Facel Vega HK500

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The advertising slogan for the Facel Vega HK500 put it in a nutshell: "For the Few Who Own the Finest".

The few included royalty (the King of Morocco, the Shah of Iran, Prince Mashoor of Saudi Arabia), the artistic elite (Francois Truffaut, Ringo Starr, Tony Curtis) and, to prove that there was real sporting ability behind the Facel’s super-chic styling, top racing drivers (Maurice Trintignant, Rob Walker and Stirling Moss, the latter spurning air travel in favour of driving his HK500 from race to race around Europe). Costing more than a Mercedes Gullwing and three times as rare, the HK500 exuded opulent exclusivity and was in its element blasting across continents at three-figure speeds.

The brainchild of French industrialist and designer Jean Daninos, the Facel Vega marque was born in 1954 in a bid to keep Paris on the map as a centre of automotive excellence at a time when great French marques like Delahaye, Delage, Talbot Lago and Panhard were being driven to the wall by punitive government taxes on high performance vehicles.

Aimed squarely at the international jet set, the 1958 HK500 was the most powerful Facel yet, initially fitted with a 5.9-litre Chrysler V8 that was soon supplanted by a bigger 6.3-litre unit that pumped out 360bhp and 425 lbs/ft of torque. Tested by Motor magazine, the car topped out at 145mph, hit 60mph in 8.4 seconds and ran the quarter mile in 16.3 seconds.

Styled by Daninos, engineered by Jacques Brasseur and with a chassis developed by Lance Macklin of HWM racing fame, the HK500 went as well as it looked with a fit and finish that was second to none. Rust-resistant stainless steel was used for brightwork, while a lavish passenger cabin was trimmed in the finest leathers with a fabulous aircraft-like dashboard that looked like wood but was in fact painted stainless steel. Only 490 examples were made before production was phased out in 1961 to make way for the Facel II.

This particular car is especially rare being one of just 105 HK500s that were factory made in right-hand drive. As copies of the build sheets confirm, it was specified with a three-speed automatic gearbox, power steering, Salisbury 3.3:1 differential, disc brakes, a green leather interior and silver coachwork. The chassis number was HK1 BP2, engine number TY7 1125.30 and registration number 935 BLX.

Supplied new to London Facel agents HWM in August 1960, it was first registered on 20th May 1961 to the original owner, a Mrs Jack Taylor of Kensington, who bought it through Chipstead Motors, London (quite why it hung around for 9 months before being sold is not clear although service records indicate that it had some 250 miles on the clock when Mrs Taylor acquired it so it had perhaps been used as a demonstrator). Subsequent service records indicate that by September 1966 the car had clocked up some 62,300 miles (averaging over 12,000 miles per year).

It appears that the car was then put into storage for around 15 years before being acquired via Coys of Kensington by Ian McArthur (a film director of D’Arblay Street, Soho) in 1981. Old MOTs show that he used the car only very sparingly before handing it over to marque specialist Nigel Cooper of London for a thorough restoration in the late 1980s which, according to a note in the history file, cost over £40,000.

In September 1989 McArthur sold the car through auctioneers Walton & Hipkiss of Hagley, West Midlands, the buyer being none other than Nigel Cooper, who paid £24,850 to secure it (invoice on file). Cooper then improved the car still further (repainting it from green to its original silver) before selling it to the current owner in October 1991 at which point it was judged to be “perhaps the very best HK500 in the country” by Facel Vega Owner’s Club Technical Secretary, John Barton, who proceeded to maintain the car for the next few years via his company Barton & Phillips Automobiles of Mitcham, Surrey (Bugatti and Facel Vega specialists).

Barton’s work included fitting a brand new 6.5-litre Chrysler short engine in 1993, although the original cylinder heads (on which the engine number is stamped) and ancillaries were retained. More recently a new carburettor has also been fitted and the car converted to more efficient alternator charging (original dynamo retained). Just prior to the sale five new tyres, a new fuel pump and a new battery were also fitted.

Throughout the vendor’s 23-year ownership, the car has always been kept garaged and used in fine weather only, mainly on special occasions such as trips to Ascot and Goodwood, clocking up only 2,000 miles during this time. The current indicated mileage of c.74,600 is believed genuine and is largely backed up by various documents in the history file including some 13 old MOTs back to 1982 (at 70,300 miles).

Now nicely mellowed and still in fine condition throughout, the car has been maintained regardless of cost and drives superbly with a wonderfully strong and sweet engine, as we discovered when we were treated to a lengthy test drive across Wiltshire, surging forwards effortlessly and tackling the sometimes bumpy roads with aplomb. Indeed the chassis composure is nothing short of remarkable for a 50-year-old machine, amply illustrating why a driver such as Stirling Moss was happy to rack up twenty to thirty thousand kilometres a year in his own HK500, recalling in Martin Buckley’s definitive 2007 book, ‘Facel Vega: Grand Luxe Sportif’, that: “It was a lovely car… a high-speed gentleman’s express – very quiet, very comfortable, very fast… I don’t remember anything bad about it.”

High praise indeed and even today it is hard to think of a more dramatic and capable GT. A pleasure to drive or be driven in, it exudes road presence and drew much attention from camera-phone-wielding fans during our test drive and photo shoot. Surely among the best surviving examples with an MOT until September 2015, this fabulous Grand Routier is ready to roll and will turn every journey into an occasion for the fortunate new owner. 

CATALOGUE AMENDMENT - MoT actually 24 July 2015.