Facel Vega HK500. A childhood dream or a nightmare?

Facel Vega HK500. A childhood dream or a nightmare?

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theadman

Original Poster:

525 posts

156 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
quotequote all
Let's start with a confession...

Sharing this is not just about enlightening those few who might be interested in an obscure French car that most people have never heard of; I'm hoping it might also be therapeutic for me...a kind of virtual psychiatrist's couch!

For many of my friends I am defined by my efforts to return a Facel Vega HK500 to the road. Conversations with them will barely last a couple of minutes before they pop the inevitable question...'How's the Facel coming along?' At that point I usually delve deep into the book of excuses or try to change the subject! It hasn't been an easy ride!

You see, I bought the car in August 1999...and it's still not finished 22 years later. The chap I bought it off had been restoring it for 12 years and the owner before him for around the same amount of time.

Here's the car looking pretty much as I bought it, although plenty of work had already taken place by the time these pictures were taken around 2003.







So, how did I end up owning this rather forlorn relic?

I think most of us can trace our passion or even obsession for a particular make or model to our childhood. For me two things are to blame for Facel Vega fever. One was the 1964 Observer Book of Cars I was probably given as a present. Within its pages detailing Aston Martins, Maseratis, Ferraris and Jaguars, were two pages devoted to Facel Vega. The little Facel III convertible was of little appeal. The same couldn't be said of the Facel II. As a seven year old I only had eyes for the maximum power statistics. 390bhp for the manual car blitzed most of the competition; Aston 282bhp, Maserati 260bhp, Ferrari 300bhp and Jaguar 265. Only the Corvette got close in 375bhp fuel injected form.



The second was a brief encounter in France in 1965. I was on holiday with my parents, driving along one of those straight, tree lined Route Nationale in our Morris Oxford. Dad wasn't dawdling, but we were overtaken by someone in a Facel II that made it look like we were standing still. I was mesmerised.

In my teens I found out that someone who owned a garage near Banbury had several Facels and so I duly cycled a 50 mile round trip to go and see them. I've posted these pictures from around 1974 before.





The dashboard of the Facel II really captured my imagination.



Apart from a half hearted attempt to help set up a UK Facel Club whilst I was at University, active involvement in Facel Vegas lay dormant for more than 20 years. By the late 1990s I was married with young children and an E-Type in the garage. My wife pointed out on a number of occasions that the Jaguar was pretty useless as we couldn't all fit in it.

Having duly sold the E-Type the search was in full swing to find a replacement with four seats. Several cars were considered (Silver Shadow/T Series, Alvis TE21, BMW 3.0CSi, Jaguar MkII) but none of them really appealed enough to take the plunge.

One day in August 1999 a friend who worked for Motor Sport magazine phoned me and asked if I had seen that there was a Facel HK500 for sale. Knowing that I would be interested, he had already phoned the vendor to check it was still available! What's more, it was only an hour's drive from home.

Within 24 hours the deal was done and my life with a Facel Vega began. Sadly I have no pictures of the car as I picked it up.

Until I can continue the story, here's a gratuitous picture from the 2018 Goodwood Revival when the UK Club joined forces with the French Amicale Facel Vega resulting in the largest gathering of Facels the UK has seen in many years.


fttm

3,665 posts

134 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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Doffs cap , a beautiful car . No pain no gain you'll get there eventually .

RC1807

12,482 posts

167 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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That's an interesting car, OP.

What lurks under the bonnet of the HK500?

(I think your memory of a Morris Oxford moving along at a lick may be skewed. My Dad had one when I was a kid. It was painfully slow, I recall. wink )

Chunkychucky

5,942 posts

168 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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Epic car OP cool

Best of luck getting the restoration finished, knowing you'll have an HK500 at the end of it must be awesome cloud9

Dinoboy

2,494 posts

216 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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Following.

Jhonno

5,762 posts

140 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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Is this a thread so we too, kick you into finishing it?

ZedLeg

12,278 posts

107 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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RC1807 said:
That's an interesting car, OP.

What lurks under the bonnet of the HK500?
Big block mopar V8 iirc

Cambs_Stuart

2,833 posts

83 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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What an amazing car. Never knew it existed. 390hp in 1964 must have been an otherworldly experience.
Really love to see how you get on.

MarcelM6

537 posts

105 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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Have though these were incredibly elegant cars since first reading about them about 20 years ago. Think there was one at Bicester heritage last year, stunning looking car.

Spoke

56 posts

30 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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Fun Fact: Albert Camus - author of L'Etranger(The Outsider) died in a Facel Vega bring driven by his publisher.

Mercdriver

1,911 posts

32 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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One of the jute barons in Dundee had one of these in the 60’s, then suez crisis and he got rid of it and bought a isetta bubble car - he was over six foot tall!

Always admired the styling, Italian styled body and USA muscle

RDMcG

19,093 posts

206 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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I had a ride in one when I was a kid. I remember that it had s 45rpm recored player fitted. It was the most exotic car I could have imagined. Beautiful thing.

RDMcG

19,093 posts

206 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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A few pics from a concours in Detroit a couple of years ago:










threespires

4,289 posts

210 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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Some Facel Vega pix





P5BNij

15,764 posts

105 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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Incredible cars, they just ooze sheer glamour. Ringo Starr bought one in 1964 but sold it four years later after almost writing it off in an accident.

