“A ’61 Plymouth and a Volkswagen Beetle had a baby, and . . .” No, wait–that’s silly. But this car is silly. Or is it an inspired stroke of genius? Either way, it’s the cutest thing on four wheels next to the Austin Healy Sprite.
I first became aware of these around 1978 when I was putting together a scrapbook of 1950s & ’60s car pictures from old magazine ads. I was intrigued by the shape, but I never saw a Panhard in all my years of car spotting. (By the way, let’s get the pronunciation right: it’s Pan-AR, with a slight breath of h at the end.) Then just yesterday I found this very original example on eBay, and for the first time I got a close look at all the fascinating details.
Oh, that is so cute! Just for comparison, this Panhard is 180″ long, 65″ wide, and 55″ high, with a 101″ wheelbase. So about the size of a Corvair, but 5″ narrower, with a 7″ shorter wheelbase.
Yes, it has a face. We know the stylists must have designed it that way on purpose! What does that tell you?
It’s like Janus–happy (or surprised?) up front . . .
. . . grim-looking in back. The white finish seems to have a pinkish tint to it, adding to the charm.
That’s what the wheel cover looks like. Good luck finding another if you lose it.
That instrument panel is just–otherworldly! Like it melted into that shape and froze. It looks like what I’d expect to see in a flying saucer. The accelerator is designed like a shoe print! (Makes sense, I suppose). Clutch and brake are strange rounded triangle shapes.
Maybe the IP was made by Fisher Price or Mattel?
Everything about this car is artistic avant-garde. The upholstery is crafted in this interesting wave pattern.
Back seat looks like a comfortable place to be.
This view shows how narrow this car is. But for two people up front, I think it’s just fine.
An aftermarket radio. Finally, a familiar-looking piece of design I can relate to!
Emergency brake is at your right hand, like the 1951-55 Kaisers. That’s a “four-on-the-tree” manual transmission.
Door panels have sewn pockets. Ivory handles look so delicate–are they celluloid or metal? They must be durable; they’re not broken!
You could fit a few things in there. Will need new trunk rubber.
This, believe it or not, is the engine! What kind of engine? A 2 cylinder boxer type, air-cooled; 52 cubic inches, 40 horsepower, overhead valves.
And . . . transverse-mounted leaf springs in front, with what appears to be driveshafts to each wheel (front wheel drive). The car has rack & pinion steering also.
Torsion bars in the rear, mounted crosswise, 3 per side, according to my sources.*
*If I’m wrong on any of these technical details, please comment or correct them.
Body plate.
So let’s say good-bye to our little friend. What’s it like to drive a 1800 lb. car with what is essentially a motorcycle engine and a body mounted on such exotic suspension? I don’t know, but I’m sure someone out there does. And how many were exported to the U.S.?
Tom & Ray Magliozzi (a.k.a. “Click & Clack, The Tappet Brothers”) once said, “Never buy a French car–unless you are in France!” Well, I can say this–if you do buy it, you will instantly become the center of attention no matter where you go– and, I’d reckon, you’ll have a lot fun at the same time (until you break down!) Beret optional. (Do the French still wear those things?)
Viva La Differance!!
The most remarkable thing about this car is probably the engine, has roller bearings for the crankshaft journals and for the con-rod big ends, torsion-bar springs for the valves, exhaust pipes are also engine mounts.
Attemps have been made to substitute the original crankshaft with one from a BMW motorcycle.
Bill Devin made a sports car around that motor by grafting Norton heads on it and using a cogged belt to drive the camshafts, which may be the first time that method was used.
I’m intrigued, but not quite enough to bite.
Bill Devin is a guy you should delve into, his fiberglass bodies were the start of many sportscar specials
Yes, I’m generally familiar with him. Quite the creative guy.
I see that Panhard used the cheaper universal joints instead of expensive constant velocity joints.
