Past
(with thanks to Hegarty)

Everyone loves a winner, and Facel Vega owners were delighted to learn that fellow Facel owner Tom Reah won the Lost Marques class at the recent London Concours at the Honourable Artillery Company’s grounds in the City of London.

Tom’s left hand drive HK500 beat a couple of Talbots, a Jowett Javelin, an AC Ace, a Frogeye Sprite, a Unipower, a Bizzarini, an Iso Grifo and a Marcos to the title.

Tom was a little shocked that his car won the Lost Marques class. “I thought it would be fun to enter, but I didn’t even expect the car to be accepted. My wife and I have had to isolate through much of this (Covid) crisis and at most we’ve been taking the car out for short drives near our home in the New Forest. It’s such a fantastic grand tourer, it would actually cruise at 100mph all day long. It’s extremely comfortable, as well as beautiful.”

Tom and wife Sue have had the car for four years after it was imported from the States around ten years ago. When the car was up for sale, vendor Alan Carrington wrote ‘the cars paintwork looks good at ten feet; however, on closer inspection (it) could do with improvement at some stage in the future.”

Clearly the combination of the grey bodywork and cream white roof found favour with the judges. And it was also much admired by another exhibitor. Each year the principal models of a prominent enthusiast’s car collection are shown at the London Concours and this time the collector involved was Ian Callum CBE, the former head of design at Jaguar and Aston Martin.

So while visitors admired Callum’s collection of cars, he was appreciating other cars on display, and one particular car caught his eye. “The one I would give my eyeteeth for is the Facel Vega HK500. It’s the most un-French looking French car imaginable, with this great big Chrysler V8.”

Present (but rush)

Two Facels are being exhibited at the Hampton Court Concours d’Elegance this weekend, September 4-6. This is a very varied Concours with many different exhibits, from Formula One cars to humble saloons. The two Facels there are a Facel Vega HK500 and a Facel 11.

The latter has been with the current owner for just a year. It was bought at the Bonhams sale at Goodwood last year and since then has been brought up to a high standard, with much of the work being done by Romance of Rust in London. This is the ex-Barry Burnett car, 705CUT and it should be a wonderful sight at Hampton Court. We look forward to seeing pics of both cars.

Future

A fully restored HK500 is coming for auction at Historic Auctioneers’ event at Ascot Racecourse on September 26. The car is from a large private collection and the restoration has only just been completed.

HK1 BN2 was originally owned by Captain Hesketh Raoul Millais known as Liony, who was a well known portrait painter, equestrian artist and sportsman. Most recently, it was for sale in poor condition for £45-55,000 in 2016, and has been restored since then.

It is now in deep black with deep blood red upholstery, registered 928YVK showing 40,514 miles on the clock. It is estimated at £130-155,000 and is the 71st of the 98 HK500s imported into this country. There is more information here:

https://www.historics.co.uk/buying/auctions/2020-09-26/cars/ref-115-1959-facel-vega-hk500/