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Details
1903 PANHARD-LEVASSOR TYPE H 15hp HOTEL OMNIBUS
Registration No: 682-AC04
Chassis No. 6806
Engine No. 6806
Grey bodywork, dark green mudguard and bonnet, black mouldings, Panhard red wheels and coachlining.
Engine: Four-cylinder, 90mm 130mm bore & stroke, 3.3 litre. Automatic inlet, side exhaust valves, trembler coil ignition, Krebs automatic carburettor. Transmission: cone clutch, 4-speed & reverse gearbox with right-hand quadrant change, side-chain final drive. Chassis: wood & flitch plate, semi-elliptic springs front and rear, right-hand drive. Brakes: contracting bands on back wheels from side lever and on transmission from foot pedal. Wooden wheels, original tyre size: 910 x 90 beaded-edge. Right hand drive.
In addition to being among the first motor car manufacturers in the world, Panhard-Levassor achieved a permanent place in the history of motoring when Emile Levassor in 1891 devised the system Panhard with a vertical front-mounted engine driving through a clutch to a set of sliding gears (these were yet to go into a box) with final drive to the back axle by chain. The layout was so successful, with Panhard-Levassors winning many 19th century motor races, that other makers copied the design, and, apart from the use of shaft final drive (introduced by Renault in 1899), it formed the pattern for motor cars for many decades ahead.
In the eye of many early motorists Panhard-Levassors were seen as the best cars in the world, until they were gradually eclipsed by the more sophisticated Mercedes and other manufacturers who copied that make's innovations. However, in the early 1900s such was the demand for Panhard-Levassors that there was a significant waiting list for new cars, the company was paying its shareholders a 50 dividend each year, and therefore it only gradually changed its winning formula.
The Panhard-Levassor works records show that this vehicle left the factory on the 14th November 1903 as a "chassis complet de voiture automobile type touriste" to the order of Guilbert et Cie, 20 rue du Cloitre, Notre-Dame, Paris. Interestingly the car is fitted with radiator of the "cloisonne" type introduced by Grouvelle ET Arquembourg (suppliers of radiators and water pumps to Panhard-Levassor) in 1903. Reporting the Paris Salon in December 1903. The Autocrat commented about the Panhard-Levassor cars (in part). " The radiator is of the new Grouvelle et Arquembourg type, with small tubes and small square gills, carried in an irregular "collector" or frame, fitting in front of the bonnet. The car was bought from Guibert by Monsieur Negre, of Greoux-les-Bains, in the Verdon valley in the Basses-Alpes of the south of France. M. Negre was the patron of the Hotel les Bains and had the chassis bodied by coachbuilders A Montel of Marseille as a Hotel Omnibus to transport guests to and from the railway station at Manosque some 14 kilometres away. The Panhard-Levassor performed its task admirably but eventually it was laid up in the hotel garage, until the mid-1970s.
Three times in the past 100 years has the French system of vehicle registration been changed and it is not know what letter on the number plate this car originally carried (it was probably an H to denote the Basses-Alpes) but in 1928 a new system was introduced and on the 25th May 1929 the Panhard-Levassor was re-registered 908 AR ( the AR being the mark for the Basses-Alpes), thus suggesting that the car was still in use. When a third registration system was established in 1950 (with a number used to show the departments arranged in alphabetical order) the car was again re-registered, and given the numero d'immatriculation 682 AC04 on the 9th of January 1957, the 04 showing its continued presence in Greoux-les-Bains, with the owner being hotelier Jean Negre. Therefore the car has continued in one family ownership, in the same French town, since it was new.
In the mid-1970s the grandson of the original owner put the car back into running order and had it repainted to its original pattern before showing it at a rally in Marseille where it attracted considerable interest. Since then the Panhard-Levassor has had little use. It will therefore need sympathetic attention if it is to be put back on the road.
A 15hp Panhard-Levassor has to be amongst the most sought after of London to Brighton Run eligible motor Cars. The firm's twin-cylinder 7hp model is sprightly and the 15hp cars also possesses this attribute, but are somewhat more "long-legged" with the four-speed gearbox and an ability to climb average gradients without changing down. Furthermore, it does not have the heavier steering that the larger Panhard-Levassor models (and most other "big" cars of the period) inevitably exhibit when required to be used at low speeds, as is so frequently the case on the Brighton Run and when being used in the presence of modern traffic.
With its six-seater bodywork, an impeccable history from 1903 and the quality of the original product, this is a most desirable four-cylinder Brighton car.
