The car pictured on the brochure below seems to have some echoes of American style, but will still be a bit foreign to most Americans. That's because it's a French Ford, a Comete, first bodied by Facel Métallon in 1951, a period when American Fords featured similar rounded oblong forms, clean flanks, and bullet shapes in their grilles...
Until the Thunderbird arrived in 1955, though, they weren't as low and sleek as the car shown here, and few of them had this car's visual balance. The firm that built the body, Facel (Forges et Ateliers des Constructions de l'Eure et Loire) was founded in 1939 by Jean Daninos (who had worked on the Traction Avant for CItroen) to produce aviation projects which were soon derailed by the Nazi invasion. After war's end, Daninos and Facel produced cabriolet bodies for the new Dyna Panhards, and sports bodies for Simca, a Fiat affiliate which allowed Facel to expand its automotive production, and also attracted the attention of Ford SAF, which was making cars in a size and price class above Simca.
Facel's sense of style made enough of an impression on Arthur Drexler, curator of the New York's Musuem of Modern Art, that he featured two specimens of their work in MOMA's "Ten Automobiles" exhibit from early autumn 1953, a follow-up to their influential "Eight Automobiles" show from 1951. A Facel-bodied Simca 8 Sport is centered below the Porsche in the photo below, while their Ford Comete is just below the Porsche to the right. Other cars include a Stablimenti Farina-bodied Siata (left of Porsche), a 1953 Studebaker Starliner, a Nash Healey, a Cunningham C3, an Aston Martin DB2, a Lancia Aurelia B20 coupe, and a Bertone-bodied Arnolt MG*.
Unlike the previous exhibit which showcased various schools of design, from British "razor edge" to flamboyant teardrops by Figoni, the "Ten Automobiles" show concentrated on the Italian modern school that thrived in the post-WW2 period, Five of the car bodies were actually designed in Italy, including the Vignale-bodied Cunningham, while others like the Studebaker by Loewy Studios and Frank Feeley's Aston showed off low, sleek shapes with emphasis on sculptural form rather than surface decoration...
The design for Facel's Ford Comete has been credited, like that of the Simca 8 Sport, to Giovanni Farina, older brother of Battista (Pinin) Farina. The first example of the Comete appeared in 1951, and featured a 2.2 liter version of the Ford flathead V8. By 1953, the year of the MOMA show, power had been increased with a 2.4 liter version of this engine. The bullet shape in the grille references contemporary American Fords, but the low profile and spare use of trim is Italian, and had influence on Daninos' later self-penned designs...
The curve of the roof echoes that of the rear fenders and deck. Interior upholstery and details were richer and more elaborate than on the French Ford sedans, which is one reason Ford was able to charge 50% to 65% more for the Facel-bodied coupes than for its sedans.
The next version of the Facel Ford would have only a year and a half to make an impression. Ford was contemplating the sale of its French factory, even as it was readying a new series of V8 Vedette sedans. Meanwhile, Simca*, which had ordered new style bodies for sports models from Facel, was considering purchasing Ford's French operation.
For 1954, just as Ford of France was introducing its new series of Vedette sedans powered by a 2.4 liter version of the flathead V8, the company decided to bring the performance of the Comete more into line with its price by powering it with a 3.9 liter V8 from their truck line. This flathead engine made 105 hp compared to 80 on the last Comete version. Christened "Monte Carlo" and fronted by a new grille the French called the "coupe-frites" (French fry cutter), the car retained the Facel bodies, and continued to be available after Simca took over the Ford SAF factory at Poissy, when Simca bought the license to build Ford's new Vedette sedan, on December 1, 1954...
Despite the fact that postwar French laws basing taxable horsepower on engine displacement made engines over 2.5 liters a hard sell, nearly 700 of the Monte Carlo with the larger V8 were sold. The two-tone blue coupe below belonged to Grace Kelly before she became Princess Grace (and moved to Monte Carlo). Simca continued to offer the Monte Carlo until July 1955, and thereafter deleted the 3.9 liter V8 engine from its lineup. Simca continued to offer Facel-bodied sport coupes and cabriolets with its 4 cylinder Aronde engines, and produced several versions of the Vedette sedan and wagon (break in French) with the 2.4 liter Ford-derived flathead Aquilon V8 into 1961.
sMeanwhile, back at Facel Métallon, Jean Daninos had noticed that the cars he had built for Ford and Simca had filled a gap in the market for luxury GTs that was being abandoned by French car builders like Delahaye* and Talbot-Lago*. To Daninos, the sale of 700 expensive cars in a year seemed a spectacular success, especially compared with the trickle of sales achieved by the older French specialist makes. So at the Paris Auto Salon in autumn of 1954, the year Delahaye abandoned car production and a couple of months before the Simca takeover of Ford SAF, Daninos introduced a car called the Facel-Vega. The prototype FV was powered by a 276 cubic inch (4.5 liter) DeSoto V8 with hemispherical combusion chambers, and featured a Post-a-Mousson 4-speed transmission. Daninos named the car for Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra. Facel's bodies for the Vegas expanded on the modern contours and proportions of the Facel Fords, but with bolder and more distinctive details front and rear. The Facel Fords may seem a footnote to automotive history, but they were an important step on Jean Daninos' road to Vegas, a story for a future episode...
*Footnote:
Another Facel-bodied car, the Simca Weekend, was featured in our previous post, "Stolen Cars and Stolen Kisses", which appeared on Dec. 27, 2020. Delahaye's history was recounted in "Golden Days of Delahayes", posted on June 30, 2018, and Talbot-Lago was profiled in "Talbot-Lago: Darracq by Another Name", on May 22, 2020. The Arnolt MG saga was retold in "Forgotten Classics: The Other Arnolts" on October 15, 2016.
Photo Credits:
Top & 2nd from top: Ford SAF, posted on facel-vega.com
3rd from top: zwischengas.com, from Museum of Modern Art, New York
4th thru 7th: bonhams.com
8th: Ford SAF
9th: Wikimedia
10th: techni-tacot.com
Bottom: en.wheelsage.org
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