COMPANY

Facel manufactured cars from 1954 to 1964, with the Facel Vega brand created by Jean Daninos in 1954. The original Facel Company was established in 1939 by the Bonzavia Company and intended to work for the aviation industry as a sub-contractor.

The company was a metal-stamping firm initially but they decided to expand into the manufacture of automobiles in the early part of the 1950s. They first entered into the car business by supplying specialized bodies to Delahaye, Simca and Panhard. They also made a small number of special bodies for Bentley, among others. Facel had a contract to build the coupe bodywork for the Ford Comete/Simca. They built about 45,000 and this proved lucrative enough so that they could market their own car.

The first Facel Vega cars were produced in 1954 and had a Chrysler V8 engine. They were built in the same way as American cars and were heavy as well. These cars were fast with a top speed of 118 mph and could go from 0 to 62mph in under 10 seconds. They built mostly two-door hardtop cars but included a few convertibles in their lineup. In 1956 the model was upgraded with a bigger Chrysler engine. The transmission and other mechanical features were also updated. Also in 1956, another model, the Excellence, was introduced. This model featured suicide doors at the back and contained no pillar in the center. The lack of the center pillar made the car less rigid and it did not handle as well as the two-door model. There are very few surviving examples of this car.

By 1959 the engines were even bigger and this enabled them to be a lot faster even though they were heavier. The last evolution of this car occurred in 1962 and was called the Facel II. The car was lighter and had sleek modern lines. This car was even faster than the previous model and looked very elegant. In 1960 the company got into the sports car market with a car they named the Facellia. It was a small car and was very similar in size to the Mercedes 190SL. This car came in three body styles. Interestingly, after production of the Vega stopped, several of the styling features created by Jean Daninos were appropriated by the Mercedes Company.

The Facellia had engines that were built in France. The design was flawed and the car experienced frequent engine failures. This caused the Facellia to be pronounced a failure and customers lost confidence in the brand. Jean Daninos was forced to resign in 1961 and the new company president ordered that all broken engines would be replaced free of charge for customers. This was intended to regain the confidence of the customer base. The car was now being manufactured with a Volvo engine, but by this time it was too late and the company stopped production in 1963 and completely left the car market in 1964. Several famous people such as Ringo Starr, Pablo Picasso and Ava Gardner were once owners of the Facel Vega.