Panzer Attack, 1959 Model T 50

Inquiring minds want to know, “ What does COPAR stand for anyway?”. In an article published in Farm Collector Magazine in May 2013 titled The Panzer  tractor through the years, Sam Moore offered the following explanation.

On a sweltering summer day in the early 1950’s James Clark was toiling in his yard under a blistering sun trying to control a walk behind garden tractor when he had one of those revelations common in such situations. Suddenly, he realized that he wasn’t enjoying what he was doing, at all! Being an engineer by profession he started looking for a solution to the problem. After trying several of the riding tractors available at the time he decided that he could design a better one and before long he approached the management of the company where he worked  with his ideas for a new riding garden tractor. 

Ahrendt Instrument Company of College Park Md. was primarily a defense contractor with no experience or connection to the lawn and garden industry whatsoever but they liked what Clark presented and surprisingly gave him a green light to develop his project. By 1954 they were in the garden tractor business and expanded into a renovated factory  in Laurel, Md. early in 1955. The first Panzer was a three wheel design powered by  a eight and a half horsepower Briggs & Stratton engine. It sold well and the product line soon expanded. 

By 1957 they decided that a smaller Panzer was needed and introduced the T 50 Model. It was powered by a four horsepower Clinton Model A 1200 engine that developed a reputation for vibration and being hard to start. The fact that the engine was bolted directly  to the frame only made matters worse. Some T 50’s were equipped with a Kohler K 90 4 hp. Engine that may have been an attempt to address the vibration issue. The T 50 production run turned out to be a short one. By late 1958 it had disappeared from COPAR sales literature. A flyer from that year listed a Model T 55 with a 4 hp Briggs & Stratton and a Model T 60 with a 5 ¾ hp Briggs but the T 50 was gone, never to return. Copar continued small tractor production with the T65 model until 1960 when small tractors were permanently discontinued.

Virginia Metalcrafters bought the Copar production facilities from Ahrendt in January 1960 . Three years later they acquired the Pennsylvania Lawn Mower Co. and combined them into the Pennsylvania Lawn Products Division. At this point the COPAR name was dropped and the tractors became Pennsylvania Panzers. Paint colors also changed  from red with yellow wheels to blue with white wheels and the tractors became “ Pennsylvania Panzers”. Production continued as Pennsylvania Lawn Products until 1970 when Schenuit Industries bought them out. One year later Schenuit went bankrupt and Pennsylvania Products was shut down for good.

The Model T 50 shown here is owned by Scott Ogle and was exhibited at the 2017 Fall Harvest Days Antique Engine & Tractor Show at the WNC Agricultural Center - Fairgrounds near Asheville, NC. Oh yea, about the name, almost forgot! COPAR is an abbreviation of College Park. When the first tractors were ready to go into production, Ahrendt held a name the tractor contest for the employees at the factory. The winner was, you guessed it, Panzer.

Resources:

www.farmcollector.com

www.tractordata.com 

www.panzertractors.com