Facel Vega was a French builder of luxury cars. The brand was created by Jean Daninos (brother of the humorist Pierre Daninos who wrote Les Carnets du Major Thomson). Initially, FACEL (Forges et Ateliers de Construction d'Eure et Loire) was a metal-stamping company which decided to branch into car manufacturing in the mid-1950s. Facel entered the automobile business as a supplier of special bodies, for Panhard, Delahaye, and Simca.
The first Facel Vega production cars appeared in 1954 using Chrysler V8 engines, at first a 4.5 litre DeSoto Hemi powerplant. The overall engineering was rather straightforward, with a tubular frame, dual-wishbone suspension at the front and a solid axle at the back as in standard American practice. They were also as heavy as an American car, at about 4000 lbs (close to 2 metric tonnes). Performance was reasonably brisk for the time, with an approx 120mph top speed and 0-60 mph in just under ten seconds.
The bodywork was beautifully styled, making the Facel Vega an enduring classic. Most cars were 2-door hardtops with no center pillar, but some convertibles were built.
The 1956 model was updated with a bigger (5.4 litre) Chrysler engine and updated transmission and other mechanicals; in the same year, a 4-door model with rear suicide doors and no center pillar was also produced. Its pillarless design unfortunately made it less rigid and worse handling than the 2-door, and they are rare.
1959's model had even bigger engines, a 5.8 litre and later a 6.3 litre Chrysler V8, and was quite a bit faster even though the car was by now quite a bit heavier.
The final evolution came in 1962 with the Facel II; lighter, sleeker and more modern lines, and substantially faster still.
Facel were at the same time trying to expand downmarket with the smaller Facellia, but this met with little success, and the losses from this, allied to strong competition at the luxury end of the market, killed off the company. Facel got out of the car market completely in 1964.
Being an expensive luxury car, many Facel cars survive, and they are by now quite desirable, and given the solid American mechanicals, easier to maintain than many.
The French writer Albert Camus died in an auto accident in a Facel Vega.
