Panhard K63

The Panhard K63 was a bus that Panhard built in the 1930s mainly for the Paris regional transport authority, the STCRP. In 1934 the authority ordered fifty K63 A buses and then sixty-five K63 B, alongside Renault TN4 orders, and in 1936 a further batch of K63 C and D with a longer wheelbase, better suspension and improved internals, including 100 suburban buses with a side entrance. Bodies were fitted by the STCRP or its subcontractors rather than by Panhard. Power came from a four-cylinder sleeve-valve engine running on the authority's ternary fuel of one third petrol, one third benzol and one third alcohol. Six went to Algeria in 1934. Parked during the German occupation as too complex, the Paris buses served until 1952 for the A and B and 1955 for the C and D, and one K63 D is preserved in a transport museum.