Facel was founded on 20 December 1939 by Bronzavia, a French manufacturer of military aircraft, to make special components. Marcel Koehler (formerly of motorcycle manufacturer Koehler-Escoffier) directed Facel from 1939 to 1945. He gave way to Jean Daninos when he returned from the United States, summoned by Henri Feuillée, the ex-boss of Bronzavia and a large shareholder of Facel. Jean Daninos had begun his career with Citroen, where he assisted in the design of the Traction coupés and cabriolets. He moved to Morane-Saulnier, then in 1937 to Bronzavia as technical director. During WWII he worked in the US with General Aircraft, which was using Bronzavia patents, but he returned in 1945 and took charge of Facel. Daninos merged Facel with Metallon, a tie maintained until January 1953.

panhard dyna x  1948-1954

Daninos had Facel begin manufacturing short-run and special complete finished bodies for the major French brands. In conjunction with l'Aluminium Français Facel designed the all-aluminium alloy Panhard Dyna X and then built around 45.000 examples for Panhard. The body work assembly division was established in 1948. It made various models of Simca Sport and drew publicity by designing with Pininfarina and then building a special body on a Bentley Mark VI chassis. The car was named the Bentley Cresta. The exercise was repeated in 1951 and named Cresta II. September 1951 saw the introduction of its Ford Comète. Production of the Comète ended in 1955 when Simca took over Ford France. The styling of the Crestas and Comètes was developed into the shape of the first Vega

The Facel Vega marque was created on 22 July 1954 by Jean Daninos, (brother of the humorist Pierre Daninos, who wrote Les Carnets du Major Thompson), although the Facel company had been established by the Bronzavia Company in 1939 as a subcontracting company for the aviation 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 it expanded into car manufacturing in the early 1950s.

Facel entered the automobile business as a supplier of special bodies for Panhard, Delahaye and Simca. The company was headquartered in Paris at 19 Avenue George V, and had the main assembly factory in Colombes at 132 Boulevard de Valmy, with parts supplied from the outskirts of the city in Amboise, Dreux and Puteaux.

The Vega production cars (FV, later and more famously the HK500) first appeared in October 1954 at the Salon de l'Automobile Paris using Chrysler V8 engines because no French company at the time produced an engine that met the company's objectives. Initially, a 4.5 L  DeSoto Hemi engine was installed.

fv

1954-1962

The Facel Vega FV/FVS is a car produced by French automaker Facel from 1954 until 1959. It continued to be built until 1962 as the HK500.

Originally the model name was "Vega", but they gradually became "Facel Vega" with "FV" followed by a number indicating the iteration. By 1956, the cars were called FVS (for Facel Vega Sport) in the United States. 

The 1954 versions of the Facel were fitted with a DeSoto Firedome (Chrysler) 4.5 litre Hemi V8 engine, paired with either Chrysler's two-speed Powerflite automatic transmission or, at extra cost, a four-speed manual made by Pont-à-Mousson. At this stage, the 180 hp  FV was capable of a top speed from 172 to 193 km/h, depending on which rear axle ratio was installed.

The chassis, designed by Lance Macklin, was tubular framed, featuring coil springs and double wishbones at the front, with a leaf-sprung live rear axle. The styling, by Daninos himself, was somewhat American and perhaps a bit heavy, with rudimentary tail fins. The body was an expanded version of the earlier, Facel-bodied Simca/Ford Comète. An abundance of stainless steel brightwork was fitted.

On FV and FV1 models, the dashboard was entirely upholstered in leather. The rear seats folded flat to provide a luggage platform and additional access to the boot. 

In 1955 the engine capacity increased to 4.8 litres and 200 hp (FV1). The FV1 was also 12 cm longer than the original design47 of these early FVs were built in 1954 and 1955. Seven were convertibles, but as these suffered from rigidity troubles all but a handful of the rest of the large two-door Facels were pillarless coupés.

hk500

For 1959, the Facel Vega HK500 was introduced. Essentially, it was just a renamed, upgraded FVS. Equipped at first with the 335 hp 5.8-litre V8 from the FVS, the HK500 soon received a 360 hp 6.3 litre Chrysler V8, giving it a top speed of 237 km/h. It could accelerate from 0-100 km/h in 9 seconds. Initially, disc brakes were optional, becoming standard in April, 1960. The Facel Vega II replaced the HK500 in 1962, after 489 had been built. One was a specially made convertible. Total FV/HK production was 842, or 846 depending on the source.

