This Panhard PL 17 Is One Of The UK's Rarest Cars On The Road

Few cars are harder to spot on British roads than the Panhard PL 17, of which only eight remain at the time of writing. Back in the day, Panhard made uniquely French vehicles that did not really appeal to British car buyers. In addition, the imposition of an import tax made these vehicles uncompetitive with home-market British cars. That's what makes them so rare, and one of the few examples of the PL 17 in the U.K. is a 1960 model that is owned by Jim Baumann, who had been searching for a right-hand drive version. In addition to the right-hand steering, Baumann's 1960 PL 17 represents the final year that the vehicle came with a classic car feature that is probably gone forever — front suicide doors that were hinged at the rear.

Baumann's British-market PL 17 required an extensive restoration to return it to its former glory. The process included the acquisition of a badly rusted PL 17 for use as a parts car. The original body structure and panels were repaired and repainted, original specification seats were found, and the pitted aluminum parts were even polished. This painstaking process has produced one of the nicest versions remaining of the PL 17 with RHD.

The PL 17 was one of the final models produced by Panhard, an automotive pioneer whose illustrious history dates back to 1887. All of Panhard's post-World War II vehicles were built on a two-cylinder-engined, front-wheel drive platform engineered by J. A. Gregoire.

[Featured image by Guillaume27 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 3.0]

This J.A. Gregoire-designed platform was originally the foundation for the 1946-54 Dyna X model, which looked like a pre-war car and had poor aerodynamics. The Dyna X was followed by the peculiar Panhard Dyna Z of 1954-59, which had a modern and highly aerodynamic body styled by Louis Bionier.

The 1960-65 PL 17, which was also redesigned by Bionier, was next in line. It featured updated front and rear ends with plenty of chrome detailing attached to the Dyna Z's recognizable center passenger compartment. Inside, the interior was essentially the same, aside from a new dashboard design, which featured ahead-of-its-time padding on its upper surface — also a feature of the Dyna Z. One interesting option was tiger-patterned seat fabric, available on the "Tigre" versions of the PL 17 that came with the uprated 60-hp engine. The standard PL 17 engine was rated at 50 hp.

The PL 17 name was devised by combining the company's original initials (Panhard & Levassor) with the sum of three numbers – the car's French tax category classification (5CV), its seating capacity of 6, and its fuel economy rating of 6 liters per 100 kilometers. The Panhard PL 17 was produced through 1965 and officially imported to the U.S. through 1962. Slightly more than 166,000 of the PL 17 model were made. 

The 1960 model's price equivalent in dollars was $1,800. As a comparison, this was the same price that would buy you a more powerful six-cylinder Rambler American, a classic car that could make for a great project vehicle.