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By Gijsbert-Paul Berk
From the VeloceToday Archives, April 2014
Since the mid-thirties, when he had developed the body of the Dynamic, Bionier had been interested in aerodynamics. He loved to watch birds in the air and fish in aquaria. Their movements and shapes fascinated him. During the war years he had studied and even made some scale models to determine how the postwar Panhards should look.
‘Like in an airplane.. the Dyna will make you free from the harshness of the ground and its resonances’ is a free translation of the text in this Panhard publicity folder.
By Gijsbert-Paul Berk
From the VeloceToday Archives, March 2014
In Part 1 of his look at Panhard’s remarkable Louis Bionier, Gijsbert-Paul Berk described how Bionier designed the Panoramic and Dynamic Panhards in the 1930s. In Part 2, we learn how the post-war Dyna X was developed.
Was the Panhard Dyna an automotive cuckoo’s egg?
There are some mysteries concerning the origin of the postwar Panhard Dyna. Was it designed by Jean-Albert Grégoire (as some French experts claim on Wikipedia) or by the duo Louis Delagarde, Louis Bionier at Panhard & Levassor? The story of the gestation of this interesting car was extensively described in the review by Peter Vack of the book ‘Panhard, the flat twin cars 1945-1967’ by David Beare on VeloceToday of 8 August 2013 but if you want to refresh your memory we must take you back to the prewar years.
The poster for the 1955 Grand Prix at Zandvoort. It was designed by the well-known Dutch graphic artist Frans Mettes.
The Dutch Grand Prix was scheduled for one week after the disastrous 1955 Le Mans event. Should it have been cancelled? What would you have done? In this exclusive story, VeloceToday correspondent Gijsbert-Paul Berk, who was an assistant to the Royal Netherlands Automobile Club at the time, describes the ensuing crisis and decision.
Story by Gijsbert-Paul Berk
This year’s 24 hour race at Le Mans is now over, but no one who has closely followed motor racing in the fifties can ever forget the horrible accident exactly 60 years ago, on June 11, 1955 during the Le Mans 24 hours race. This black page in the history of motor sports caused the immediate death of the French driver Pierre Bouillin (who drove under the pseudonym of Pierre Levegh), at least 88 spectators, and hundreds of wounded. It was and remains the greatest loss of life due to a motor racing event.
11 June 1955, 18:25. Tragedy struck at the 24 Hours Race on the Le Mans circuit. Photo © DR
This sudden tragedy posed a great dilemma for the board of the Royal Netherlands Automobile Club (KNAC). Should the Dutch Grand Prix scheduled for the following weekend be canceled or take place as planned? [Read more…] about Decision at Zandvoort