Sound familiar? Well, we have covered the K-car twice this week, so here’s a Panhard Dyna to relieve the monotony. Never mind both cars were made to carry six passengers around with maximum efficiency.
C.107 had posted this to the Cohort some time ago, and I saved the pictures to my desktop because it just looks so good in its solid cobalt blue. Given the odd parallel with the K-car, now is the perfect time to post it.
With its all aluminum body panels (initially) and a Cd of .26 (!), Panhard was quite a bit more ambitious when it came to getting the most out of expensive gasoline. Its body structure, including doors, weighed a mere 202 lbs. Shipping weight was listed at 1386 lbs (628 kg). Its 850 cc air-cooled boxer twin made 42 hp, which gave an 80 mph (130 km/h) top speed and 33 mpg (7 L/100km).
The car’s undeniably cute face somewhat unfortunately belies the very serious approach to its engineering, but at 180 inches long and sixty-six inches wide, these weren’t exactly small. In fact, the Dyna Z was actually four inches longer than the K-Car, but two inches narrower.
I’m not so sure I would want to ride in the middle of the front bench seat on a hot Marseille afternoon, but if I were to do so, I’d be certain to dress more appropriately than all the yokels in their Renault 4s.
Nice looking car. Definitely an engineers approach to the problem of passenger capacity vs fuel consumption.
Love the stylish steering column and gauges. One of my favorites along with the tucker 48 (not actually named the torpedo) and the Napier railtons simple but very striking gauges. A pick of which is the home screen on my phone.
I decide to take a break from doing my taxes, and I get this – a truly fascinating car. I had recalled reading PN’s history on Panhard, but it is really great to see one actually in use.
I absolutely love the color, and the shape and proportions look so nice on a car that shows so well. I just now notice that the back window glass seems to have quite an aggressive curve to it that was probably not that commonly done in postwar Europe, particularly in a lower priced car. The light weight is all the more amazing given all of the glass area on the car.
Whenever I hear of one of these I think of a Panhard rod as used in suspension. Would one of these with an SBC LT1 under the hood be a different kind of Panhard Rod? Sorry.
A Panhard Rod would offer an excellent view of its Panhard rod, since its center of gravity would be ahead of the front axles, putting its derrière in the air.
” The light weight is all the more amazing given all of the glass area on the car.”Quote
Given that curved glass was difficult/expensive to source in those days, as well as being heavy, one has to wonder if all the “glass” was actually glass.
It is.
Dad had one.
a Tigre, no folks not Tiger, but TIGRE
In a pastel-violet tint (Panhard used a lot of colrs that looked from a sweets manufacturer)
With tigerprint upholstery.
Mom called it the brothel she told us many years later, when we were old enoug.
My kid brother was nearly born in it when Dad raced Mom to the hospital.
Dad never stopped talking about his Z 12, brainwashed My now ( in his fifties kid brother and myself) us that it was the best driver’s car he’d ever owned.
So he and I owned a BT 24 for a couple of years.
And you know, Dad was right !
Only an Alfa Sud comes close to the driving experience of a Panhard, low point of gravity, and steers like a dream.
Our BT 24 even had discs all; round.
A 67 model ‘t was.
Driving a Panhard, or better taming a Panhard is an art form, not too few revs or the mean twin 850cc Boxer that lives in the cage upfront starts to stutter, and it’ll protest simply by dying t the traffic light, no, give a Panhard just the right number of revvs when you pull away, so it won’t stall, then the gearchange, the gearbox has the size of a wristwatch and must be dealt with delicately.
But man, when all goes well, these are a real joy to drive.
I saw one of these in the flesh at a car show here in Hastings, England. They really are astounding pieces of engineering. It had the typically French ‘cheap trim’ feel to it, but the engineering was out of this world, as was the design. I know it isn’t directly related, but I still think the Citroen GS was the replacement for the Panhard both in how it fit into the French size lineup and also from an engineering perspective.
Amazingly, the later coupe versions of these cost the same as a Mark 2 Jaguar and thus are very rare over here. Then again, a Pacer or Mercury Monarch cost the same as an XJ6 by the time they were imported to the UK, so its not really a fair comparison as to how they fit into the French market. I do wonder what price/ market these cars were pitched at originally- I’d guess about the same as a Simca 1500 or Peugeot 404 but less than a Citroen DS?
That is a very nice car design. Very pleasant to look at compared to that gross Citroen DS *just my humble opinion folks*
BLASPHEMER!!
It looks like a bratty child, sticking out its tongue! I could live with that, though. I like everything about it, especially those suicide front doors.
That centrepiece in the grille looks like the ‘visitors’ in the 50s version of War of the Worlds.
A boxer twin with 350cc less than my vw and a couple horses more. Not bad. I like this car.
I always found this car absolutely fantastic styling-wise, and even more so – the restyled PL-17 (photo; warning – cute overload !). The engineering is also mightily impressive, especially for its time. And just look at this hood, integral with front fenders… not something you see regularly on a family sedan. Open it – and you have access to absolutely everything in the engine bay. Flat passenger compartment floor, without a hint of a transmission hump – the way it should be in a family car, IMO.
