The Tracteur Panhard-Châtillon is one of the Panhard entries the open record knows by name and by date — in 1911, and by little else. That is not nothing: a name in the catalogue is where a car's story starts to be recoverable. The total made was 800.
How it came about
The Châtillon-Panhard (French pronunciation: [tʁaktœʁ panaʁ(d) ʃatijɔ̃] was a conventional-cabin, all-wheel drive truck produced between 1911 and 1918 by the French manufacturer Panhard. It was one of the first all-wheel drive trucks used by the French military.
Under the skin
The record carries the layout — and the layout: drive goes to all four wheels, which is what lets the power be used on a wet road. The engine, output and weight have not yet reached the open record, and MotorJury does not guess at them.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at Paris, France. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Ford Model T, the Opel 5/12 PS, the Lancia Epsilon — show what else the money bought that year. Its Panhard stablemates include the Panhard & Levassor M2F Break CnAM 20520 and the Panhard & Levassor 15 CV.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Tracteur Panhard-Châtillon — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.