DB HBR
The DB HBR , also DB Panhard HBR and DB HBR Sport , was a sports car that was developed by Deutsch & Bonnet in 1953 and was used in sports car races until 1962.
Development history
In 1932, the French racing driver and later designer Charles Deutsch inherited an automobile workshop from his father and sold it to his compatriot René Bonnet that same year . In 1938 they founded the company Automobiles DB for the production of automobiles in Champigny-sur-Marne . The brand names were DB and Deutsch & Bonnet . After the end of the Second World War , the production of road cars began and the development of racing cars that had begun before the war continued.
One of the first designs was the HBR, a small two-seater Spyder. The car was based largely on Panhard technology, such as the 0.7-liter 2-cylinder flat engine. The bodies were made of aluminum and some were made of fiberglass . The 0.7 liter engine of the Renault 4CV was installed in some chassis .
The HBR was the company's first successful racing car that was also produced for private teams and drivers. In the 1950s, an index rating was used in many sports car races, which created a balance between large-displacement and low-displacement vehicles. The smaller cars often had the advantage. Today this form of rating is unknown and in retrospect only the overall victories are significant. In the time of the races themselves, however, this indexing was of considerable importance and the HBR was developed primarily for this reason.
Racing history
This little racing car was first used in racing at the Sebring 12-hour race in 1953 . René Bonnet himself, together with the American Wade Morehouse , drove an HBR to eleventh place in the overall ranking and to victory in the class for sports cars up to 0.7 liter displacement. So there was already the hoped-for success in the first race. Further reports followed at the following events of the 1953 World Sports Car Championship . In June 1953 there was the surprising overall victory of an HBR at the Grand Prix of Roubaix against larger-capacity competition. After almost three hours of driving, René Bonnet was almost ten minutes faster than, for example, Graham Whitehead in the Aston Martin DB3 or TAS O. Mathieson in a Maserati A6GCS .
In 1954 , the goal of winning the index in a world championship run became a reality. The RAC Tourist Trophy of this year had a sport-historical peculiarity: for the awarding of points in the world championship, not the overall ranking but the index ranking was used. Thus the little HBR of Paul Armagnac and Gérard Laureau won there , who had only finished 21st in the overall standings.
At Le Mans , the best result of an HBR in the overall standings was tenth overall for Bonnet and Élie Bayol in 1954 . HBR's were driven until 1962 and achieved a total of 17th class and index victories.