Pantene Pro-C - All change (Dyna X content)

[barrett]

I just realised the other recent arrival hasn't been properly introduced.

 

We spotted this on Instagram of all places. It's a 1965/66 Panhard 24C, the entry-level short wheelbase model in the 24 range. I've always loved the look of these, I honestly think they are one of the best looking cars of the 1960s. This one was owned by an old boy just down the road in Eastbourne, and it is a mega-rare rhd example. I think they sold around 50 rhd 24s of all types in the UK, and only a tiny handful remain, with possibly only one or two on the road. This is the only rhd 24C running.

We tried to convince other people to buy this, but the guy selling it was such an annoying old fusspot that they eventually gave up trying. I couldn't get the thing outta my head so after a lot of fuss trying to raise some cash (thanks, Mr Santander!) we decided to go for it, as the last half-share car has gone so well (the 404 has been sat untouched for months and months and is no closer to an MoT than when the welding was done last year. Shame on us).

 

After a hell of a lot of negotiation, which included the chap agreeing a price and then going back on his word once we were actually in a position to get the thing, we finally managed to nail him down and went down to Eastbourne to attempt to drive it back. The MoT had only recently expired, and the car has been mechanically rebuild not that long ago, but the old duffer has literally NEVER driven it his the 20-odd years of ownership. We went armed with a can of fresh fuel, some filters, a battery and our secret weapon - Panhard Gary, the high-priest of the flat-twin, who did most of the restoration work on the car and has done more miles in it than the owner.

 

After dragging it out of its garage, we managed to eventually get it running with a jump start enough to turn it around. Here's Panhard Gary working his magic

 

We managed to get about four miles before it died

 

We eventually nursed it back to Brighton for its pre-booked MoT, which it passed wit flying colours. Whilst the test was happening, Gary nipped home and returned with a freshly rebuild carb which he bolted on once we'd nursed it another 40 miles to the office. After that it ran sweetly, although it's still pulling dirty fuel through making sure there's a clean filter to hand should sort that eventually, if not it'll be a tank flush. Ho hum.

 

Anyway, it's fuggin' beautiful and I absolutely love looking at it

 

 

Being a 24C it doesn't have the nice cowled dash of the CT, just a PL17 strip speedo stuck on, but otherwise the interior is lovely. The seats are super comfortable as you'd expect, though the rear bench is a tight squeeze even for the Dog

 

Detailing is fantastic. Considering how much of the car is built around 1940s technology it does a pretty great job of looking and feeling very modern

 

 

Sadly, it's not particularly pleasant to drive. I'm much too tall to get comfortable behind the wheel (it really is a tiny thing), the gear lever sticks under my knee in fourth and the pedals are oddly positioned and tight, which is a shame considering the fantastic pedal layout and column change of earlier Panhards. The gearbox is also a bit shagged, the synchro on third has gone so you can't change down from fourth to third unless you go via second. The change is wooly at the best of times so this is hardly ideal.

The engine has also been replaced at some point with a 42hp PL17 unit in place of the 50hp lump it should have, and consequently it feels sluggish to the point of unpleasantness. We'll be going all-out and getting a 60hp Tigre engine in there, as per the one in work's Dyna Z1, which absolutely flies (I've seen 90mph - not bad for a family car from 1955) which should be a huge improvement

 

As it stands the car has been used a couple of times and then parked up, but Panhard Gary made a good job of getting the engine and box out last weekend and will finish the job next Saturday, so with a rebuild gearbox it should be a bit more usable.

 

There are a million little irritations to the car, mostly caused by the PO being a tight-fisted fusspot, which will all need sorting in time. The horrid carpets being an obvious example, the fact that he wouldn't stump up the £70 for an aluminium timing wheel to replace the fragile fibre original another. Replacing these is an absolute must in a Panhard, it is pretty much the only weak point in the engine. They break down after barely any miles and can bend the valves if you're unlucky. This will be sorted whilst the engine is out for piece of mind until we can get a hotter motor in there.

 

so yeah, this is why I can't buy any more cars. Except an Ami 6. And a Twingo. And I promised myself a 406 Coupe for my 30th birthday present, which is a mere 11 months away!

 

Sorry for the rubbish 'phone pictures, when it's all back together again I'll get some proper shots

[Alexg]

WOW! Simply beautiful.

[forddeliveryboy]

Yes, lovely. Good that it has gone to a better home with you. I'd love one of these!

[skattrd]

You really are living the dream Barrett

[HillmanImp]

That is SO fit.

[dollywobbler]

Wonderful. I really wanted to drive it but you're making it feel like 'never meet your heroes!'

[HillmanImp]

Wonderful. I really wanted to drive it but you're making it feel like 'never meet your heroes!'

 

My hero used to be Jimmy Savile, there is no way that this could end up being that big a disappointment. 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Lovely!!! I love that 24C badge

[purplebargeken]

Lovely car but I has driven and fettled an ever rarer beastie from the Panhard stable. A Panhard-Levassor taxi from 1912. There is a clip of it being restored in 1959 on the interweb.

