Lot details Registration No: HU 3938 Chassis No: 29481 Mot Expiry: Feb 2008
As quintessentially French as a string of onions or a pack of Gauloises, this Panhard is a car to appeal to the Francophile vintage connoisseur and enthusiast. Messrs Panhard et Levassor command respect on two grounds. Firstly, they were responsible for pioneering the basic drivetrain layout which the majority of successful car makers adopted until quite recent times. Secondly, the marque they founded rarely ceased to innovate from chain-driven veterans through powerful Edwardians and the sleeve-valve range of the 1920s to the post-WW2 Dyna Panhard small cars with their air-cooled flat twin engines. A Panhard finished the 1908 Grand Prix, and in the 1920s examples of the make were prominent in record breaking and also raced at Brooklands.
The Type X47, rated at 11.1hp, was typical of their range for 1925, the year this example was built, bodied and imported into the UK as a complete car and registered to its first owner in Bristol. The chassis-only price was £355, at a time when you could purchase an 11.4hp Citroen 4-seat tourer for only £165 - such was the quality of the Panhard. All the range followed similar general principles of design. The 1480cc (67 x 105mm) 4-cylinder engine of the X47 was neat and straightforward, cooling was by thermosiphon, there was magneto ignition and the carburettor was a Zenith-pattern. Steel sleeve-valves gave silence of running, and were associated in Britain with aristocratic cars such as the Daimler and Minerva. Four forward speeds were a quality feature unusual in a smaller car but were doubtless desirable given the engine size. The gearchange is via a beautifully made central gate and the handbrake also is centrally placed. Panhard retained wooden wheels much longer than most, and the X47 had the advantage of four wheel braking.
The 4-door saloon body by Carrosserie Driguet Frères shows clear echoes of carriage days, a style favoured from Bugatti downwards. This example seems to have had a sheltered life and to have been well cared-for. It was laid up because of an engine seizure in 1963: two subsequent owners failed to get to grips with the necessary repairs and it was in fact 25 years later that a new owner located a French motor engineer with experience of this type of engine who successfully completed the overhaul. The cloth interior, thought to be original, responded to careful cleaning. Described by the vendor as being in "good" overall condition, 'HU 3938' is offered for sale with MOT certificate valid until February 2008 and historic class (free) road tax until March 2008.
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