Outstanding presentation! The French writer, Noble prize laureate Albert Camus was killed in a Facel Vega. This happened in France the 60’s. Here in sunny tropical Thailand 🇹🇭 Bangkok, there is restorer near my house AutoCraft ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fPZxJCqLzbc.html
It's lovely, of course, but I much prefer the more European look of the later Facel II (which, to contradict the nasal Quentin, was what Ringo Starr owned, not the HK500).
Outstanding presentation! The French writer, Noble prize laureate Albert Camus was killed in a Facel Vega. This happened in France the 60’s. Here in sunny tropical Thailand 🇹🇭 Bangkok, there is restorer near my house AutoCraft ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fPZxJCqLzbc.html
these cars weren't meant to be thrashed and tossed around. the big engine was for the feel of laid back(like a frenchman) power. These were only meant to cruise
Outstanding presentation! The French writer, Noble prize laureate Albert Camus was killed in a Facel Vega. This happened in France the 60’s. Here in sunny tropical Thailand 🇹🇭 Bangkok, there is restorer near my house AutoCraft ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fPZxJCqLzbc.html
They are fine handling, especially at high speed. He just has zero context with cars of the era. It may be that particular one needed new dampers, though.
+David Traver Adolphus - Great comment. Most cars from that era just don't handle. Hardly any cars had rack and pinion. The vast majority had skinny cross ply tyres. Many had archaic suspension that wallowed and pitched. All had dreadful brakes. The brakes on even a DB4 and E-Type series 1 were absolutely abysmal with stopping distances well in excess of 2X that of a modern vehicle from 70 mph. The fact that Stirling Moss drove a HK500 indicates that it was pretty good for the time. Cars have come on a long way in the last 60 years!
I've seen other period reviews that the steering was pretty bad, and judging by the ridiculously tall sidewalls, those tires likely didn't help the handling either. It would be interesting to retrofit an HK 500 with some decent radials on appropriate looking larger rims with modern shocks. Add rack and pinion steering and disc brakes, and you'd probably have a really nice driving car. The Chrysler sourced 383cu. in. V8 produced loads of torque, and with the 727 Torqueflite tranny, the pair were nearly indestructible. Long ago, I was in a Dodge with a tired old 383 and Torqueflite when its owner took it up to 70mph in first gear, which equated to pretty close to 7000 rpm, and it didn't blow. Any other big block V8 would have grenaded under the kind of abuse he regularly put it through. Sadly, this is a car which has been on my wish list for a long time, and will likely remain so, as I have little chance of ever being able to afford one.
@@Jimbo8012 Rubbish. The brakes on the cars you mention could well exceed the grip the tyres provided. How can you have more braking ? The DB4 and Etype handled brilliantly, both had well designed and built chassis. Your comments are at odds with reality.
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.
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.
I wouldn't say 'Complaining so much, as informing., and comparing with modern quality cars. Thats the whole idea of the programme. Testing cars that we, would never be able to drive.
not just a Chrysler engine but also a 3 speed Chrysler torque flite transmission complete with the Chrysler push button trans system. The power window set up was also bought from Chrysler.
@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.
@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 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.
i like french cars like this but it was just as i thought.... the car is about the beauty in travel by car and not about the driving experience itself. And i find thats typical of french cars and theres absolutely nothing wrong with that. id buy this, after I've purchased all my italian cars
ever heard of the Bugatti or the Renault Gordini, bareboned Renault Alpines or all the Peugeot's that won the Monte Carlo rally, dude? The I wont mention the fact that Renault seems to be doing better that Ferrari at the F1 .....
Billie Glaser okay well the fact that bugatti was italian designing and building cars in france absolutely means nothin right? the originals were designed by italians and built in france. and those examples are few, take the citroen ds.... its no sports car although it rallied it had no chance against the lancia.... speaking of which isn't it lancia that has 10 world rally wins? and tbh f1 these days as gone to shit. for me its about endurance racing
Adam Othman what's your problem dude, why squirm instead of admitting youre , wrong? F1 sucks but you're ok? Ever owned anything more exciting than an Opel of Fiat .. big mouth small context .. I mean I had a HK500 for 6 years, and Lancia HPE and lotsa Alfas .. my first car was a Morgan plus 4 drophead .. I won't even mention all the others .. But lets quit the correspondence because we're on different levels here .. and no I wearned it all, didn't inherit .. so plz don't bother to reply .. until never again ...!
Billie Glaser hey I'm not hating on french cars i think they're lovely. however i have my opinion and you have yours I'm not wrong i just prefer italian cars. and if you don't think f1 is dying then you really need to look into it. endurance racing to me is the most important because any innovations that go to the road is cast on that stage not f1. and firstly i meant no offence to you however to say someone is wrong based on facts is completely mental. The lancia brand dusted renault and many other french brands in the world rally championship. look at the citroen sm... its very scary to drive fast because you feel like you're going to tip the car (based on experience here). however if you slowed it down and just cruised its absolutely wonderful. on top of that most cars from this age were gt cars (even the ferraris). you never rushed the drive you relaxed, took your time, and enjoyed the journey... thats the car culture that the facel vega was produced in. the italian cars stirred the soul then as they do now and the french cars were very pleasurable to drive because it wasn't about all the features it had or the sportiness. it was about the miracle of travel by car and thats truly a beautiful thing we've lost today.
Billie Glaser ok Adam, Respect But even when I had my Lancia 2000 hpi turbo it was a Fiat in disguise and so are all Alfas now ... mine were just before, my cousin had a real Lancia 1953 ... though ..... cars are so boring that I don't even drive any more, and the strict overcrowded traffic regulations make it less fun than the train. Classics beong to the past, don't fit anymore .. so maybe the only modern allternative will be the semi-British Little Lotus, if I ever weaken ... actually we agree in principle ... they almost all stink now & I'm glad you didn't the German unsport sofa cars .at least that's something
I wish reviewers would not use colorful and sweeping exaggerations to describe the performance of a car, it’s off putting and gives the viewer no realistic sense of how it goes.
