Family Fortunes Part 16

Panhard had done its best but, if the 24 was the only answer, it wasn’t the right answer. Attempts to widen its appeal with the longer-wheelbase 24B and 24BT and a stripped-out BA did nothing to ginger up sales. “It was designed to be a four-door as well,” says Panhard, “and we were going to put a four-cylinder engine in it.” Estate and convertible versions were on the cards, and Panhard does not demur when it is suggested that the 24CT was intended as a Trojan Horse: the idea, he admits, was to slip the coupe under Citroen’s radar and develop it into a full range.Poor sales meant this could never come about, and Panhard was left high and dry: the PL 17 was discontinued in 1964, subcontract Ami 6 production ended in ‘62 and the proposed new Citroen models never looked likely to happen. It was all over. The last 24 left the lines in 1967: Citroen, it seemed, had strangled all life out of Panhard.