IDRIVEACLASSIC reviews: 1950s Panhard Dyna X86 Sprint

This video is about a Panhard Dyna X86 Sprint

The voice over text to follow along:

When researching this car, there wasn’t a mass of information online, so I was helped greatly by both Guy the owner of the car and Car Brochure Addict, twitter account www.twitter.com/addict_car who gave me a copy of the brochure for this particular car.

The Dyna X was sold as a spacious family car, with the leading message that the available space in the car in it’s entirety was split to a ratio of 75% space for your passengers, 10% for the engine bay and 15% for luggage in the boot and I’m sure you’ll agree that the car gives some of the larger cars on the market today a real run for their money leg room wise.

The design of the Dyna X wasn’t as straightforward as some of the cars we’ve shown on the channel and in fact, the design was put forward by Jean Albert Gregoire who prided himself on not building cars, but being a man who researched, assembled and developed prototypes.

And with this in 1940, he was tasked during the German occupation of France to present a prototype of the future french car of the people and with this he considered in his typically forward thinking way that the car would need to be economical in both construction and in use, meaning it needed to be light as possible.

And with that, prototype AFG came to light: aluminium Francais Gregoire - the prototype being presented in 1942.

The car was really different for the time and boasted a weight of 398 kilos for the body and chassis, a fuel consumption of 4 litres for every 100 kilometres driven at an average speed of 60 kilometres per hour and a maximum speed of 90 kilometres per hour.

This wasn’t where the revolutionary thinking stopped, because the car design had the engine placed ahead of the front axle which brought the weight forward and the modified layout of the clutch all meant the car had less wasted space in the engine bay and more space where it counted…inside the cabin.

Gregoire was keen to get the car to market and took the prototype to Citreon, Renault, Peugeot and Simca. The car was rejected by Citroen, Renault and Peugeot because they already had plans for their post war cars, the 2CV, the Renault 4CV and the Peugeot 203.

It was initially taken on by Simca for production, but due to complications, the car never reached production. This is where Panhard came in and badged the car as the Dyna - but did make a few key changes before bringing it to market.

It is worth noting that Panhard took this design on, despite being rejected by 3 big automotive names, because they had no car ready to launch to the post-war buying public which would suit public mood, political considerations and buying favour with the owners of the AFG prototype.

Going back to the prototype modifications, One of the changes was taking the AFG from a 2 to 4 door model because the French buying public at the time were not as keen on 2 door models. Other changes included redesigned grille and headlight housing.

The twin cam engine design which had been designed by Panhard as a part of a project for military vehicles was put into use and the engine was mounted in front of the front axle, keeping the front wheel drive element.

There were other differences on the final Dyna X design including the differential housing placed at the rear of the gearbox. Essentially, the layout wasn’t very different to Panhards which had preceded it.

It did mean however from the AFG to the final Dyna X design, weight increased by 38%.

Gregoire never got royalties on the AFG prototype and sued Panhard on it. Due to the design being taken to several companies, Panhard were able to wriggle out of paying anything and there are photographs online of the trial showing Monsieur Panhard handing over a cheque for 1 franc.

The Dyna X series was produced from 1948 until 1954, making the one we’re testing a later example. Of all Dyna X variants, just over 47 thousand were sold.

The X86, made from 1950 to 1953, as we’re testing here today was very much a learning from the X84 which had preceded it and was intended for a very up market, well to do audience. Although if you’ve ever watched Tin Tin, you’ll know he had a Dyna X!

This particular model shows the 1950 face lift where Panhard added chrome strips and a new grille and this was said to represent the twin cooling fans being replaced by a single one. The engine was increased to 745cc and was an increase of 28 brake horse power from the X84.

The X86 was replaced by the X87.

Now lets catch up with the owner Guy, who is taking this on a big adventure next year with Steve Berry, Phillip Newsome and Jeff Marshall as per the Austin 16 7 Capital Cities in 7 days trip in 2017…but this time, from Paris to Helsinki!

#panhard #panharddynax #dynax #50scar

Видео IDRIVEACLASSIC reviews: 1950s Panhard Dyna X86 Sprint канала idriveaclassic