Top Gear Facel Vega HK500

[FLSHBK1]

Achingly beautiful coachwork, wonderful 383 or 440 MoPar engines, elegant interior and craftsmanship. It should have all come together to make one of the most-successful GT cars in history, but the brakes, steering and suspension simply never matched all that power. Wonderful TorqFlite 4spd AT or Pont-a-Mousson (sp?) manual box. A lot of people died in these cars and most of the damage was head-on. Tried to buy one of these in the USA recently but would have had to sell the house and kids.

[DEFGAZE]

Quite possibly the most beautiful car ever made.

[decoCKY]

It's ugly,

It is sooo ugly that it's beautiful.

I want one.

[oiseautempete]

@decoCKY

The video is bad dimentionned, in real is the car is very wide...Ugly? it's one of the nicest car in he's times (launch in 1958), and i say not this why i'm french but if it's reality, and he's performance with the 335 to 360HP 361ci Chrysler V8 engine was exceptionnal

[gotham61]

Those prices at the end are seriously out of date. HK500s go for about 4X those prices today.

[gurlsingerfan]

Perhaps no one had heard of it at the time this film was produced, but by now someone has, because prices for clean ones have gone absolutely stupid! You can buy 2 nice Rolls Royces for the price of one of these if it is clean. It is interesting that the commentator speaks so much of the handling. Despite what Facel Vega fans will tell you it was always a problem. The French playwright/philosopher Albert Camus was killed in one when his driver slammed it into a tree.

[tpen70]

so join us again next week for rich boring old fart talks too much

[brettholomew21]

Wow, old Top Gear is really lame. Better than anything we have in the US, but way worse than new Top Gear.

[WolfieVilans]

Why can't french cars be as beautiful as the Facel anymore?.

[twistedmethoddan]

@WolfieVilans You could argue why can't *all* cars be as beautiful as they once were ... such a shame that fashions just gets more tasteless all the time :(

Thumbs up to Morgan for still making the same car they did in the 60s.

[searcherboy]

Vintage cars are wonderful until you actually drive them on a regular basis, and pay the bills to maintain them. 20 years ago I had a 1973 BMW 3 litre Bavaria - stylish, comfortable, fast, great road feel, but only so long as the road was dry. Driving in the rain was dicey. On snow or ice, forget it. Zero traction. It wasn't that old at the time, but it cost me a fortune to keep it on the road. Nice to look at, but give me a car with traction control, good brakes and reliability any day.

[brettholomew21]

@searcherboy On most days I'd disagree, as I drive a 1990 BMW 535i with only a few modern safety features (old airbag, anti-lock brakes) and I love it, but I also drive a GMC Sierra for work and traction control has kept me out of trouble more times than I care to admit.

[verdoemme]

@searcherboy Owning an old sportscar and a recent saloon I can totally agree with you... the older one has enough power to put most recent cars to shame on a dry road but on a wet road it feels more like ice skating which is kinda scary knowing that there is no airbag present.

[gigicalifornia]

This is my ultimate dreamcar!!

[wortblossom]

I want one!

[bakkis61]

Well...if this driver comes directly from a nowadays Bugatti Veyron or something likely, no small wonder that he's complaining. Another question that hasn't been put up...how capable/competent is this driver? I would've chosen this Facel Vega way before anything else...maybe a Rolls Royce Camargue would've done something to my decicive mind, just maybe...

[ToyKingWonder]

50 year old car and he is complaining about sloppy steering, and that it is hard to keep on the road. Maybe the one he is driving. A good friend of mine has one, they are no problem to keep on the road, they are smooth and comfortable. Does my 2006 Taurus track smoother and have more control in a curve? Of course, its a modern car. I bet if this guy was in a race car he would bitch about the lack of a cupholder.

[potstillbill]

@ToyKingWonder In fairness to Willson, he is thinking i think of British roads in 1961, not American roads. On the twisty stuff, the Facel would have been a bit floaty, but who cares? Brutally handsome machine!

[TheRenato990]

Facel Vega ,Delahaye,Delage,Bugatti,Talbo­t,les plus belles voitures Françaises de l'âge d'or automobile mondial !

[frankl1989]

Ugly? You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Now a Koenigsegg, that is ugly although it is a very cool car indeed.

[arospeed169]

@frankl1989 HELL NO!

[koenigsegg101]

wow thats ugly!