Tuesday, June 3, 2008

My New Favorite Car: Panhard Dyna Z



These were made from 1954 to 1959 in France. Aluminum body! Suicide doors! Front wheel drive. 50 HP from 851cc. More techno-gibberish here at Wikipedia and Citroënnët; really, I just care about the gorgeous streamlined shape of the thing. French cars are so beautiful.

Here's another shot of Dave Bally's friends' car, which he graciously allowed me to share:

Panhard Dyna Z, by Flickr user davidbally
Panhard Dyna Z by David Bally

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

ALSO PANHARD Z1 OWNER. I agree with you. It was the first serial built car orientated to security, with a gazoline tank fited in central position under the seat, all switches regrouped around the steering wheel, and ejectable windshield in case of shock.. The car was designed in 1953
you can see mine on an other site :
http://www.citroen.mb.ca/cItROeNeT/panhard-et-levassor/images/pan-59.jpg
and also see others Panhard (I ownn a 1951' DYNA X86 , and a 1952' DYNA X87 on my blog :
www.fiat131racing.canlblog.com

Mr. Poe said...

The 81 Toyota Tercel coupe is way better.

VW Robin said...

Just noticed your picture while idly looking for Panhard pics - I am pleased to inform you that I became the proud owner of the car in your photos in April 2009. It is in wonderful original time-warp condition having been stored for nearly 40 years and having covered only 46,000km from new! However, I must correct something - it is NOT aluminium! Only the first Dyna Zs, in 1954/55 were aluminium. Panhard soon realised they had miscalculated the production costs, which nearly broke the company and hence the Citroen takeover that started in 1955. At the same time they started using pressed steel instead, adding about 250kg to the weight and my 1958 car in your pictures only has aluminium trim (bumpers etc.)

Fnarf said...

Thanks for the correction! I'm very jealous of your beautiful car.