Facel Vega Facellia History

Introduced in 1959, the Facellia was Daninos's attempt to broaden the marque's appeal beyond the wealthy few who could afford an HK500 or Excellence. Priced at around $4,000, it used a 1.6-litre twin-cam four-cylinder engine developed in-house — Chrysler had no small four-cylinder to offer, so Facel built its own. The Facellia was offered in cabriolet and 2+2 coupé forms on a 2,450 mm wheelbase, and with roughly 1,100 units produced it was Facel's highest-volume model.

The engine was fatally flawed from the start. Its design allowed excessive camshaft flex — only two bearings supported each camshaft — producing timing problems, overheating, camshaft wear, and chronic valve failures. Warranty claims flooded in by mid-1960. Engineers Charles Deutsch and Jean Bertin were brought in to attempt a redesign, but the damage was done. Every engine failure that Facel replaced under warranty came at a direct loss, and the sheer volume of Facellia claims drained the reserves built by the more expensive models.

The Facellia nameplate was quietly replaced from 1961 by the Facel III (using a Volvo B18 engine) and the Facel 6 (using an Austin-Healey 2.8-litre six), but these variants arrived too late and in too few numbers to offset the losses. The receivership that closed the factory in October 1964 was driven, in large part, by the Facellia disaster.