Production:

1954-1955 47 (FV)

1955-1956 107 (FVS)

1957 118 (FVS)

1958 85 (FVS) 71 (HK500)

1959 190 (HK500)

1960 202 (HK500)

1961 66 (split between HK500 and Facel II)

excellence

The Facel Vega Excellence is a luxury saloon automobile produced by French manufacturer Facel Vega, that was unveiled at the Paris Auto Show in October 1956.

Production started in 1958 and lasted until the company ceased production in 1964. The car was based on an elongated chassis from the Facel Vega FV Coupé. It was the only four-door model the company ever made. Production ended after only 156 cars had been built.

The low production figure is likely a result of the car's high purchase price listed at US$12,800 ($139,501 in 2024 official inflation dollars). 

When new, the Excellence cost around as much as four Citroën DS saloons, and was an alternative to the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, Mercedes-Benz 600 and Lagonda Rapide. The price could still be boosted higher by ordering optional equipment, which gradually became available over the car's production run, such as power steering, power brakes, electric windows, and air conditioning also sourced from Chrysler along with wire-spoke wheels from Kelsey-Hays.

Powered by contemporary Chrysler V8 engines like other Facel-Vega cars, the initial Excellences were fitted with Hemi engines, which Chrysler discontinued for the 1958 model year. Facel-Vega continued to use those engines until their stocks were used up in late 1958. From then on, V8 powered Facel-Vega models were powered by the Chrysler B-series "Wedge" big-block engines.

facel II

The Facel Vega 'Facel II' is a grand touring car produced by French automaker Facel Vega between the years 1962 and 1964.

By 1962, the Paris-based company was facing bankruptcy. The Facel II was to be the company's last attempt to create a luxury GT car in the French tradition. Jean Daninos, president, said of the Facel II, "The HK500 was the most interesting car we ever made but the Facel II was by far the best. It was totally 'elegant' ."

The Facel S.A. company advertised the Facel II as "Le Coupé 4-places le plus rapide du Monde" ('The Fastest 4-seater Coupé in the World'). Sports Car Graphic described it as a "luxurious brute". Bernard Cahier, a race-driver who tested the car in 1962, said of an early version (without the later limited-slip differential) that "the huge output of the Chrysler engine made it easy to spin wheels at light throttle pressure".

The Facel II was introduced at the 1961 Paris Motor Show, and was powered by a Chrysler 6.3 litre 'Typhoon' engine which produced 355 hp if equipped with a TorqueFlite automatic-gearbox, or 390 hp with a manual transmission.

Using Chrysler's three-speed automatic gearbox, the 6.3-litre Facel II could reach a top speed of over 217 km/h. With a French Pont-a-Mousson four-speed manual gearbox the full-four-seater 6.3 litre Facel II could reach over 240 km/h  and out-accelerate two-seat GTs such as the Aston Martin DB4, Ferrari 250 GT and 'gull-wing' Mercedes-Benz 300SL, to 97 km/h  and all except the Ferrari to 160 km/h.

In August 1961 Jean Daninos was obliged to offer his resignation and in 1964 the Facel company went into receivership, largely due to warranty claims against Facel Vega's smaller Facellia with its troublesome 'in-house' engine. As a result, Facel II production had to be discontinued with only 180 Facel IIs built.

facellia

1960-1964

In 1960, Facel entered the sports car market with the Facellia, with a premiere at the Paris Motor Show in 1959. It was 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 mechanical parts and a 2.450 mm  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.

With the idea of creating a mass-produced all-French sports car competing with the Alfa Romeo Giulietta, the Triumph TR3 and Porsche 356B, Facel moved away from Chrysler engines because Chrysler didn't offer a four-cylinder engine at the time. Instead, the Facellia had a four-cylinder 1.6 L twin-cam engine designed by former Talbot-Lago chief engineer Carlo Machetti.

The troublesome powerplant was replaced with a Volvo B18 engine 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 Facel's highest production number. Facel lost money on every car they built, with the luxury car side of the company being supported entirely by the other work done by Facel Metallon.

1964

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 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 financial guarantors withdrew their support.

prominance

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, François Truffaut, Robert Wagner, Anthony Quinn, Hassan II, King of Morocco, Debbie Reynolds, the Shah of Iran, Frank Sinatra, Maurice Trintignant, Brian Rix, Joe Hepworth and French Embassies around the world.^[13][14][15] Race-car driver Stirling Moss would drive his HK500 from event to event rather than fly.

French writer and Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus died in a Facel Vega FV2 driven by his publisher's nephew, Michel Gallimard. At the time of his death, Camus had planned to travel by train, with his wife and children, but at the last minute accepted Gallimard's proposal to travel with him instead.