Facel Vega: the rise and fall of France’s most beautiful
Posted on 06-04-2015 at 22:55 by Dizono – 38 Comments”
Only a ten-year Facel Vega exist, but in those years left some of the world’s most beautiful cars, the French factory. But by overzealous chauvinism and technical malheur, roll in 1964, the last Facel of the band.
Originally built by Facel (Forges et Ateliers de Construction d’eure), under the leadership of Jean Daninos, components for the aerospace industry. After the Second world War rolled mainly car bodies for Panhard, Simca and Ford out of the factory just outside Paris. Before the war there were plenty of well-known French car manufacturers who fuore made with expensive and fast cars, such as Bugatti, Delahaye, Delage, Hotchkiss and Talbot-Lago. None of those brands knew after the war, however long in life to remain.
That was Daninos, however, not in the way in 1953, his dream to create and own their own car design and build. This first Facel Vega FV-1 from 1954, was a luxury GT with a 180-hp-strong V8 De Soto in the tubular frame. Not much later Facel Vega, incidentally, to switch on motors of Chrysler.
Jean Daninos’ first car, the Facel Vega FV-1 from 1954
Not chrome, but STAINLESS steel
Different than you might expect when you get to this FV-1 looks, there is for this Facel Vega no chrome. Instead, it used the factory stainless steel. Not only the ‘chrome’ is made of STAINLESS steel, also the “wood” in the interior can be seen painted stainless steel! After the FV-1 followed logically, the FV-2 and FV-3, but the real success comes when the brand is the improved HK500 releases. This model still has a lot away from the FV’s, but with 548 units sold, the most successful big Facel.
In 1958, introduces the brand, not only the above-mentioned HK500, but try to Facel Vega for the first time with a vierdeurswagen: the Excellence. This giant sloop seems to be the most on the liefdeskindje of a HK500 and an American car of those days. Particularly the rear doors, which is wrong to open. This creates a huge entry. Unfortunately, it was also for problems, the car bends slowly a little, making the doors hardly open.
No wood, but painted STAINLESS steel in the soothing interior of the Facel Vega’s
Hybrid-cars
Although the Facel Vega’s high-quality cars are on the sagging Excellence after – get Jean Daninos again and again the accusation that his car’s bastards. The well-known pre-war brands are built not only kwaliteitswagens, they also developed their own engines, while Jean Daninos just a cheap, ordinary American V8 in its cars. Daninos bother themselves properly to this comment and decides his plan to bring smaller cars to build to combine with a nice piece of French technique.
He leaves a technically advanced 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine and a corresponding gearbox in Pont à Mousson develop, and great it in the small Facellia. The result is a wonderful small roadster, which is also affordable and there roles preferably 1258 of the band. Unfortunately the success there, because the French vierpittertje gives merely problems and the carefully constructed image of Facel Vega is rapidly destroyed. It is also never good…
On paper the Facellia a beautiful car, the practice proved otherwise
New engines, but the damage is done
Daninos try with a Volvo four-cylinder engine (Facel III) and a six-in-line of Austin Healey (Facel 6) still to save what could be saved, but it’s not helping. Even the beautiful Facel II, the successor of the HK500, can not prevent that in 1964 again the curtain falls for Facel Vega. At the end of 2012, there seems to be a revival of the brand, but much further than what computerschetsen is that plan never came to be. And maybe that’s a good sign, legends you should cherish.