Good Find Friday features interesting vehicles we’ve found for sale while conducting market analysis or appraisal research. They are not for sale by Wolf and Mare and we have no business relationship with the sellers. We just think they’re worth learning about and sharing with our readers!

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Many of us crave a feeling of being unique. It’s not unusual to want to attract attention when showing up to a car meet, and you might think the only way to do that is by rolling into the venue in a high-priced exotic. However, there are a ton of ways to stand out in the crowd for reasonable money. For example, when was the last time you saw a Deutsch-Bonnet at a car meet? Today’s Good Find Friday car, a 1957 DB Panhard HBR5, is an unusual French car that is sure to draw a crowd.

Deutsch-Bonnet (DB) was a French sports-car maker founded in 1937 by Charles Deutsch and René Bonnet. The company built lightweight, aerodynamic sports cars—often fiberglass-bodied—and specialized in using compact, air-cooled Panhard flat-twin engines in front-wheel-drive chassis.

DB earned numerous class wins and “Index of Performance” awards at Le Mans, the Mille Miglia, and Sebring. Its partnership ended in 1961 due to disagreements over design direction, effectively bringing the marque to a close by 1962.

Finished in red with a red interior, this 1957 DB Panhard HBR5 Coach Luxe is one of around 430 standard HBR5s produced and is currently listed for sale on LesAnciennes.com in France with an asking price of €62,500 or $72,940.

The DB Panhard HBR5 featured a lightweight fiberglass body (made by Chausson) mated to a tubular frame consisting of a strong central beam and outriggers. This particular car is said to have been completely restored in 2016 by its current owner, with all bodywork and mechanical components refreshed.

The paintwork appears to be very good in condition and the eye-catching red color is a nice departure from French blue or white. The overall panel fit doesn’t appear to be perfect, but seems consistent with other HBR5s I’ve seen on the market. Chausson was a low bidder on these cars because they wanted to gain experience in building fiberglass bodies, so perhaps some of that is a result of the handmade and bespoke nature of the DBs in general.

The interior also appears to be in great condition, with diamond-stitched bucket seats and a lovely wood-trimmed steering wheel. Displaying evidence of its racing provenance, a fire extinguisher is mounted on the passenger floorboard and a rally computer is affixed to the dash.

Looking at the engine bay, one can see how far forward the air-cooled engine has been placed. The Panhard engine in these cars is quite interesting: One-piece connecting rods rotate a roller-bearing crankshaft, and the combustion chambers are hemispherical with torsion-bar spring-operated valves. The listing notes a fair bit of mechanical maintenance performed on the engine, which is a 52hp 851cc unit.

The car rolls on a set of reinforced rims and braking is provided but pretty large aluminum drums in a fascinating and unusual mounting arrangement. Apparently this vehicle was raced in-period at various rallies, which adds some significant value and enables the car to be entered into historic racing events.

There are 12 sales comps for DB cars dating back to 2014. These seem to be cars that are generally sold through private or retail transactions. Those sales include some of the rarer competition cars and not just HBR5 coupes. Five total sales for these cars are available, and I’ve displayed them in the graph below.

Don’t let the downward trend line suggest values are on the decline for these cars, rather it reflects that there are few of these cars offered on the market and prices vary significantly based on specification and provenance. This is not the only DB HBR5 currently available. On the same platform, you will also find this ivory-colored 1960 HBR5 that has had the same owner for 52 years.

I wish I could examine one of these in person, as small-displacement European competition cars like these tend to be quite tiny. It’s likely I couldn’t comfortably fit inside, but I’d sure like to try! The color, styling and racing history of this car would make a splash at pretty much any car meet or concours in the USA. That said, given its eligibility for historic racing in Europe, it’ll probably stay on the Continent.

Would you import this lightweight racer with a rally heritage? Let me know in the comments.

Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisal and auction services for sellers and buyers of collector European cars. We also provide importation services. Give us a call or drop us a line!