The long-deceased French car company Facel Vega produced this pre-production vehicle 64 years ago before the launch of the Facel II coupe. Company founder Jean Daninos owned it for a few years before selling it on. The car is now on sale again and expected to fetch €700,000–€1,000,000.
Based on the Facel Vega HK500 model the prototype nonetheless looks different both from that car and the Facel II. It has a unique radiator grille, its own body outlines and two-tier headlights not found on any other Facel Vega. Despite being a pre-production example, it still had a full-fledged leather cabin.
The technical parameters are unknown. The auction holder mentions a four-speed manual transmission, but that’s all. The original Facel II used a 6.3-liter Chrysler V8 to drive the wheels with around 360 PS (355 hp / 265 kW) and could sprint 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 8.5 seconds.
It is believed that this particular car was produced three years before the Facel II came to the market. It was only made road-legal in 1965, several months after the company had to shut down. It then proceeded to change owners multiple times and received a thorough restoration in 2020–2022.