Panhards prevail in Angouleme

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The Angouleme circuit was launched in 1939, but aside this very first edition all races took place in the postwar years as from 1947. From this date the "Circuit des Rempart D´Angouleme" became very important: Gordini, Ferrari or Maserati dominated the track in the early years, but the circuit was closed in 1955 until the revival in 1978. The current event features (demo) races for almost all kinds of post-war sports cars, with an abundance of Panhards entries. The seemingly simple, but in fact quite complicated aircooled opposed twin technology can be seen with an incredible variety of bodies,  check the first photos below . Perhaps the reason is that in the original 1951 and 1955 Angouleme GP this little Panhards won the race ahead of cars with more cylinders, and much more horsepower. We feel that the brilliance of the two cylinder Panhards is still far underrated. (photos Unai Ona)       

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