Friday, November 25, 2022
Panhard Dynavia, 1948. Designed by Louis Bionier, The Dynavia was an experimental concept that used aerodynamic principles and aluminium bodywork. It was powered by a 610cc horizontally opposed 2 cylinder engine but still managed atop speed of 81.4mph. Two prototypes were made but one was wreaked in an accident, the other now resides at the Cité de l’Automobile in France. But, not very roomy.
Among other things the French suck at, they sure can't build automobiles. The ugly Renaults and Citroens quickly come to mind
ReplyDeleteBut the Bugattis..they are works of art.
DeleteCitroën DS were very nice looking cars and very advanced for the time. They were one of the smoothest riding cars ever made. They needed a more powerful engine was all.
DeleteHow do you say "barf" in French?
ReplyDeleteAbarth…
Deletewhat kind aeroplane?
ReplyDeleteSud-Ouest SO.6000 Triton
ReplyDeleteWind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Read this short book. He and his friends opened air mail to Africa, Egypt, and South America. Landed in the Atlantic Ocean to refuel? Flew with a mechanic. 100 years ago. Aviation was new, and this Frenchmen had a pair.
ReplyDeleteCars 75 years ago didn't need to be that big. Because the average person wasn't that big.
ReplyDeleteBugatti was Italian who worked with a Frenchman for his first few car designs.
ReplyDeleteHe moved his factory from Italy to Alsace at the end of 1909.
Bugatti founded his own business Automobiles Ettore Bugatti in Molsheim, an Alsacian town that at the time was German territory, and would remain so until the end of the first world war.
After WW1, Alsace reverted to France….
so you might say that Bugatti is of Italian design, manufactured and financed by Germans that France acquired via the Treaty of Versailles.
Just goes to show...the frogs keep trying, but continue to fail...
ReplyDeleteLooks like an AMC Pacer and a catfish had a baby.
ReplyDelete-Snakepit
Like most things french, that fucker's goofy as shit.
ReplyDeleteDoing "more with less" was really a European Thing after WWII.
ReplyDeleteThe Dynavia was a concept car showing how how much Panhard, arguably the worlds oldest motorcar manufacturer, could get out of the little.
With a Cd (drag) of 0.26 this concept car compared to a Cd of 0.48 for the early Beetle and Cd in the 0.50+ range for most of the other European designs of the era.
USA car designs seldom quoted a Cd at the time.
The Dynavia cross pollenated the Saab Ursaab, which evolved to the production Saab 92 by 1950 and was the precursor of Panhard's Dyna Dyna-Z several years later. The Ursaab shared the same goal of the Dynavia to have half the drag of current production cars, though the Saab design didn't better a Cd of 0.30 atthe time.
Panhard with the production Dyna Z was able to still achieve the same Cd of 0.26, which for the early 1950's was pretty radical.
Driving the production Panhard in Europe for a year, the car is very livable, very frugal, and way more fun than what one might anticipate. Very nice for four, could carry six of course, and kept up quite well with traffic.
Caring for one is not all that complicated, provided one uses the resources of the various Panhard Clubs to source spares and manuals.
The engine design is interesting as the basic design scaled up and down rather well, with one-cylinder versions were used for farm pumps and flat-twelves used for light military armor. There are one-off motorcycle and helicopter uses of the engine. A flat-four version is often raced in France.
Cost difficulties with light alloy bodywork did Panhard in, and it was eventually acquired in phases by Citroen. The current Panhard production is again separate and does military vehicles.