Today we discuss the Most Important Car Company You’ve Probably Never Hear about, an automotive manufacturer that basically wrote the recipe for most normal cars today.. Today we discuss

When people talk about automotive history, they think Karl Benz, Henry Ford, maybe even Ferrari if they’re feeling dramatic. But if we’re being honest — the layout of almost every “normal” car on Earth traces back to a French company with a name that sounds like a law firm: Panhard et Levassor.

And while they didn’t survive as a household name did invent the blueprint of the modern automobile — and then went racing across France to prove it worked.

Panhard et Levassor began in 1887 in Paris, founded by René Panhard and Émile Levassor. At first, they built woodworking machinery but they had their sights set on something grander.

Panhard et ...