On the Wrong Road.(Escape Roads)(Pan Motor Company)

Byline: BROOKS BRIERLEY

This obscure make of car has charisma-the Pan's simple lines and compact dimensions (on a 108-inch-wheelbase chassis) give it a presence. The first thing you notice is its identification. When the sun is shining, the sparkle from the word "Pan'' etched into the beveled glass rear windows immediately draws in the eye.

But the Pan story is one of scandal and corruption. Company founder Samuel Pandolfo had a life insurance business in the southwest and he conceived of his car during his business travels. In 1916 he was raising money for his new Minnesota automobile company, promoting an ideal workers' village in St. Cloud (near Minneapolis) via a tabloid-style company newspaper called Pan Siftings. It included testimonials from the oldest living person in the country (supposedly 130 years old) and a banker who liked cars, one Charles Schwab. Pandolfo sold some $4 million in Pan Motor Co. stock, then placed half the proceeds in his personal bank account.

Save for prototypes, car production did not begin until 1919, as Pandolfo and his associates were tried and convicted of fraud. A receiver was appointed to guide the manufacture of some 750 cars. When a $1,085 Dodge was the class benchmark, Pan was priced high, $1,250, so it is little surprise the severe 1920-21 recession led to the end of production. Pandolfo himself was more resilient, continuing to start new business ventures. The 1950s saw him selling life insurance in Alaska.

This Pan has 32,000 miles on the clock. Parker Wickham of Long Island owned the car for 15 years before donating it last year to the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Wickham was visiting the Reynolds Museum in Calgary, Alberta, when the Pan caught his eye. "I thought it was great when I bought it,'' says the collector, who favors obscure makes. The car needed only some mechanical modifications-ignition work, cleaning the carburetor ...