The priest and the Panhard, or how Father Gavois found fame

These are interesting photographs, dated 1928, making them almost a century old on their own. Remarkably, the cars pictured in them were considered antiquities at the time and the caption attached to the first reads: “The oldest car in France, purchased by the French state from a vicar, to be subsequently preserved in the automobile museum in Compiègne.”

The following article, from the Sydney Morning Herald, and dated February 21st, 1928, is about the same car and gives quite a lot more information. We reproduce it here in its entirety:

WORLD'S OLDEST CAR
FRENCH ABBE'S PANHARD

“The oldest car in the world is a Panhard Levassor, which has been owned and driven continuously for nearly 20 years by the Abbe [sic] Gavois, of Rainneville, in Picardy, France. The ancient vehicle, pictures of which are published with the owner, in the latest "Autocar" to hand, is fitted with a buggy type of body, with high wooden wheels and iron tyres, and it has tiller steering. The engine is a V type twin cylinder, and the carburettor is described as resembling an old-fashioned coffee pot, the ignition being by hot tube. It is believed that the car, the speed of which is about 10 miles an hour, has covered more than 150,000 miles. The car was the sixth turned out by the Panhard factory, which 17 years ago attempted to re-purchase it, but the Abbe Gavois, however, declined to sell.

The abbe originally acquired the car second-hand for £15. He purchased it from the original owner, and regarded it as an answer to a prayer he had made for a considerable time to be provided with such a vehicle, which he was too poor to purchase new, and he steadfastly refused to part with it even when the Panhard Levassor Co. offered in exchange a new modern car. He professed an attachment for his old car, and was dubious about the high speed of the modern car and the possibility of tyre troubles with pneumatics, to which he was not accustomed. However, he lent the car for exhibition purposes in London, and also allowed the Panhard Co. to overhaul it, but was miserable during its absence, as the substitute had pneumatic tyres. During the war, when the German invaders overran that part of Picardy, the abbe escaped with his car, but in 1918 returned to resume his duties, although his church was wrecked. At last, however, the abbe has decided to sell the old car and devote the proceeds to the erection of a chapel to glorification of patron saint of motorists, St. Christopher.”

It wasn’t too difficult to find out more about the abbé and his remarkable car, as he made headlines round the world at the time. We found that the Panhard et Levassor was sold new to a Monsieur Emmanuel Buxtomf of Troyes on December 4th, 1891, for the sum of 3,500 francs. Buxtomf would become a Panhard et Levassor dealer in Troyes before selling the car in 1895 to Father Gavois, who paid 1,500 francs for it and who would use it for another 34 (some sources say 37) years. The car would make him famous as early as in 1911, when the editors of l’Auto set out to find the oldest automobile on the road by organising what they called the Concours de l’Ancêtre (Concours of the Ancestors). That’s when they heard of Father Gavois and, in the summer of 1911, two representatives of‘ l’Auto, together with Paul Panhard, came to Rainneville for lunch and presented the Right Reverend Abbot with a medal. The abbé told them at the time: “I am not ambitious; I don't like fame and I prove it by preferring my old car to a Rochet-Schneider car, which I also own and which I leave resting in my shed.” We have found a picture of that car, too. Do you have any more details? We note that the girl in the first picture appears to be in the background here also.

Many of you will know the Musée National de la Voiture et Tourisme and its extraordinary collection, located within the impressive Château de Compiègne, but as far as we could find out, the Panhard of Father Gavois is there anymore. The car took part in the festivities organised for Jean Panhard's 100th birthday in 2013, after which it was repatriated to the Cité de l'Automobile in Mulhouse.

Words: Jeroen Booij
Pictures: French National Library