Description
The Facel Vega Facellia Coupé was introduced in 1959 as a compact and stylish grand tourer designed to bring the elegance of the Facel Vega brand to a wider audience. It marked a bold step for the French automaker, which had previously specialized in high-powered, luxury V8 models. With the Facellia, Facel Vega aimed to compete with the likes of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Porsche 356, offering a refined European coupé with sports car dynamics and luxury detailing.
The design of the Facellia Coupé was clean, elegant, and distinctly French, with a strong American influence in its lines. It featured a wide, upright grille, quad headlamps, and a finely proportioned body with subtle chrome accents and a gently sloping roofline. The hardtop design gave it a more formal and sculpted look compared to the Cabriolet, while still maintaining the lightness and agility expected from a smaller car.
Inside, the cabin reflected the luxury heritage of Facel Vega. The dashboard was aircraft-inspired, painted to resemble brushed aluminum and filled with round Jaeger gauges and toggle switches. The seats were trimmed in high-quality leather, and the interior offered a surprisingly upscale feel for a compact coupe. It was a car intended to be both sporty and elegant, blending performance with daily usability and style.
Mechanically, the original Facellia Coupé was powered by a 1.6-liter twin-cam inline-four engine designed in-house by Facel. It was capable of producing around 115 horsepower, sending power to the rear wheels through a four-speed manual gearbox. While the car was reasonably quick and offered good handling characteristics, the engine suffered from serious reliability issues. Mechanical failures, particularly in the valve train and cooling system, plagued early models and ultimately damaged the Facellia’s reputation in the market.
In an effort to salvage the project, Facel Vega eventually began fitting the Facellia with more reliable engines from Volvo (and later BMW), but by then customer confidence had waned. Despite its stylish design and luxury appeal, the Facellia Coupé never gained the commercial success it was meant to achieve. Fewer than 1,200 examples were produced, and the model’s financial shortcomings contributed to Facel Vega’s eventual bankruptcy in the mid-1960s.
Today, the Facellia Coupé is remembered as a beautiful and ambitious car with a complicated legacy. When properly restored and fitted with a reliable engine, it offers a rewarding classic car experience and remains a striking example of postwar French design with international flair. Its rarity and unique story have made it a cult favorite among collectors of unusual European automobiles.