[4] In 1929 he became their chief stylist, a position he occupied until 1967, earning the sobriquet Dieu le père (god the father).
He was also a keen observer of nature and in 1927 began to use his camera to record what he saw during trips to Switzerland, Italy, and the French Riviera.
[6][3] Bionier worked in the factory during the day, gaining experience in different departments, and attended Panhard's École Pratique internal training school at night.
This acquisition allowed Panhard to produce bodies for their own standard models in house, rather than rely on outside carrosserie to complete the cars.
In 1929 Bionier was made the head of Panhard's Bureau d'Études et de Recherches Carrosserie (Office of Bodywork Studies and Research), or BERC, putting him in charge of all body and chassis development for the company.
For this model, called the Panoramique, Bionier introduced a feature that took advantage of the driver's binocular vision to improve outward visibility.
For this car Bionier produced a curvaceous side-skirted Streamline Moderne shape that expressed his early interest in aerodynamics, and retained the split A-pillars of the Panoramique.
The driver's position in the Dynamic's six seat body was originally in the centre of the three-place front bench, but this was later moved to the more typical left hand side.
The suspension used torsion bar springs front and back, and the car came with a dual-circuit hydraulic braking system that operated on all four wheels.
[15] The AFG weighed only 400 kg (881.8 lb) due to the use of Alpax [fr] to produce a unitary-style chassis and the use of aluminum for the bodywork.
When the Pons Plan to rationalize the French automotive industry went into effect, Panhard found itself excluded from the list of approved automakers and denied permission to resume building cars and access to the needed materials.
[11] Like some of his contemporaries he had come to appreciate some aerodynamic principles, such as the importance of reducing frontal area and of maintaining smooth, turbulence-free air flow along the length of a car's body.
In 1945 he made wooden 1:5 scale models of an experimental car he called the VP6 and had them tested in the wind tunnel of the Institute Aérodynamique in Saint-Cyr.
[18] Later, to assess the air flow over full size bodies, he conceived of and manufactured sets of small, light, but precisely shaped vanes.
These vanes included a ball joint that allowed them to pivot in the air flow, and were attached to the body of the car under test by means of a suction cup.
The chassis was a new steel perimeter frame with a welded floor and attachment points for the front subframe and rear suspension.
The large and airy greenhouse, prominent raised bodyline highlighted by Inox trim circling the car at shoulder height, and scalloped panels below drew comparisons to the 1960 Chevrolet Corvair.
[21][22] The car's flat "flying" roof was carried on high-tensile strength steel pillars that extended down into the chassis for support.
When Renault's new 4L began to eat into sales of the 2CV, Pierre Bercot decided that the challenge could be answered by a car with an updated appearance that used the 2CV's mechanical components, replicated the features of the 4L, and could be slotted into Citroën's lineup above the 2CV but below the upcoming Ami 6.