Type 4CV series M2E 'two seater' car

René Panhard and Émile Levassor, both graduates of the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, began working together on gas engines in 1873. Their firm, Panhard & Levassor, became one of the first makers of vehicles with internal combustion engines. This 1896 model is very similar to the first car, with a Daimler engine, that Levassor built in 1891. Five years later numerous improvements were added, including ignition by burner and carburation by jet, but it still had a chain transmission. The coachwork and parasol are wooden and the rubber wheel rims were optional. This car, which could travel at 30 km/h, is an example of the pioneering production in the late 19th century, then dominated by France. It belonged to Emanuel Buxtorf, responsible for the modernisation of the hosiery industry in Troyes, and the first person in the Aube département to own an automobile.