Editing DB (car) (section)

== History ==
[[File:1955 DB Panhard HBR.jpg|thumb|1955 DB Panhard HBR competition]]
[[File:Panhard DB Le Mans - 2 cyl - 850 ccm - 60 PS - 1960 - 1.jpg|thumb|1960 [[DB Le Mans|DB Panhard Le Mans]] ''Luxe'']]

'''DB''' (until 1947 known as '''Deutsch-Bonnet''') was a French [[automobile]] maker between 1938 and 1961, based in [[Champigny-sur-Marne]] near Paris. The firm was founded by Charles Deutsch and René Bonnet, an offshoot of the Deutsch family's existing coachbuilding shop which had been taken over by Bonnet in 1932.<ref name=AQ55>[[#AQ181|Borgeson]], p. 55</ref> Immediately before the [[Second World War|war]] the partners concentrated on making light-weight racing cars, but a few years after the war, starting with the presentation of a [[Panhard Dyna X|Panhard]] based cabriolet at the 1950 Paris Motor Show, the company also began to produce small road-going sports cars. By 1952 the company no longer had its own stand at the [[Paris Motor Show]], but one of their cars appeared as a star attraction on the large [[Panhard]] stand, reflecting the level of cooperation between the two businesses.<ref name=Automobilia1953/>

The company was defunct by 1961, as Deutsch and Bonnet's differing design philosophies hamstrung further cooperation. The number of DB's built is not certain; estimates of up to 2,000 cars are mentioned<ref name=borgeson54>[[#AQ181|Borgeson]], p. 54</ref> but more conservative numbers are closer to one thousand.<ref name="Retroviseur10.08">{{cite journal | journal = Rétroviseur | title = Essai: DB Le Mans Grand Luxe 1962: Derniers beaux jours |trans-title=Last heydays | language = fr | last = Decker | first = Jean-Paul | page = 97 | ref = JPD |date=October 2008 | number = 238 | publisher = Éditions LVA | location = Fontainebleau, France | issn = 0992-5007 }}</ref>