Panhard Dyna Z

I spotted this rare car at the weekly veteran car gathering this evening.

The Panhard Dyna Z is a lightweight car produced by Panhard of France from 1954 to 1959. Panhard was one of the world's oldest auto manufacturers and since 1945 had become known for producing economical cars. Panhard, like Citroën, considered itself a leader, not a follower of automotive trends, and the Dyna Z had an impressive array of unusual engineering choices.

The Dyna Z's body was originally aluminium and its unusual and very modern design gave it a unique combination of space, ride comfort, performance and fuel economy at a very competitive price. But reliability suffered and fuel prices were not high enough, even in France, for people to put energy efficiency first.

The last Panhard passenger car was built in 1967. Since 1968 Panhard has only made armored vehicles.