Expanding on the cheap: The FAAL Foreia.
gotta give this topic some meat, eh?
Just like FAAL did with their lineup.
So. The year is 1949. The Plebia has now been released for months and the sales just keep growing and growing. The factory is running full steam, dejecting cars like there’s not tomorrow. And of course, every single company executive is driving a Plebia.
…
And that’s where the problem is. Every single company executive is driving a car that sits on leaf springs and is motorized by a glorified lawnmower engine.
This had to change. FAAL needed to expand.
So they got their engineers back together. They needed to go up market, but with the same philosophy they had while building the Plebia. Cost cutting. Relying on what they knew worked. And release it fast.
…
Well, for the “fast” part, they kinda failed. Two and a half years for engineering the car, tooling the factory, mostly due to the fact that they had to expand it in order to both satisfy the huge Plebia demand and finding space for the new tools for what would become the 1951 Foreia.
(oh do I love using teaser images where you can barely see the car.)
So. Let’s talk engineering.
The car, a sedan, has a 2560mm wheelbase and sits on a steel ladder frame.
ᵐᵘᶜʰ ᶫᶦᵏᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᴾᶫᵉᵇᶦᵃ⋅
with solid axles all around.
ᵐᵘᶜʰ ᶫᶦᵏᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᴾᶫᵉᵇᶦᵃ⋅
and coil springs.
ᵐᵘᶜʰ ᶫᶦ⋅⋅⋅ ᵒʰ⋅
which translates their will to stay within familiar territory, but still make the car more comfortable. At least a little.
The engine? the 236P. a 2.3L full cast iron pushrod six cylinder with overhead valves and a crossflow head.
…
which is totally not two 123P blocks welded together and then sprinkled with new internals to make the stroke longer. No. Move along. What do you mean the twin carb base variant has two separates intake manifolds and they fit on your Plebia? YOU’RE FIRED JEAN-MARTIN.
The car had several trims, and those trims required three engine variants: a base engine with two carbs which absolutely weren’t the same carbs as the Plebia, a mid trim engine with three carbs, and a more “sporty” or “refined” engine who cared less about fuel consumption, with a twin two barrel carb setup.
Engine specs: 236P23 (Ce2, Ce3 & C4)
Much like the Plebia, the car was avaiable in several body styles, to appeal to a broader audience with different needs:
- Sedan
- Wagon
- Coupe
- Convertible
and for the first time, as I said, several trims:
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a Base trim available in both sedan and wagon, the 232. Standard seats (springs, foam, a step over the Plebia’s seats in term of comfort), no radio. No hubcaps. The twin carb 70hp engine. (hence the name 232: 2.3L, 2 carbs.)
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an upscale trim, called the 233L (for Luxe), available in both sedan and wagon. Leather seats, and an AM radio. Painted hubcaps. Optional two-tone paint. Optional reverse lights. The three carb 85hp engine. Hood ornament. Sprinkled in chrome trim.
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an actual luxury trim, specifically for the Coupe and Convertible, respectively 234C (for Coupé) and 234D (for Décapotable), which adds… nothing, except an engine, the posh body styles being enough to bump it up market. You guessed it, this trim has the twin two barrel 95hp engine.
Here is a perfect example of the base model. No optional paint, the same blue-ish grey from the Plebia:
Foreia 232
(notice the design cues taken from the Plebia: same blinkers, same two smaller grilles on the sides)
(notice the trunk latch. Yep. a Plebia door handle. You cheap out where you can, gott verdammi.)
Here’s your typical loaded L:
Foreia 233L
(Here with the two-tone paint option, Blanc Banquise and Jaune Genêt)
(and the very discreet optional reverse lights, integrated in the bumpers)
Your typical upscale convertible:
And now, for the photoshoot, here is the neatest example of Foreia Coupé, in the beautiful Noir de Jais and Brun Cuivre color combination. And it’s got a nice story to it too, since it was the very first production coupe to come out of the chains, and was the personal car of Xavier Gewürztraminer, the company CEO, from 1951 to his death in 1967.
Foreia 234C
(the Foreia Coupe had her upper part entirely reviewed, with different windows, to allow for a sleeker, sportier profile. Which worked as well in bumping FAAL’s general prestige as it did in delaying the car’s release.)
(Neat badging that basically told people “I am superior to you.”)
(Putain, I sure hope this car sells, so we can sink money into research for a better suspension setup and better brakes" - Random Executive #7, 1950)
The Foreia had slow sales. For a good reason, its target audience wasn’t really as broad as they expected, given the state of the country…
But people still got to see high end Foreias on the street, and dream. And then ate potatos for months in order to afford a base model and feel just a tiny bit like they achieved something in life, getting a glimpse of luxury.
The machinery was launched.