Panhard
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Wikipedia-Article "Panhard"
Panhard, originally Panhard et Levassor, is a French automobile manufacturer. It was established in 1889, making this the first automobile manufacturing company.
From 1965 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 Rene 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.
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.
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 had 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 aluminium, which of course helped the performance. The Dyna X and the Dyna Z 1 had an aluminium 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.