Born: 1890 Nationality: French
Rene Panhard and his former schoolmate Emile Levassor set up in business making woodworking machinery. They expanded into building Otto and Daimler engines under licence, eventually building their first car by adapting one of these to power a carriage "horselessly". In 1891 they became the world's first "standard" car manufacturer.
Early success on the road-racing circuit established the brand well both at home and abroad, but in 1897 Levassor died and Panhard brought in Arthur Krebs as manager. He brought the reputation of Panhard even further upwards, and helped consolidate its financial position. He was responsible for the licensing of the innovative Knight sleeve-valve engines that would be a feature of Panhard power until the end of the 1930s. Until the start of the first World War, the company produced Landaulettes, Berlines and a big Coupe de Ville. The cars were powerful and luxurious, with 2.6- and 2.9-litre engines.
After war work, Panhard re-started production of luxury crafted cars in limited numbers, and expanded into trucks and railcars production, aero engines and light armoured vehicles. But the models which made it a design leader in the '30s were Panoramique and Dynamic, developed by engineer Louis Delagarde and coachbuilder Louis Bionier. They were as competent as they were beautiful, and re-established the competitive name of Panhard, this time on track-racing. A world speed record of 133.75 mph was set by George Eyson in a 290bhp Special roadster.
However, having failed to shift to the mass-production techniques which had by now made its rivals predominant in the French market, a combination of world recession and a strike forced the company to reorganise in 1936, and concentrate on its commercial and military vehicle activities for survival.
In the second World War Panhard developed a small two-cylinder air-cooled aluminium engine, which in 1947 was the basis for the power unit of a new all-aluminium car, the Dyna. Available in four-door Berline or three-door camionette formats, the car had a 610 cc engine that incorporated a number of advanced technologies and gave very good performance to the lightweight car.
The Dyna's formats were extended and engines increased to 750 cc, and of all the variants a 1953 two-door steel-bodied roadster, the Dyna Junior, was among the most distinctive of its kind. A saloon in 1954, the Dyna Z, had the lines that were to be the quintessential Panhard. By 1957 all Dynas were made of steel, and had more powerful 850 cc engines to compensate.
Panhard built a number of specials to compete in the Le Mans 24 hours endurance races between 1950 and 1953, including the fibreglass-bodied DB range created by Charles Deutsch and Rene Bonnet, and from these came the Tigre of 1959.
In 1960 the beautiful PL range, including a roadster, was launched. It would be sold by Citroën's dealers, as part of an association which the two French makers had entered into in 1955 and which eventually led to Citroën taking over. It had an innovative semi-automatic transmission. The PLs were followed by the the Citroën DS-cued 24 series in 1963, with 2+2 and four-seater configurations.
But in 1967, just as plans had been completed for a new Citroën-Panhard based on the DS chassis and a new Panhard 2-litre engine, Citroëdecided to build its own SM instead, and dropped Panhard production.