Panhard-Genty 24 HP

The Panhard-Genty 24 HP was the first military vehicle built on a Panhard chassis, completed in 1906 as a machine-gun car. The French War Ministry had bought a Panhard 24 HP in 1904 to test the military uses of motor cars, especially for reconnaissance, and after army manoeuvres in September 1905 Captain Genty, who drove it, was allowed to fit machine-gun mounts. It was a small, high-wheeled car suited to difficult tracks, with a wooden chassis reinforced with metal, the engine at the front, then the driver, and a gunner at the rear on a pivoting seat so that he could change his sector of fire. It carried 8 mm Hotchkiss Model 1900 machine guns with 2,160 cartridges. Sent to Morocco in December 1907 for service on the Algerian-Moroccan border, it was followed by three more Panhard 24 HP cars delivered in 1911 after Clement-Bayard cars proved ill suited.