Just a quick observation concerning the French E.B.R. Panhard (Panhard armoured reconnaissance vehicle) - sorry if French posts of mine seem to prevail at this moment. This happens to be the section in my catalogue that I am fully revising at present.

The special retractable terrain wheels in the centre of the Panhard vehicle all have the same tread direction on the Dinky Toy at each one side, whereas the real vehicle shows that they are opposite/contrary. I presume that Meccano France had two reasons for that:

1. They preferred to make one casting for these four wheels only.

2. If they had manufactured two different castings this would no doubt have caused unwanted interchanged/wrongly mounted wheels during the huge quantity production of this model.

However, the individually made brass prototype, as shown in Roulet's Les Dinky Toys et Dinky Supertoys français Meccano 1934-1981, 2nd ed. page 405, shows the correct composition. I presume this was no problem at all for a non-mass production sample model like that.

No doubt our French colleagues may be able to comment this. Further, it is better known that the vehicle is almost symmetrical in order to be driven from both sides, fore and aft, with two seats for the driver(s). Also, because of that, the base plate is symmetrical too, causing an occasional change of direction in production - compare the English B.E.V. Electric Truck 14a/400.

Kind regards, Jan