A right hand drive 1966 Panhard 24BT?!

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Neil Burdock is a real Panhard nuthead. He has a 1928 Panhard for 37 years (see GF17 on the right in the garage) and the 24BT for six years. Neil himself claims he has Panhard in his blood. This is what he did to make the low avant garde coupe more usable for daily life in Britain. And aside that he added his driving experience with the car. By the way did you know that the brilliant designers of Citroën 'borrowed' the 1964 Panhard headlight units for the restyled 1967 DS?

"Apart from converting the car to "conduit anglais"(LHD) I have totally rewired the car with fuses, added an alternator, fitted an SU downdraft carburettor, fitted an electric fuel pump and added an electric heater in the cabin. It's also been resprayed! Not original but practical. 

When I bought the car back from Albi in the south of France the first drive was quite a new experience for me. The seating is low in the cabin and akin to a 2 seater sports car. The seats have many adjustments and therefore leg and height room can be satisfactorily achieved. The 848cc engine bursts into life and is quite lumpy on tick over at about 900 RPM. The air cooled engine sound is most unusual (difficult to describe, apart from being noisy) but evens out on acceleration. With a floor gear change (column on all previous models) the movement from gear to gear has to be slow and deliberate so as not to beat the synchromesh. Third gear is direct drive with fourth, an overdrive. In my opinion it is not a town car. The steering at slow speeds is heavy and fuel vapour lock on a hot day in a traffic jamb can cause problems. It was designed for the grande routiers. On the open road it builds up speed steadily and reaches 80MPH without much effort at about 4800RPM with 6000RPM putting you into the red zone. With disc brakes all round the car can be brought to a halt very reassuringly and with a large glass area in the cockpit visibility is excellent."

Editor: thanks a lot Neil, you write you have anglicized the car, but in fact we think the Panhards have francosized you.

  

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