Shining a light on stacked headlights | Axon’s Automotive Anorak

Facel S.A was originally founded by Daninos in 1939, standing for ‘Forges et Ateliers de Constructions d’Eure et Loire’ which translates to Forges and Construction Workshops of Eure-et-Loir. During World War II, Daninos made a variety of metal goods, including railway rolling stock, branching out into producing automotive coachwork post-war for Panhard, Simca, Ford France and others, with the occasional one-off coachbuilt special for the likes of Bentley. 

The Facel Vega class on the Cartier Lawn will feature half-a-dozen of the marque’s most famous models, including an elegant HK500 and Facellia. As with all Facel Vegas, these cars will display the distinctive clean-cut, straight-edge styling and glassy design, plus the famous Facel ‘family face’ front end, graced with the distinctive stacked headlamp arrangement (like a tube of Pringles) that quickly became synonymous with the prestige Paris make, as typified by the HK500.

When metal bodywork maker Jean Daninos first previewed his luxury Facel Vega GTs to revive the failing French Grand Routier sector at the Paris Salon in late 1954, his initial FVS coupé didn’t wear the now iconic stacked headlamp ‘face’. This strong identity feature was first seen on the later Excellence four-door limousine of 1956.

This flamboyant stacked lighting arrangement soon became a signature feature of the Facel Vega marque and went on to be copied by a number of other manufacturers in the 1950s and 60s, although this stacked headlamp layout didn’t actually originate with Facel.

Rather, the stacked lights first made an appearance in 1953 on a stylish one-off American sports coupé — the Dodge Hemi V8-powered Zeder Storm Z-250, built for Fred Zeder by Bertone in Italy. The elegant Zeder two-door coupé featured a four stacked headlamp arrangement, this inspiring the similar arrangements found on later Facel Vegas. 

The stacked lighting set-up remained unique on a production car to Facel Vega until 1957, when International Harvester briefly adopted this layout for its pioneering Travelall off-road ‘SUV’ for 1957. Although made for many years, the Travelall reverted to a simpler single headlight arrangement in later years.

Surprisingly, the young Japanese motor industry was next to ‘copy’ the Facel Vega lighting, with the range-topping Nissan Cedric De Luxe 1500 sedan of April 1960 given this setup which remained until the first-generation Cedric was facelifted in September 1962 with more conventional single lamps.

After a gap, Nissan revived the stacked headlight arrangement in October 1966 for the prestigious Prince Royal limousine, built exclusively for Japanese Royalty. In late 1967, Nissan returned to this layout for its executive Gloria model, this being replaced in 1969, but that model’s front end was retained for the cab of a large Datsun pick-up truck that remained in Japanese production well into the 1990s.

As Facel Vega was facing financial difficulties by late 1963, prestige Coventry vehicle maker Alvis adopted the stacked lamp style in October 1963 for its exclusive TF21 models. The Facel style was ‘borrowed’ by the talented Swiss coachbuilder Graber in March 1962 for a special Alvis TD21 Super Sport Coupé that it displayed at the Geneva Salon. Alvis retained the stacked lamps for its last passenger car model, the TF21, until it ceased car production in late 1967.

Mercedes-Benz also drew inspiration from Facel for its range-topping W108 300 SEL 6.3 V8 model of March 1968, its exposed stacked quad lights were also found on lesser North American-specification W108 models due to local legislation.

Considering the stacked headlamp feature originated in the USA on the 1953 Zeder Storm, it took the American auto industry a decade or so before this arrangement first appeared on any Detroit production model. Pontiac was the first to feature stacked lamps on its 1963 Catalina, Star Chief, Grand Prix and Bonneville models, with the Tempest, Le Mans and celebrated GTO all added for 1964.

By 1966, the full Pontiac model range featured this set up until the arrangement was dropped for the 1967 Model Year to be superseded by a ‘regular’ horizontal quad headlamp design. 

Pontiac’s Ford rival introduced its own stacked lamp arrangement for the Galaxie 500 in April 1965, adding the same set up to the Ford Falcon Futura for ’66 and the Fairlane for ’67, plus its dear Mercury Comet for 1965-67. By 1968 however, Ford (and Mercury) returned to a more commonplace horizontal lighting style.

Chrysler’s mainstream Plymouth brand adopted stacked lights for its full-size Sport Fury range for 1965-67, plus the plusher one-year only 1967 VIP. The Facel-type arrangement was dropped by 1968.

General Motors’ premium Cadillac brand added stacked headlamps for 1966 through to 1968 for all of its models, excluding the Eldorado sports coupé, whilst the independent tiddler Rambler/AMC briefly trialled the same feature for the top-line Ambassador models for 1967 and ’68. This model and arrangement lasted until around 1974 for the Argentinian-licence built IKA Ambassador, with the 1968 Simca Regent and Esplanada models in neighbouring Brazil made just for one year with stacked lamps).

With the exception of the long-lived Nissan Gloria-derived pick-up truck, the fashion for vehicles with Facel Vega ‘style’ stacked headlamps had ended by 1970. But, 55 years on, the history and design of these distinctive cars will take over the Cartier Lawn for us all to appreciate at the Cartier Style et Luxe concours d’elegance at the Festival of Speed.  

The 2025 Festival of Speed takes place on 10^th-13^th July. While admission tickets have now sold out, you can still join us with our range of hospitality experiences that are still available. 

 Main photography by Raife Smith.