A 0002 (1954)

Last of the French builders of luxury' cars, the Forges et Ateliers de Construction d'Eure et Loire in Pont-à-Mousson was formerly a body builder for Simca, Ford and Panhard.

They started to build complete cars in 1954 using Chrysler V8 engines of 4.5 litres, and then of 5.8 and 6.3 litres. In 1957 Facel presented the "Excellence". They also made a smaller model, the Facellia, originally fitted with a Facel-built dohc four-cylinder 1600cc engine. This unreliable engine caused great consternation among Facel's customers, and was mainly responsible for the failure of Facel-Vega.

In 1962 the 1600cc engine was replaced by the Volvo 1800, but too late to restore confidence.

FV - FV1 (1955)

(Vintage European Automobiles)