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...
My estimation of this reviewer has taken a serious dive. No car of this epoch was ever sold new with "slack' steering or skittish suspension, the car he is driving is worn out and he is not sensible enough to recognize this. For me he is now in the same pot as tax dodging Isle of Man clarkson.
This proves to me that you've never driven a classic sports car and compared them with a modern equivalent. Most cars of the late 50's had tonnes of freeplay in the steering. A HK in unassisted form is close to 5 turns lock to lock to counter act the non-assistance. An equivalent Aston or Jag was better but they still feel ancient to drive. A few years back I drove a 1968 DB6 and a 2007 DB9 on bilsteins in fairly close succession. It's impossible to even put into words how much better the DB9 was in all nearly respects. That's what 39 years of progress does and if you compare a 2007 DB9 with a modern DBS Superleggera, you'd be shocked how far the game has moved on in just the last 16 years.
@@Jimbo8012 Righto, I have been a mechanic for over 40 years and have been restoring cars since 1990. I have driven countless cars, from Model T through to thoroughly modern, sports cars, mundane cars, four wheel drives and Mack trucks, I love them all. Recently Aston Martin Vanquish and all sorts of 500hp modern cars, Tesla, I could go on. Your claims of cars of the 50's having slack in the steering is patently false, sure they have low geared steering but they do not/did not have slack in the steering. Steering is/was not as sharp when driving on crossplies, but not because of lost movement in the steering but because of the delayed reaction crossplies imbue in turns. Very few cars on crossplies now. For slack in the steering of cars you have to go back to worm and nut steering as in early post war Jaguars and early post war Land Rover, and these designs were quickly replaced by recirculating ball steering which eliminated any slack. Jaguars used rack and pinion steering from the mid 50's on. Any slack in any car steering system built from 1960 on is due to worn components, especially if the car is on radial tyres.. Nor did those cars have skittish suspension. Soft, maybe if pushed on bad roads but even a modern car handles bad roads poorly. The needs of ride and handling always create conflict in motorcars. None have reached a better compromise of these conflicting dynamics than the Jaguar XJ6/XJ12/XJS vehicles of the 80's through to the 90's. Some may ride better but handle worse and vice versa. They put modern cars to shame. Aston Martin used the same platform in the DB7. I'm sorry, but you cannot lecture me about understanding steering and handling characteristics of motorcars. I stand by my comments.
@@nkelly.9 - That's lovely. Well, we'll have to agree to disagree because I stand by my comments too. Any car that has 4+ turns lock to lock isn't going to handle particularly well especially on crossplies. Just facts. Also, at no point have I talked about Jaguar's of the 1980's/1990's so that's a clumsy and dishonest strawman argument. Of course, they're better cars. They were built at least 20 years after a DB4, a series 1 E Type and a Facel Vega HK500. Also, I'm fully aware that the DB7 used a modified XJS platform (XJ41/42) so I don't know why this is remotely relevant to what I said previously. A 1995 DB7 is a million miles away from a 1961 Jaguar E-Type and especially a 1959 Facel Vega HK500. To compare a DB7 to a HK500 is utterly ludicrious. One is patently a far superior car in all respects and it's not the HK.
@@Jimbo8012 How nice. No strawman argument. You talk about progress and accuse me of not having driven a classic car and /or comparing it with a modern car, even suggesting that I would be "shocked" at how far the game has moved on. Your point about my comments on 80's/90's Jaguars is moot. What is clumsy is your comprehension difficulties. Furthermore, you have backed away from "tonnes of freeplay in the steering" to "four turns lock to lock" so you are not standing by your comments. Four turns lock to lock is not "tonnes of freeplay". Fact. Keep digging son.
@@lucarnetrange Outstanding presentation! The French writer, Noble prize laureate Albert Camus was killed in a Facel Vega. This happened in France the 60’s. Here in sunny tropical Thailand 🇹🇭 Bangkok, there is restorer near my house AutoCraft ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fPZxJCqLzbc.html
Outstanding presentation! The French writer, Noble prize laureate Albert Camus was killed in a Facel Vega. This happened in France the 60’s. Here in sunny tropical Thailand 🇹🇭 Bangkok, there is restorer near my house AutoCraft ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fPZxJCqLzbc.html
Very similar except that it was British (I think they only made about 100 of them). I've seen most makes of cars in my time but that's one I haven't seen.
Outstanding presentation! The French writer, Noble prize laureate Albert Camus was killed in a Facel Vega. This happened in France the 60’s. Here in sunny tropical Thailand 🇹🇭 Bangkok, there is restorer near my house AutoCraft ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fPZxJCqLzbc.html
mine broke a half shaft HK500 1961 when I accelerated too fast in 1st gear the maffia Daninos really ripped me off for the replacement .. we're talking about 1979. Further it actually was handled like a Chesterfield couch powered by a meteorite. Certainly no 275 GTO or Birdcage!
You said it mate - this programme is 30 years old and it's still better than anything in the US. We had plenty of decent motoring presenters before cheesy Clarkson & his afro made everything The Biggest Pisstake In the World
My God-this freakin announcer has to have the most revolting and cloyingly faux-posh accent ever concocted. No wonder my Grandpa Frank called them "chirpers".
btw it did handle like a drunk hippo trying to ice skate, because the didnt really design the suspension but just dit some American copying .. and expensive now ? Of course they only made about 1000 ...
