The Remarkable Panhard PL17

Experiencing a Panhard PL17 was an experience on a par with entering the National Motor Museum for the first time or encountering the Genevieve Darracq in the metal – something never to be forgotten. Here is what I noted 16 years ago, after experiencing a stupendously rare 1960-vintage RHD example on a cold day in East Sussex. “The only real limitations are the protests of his/her passengers as they skid across the bench seats and the drum brakes, which can best be summarized as ‘largely theoretical’.”

The PL17 also featured ‘a dashboard that is Spartan beyond the dreams of Alec Issigonis – i.e. basically there isn’t one. Instead, the front passenger is faced with an expanse of metal and white plastic plus a couple of map pockets’. Furthermore, the 848cc engine resembled ‘10 hornets’ nests trapped inside a supercharged washing machine’.

I re-encountered the PL17, this time in LHD form, a few years later, and was mesmerized by a cabin that was ‘a 1950s interpretation of 1930s Art Deco. There is also an idiosyncratic approach to ergonomics; the brochure states that the wiper and light switches are ‘just a finger-tip away’ but neglects to mention that this is via reaching through the steering wheel’.

In other words, the Panhard is one of the very few designs that may be called ‘uncompromising’. When the original Dyna Z made its bow in June of 1953, the idea of an aluminium-bodied, front-wheel-drive saloon with a claimed drag coefficient of 0.26 was not so much radical as science fiction. It was also the first production car to feature an all-aluminium chassis. Equally remarkably, the power for a fairly sizeable car – at nearly 15 feet, it was longer than a Ford Zephyr-Six Mk 1 – was from an 851cc “Boxer” unit.

However, Panhard faced the challenge that the Dyna appeared somewhat expensive. Jon Presnell observed in Classic & Sports Car that in 1953 the ‘Luxe Spécial’ Dyna cost 760,000F…when a Peugeot 203 was 625,000F and a Simca Aronde 655,000F’. The Panhard may have been faster than its rival, and far lighter, but the price was too high for many French motorists.

A further problem was the Dyna’s aluminium bodywork proved economically unviable, and by 1958, the Z was primarily constructed of steel. The range was facelifted in the following year as the PL17, with a larger boot and modified frontal treatment. The motorist who wished to cut a dash along the Champs-Élysées could also order the high performance “Tigre” with a 50 bhp engine capable of 80 mph. And in 1961, a Panhard won the Monte Carlo Rally.

UK sales were almost inevitably limited, even if the advertising claims of ‘comfort of a large car – economy of a small car – performance of a sports car’ were highly accurate. In 1960, Motor Sport compared ownership of a PL17 to the idea of ‘keeping a Python as a pet – either you like it or you loathe it’. They clearly enjoyed the ‘rather astonishing’ performance, but a price of £999 17s 6d meant Panhard was not a cheap prospect. The average British driver tended to opt for the more affordable - and more conventional - Riley One Point Five.

Alas, the cost of developing and building the Dyna Z resulted in Citroën taking a share in the company in 1955. Sales of the PL17 ended in May of 1965 when the two marques were formally amalgamated. 1967 marked their last car, the 24 coupe, as Citroën required the factory space. But no one could ever forget the PL17 – the car that ‘brings the future a little closer’.

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