Justin Banks currently has two for sale, one LHD, one RHD.

B'stard Child

28,321 posts

245 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
quotequote all
theadman said:
Let's start with a confession...

Sharing this is not just about enlightening those few who might be interested in an obscure French car that most people have never heard of; I'm hoping it might also be therapeutic for me...a kind of virtual psychiatrist's couch!

For many of my friends I am defined by my efforts to return a Facel Vega HK500 to the road. Conversations with them will barely last a couple of minutes before they pop the inevitable question...'How's the Facel coming along?' At that point I usually delve deep into the book of excuses or try to change the subject! It hasn't been an easy ride!

You see, I bought the car in August 1999...and it's still not finished 22 years later. The chap I bought it off had been restoring it for 12 years and the owner before him for around the same amount of time.
Looking forward to this - so very much a slow burn and will continue to be?

or

Are you expecting encouragement to equal more progress??

Either way bookmarked and in for the journey - can't be any slower than a MWStewart Fiesta project progress wink

theadman

Original Poster:

525 posts

156 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
quotequote all
Well I never! I didn't expect the level of interest you guys have shown so far.

Thanks for all the comments and encouragement. As I am now realising, it is quite difficult to start a Reader's Cars thread 22 years in! I'll try and run through events in a chronological order as far as I can remember them...I'll get on to the next installment this evening, but first a few answers...

fftm, chunkychucky and Cambs_Stuart; thank you for the encouragement!

Jhonno and B'stardChild; maybe going public will force more progress. The real issue though is that whilst I understand fairly well how cars work, attach me to the end of a spanner and I'm hopeless. That being the case, progress has been driven by three things; finding someone capable of coping with the bizarre and sometimes formidable complexity of these hand built cars, the availability of money to pay them and access to their time. It is the last of these three that has determined the pace of progress over the last seven years and that is really frustrating.

When I read a thread like gary71's My 911T I'm just in awe. He welds his car, he fixes the mechanical bits, he writes well and to top it all, he takes amazing photos. That thread is the benchmark and actually was the catalyst for me to embark on this.

RC1807; the engine in this manual car is a 361cu in Chrysler motor with 'wedge' combustion chambers, specifically used in the De Soto Adventurer. De Soto rated it at 345hp (SAE gross). That wasn't quite enough for Facel which immediately claimed 360hp. It is very doubtful that anything was done to justify the higher figure. For reference, the manual cars had dual four barrel Carter carbs, the autos had a single carb and were rated at 305hp (De Soto) but 330hp by Facel. Sometime during 1959 Chrysler started supplying the updated 383cu in engine. It seems that Facel didn't notice for a while and so the exact change over point is lost in the mists of time!

With regard to the Morris Oxford, I was very careful with my wording! I said Dad wasn't dawdling as he was a press on sort of driver. However, as you say, pressing on was a relative thing in that car (I recall we were traveling at 60-70mph as at that age my eyes were often glued to the speedo!)

Mercdriver; the change from HK500 to Isetta must have been interesting on many levels! The styling of all Facels was done in house by Jean Daninos who founded the company, but there are influences you can see from the US and the European styling houses.

Thanks also to those of you who have posted additional comments and pictures. The next bit of my story may be long on words and short on pictures as I never thought to take photos in the early years. So, please keep adding Facel related pictures!

B'stard Child

28,321 posts

245 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
quotequote all
theadman said:
Well I never! I didn't expect the level of interest you guys have shown so far.

Thanks for all the comments and encouragement. As I am now realising, it is quite difficult to start a Reader's Cars thread 22 years in! I'll try and run through events in a chronological order as far as I can remember them...I'll get on to the next installment this evening,
Excellent - pressing F5 in expectation biggrin

theadman said:
Jhonno and B'stardChild; maybe going public will force more progress. The real issue though is that whilst I understand fairly well how cars work, attach me to the end of a spanner and I'm hopeless.
Thing is we all started there - you aren't born with skills you aquire them often after making the odd mistake and learning fom them

theadman said:
That being the case, progress has been driven by three things; finding someone capable of coping with the bizarre and sometimes formidable complexity of these hand built cars, the availability of money to pay them and access to their time. It is the last of these three that has determined the pace of progress over the last seven years and that is really frustrating.
I've been working on my cars since 1984 and motorcycles since 1979 - basically because I have champagne tastes and a beer money budget - it forced me to DIY in order to indulge my passion - if you are forced to rely on specialists with limited time I can understand the frustrations

theadman said:
When I read a thread like gary71's My 911T I'm just in awe. He welds his car, he fixes the mechanical bits, he writes well and to top it all, he takes amazing photos. That thread is the benchmark and actually was the catalyst for me to embark on this.
It's a great thread and I'm sure he will be please to have inspired

Panda nero

407 posts

18 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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This is filed in the same place as Gordon Keeble , Intermechanica ,ISO , Jensen ,Bristol and others .

Fab styling and huge V8s in the front .

You also have willpower ,still going after 20 years ,I can give up on stuff after 20 days.

dandam

225 posts

151 months

Tuesday 25th October 2022
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We need more !!!!