Panhard et Levassor : 1891 - 1967

Dyna Z 

In 1954, the body was redesigned and the car was renamed Dyna Z.

More and more steel crept into the body construction over the next few years until by 1957, aluminium had been totally replaced.

The inevitable increase in body weight was countered by a further increase in engine capacity - to 850cc and in 1959 the Tigre version appeared with 50 bhp on tap - developed from special cars built for the 24 Heures du Mans. 

Panhard proved to be extremely competitive in motor sport and a number of plastic bodied sports cars were built by Charles Deutsch and René Bonnet, achieving success at Le Mans between 1950 and 1953. 

Without doubt, the best known and most elegant of their creations was the DB HB R5, one of which was driven with some success by Joe Judt, ex Editor of the Citroënian, in competition in the early sixties. 

The quasi-official DB range was sanctioned by Panhard.

By the beginning of the sixties, Deutsch and Bonnet's relationship was beginning to fragment and Deutsch took his latest creation to Panhard where it became part of the official range with the name CD. 

Deutsch had managed to extract 60 bhp from the 851cc flat twin. 

To put this into perspective, the VW Beetle of the era had 40 bhp from 1200cc, the Morris Minor managed 37 bhp from 850cc, the Renault 4 offered 28 bhp from 750cc and the Ami 6 achieved 20 bhp from 602cc.