However, I wonder, at what cost the light weight and the mileage came at (there’s always a catch, isn’t it ?). Aluminum should be just a part of the explanation… The body does not look especially tinny (actually, looking at the photos of a stripped-down body I would have said just the contrary), and was reasonably fast for the time. But still, there is some grade of surreal in its size/weight and displacement/performance ratios. A true engineering wonder, perhaps ?
Oh, a video with the hood open:
That’s one noisy critter! Didn’t want to idle either. Maybe it was cold. It did seem to quite down a bit.
Thanks for the vid!
Beside aluminum panels and boxer engine, those Panhards had another thing uncommon then … their wheels were just rims bolted to the drums (first iron, then flat aluminum and then finned aluminum).
It relieves the monotony…and the PAIN!
This is a beautiful car from every angle, inside and out.
There was one of these in a bone yard until a few years ago of all places way up here in Maine.
But maybe with our somewhat high French population and close proximity to Quebec, it might start to make sense.
Thank you for this!
Very nice , especially the color .
Thank you for posting this .
-Nate
One more thing (Lt Columbo mode )
Panhard were pioneers in streamlining cars, they had no money after WW II to invest in new engine development, so they streamlined their cars.
Take a picture of an Audi 80 of the eighties and you’ll recognize this Panhard.
The same thing happened with the CT and BT 24 series, Citroën closed down Panhard’s buiness in 1967, and used the upgraded third DS nose with het headlights behing the glass from the BT 24 Panhard.
They stole the integrated DS doorhandles from Panhard and the height adjustment of the DS Pallas frontseats.
good call on the Audi
I think after the first year the main monocoque was steel- but I could be wrong. On the same note, my car also has alloy body panels AND did it long before the Panhard- it is a Rover p4, not a car known for its light weight. Alloy panels are a mixed blessing- they don’t rust, but they dent very easily and are nearly impossible to beat dents out due to stretching (unless you are an old school panel beater). The reason Rover used them is mainly because of the spare capacity to make Birmabrite after the war, which was the reason the Land Rover also used it. I’d guess that for Panhard, there wasn’t a surplus of alloy, so it was cheaper to use steel.
These Panhards were quite an example of technology for technology’s sake. By way of comparison, my Rover p4 also seats six, has a top speed of 80mph, and averages 27mpg (in 21st century traffic no less). That’s only 5mpg less than the Panhard, and on a car weighing three times as much, built on essentially a box-girder Land Rover chassis. It is a shame they never used a flat-4 engine in these. I’d imagine it would absolutely fly with a Citroen GSA 1300 engine, and probably without much of a mileage penalty. Here in the UK where Fords came everything from a 1.3 to a 2.9 litre in a Cortina, the 1.3 was nearly as uneconomical as the larger engines due to always having to work harder.
I really wish Panhard had survived as Panhard and not been completely absorbed into Citroen. It would have been really interesting to see what their response to the 70s would have been. We can kinda see it in the Citroens from that era, but they were developed with a completely different agenda than what would’ve come out of an autonomous Panhard. I absolutely love these and think everything about them is fascinating. I’d love to get a chance to drive one and I imagine they’re just as different from behind the wheel as they are to look at.
How cool is it that the French government issued license plates specifically to fit the Dyna Z’s curved grille? The Z is actually only my second favorite Panhard, however. The number one position goes to the 24ct with the 50HP Tigre engine. Ever since I’ve known about these, I’ve wanted one with a license plate that read “LE TIGRE” in hopes that people would ask me if I was a fan of the band and I could tell them no. It may even be my favorite looking car from the 1960s, and there’s obviously a lot of stiff competition there. They turned down the cute slightly and created a shape that instantly assured you the future was going to be awesome. If I had been alive and seen one of these back then, I’d be convinced that we’d all be living The Jetsons in a few years. Driving one must be like living inside the 1964 World’s Fair, but with Paris lit up at night beyond the windshield and a pretty girl (or two) by your side, like in all the Panhard ads.
She is delicious, what a beautiful tawny nose.
“I really wish Panhard had survived as Panhard and not been completely absorbed into Citroen”
Panhard still exists, they’re in building/transforming military vehicles now.
“How cool is it that the French government issued license plates specifically to fit the Dyna Z’s curved grille?”
They didn’t issued license plates specifically to fit the Dyna, neither any other car of that aera. In those days, the main requirement was that numbers and letters were a high contrast with the black background, hence the white/aluminum on black that was common then, but shape was free. You could even drive a car with the temporary license number painted on the bumper (saw a barn-found Mustang a few years ago like that).
Now you’re no longer allowed to use those license plates anymore unless your car is licensed as a collectible vehicle, or hasn’t changed owner nor address.
After seeing these posts, during the first lock down, I went to France as soon as I could and bought one. A ‘Hot-Rod’ Tout Alu 1954 Dyna Z1 with a 1960 Tigre Engine. 70 years old this month and still goes beautifully!