I was having a conversation with a fellow Panhard enthusiast, and he was querying the modifications to the timing gear oil level I make. At the end of the conversation, it was mentioned whether I had seen the modified DB timing gears, to which I said no. Later that day, I received some pictures via email.



What’s really interesting, is I could never understand why the aluminium timing gear that replaces the fibre one was made the same width, as aluminium is so much stronger than the fibre aka Celeron gear. Looking at this DB gear, which is made in steel the racing guys took that to its logical conclusion, and reduced the width. This reduces the pumping losses too, as well as the inertial ones, so it seems there is scope for improvements here too.

Notice the extra mounting holes in the new gear, six versus three, which might have been some further camshaft timing adjustment mechanism.

Thank you Stefaan for the picture.