Panhard Dyna Z

Pictured above is a 1954 Panhard Dyna Z posed in front of the Château de Chambord.  Dyna Z's were produced 1954-59 and a lightly facelifted version was continued into 1965.  More background information can be found here on Wikipedia.

Panhard et Levassor was one of the world's first automobile makers.  Early 1930s models were large and luxurious, but the late '30s Dynamic was smaller and oddly styled.  Postwar was the ugly Dyna X that I wrote about here.  The Dyna Z was a new design, larger than the X.  It had front-wheel drive and a two-cylinder (!!!) motor.  Its seating capacity was theoretically six, which was probably one of its marketing standpoints.  The other was the small capacity of its motor that kept its tax status low.

In terms of power and weight, the Dyna Z was comparable to the contemporary Volkswagen Beetle.

Dyna Z styling was aerodynamically-influenced, and therefore rather bland-yet-distinctive.

Gallery

Factory photo of a 1954 Dyna Z from about the same as in the image at the top of this post.  The grille design incorporates what appears to be a running light.  Although there is chrome trim on the lower sides and below the passenger compartment greenhouse, the surround of the curved windshield is black rubber: chrome might be expected there.

There appears to be two turn-signal lights, one mounted in front of the front door, the other abaft of the rear door.

The backlight window is strongly curved, creating panoramic outboard vision.  The trunk is fairly substantial for a non-Kammback aerodynamic design, though its curvature restricts its capacity somewhat.

Side view, Barrett-Jackson auction photo.  The windows are symmetrical, a tooling expense economy, but the doors are not.  As the cut line indicates, most of the front end sheetmetal is taken up by the hood that is hinged at its rear.

Photo from an unidentified source showing an open front "suicide" door.