The Panhard CD is a coupe built by Panhard from 1963 to 1965. The model name CD is derived from the name of the designer Charles Deutsch. The prime idea for the car came about in 1961. Soon after the collaboration between the French engineer and aerodynamicist Charles Deutsch and his longtime collaborator Rene Bonnet has ended, Panhard approached Deutsch to design a new car for the oncoming 1962 24 Hours of Le Mans. Charles’ first ‘Solo’ project was called the CD Dyna and it was approved by Panhard for the build in January 1962. Five cars were built out of which one had a hand-hammered body and the remaining four featured glass-reinforced plastic shells. The engines fitted to CD Dyna were Panhard’s air-cooled boxer twins which were tuned for racing purposes. While the first engine’s capacity was enlarged to 954cc, the Le Mans racers had a smaller 702cc units. The production vehicle appeared in 1963. It inherited the coupe body from the CD Dyna and was made of fiberglass. The extremely aerodynamic design coupled with the torsionally-rigid central backbone frame weighed only 40kg. Panhard CD as sold in two trim variants; GT and Rallye. Both models were powered by Panhard’s 848cc which in GT trim was fed by a single down-draught carb giving the car 49bhp and in the Rallye variant by two carbs increasing the power to 59bhp. Including the CD Dynas, a total of 184 cars were built.