My experience with LEGO Technic (older ones from 1980s) is that the universal joints aren’t really accommodating during the sharp turning angles and/or severe suspension changes.
This Panhard looks like it has double universal joints at the axles along with telescoping axles. The latter appears to move forward and backward as well as extending and contracting during the turns and suspension changes. Both are probably necessary for reducing the “whiplash” caused by universal joints and for maximising the turning radius.
About the flying sauce, Volkswagen had one of the most memorable advertisements for New Beetle in 1998: https://youtu.be/ZiEXQsxL7BE
And don’t forget turbonium!
I don’t think proper CV joints were available when the Panhard was designed.
A lot of the aluminium used in the early models had been substituted with steel by 1961, but they were still very light.
You may be right, CV joints were not available when the Pl17 was designed but Rzeppas as used in the WW2 Jeep were certainly available when the car was built. I´ve seen 70’s/80’s Jeeps with plain single Hardy-Spicer couplings for the front wheels; perhaps CV joints are a myth?
Well, the constant-velocity joints have been around since the early days. Many front-wheel-drive cars from late 1920s to 1930s used some variations of constant-velocity joints, including Miller Front-Drive race car (1925), Ruxton (1929), Cord L29 (1929) and 810/812 (1936), Citroën Traction Avant (1934), and others.
Citroën Traction Avant’s transaxle, showing the constant-velocity joint (D).
Ruxton’s front transaxle.
i think these 20s/30s cars used double cardan joints rather than modern CV joints. If you put two hooke joints back to back, correctly orientated, the variations in velocity cancel out. I think the first proper CV application was the Mini in 1959.
If you look at Ruxton, it uses constant-velocity joints at the wheels and universal joints at the transaxle. Look at the sectioned diagram on the left of three image boxes:
https://theoldmotor.com/?p=124746
Specifically, this one:
https://theoldmotor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/rux1.jpg
This guy did the detailled step-by-step documentation of restoring his Ruxton, and you can see the photos of disassembled CV joints, ready to be put together. Look at the post #157 for the close-up photos of CV joints:
https://www.vwvortex.com/threads/1932-ruxton-build-thread-or-how-i-became-an-unwitting-restorer.6206837/page-8#post-84183648
I checked out the ad. It’s a Streetside Classic. Not very original 😃. This is a car I remember discovering in Paris, on a family visit when I was seven years old. The larger Citroen’s, Peugeot’s, and even Renault Dauphine and 2CV were familiar to me from the US, but the Panhards and Ami6 were ubiquitous but made a strong impression on me with their unusual, even for France, styling. Not a totally favorable impression, to be honest.
Even in the late sixties and early seventies Panhards were rare in France compared to Citroen’s and Renault’s. To “different “even for the French perhaps?. The last blast, the Dyna” was considered a sports car in the Renault Caravelle vain.,before Citroen took them over. Interesting that the cars were marketed by Citroen in the USA 6 years before the take over. Psnhards are still being built today… Renault Defense Armed cars…
Very cool. The French auto industry is endlessly fascinating and iconoclastic. I don’t think I’d be interested in buying a Panhard, but I wouldn’t hate driving one around for a week or two.
The story of Panhard’s 1961 Monte Carlo Rally win is a funny/sad one; the rules that year were basically written to favor them. There are several occasions where the organizers seemed to “cook the books,” so to speak.
Thanks! I’m going to have pleasant dreams about the dashboard for several nights. Pure Heaven.
The transverse-leaf IFS is pretty much Studie’s 1936 design. The rear looks more VWish.
Dad had a Z12 Tigre in this violet colour but with tigerprint upholstery.
My kid brother almost came into this world in the car when dad was rushing mom to hospital to give birth.
During his life Dad never stopped boasting that the Panhard was the best drivers car he ever owned.
But look at the dash, they tried to group all necessary switches and buttons within reach of the driver.ergonimics avant la lettre!
