The selling season, it seems, doesn’t end with Retromobile earlier in February because a large number of Facels are coming up for sale in France, and an important right hand drive HK500 is being sold in the UK. HK-1 BJ4 is coming up at Ascot Racecourse on March 7, being sold by Historics Auctioneers. Its estimate is £115-128,000.

The car – registered HK KID – was first delivered in February 1960 and it has since been to the United States and back. It was originally red but is now green, it is also fitted with a manual gearbox. It seems to have a 361 cubic inch engine rather than the original 383.

The car is owned by the family of Mick Green who bought the car from the States in 1995 and then went on to restore it. Ian Webb did some if not all the work on it. That has been chronicled in both a classic car magazine and the Facel Vega Car Club’s own Faceletter of October 1997. There are more details here: https://www.historics.co.uk/buying/auctions/2020-03-07/cars/ref-53-1960-facel-vega-hk500-mrp/

In France, it’s almost Retromobile Part two because ten Facels are due to come up for auction by Aguttes in their spring sale on March 15. This is at Espace Champerret, wherever that is; everyone is obviously meant to know because there’s no further explanation on the auctioneer’s website!

It’s actually even more important to know because if you want more detail of what’s on sale you’re going to have to go to the auction itself, because detail about the cars offered is sadly sparse or as we say, non-existent, either n French or in English!

There are ten Facels on offer, nine plus a Facel-built 1953 Ford Comete from the same collection of one Francis Staub, and a Facel 11. Some are unrestored; there are three Facellia coupes which are unrestored at €10-15k and one at €6-10k which I suspect from its bows-up stance may not have an engine. They range from 1961 to 1964; remember, buying the wreck is the easy bit, although the opportunity to fit your own engine (Rover V8?) is quite tempting, and selling three Facellias at once is going to be flooding the market.

On the restored front are two 1963-64 Facel 111 coupes at €40-60k and a 1961 Facellia convertible at €40-50k, plus a 1960 Excellence at €100-150k and a 1958 FV3B with the wide estimate of €90-160k. The 1953 Comete is estimated at €35-55k. Finally, the 1962 Facel 11 is HK2B, chassis no 113 and is estimated at €290-340k. All cars, of course, are left hand drive.

More details – but not a lot – may be found here: https://www.aguttes.com/en/catalog/102878

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