I prefer yours btw. 

 

Oddly the Panhard Club didn't seem interested in it. 

[chaseracer]

Finned alloy drums as wheel centres FTMFW 

[DS20]

That is a beautiful vehicular conveyance.

[garethj]

I've always been a big fan of the Panhard 24, it's like the French's answer to a Tatra.  Utterly bonkers in many, many ways but none of those things put me off desiring one.  Let's be fair, if a new Fiesta had a driving position where 4th gear interfered with your leg you'd walk or hobble out of the showroom.

 

D registration but with finned drum brakes, is that right?  I thought they were on disc brakes by then and boring hubcaps.

 

You're on a roll with this recent collection, more power to you!

[Shep Shepherd]

That is a stunning car

[panhard65]

I've always been a big fan of the Panhard 24, it's like the French's answer to a Tatra.  Utterly bonkers in many, many ways but none of those things put me off desiring one.  Let's be fair, if a new Fiesta had a driving position where 4th gear interfered with your leg you'd walk or hobble out of the showroom.

 

D registration but with finned drum brakes, is that right?  I thought they were on disc brakes by then and boring hubcaps.

 

You're on a roll with this recent collection, more power to you!

The drum brakes are correct for the standard car, the tigre versions had the discs. The BT I used to have had drums on it though which in my opinion look better and are far easier to get parts for. I had forgotten about the gearlever thing mine was the same but not quite so annoying being a LHD. 

[Andrew353w]

That is one pretty car! I remember them from holidays in France when I was a (very) young child in the 1960s. I didn't realise they were even built as RHD cars, either and wish your restoration well. More pictures, please!

[mercrocker]

You had to seriously swim against the current to buy one of these over here new....Absolutely fantastic looking car and all the more appealing with its UK  history.

[carlo]

Wonderful car Barrett and one of my all time favourites.  I knew you were a man of impeccable taste.

 

I often see a particularly nice metallic green one when I go to various French car shows,

[TagoraSX]

Wonderful!

 

I would like to have a RHD Panhard of some sort in the future.

[barrett]

Current state of play. The gearbox just will not come out! One rounded nut in an inaccessible place has caused no end of trouble. 404 is sulking because we've not been giving it enough attention.

 

A good excuse to check out how compact the engine is. You can lift it fairly easily if you're not going far

 

The whole front end lifts off for access. Dog is unimpressed.

 

We'll get there eventually!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Tell us more about this previous owner, he sounds like a right mental case

[barrett]

He is a right old woman, name of Pocock. He got the car in the early '90s and over the years had quite a bit of work done to get to a usable standar, including an engine rebuild, welding, respray etc, but was so tightfisted he wouldn't agree to pay for anything he though was unnecessary (like the timing timing wheel), hence the bagbof melted wiring in the boot which he made Panhard Gary keep as 'proof' that the wiring needed doing.

In all the time he had the car he never so much as drove it up the road. Most of the time he couldn't startcit because he couldn't get his head around the battery cut off switch or he pulled the choke instead of the starter or summat. Gary or Panhard Pete would come down each year and drive the car to Brighton for an MoT, then drive it back and he would put it back in his garage for another year.

 

In fairness, having driven it a bit I am starting to think he is actually a really savvy old chap

[Bamboocarman]

It's great, what a find, congrats.

 

I've really really wanted one of these since the 1970s, and have only ever been up close to two 'real' ones in all that time (actually got to sit in one at a remote garage in SW France !).

 

However, as DW says 'never meet your heroes' - so am glad that you note it's 'not particularly pleasant to drive' -  and it would be no good for me parked on the street here in central Brighton, neither.

 

There, have talked myself out of it - will just go away and die now.

 

What a beautiful, original / unusual (designed by the same people who did the Dyane ?) car !

[barrett]

It's tiny so isn't bad for parking, even in Brighton. I'll take you for a spin one day when it's back on the road.

[Bamboocarman]

Ta very much; I was thinking about the parking knocks and petty vandalism down here, it's been a bit of a problem over the years; yes, would love a look one day, thanks.

[hairnet]

utter utter utter utter utter utter utter utter [young ones] utter utter utter utter [insert expletive here]

 

fabulous thing

 

would cum (arf) 300 miles just to perv at that

 

scale of 1 to 10 of how more crazy than citroen they were at that point in time.....??

[STUNO]

Right hand drive with knee action gearstick ooof. It is perfect. And it sounds like the PO was really not capable of driving

[jonny69]

I've gone off it now.

[RMAC190e]

I've been a long time stalker around these parts, but i have just signed up to say that this is a very beautiful car, even just as an orniment to stand a drool over.

[inconsistant]

That's a thing of rare beauty. How can something that old still look like it's from the future?

[barrett]

Managed to pick this up. Slightly cheaper than the real thing, but probably less trouble and just as rewarding to own.

 

I hope the gearbox came out today but I've not heard from Panhard Gary yet. Fingers crossed!