Registration No: 682-AC04
Chassis No. 6806
Engine No. 6806
Grey bodywork, dark green mudguard and bonnet, black mouldings, Panhard red wheels and coachlining.
Engine: Four-cylinder, 90mm 130mm bore & stroke, 3.3 litre. Automatic inlet, side exhaust valves, trembler coil ignition, Krebs automatic carburettor. Transmission: cone clutch, 4-speed & reverse gearbox with right-hand quadrant change, side-chain final drive. Chassis: wood & flitch plate, semi-elliptic springs front and rear, right-hand drive. Brakes: contracting bands on back wheels from side lever and on transmission from foot pedal. Wooden wheels, original tyre size: 910 x 90 beaded-edge. Right hand drive.
In addition to being among the first motor car manufacturers in the world, Panhard-Levassor achieved a permanent place in the history of motoring when Emile Levassor in 1891 devised the system Panhard with a vertical front-mounted engine driving through a clutch to a set of sliding gears (these were yet to go into a box) with final drive to the back axle by chain. The layout was so successful, with Panhard-Levassors winning many 19th century motor races, that other makers copied the design, and, apart from the use of shaft final drive (introduced by Renault in 1899), it formed the pattern for motor cars for many decades ahead.
In the eye of many early motorists Panhard-Levassors were seen as the best cars in the world, until they were gradually eclipsed by the more sophisticated Mercedes and other manufacturers who copied that make's innovations. However, in the early 1900s such was the demand for Panhard-Levassors that there was a significant waiting list for new cars, the company was paying its shareholders a 50 dividend each year, and therefore it only gradually changed its winning formula.
The Panhard-Levassor works records show that this vehicle left the factory on the 14th November 1903 as a "chassis complet de voiture automobile type touriste" to the order of Guilbert et Cie, 20 rue du Cloitre, Notre-Dame, Paris. Interestingly the car is fitted with radiator of the "cloisonne" type introduced by Grouvelle ET Arquembourg (suppliers of radiators and water pumps to Panhard-Levassor) in 1903. Reporting the Paris Salon in December 1903. The Autocrat commented about the Panhard-Levassor cars (in part). " The radiator is of the new Grouvelle et Arquembourg type, with small tubes and small square gills, carried in an irregular "collector" or frame, fitting in front of the bonnet. The car was bought from Guibert by Monsieur Negre, of Greoux-les-Bains, in the Verdon valley in the Basses-Alpes of the south of France. M. Negre was the patron of the Hotel les Bains and had the chassis bodied by coachbuilders A Montel of Marseille as a Hotel Omnibus to transport guests to and from the railway station at Manosque some 14 kilometres away. The Panhard-Levassor performed its task admirably but eventually it was laid up in the hotel garage, until the mid-1970s.
Three times in the past 100 years has the French system of vehicle registration been changed and it is not know what letter on the number plate this car originally carried (it was probably an H to denote the Basses-Alpes) but in 1928 a new system was introduced and on the 25th May 1929 the Panhard-Levassor was re-registered 908 AR ( the AR being the mark for the Basses-Alpes), thus suggesting that the car was still in use. When a third registration system was established in 1950 (with a number used to show the departments arranged in alphabetical order) the car was again re-registered, and given the numero d'immatriculation 682 AC04 on the 9th of January 1957, the 04 showing its continued presence in Greoux-les-Bains, with the owner being hotelier Jean Negre. Therefore the car has continued in one family ownership, in the same French town, since it was new.
In the mid-1970s the grandson of the original owner put the car back into running order and had it repainted to its original pattern before showing it at a rally in Marseille where it attracted considerable interest. Since then the Panhard-Levassor has had little use. It will therefore need sympathetic attention if it is to be put back on the road.
A 15hp Panhard-Levassor has to be amongst the most sought after of London to Brighton Run eligible motor Cars. The firm's twin-cylinder 7hp model is sprightly and the 15hp cars also possesses this attribute, but are somewhat more "long-legged" with the four-speed gearbox and an ability to climb average gradients without changing down. Furthermore, it does not have the heavier steering that the larger Panhard-Levassor models (and most other "big" cars of the period) inevitably exhibit when required to be used at low speeds, as is so frequently the case on the Brighton Run and when being used in the presence of modern traffic.
With its six-seater bodywork, an impeccable history from 1903 and the quality of the original product, this is a most desirable four-cylinder Brighton car.