Extraordinary french car makers

[brownie]

Due to the enthousiasm for Citroen, I opened this topic for pictures of other, less known french car makers.

For example do you know these ones?

They are Facel Vega's. The company existed between roughly 1950 and 1975 and produced luxory cars for the rich people. You don't see them a lot, but in their time they had an amazing perfomance. They were faster then most Ferraris and more luxurous than Jaguars!

The top model had an 400 HP, 6l V8 which was good for almost 200mph. That was quite amazing in the sixties!

Unfortunately the quality was rubbish and sales dropped too low so the company disappeared.

Talbot is probably better known. They were taken over by Peugeot early 80's. The Peugeot 309 for example was the last design by Talbot (It would have hit the market as Talbot Horizon is they weren't taken over). But earlier they also made big luxuruous cars like the Lago from early 50's:

And their last big model, the Tagora. Which has approximately the same technique as the Peugeot 604.

And then there is Panhard with their typical round chapes. They disappeared in 1967 already.

[Peugeottogo]

Brownie, I heard of the Facel Vega's and have only seen photos of them. Same for the Talbot's. As for the Panhards? I've seen several good examples here in California. There's a group of them in the SF bayarea near Nor-cal 505!

Jeff

[brownie]

I've seen two Panhards in my life, both in car collections. They are, as well as the Facel Vega's real museum pieces nowadays.

The latest Talbots however are still rarely seen as daily drivers in Holland.

Take a look under the bonnet of your 505. Quite some parts are of Talbot origine. You often see the Peugeot logo as well as the Talbot logo on them:

And I almost forgot to mention Simca with its glorious rally history. From them Peugeot inherited its racing knowledge:

And of course there is the sports brand of Talbot: The Matra. I have seen a few around at the dutch public roads. Typical 3-seater sportscars with the N9TE engine. This is the Talbot Matra Bagheera:

And there were some manufacturers that were, after the war, more specialized in utility and army vehicles, like DelaHaye, Berliet, Packard, Hotchkiss and Saviem (daughtercompany of Renault).

[Pugsley]

I saw a red Facel Vega at a Meineke Muffler shop on Manchester road in Rock Hill, Missouri in the late 80s. They quoted the guy a little over $500 for the exhaust because it had to be custom made. I told the guy I knew the make and the desk guy and mechanics looked at me funny. I had to tell them it has a big block Mopar under the hood. This one had 2/4 barrels on top of a 383. It was in pretty decent shape. Ive heard through the grapevine the guy still owns the car.

The four cylinders Im told had engine issues that cost the comapny dearly. I think it was because they only used two bearings on the camshaft ? They later used Volvo engines.

[norcal505]

yeah i think i saw some running around tiburon once

[bryancohnracing]

Yikes! I know where that Meineke in Rock Hill was/is!!!

Damn, some days I really miss St. Louis....

[Pugsley]

Yikes! I know where that Meineke in Rock Hill was/is!!!

Damn, some days I really miss St. Louis....

Small world isnt it ? This was around 1987 or 1988.

I met a guy who knows that Facel Vega owner, Ive been trying to buy it for almost ten years !

Im guessing if you bought your 505 new or bought parts from the dealer, you probably went the Webster Groves dealer that sold them along with Fiats and Subarus.