Facel Vega

After the war, in 1945, by merging with Métallon, Facel began to make short-run special bodies, coupés or cabriolets for Simca, Ford of France, Panhard and Delahaye.

Métallon left the partnership in 1953, and Facel set about designing and making its own complete cars using engines made by Chrysler, Volvo and Austin.

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.

[2] Daninos had Facel begin manufacturing short-run and special complete finished bodies for the major French brands.

It made various models of Simca Sport and drew publicity by designing with Farina and then building a special body on a Bentley Mark VI chassis.

[2] During the same period, Facel-Metallon pressed out body panels for Delahaye's army jeeps (painted and upholstered); Simca, Delahaye and Somua's trucks (painted and upholstered); scooters by Vespa, Piaggio and Motobécane; tractors by Massey Ferguson; and stainless-steel bumpers, hubcaps and grilles for Simca/Ford and for Renault.

[2] In conjunction with Hispano-Suiza, Facel-Metallon and Facel also turned out combustion chambers in special metals for Rolls-Royce jet engines.

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.

Most cars were two-door hardtops with no centre pillar, but a few convertibles were built for special customers (including Daninos' wife: eleven of the FV series and a single HK500 were drop tops, out of 842 built in total) in spite of Daninos' dislike of the bodystyle due to its lack of structural rigidity.

The final evolution of the V8 models came in 1962 with the Facel Vega II, which was lighter, with sleeker, more modern lines, substantially faster, and famously elegant.

Instead, the Facellia had a four-cylinder 1.6 L twin-cam engine designed by former Talbot-Lago chief engineer Carlo Machetti, who won at Le Mans, along with the advice of famed English cylinder-head guru Harry Weslake,[9][10] and built in France by Paul Cavallier of the Pont-à-Mousson company (which already provided manual gear boxes for the company's larger models) so as to be compliant with the punitive French horsepower tax system and increase sales.

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.

French writer and Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus died in a Facel Vega FV2 driven by his publisher's nephew, Michel Gallimard.

Facel-Metallon bodied 1951 Bentley Mark VI
Facel Vega HK500 1961
Facellia F2, 1961 to 1963
Facel III