignant, Brian Rix and French Embassies around the world.[5][6][7] Race-car driver Stirling
Moss would drive his HK500 from event to event rather
than y.

Facel Vega Facellia

Facel III
Facel 6

3 References
[1] L'Histoire Facel-Vega accessed 25 August 2015
[2] Sedgwick, Michael. The Facel Vega 1954 - 1964.
[3] http://www.nadaguides.com
[4] Automobilia. Toutes les voitures franaises 1962 (salon
Paris oct 1961) (Paris: Histoire & collections). Nr. 19:
Page 34. 1200.
[5] Herv Alphand, the French Ambassador to the United
States, used theirs, an Excellence, from 1956 to 1965.
It was sold @ Bonhams in Philadelphia 8 Oct 2012 for
$159,000.
[6] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQrwbzDTvSQ&
feature=youtube_gdata_player
[7] Tegler, Eric (March 1, 2007). 1959 Facel Vega HK500:
For the Few Who Own the Finest. Autoweek.
[8] de Gaudemar, Antoine (1994-04-16), This ones had a
good start born in the middle of a move, Guardian, retrieved 2008-12-21
[9] KIAD MA in Fine Art: a student run seminar.
Raimes.com. Archived from the original on May 13,
2009. Retrieved 2009-10-17.

The French writer Albert Camus died in a Facel Vega

FV3B driven by his publisher, Michel Gallimard.[8] At [10] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7lxd7RL1To

External links
The Facel Vga Home Page
Facel Vega Club Germany + Spare Parts!
Motorbase prole
Facel Vega article on Allpar
Retro Website about Facel Vega

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1

Text

Facel Vega Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facel_Vega?oldid=714620467 Contributors: Zundark, Tarquin, Ericd, Liftarn, Egil,
TUF-KAT, Notheruser, Ineuw, GCarty, Morven, Topbanana, Bloodshedder, Bobblewik, Sfoskett, Sonett72, Rich Farmbrough, Pj.piotr,
Harald Hansen, PWilkinson, Hektor, Guy Harris, Mr Adequate, Outlanderssc, Gene Nygaard, Woohookitty, GraemeLeggett, Alexander
Z., Zozza~enwiki, Bgwhite, YurikBot, RussBot, Bjf, Lynbarn, Entheta, Eskimbot, Brossow, Chris the speller, Agateller, A. B., Xtrasystole,
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, PLawrence99cx, Cydebot, Myscrnnm, Thijs!bot, Bigjimr, Charles01, Magioladitis, Smash1gordon,
LorenzoB, CommonsDelinker, KTo288, Sallen2006, Mrceleb2007, Fbifriday, Plcancel, GTHO, Typ932, MatthewTStone, Gerakibot,
Sfan00 IMG, 842U, Eddaido, Lx 121, Addbot, Yobot, Kytabu, Mr.choppers, Fredma, Balano, Le Sachant, John of Reading, ZroBot,
Jenks24, H3llBot, Hazard-Bot, Tolesi, Kevjgav, Matthiaspaul, BG19bot, Cyberbot II, Pincrete, Steven Dolbey and Anonymous: 39

5.2

Images

File:Bentley_Facel_Coupe1.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Bentley_Facel_Coupe1.jpg License:

CC BY-SA 2.0 Contributors: 1951 Bentley Mark VI Facel-Metalon Coup - fvr Original artist: Rex Gray
File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Facel-III-av.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Facel-III-av.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Own work Original artist: Rundvald
File:Facel_Vega.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Facel_Vega.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Alexander Z.
File:Facel_Vega_1961_Castle_Hedingham_2008.JPG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Facel_Vega_
1961_Castle_Hedingham_2008.JPG License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Charles01

5.3

Content license

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