They don't all have to be Fast.
So many of you know I hoard basically ever weird car that sells on this forum for <$200. I like to stack them on Shelving. I have a problem (The 360 van was more then $200 but that's a project for another thread).
One of these vehicles I have purchased is the 1958 Panhard Dyna Z that Patrick took the rolly drivey bits for his Devin sports racer, sold to John Brown who then planned to put it on a 2000's Impreza before passing it on to me.
It's rough, but the body is solid and the irreplaceable glass is good. Floors are gone, all the drivetrain is gone and the interior has mostly been digested by mice, but it has potential. I originally intended to do what John Had planned and put it on a 2002 Impreza WRX that I bought. That WRX turned out to be a rusty pile. It would be fine(ish) to keep as a WRX but it didnt' make sense to do all the work to merge it with the Panhard and be left with a crusty Subaru chassis.
So I was kind rudderless on the project. It was okay as I was busy with the LMP360 but I still wanted to figure out what I was doing with the Panhard. To that end I actually bought PimpM3's old 2006 Forester challenge car in hopes that it would offer a less rusty alternative to the Subaru Chassis problem. I have some extra Subaru parts laying around, so I could make something kinda cool out of it. The Subaru H4 has some commonality with the original opposed twin in the Panhard which would be neat as well. But.. it would be AWD, which would be cool as a car, but is a challenge for one of the primary uses I have for the end project. I have other purposes for the Forester so it was abandoned for this useage before it even arrived.
See believe it or not, I have a family and do family stuff too. One of the things we do is camp with a small Class C RV with a lowish towing capacity. I want a toad to drag around behind it with a Tow Dolly. Subarus can be flat towed but they can't easily go on a tow dolly. Yes I could drop the driveshaft or do flat tow, but FWD is actually a better solution and is what the Panhard originally was. So I decided a FWD drivetrain makes more sense and started thinking about chassis I could use.
I've always wanted the car to be a bit of a cruiser, so I didn't even need something fast or powerful. I thought about lots of things, but never could manage to settle on something but FWD cars are somewhat generic and it was more important to just find something comon, cheap, and reliable.
That's when Singleslammer made a suggestion to me that I had never considered. Why not a Prius. They are affordable, reliable, get excellent gas mileage, and are pretty DIY friendly with a robust community of people figuring out how to repair and modify them. He had a good point, a 45-50 mpg cruiser would be fun, and I could use it as a DD during the summer. It would be comfortable and not beat me up, plus the Hybrid nature is a bit goofy and goes along with the general frenchness of the Panhard. Importantly they don't all have to be fast. I have fast cars. They do all have to be fun, which this sounded fun.
So later that Day I posted asking about Prius, and ~30 hours later I have agreed to buy one from IndyGuy. Once you agree to buy it you can start the build thread right?
It's a 2009 that was totaled out during a deer strike. Apparently the worlds largest heaviest deer impacted the fender and messed it and the door up good. But It didn't blow any airbags and the car still runs/operates as it should.
So the Pri-hard Dyna Z project is born.
So the plan is to put the Panhard body onto the Prius like a hat. The Prius wheelbase is 1.5" longer then the Panhard, Track Width appears to be about 4" wider on the Prius so some amount of flares will be required. I want to long term keep as many modern creature comforts as possible. Power locks, windows, AC/Heat etc. will eventually be merged with the Panhard.
As long as it is convenient this will be done using the GRM $2000 Challenge budget rules with the cash-in-the-envelope specialty class Addendum. I won't let the budget force me to do things like construct the firewall out of repurposed prius roof, but I will track the expenditures and track time the way I did with the LMP360 when it was a budget build.
The goal is to Road Trip the car down to the 2024 challenge. It won't be fast.. Like AT ALL, but it will be super fun and a totally different way to do the challenge.
It's ambitious but everything will be on site in 2 weeks and the build can begin.
It's about to get all Sawzally up in here.
Internet picture of a restored Dyna
