Panhard - Citroen Fug Remixed

The French are nothing if not creative with their cars. Some of the designs were brilliant like the Citroen DS, some were not like the Ami.

Panhard is another french company with ties to Citroen, and also experimented in aerodynamic designs. But unlike the wedge-like DS, their cars were melted, soap-bar like blobs.

The most graphic case of fug occured in the 1960 PL7. I suppose that it is basically the same car as the Dyna Z that debuted in 1954, and both of which were much more streamlined than cars of the time. But while the Dyna Z was on the edge of fug, the PL7 was truely fugly.

The core of the car remained the same, but the front and rear ends were revised with strangly placed chrome accents and odd organic cutlines. Instead of looking like a bar of soap, it now looked like some kind of amphibian - possibly a salamander. Chrome "eyelids" extended down the side of the body over the wheel wells. The same occured in back with the taillights, but a strange trunk cutline made it look uniquely fugly. Also up front, a small air inlet above the bumper looked almost like a fish's mouth.