Despite a Mercedes heckflossse, a DS, a fleet of 404 Peugeots, Renault 16’s , a 3500 SD1 Rover the Z12 was never surpassed.
And it is very logical, an evil 850cc twin boxer mounted low in a frame, FWD and an engine that comes alive when it can rev. A light sleek body, aimed to cheat the wind and aluminium bumpers to save weight. Later in life I owned a 24BT, and it was a strange sensation to drive, but if everything came together the road, the revs the other traffic you had the sensation of the art of driving.
The only modern car that has given me this sensation is a chipped FIAT 500 Twin Air, when you rev that engine it bursts into life and it screams let’s go more, more, more to chase the horizon
Jay Leno has one of these – watch his video on it to see driving impressions and hear the little flat twin rev. the earlier ones of these were mostly aluminum construction, gradual substitution by heavier steel parts occurring during the car’s lifespan. Their performance resulted from this light weight, a healthy (for the time and capacity) power output and exceptional aerodynamics (.25CD i believe, with small frontal area). When you can’t have large motors due to a punitive taxation system, you have to use creative engineering solutions. Even the finned brake drums were exposed and functioned as the wheel centers in many of these. They were used as Taxis in France and rated as six passenger sedans – i guess people were a lot slimmer in those days!
I would love one of the earlier Dynas (without eyebrows), or a late coupe. After taking over Panhard Citroen built a CT coupe prototype with 4 cyl DS powerplant and transmission substituting the twin. Cool looking with its long front end and rather fast….
We were in our ’46 Ford, Dad at the wheel, running along at his habitual 50+ mph, when this … THING came sliding past us in the left lane at probably 60+, carrying roughly the same load we were: two adults and two or three kids. “What the HELL is THAT?” asked my dad … and I, who read every car magazine I could find at the pool-hall/newsstand, said, “It’s a French Pan-hard, dad.” What set him off was that I also mentioned its two-cylinder engine …
I’ve only ever seen these at French car shows and classic meets, so seeing one on ebay has to be a bit of an event.
Got to be tempted, but maybe not in Nashville as a daily driver.
Interesting to note that the advert (for the earlier Panhard Dyna Z) was posted by the Citroen Cars Corporation
When I was a kid, a neighbor had a couple of these — one a very pretty blue 1958 one, with an interior similar to the one on EBay. The second one was red with blackwalls — looked very sinister and very French. He had some other nice cars including a Traction Avant!
These are a bit like a space alien’s Citroen 2CV and I think have the same tax horsepower. I prefer the more stylish Dyna but any postwar Panhard would make an interesting project.
The Panhard twin in the PL17 and the 24 CT/BT is 850cc, so they are rated as 5cv by the French taxman. The Panhard and the Citroën engine are both air-cooled twins designed in the ’40s, but they’re very different in all other respects.
I love the dash. It looks like it was made from Bakelite.
I have seen some of these and the later PL24 at Citroen Rendezvous in Saratoga Springs. They really stand out, even in a crowd of Citroens. This photo is from 2014.
And here is one with the hood open.
The French .
French plastic is interesting ~ it’s extremely flexible and even when cracked and faded from sitting in the Desert sun for twenty years, I’ve never had one of the twist ones break although they made scary noises when they flexed .
-Nate
I wanted to see those pedals so I goosed the exposure on the relevant shot; my thanks and apologies to Poindexter, eBay et al . . .
This Panhard is one that Lane Motor Museum is consigning through Streetside Classics (I know, I know). We purchased a much nicer example of a PL17 a few years ago, and we are beginning to clear out duplicates and some of our project cars that we have chosen to not restore. In my biased opinion, it will make a nice project for someone, and is a great cruiser. There is a healthy online community, as there are for most of the oddball French cars, so support and parts are available. The aluminum bodied pre-1955 Dyna Zs are much more sprightly in my opinion, as this mostly steel-bodied PL was a bit of a dog with the 850cc engine.