Editorial

As I say in the review of the latest masterpiece from Palawan; “the Facel story is about the cars and more”. The ‘more’ perhaps refers to the mores of a time long gone, when one needed a car with the performance of a Facel to cross countries, conducting business in Rome and the Rhine, or driving from St Moritz to St Tropez.

Nowadays anything from a Ford Focus upwards will provide adequate transportation for such trips, in those times it was a different matter. Engine problems with the Facellia apart, the decline of Facel was due to the emergence of much cheaper alternatives from the USA - and from Jaguar and Mercedes - and its client base could easily afford to buy a Ferrari or Maserati for those one-on-one driving moments in the Alps or the Côte d’Azur, using their up-market saloon for business.

Efforts by Iso, de Tomaso, Maserati and Monica to revive the concept of the Facel in the 1970s never really took off (for much the same reasons, and Ferrari had temporarily abandoned this sort of customer with its mid-engined supercars).

What do we have today that has the performance, style, exclusivity, unlimited potential for bespoke configuration of the HK500, Excellence and Facel II? The Ferrari 612 Scaglietti of course, Bentley’s Continental GT and Flying Spur, and Maserati’s superb Quattroporte come to mind, with the Aston Martin Rapide waiting in the wings.

Could one man of vision replicate the achievements of Jean Daninos in today’s car manufacturing climate? Probably not.

Steve Wakefield Managing Editor sw@classicdriver.com