Panhard
Panhard is a French motor vehicle manufacturer, who now specializes in light tactical and military vehicles. It was formed by a merger of Panhard and Auverland in 2005. The combined company now uses the Panhard name.
Panhard History
Panhard was originally Panhard et Levassor and was established as a car manufacturing concern in about 1890. Benz and Daimler, both of Germany, produced pilot models before this time, and Benz was in production by about 1888 with his three-wheeler. Emile Roger of Paris obtained a license to produce this car, and ended up producing more than Benz, due to the ready acceptance of automobiles by the French. Daimler began producing cars in small series about 1890/1891.
From 1968 on it has only made armored vehicles - the civilian branch was absorbed by Citroën in 1965. Until 2005, Panhard was a subsidiary of PSA Peugeot Citroën but PSA sold it to Auverland, another manufacturer of military vehicles.
The company was founded when René Panhard and Emile Levassor decided to move from making woodworking machines to automobiles. Their first car used a Daimler engine and was offered in 1890.
Daimler's Stahlradwagen prototypes of 1889 inspired Levassor to manufacture cars. He obtained a licence to produce Daimler's engine from a friend who already had this licence: a Belgain called Sarazin. Upon Sarazin's death in 1887, Sarazin's wife married Levassor, and the deal was cemented. Daimler and Levassor became fast friends, and shared improvements with one another.
These first vehicles set many modern standards, but each was a one-off design. They used a clutch pedal to operate a chain-driven gearbox. The vehicle also featured a front-mounted radiator. A 1895 Panhard is credited with the first modern transmission.
The company's Systeme Panhard consisted of four wheels, a front-mounted engine with rear wheel drive, and a sliding-gear transmission. This was to become the standard layout for automobiles for most of the next century.
Panhard shared their Daimler engine license with Armand Peugeot, who formed his own company, Peugeot, in 1891. It would not be incorrect to say that Benz, Daimler, Panhard et Levassor, and Peugeot were the four concerns responsible for initiating series production of cars. It was a wonderful example of Franco-German cooperation.
Arthur Krebs succeeded to Levassor as Panhard-Levassor's General Manager from 1897 to 1916. He turned the Panhard-Levassor Company into one of the largest and profitable manufacturer of automobiles before WWI.
Panhards won numerous races from 1895 to 1903. Panhard developed the Panhard rod, which became used in many other types of automobiles as well.
From 1925 the motors used the Knight Engine technology of using sleeve valves. That year a 4.8 litres got the world record for the hour fastest run at an average of 185.51 km/h.
After World War II it produced light cars such as the Dyna X, Dyna Z, PL 17, 24 CT and 24 BT. The company managed to get around a steel-saving government regulation forbidding new car models by making the bodies and several other components out of aluminum, which of course helped the performance. The Dyna X and the Dyna Z 1 had an aluminum body. The later Dyna Z and the PL 17 bodies were made in steel. The bodies had smooth rounded forms which made the cars stand out in any post-war parking lot. The 24 CT was a beautiful 2+2 seater; the 24 BT with a longer wheelbase had enough space for four persons. The Panhard based Deutsch Bonnets dominated the "Index of Performance" class at Le Mans and other small-engine racing classes. The last Panhard car was built in 1967.
Since Panhard was a world leader in fuel efficiency, its disappearance just before the energy crisises of the 1970s was particularly ironic. The marketing failure of fuel efficient cars in the 1950s and 1960s surely led to both the demise of Panhard and the beginning of these shortages. It is an example of how the crisis could have been avoided if governments and investors had foreseen it.