CarBrandLogos archive · Panhard · 1963

Panhard24

One of the prettiest French coupes of the 1960s, and the marque's last car.

Photo: Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England · CC BY 2.0

The story

A defining chapter in Panhard history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Panhard 24, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Louis Bionier's final design is a low, wide, glassy coupe with four headlamps set behind a single sweep of glass and a waistline that drops as it runs back. It looked more expensive than it was and, more than sixty years on, still looks contemporary in a way its rivals do not.

Panhard-Levassor 24CT pic1 · AlfvanBeem · CC0

Design and engineering

Underneath, nothing had changed. It still used the 848cc air-cooled flat-twin driving the front wheels through a four-speed gearbox, an engine Panhard had been developing since 1946 and could no longer afford to replace. The car was therefore beautiful and slow, and buyers who liked the look often wanted more than two cylinders behind it.

1967 Panhard 24BT, front left · Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

The corporate situation decided the rest. Citroën had been increasing its stake in Panhard through the 1950s and took full control in 1965, at which point it had no interest in keeping a competitor to its own small cars. Production stopped in 1967 after 28,651 had been built, ending car manufacture at one of the oldest names in the industry, though Panhard continued to build military vehicles.

Legacy

The Citroën GS that arrived in 1970 is usually named as its replacement, and it is the closest thing in spirit: light, aerodynamically considered, air-cooled and front-wheel drive.

At a glance