For the Few Who Own the Finest.(Escape Roads)

Byline: ERIC TEGLER

Advertising for the Facel Vega said it best: "For the Few Who Own the Finest.'' The few included Ava Gardner, Ringo Starr, Joan Fontaine, Tony Curtis and a raft of Saudi princes. Stirling Moss eschewed air travel in favor of driving his Vega from race to race. Albert Camus met his end as a passenger in one, doing 112 mph. Facel ownership implied that you were someone-someone with taste.

The Facel Vega was the brainchild of French industrialist Jean Daninos. Born to a prominent family and brother to noted novelist Pierre Daninos, he started a career in engineering with Citroen in 1930 before switching to the aviation industry. By 1938, he had established an aircraft component factory in England. Shortly thereafter, he founded a metal-stamping firm near Paris with the name Forges et Ateliers de Construction l'Eure-et-Loir, or Facel S.A.

Daninos' French plant was overrun by the Nazis during World War II, and he fled to England. He next was asked to put his aluminum and steel stamping expertise to work aiding American industry. He returned to France after spending the war years in the United States and revived Facel, producing components for Simca, Panhard and Ford-France. Disappointed by the loss of grand French marques such as Delage and Hotchkiss to postwar austerity and government policy, Daninos was determined to build his own upmarket grand tourer.

In the late '40s, he commissioned Pinin Farina to build custom Bentleys (the Cresta I/II) to his own designs and sold a few. But in 1953, he directed Facel's chief engineer, Jacques Brasseur, to develop a prototype that he would style. Unable to find a suitable powerplant in France or England, Daninos leveraged his wartime American connections and struck a deal for Chrysler's new 276-cid Hemi V8. Brother Pierre suggested the name "Vega,'' and Daninos' car debuted at the 1954 Paris auto show.

Reaction to the luxurious GT was favorable, though its price, about $7,500, took Continentals aback. The Vega first ...