Help Facel Vega, Facel 2

[facelman]

tonyvid said:

Great stuff

I'm sure Facelman will be able to give you some history when he spots this.

Sadly no I don't know anything about this one.However I have forwarded the info to the man who will know and I will let you know when he replies.

[facelman]

neutral 3 said:

Does a Silver Grey with Red Interior , Auto , HK 500, registration no HPK 378 ring any bells ? A customer of mine Jeremy , owned this one from aprox 1969 - 73.
He was then based in Sussex. At that time there was another HK 500 locally and also an Excellence. He's pretty sure he bought it from HWM.
He fondly recalls a trip to Paris in it with his Wife to an upmarket wedding. Lost in Gay Pareee they went around the Arc 8 odd times. The French he recalls were besotted with the thing. The Garage local to their Hotel insisted on fitting 2 new rear tyres to it completely free !!
When he went to collect her, they had Also filled her up with petrol, again foc !

Jeremy sold her to a Hotel owner on the Sussex coast. Be great to know if she has survived.

As I live in france,can you please let me have the address of this kind garage in Paris? I am always out and about on old bangers and would appreciate free fill ups with petrol.Come to think about it the Bugatti needs some new tyres....

[6750cc]

From the Supercars, Some Rarites thread...

http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Spotted in Uruguay:

[6750cc]

There also seems to be a Facel Vega on display at the Technik Museum in Speyer, Germany:

http://speyer.technik-museum.de/en

[facelman]

facelman said:

Sadly no I don't know anything about this one.However I have forwarded the info to the man who will know and I will let you know when he replies.

I have heard back from the oracle." Puzzling,This number is much more likely to be 378 HPK than HPK 378 as the former would date from DEC 1959/JAN 1960 so is likely to be an original,while the letters first would be 1939.But as far as I can see [knowing] all the HKs in silver/grey/red /auto there is reason to believe that they were not HPK [or at least not during the period 1969/73] Are you absolutely sure that it wasn't an Excellence ? It might have been EX1 BO75.Any clues as to where this Jeremy got it from and sold it to ?" RS. So there you have it.

[facelman]

As I expected RS has connected the dots and has replied again to the question of the HK500 in Sussex.It is in fact HK BF7 which has been owned by Kerry Berrisford in Norfolk for quite a few years.The number plate was the problem! It is in fact SFY 390 [ You did get the 3 right though ! ].RS had spoken to Jeremy Davidson in 2000 and he had confirmed his selling the car to the Kings Beach Hotel in Pagham.So in answer to the original question Yes the car still exists.

Edited by facelman on Sunday 24th February 13:10

[neutral 3]

Hi Facelman, just spoken to Jeremy and yes he gave me the wrong registration no ! It was indeed SFY 390.

Great to hear that she has survived. Any recent photos of her ?

[facelman]

neutral 3 said:

Hi Facelman, just spoken to Jeremy and yes he gave me the wrong registration no ! It was indeed SFY 390.

Great to hear that she has survived. Any recent photos of her ?

I don't have any recent pictures of this HK but if you talk to the club maybe the owner will help you.

[Ubendum]

Long shot, I know, but...

A friend of mine, an english guy living in France bought an HK500 for restoration. I lost touch with him a while back. Does anyone have any contact with him? It does seem that Facels are easy to locate, so maybe their owners are as well?

[tonyvid]

A little bit of a clue with a partial name or area could help, that's quite a broad question

[facelman]

Ubendum said:

Long shot, I know, but...

A friend of mine, an english guy living in France bought an HK500 for restoration. I lost touch with him a while back. Does anyone have any contact with him? It does seem that Facels are easy to locate, so maybe their owners are as well?

Are you sure that it was an HK 500 and not our friend in Normandie who bought one of Mr Wrights Excellences ? Green with green leather?

[Ubendum]

The last time I heard from him, he was living in the Limousin area of France. It may just be possible that he has moved back to the UK since then, I know he was thinking of it.

Memory tells me that the HK was maroon, and had a damaged chassis.

Is it safe to put names on a public forum?

[tonyvid]

With that info above, I'm sure a first name will be ok It's a small world when it comes to Facels and John seems to be all-seeing sometimes!

[Ubendum]

The first name is Nick. Any help?

[facelman]

Ubendum said:

The last time I heard from him, he was living in the Limousin area of France. It may just be possible that he has moved back to the UK since then, I know he was thinking of it.

Memory tells me that the HK was maroon, and had a damaged chassis.

Is it safe to put names on a public forum?

I should have heard of someone living in my area with a damaged Facel Vega HK 500 RHD !

[Ubendum]

If the Facel was RHD or LHD, I dont know. If it helps, he did have quite a few other cars as well. Offhand, I can remember a MkII Jag,(rhd, I think) A Traction Avant, a Citroen H(?) van.

[facelman]

Ubendum said:

If the Facel was RHD or LHD, I dont know. If it helps, he did have quite a few other cars as well. Offhand, I can remember a MkII Jag,(rhd, I think) A Traction Avant, a Citroen H(?) van.

RS will know but would need a little more info,like the chaps moniker.

[Bob CD]

Sorry, just had to share this with you Facel people. One of our friends on the French site has discovered some audio by Donovan from a Ready Steady Go TV show from 1965. It's on YouTube and it's called Talking Pop Star Blues. It starts...

'If I get to be a big pop star.
I'll buy me a Facel Vega car.
Put my buddies in the driving seat
And go and give my friends a treat.

And so on. Our French colleague wonders if he'd had a ride in Ringo Starr's Facel 2 and was taking the Mickey. On a similar note, how much of a coincidence is it that Edwin Starr also had a Facel? (It's not known if Freddie Starr has any connection with Facels however...)

[facelman]

Bob CD said:

Sorry, just had to share this with you Facel people. One of our friends on the French site has discovered some audio by Donovan from a Ready Steady Go TV show from 1965. It's on YouTube and it's called Talking Pop Star Blues. It starts...

'If I get to be a big pop star.
I'll buy me a Facel Vega car.
Put my buddies in the driving seat
And go and give my friends a treat.

And so on. Our French colleague wonders if he'd had a ride in Ringo Starr's Facel 2 and was taking the Mickey. On a similar note, how much of a coincidence is it that Edwin Starr also had a Facel? (It's not known if Freddie Starr has any connection with Facels however...)

Edwin Starr [ lovely guy ] had an Excellence in the United States before settling in the UK.When he one day saw a Facellia convertable advertised for sale he bought it.When it arrived it came as quite a shock.For a start it had a gearlever [whatever that was for ] His experiences with the people who took him for a ride whilst pretending to restore the car quite simply made him ill.One day his wife insisted that he send it to me.I had no idea that it was coming and when I rang him to ask what he wanted me to do with it,he told me that it was a gift and that I could do whatever I wanted with it.I have never pretended any interest in his sort of Motown music but accepted [with Diana ] the offer of tickets to his show in Eastbourne.It was quite simply a knockout.He was a great entertainer and is surely much missed. A really nice guy.

[neutral 3]

Simply stunning........

This is Jeremys HK500, circa 1970. Note the Webasto sunroof.