[4] The business produced light sports cars, originally in steel or aluminium but subsequently with fibreglass bodies mainly powered by Panhard flat-twin engines, most commonly of 610, 744, or 848 cc.

Bonnet had been promised a works drive in an Amilcar Pégase in the 1936 French Grand Prix for sports cars, but when this failed to materialise they set about building their own racer.

With a central beam chassis with a forked cradle for the 1.5 litre Traction 7A-based engine (originally intended for the DB2) it was finished in July 1945, with most of the work having been carried out in secret during the occupation.

[6][9] Neither single-seater DB was at all successful, but they did show Deutsch - who had hitherto preferred dependable standard units - that a tuned engine would become necessary.

When this organization decided to begin a Mouvement Racer 500, modelled on the British Formula 3, Deutsch offered club members the design of a racing car using a Panhard 500 engine.

One member asked to have DB build such a car, and after it made a star appearance at the 1949 Paris Salon Panhard was happy to support the construction of about fifteen more.

[3] In 1952, a DB Speedster was entered in the 12 Hours of Sebring and won its class handsomely, beginning its career in the United States market.

[11] The Renault-engined designs had been created as a concession to pressure from DB's customers, but they did very badly in the race, in part because of a shortage of preparation time for what was an unknown entity to Deutsch and Bonnet.

[12] While a handsome (winning two concours d'élegances) and modern design, Citroën refused to allow the provision of parts for series production.

[12] After DB began to depend on Panhard for engines, Antem was again commissioned to make a cabriolet with the intent to build a small series of street cars.

Deutsch's very efficient and influential aerodynamic designs allowed DB race cars to reach impressive top speeds despite the small Panhard flat-twin engine.

[6] DB even managed an outright win in the handicapped 1954 Tourist Trophy sports car race, with Laureau and Armagnac driving.

The Index of Performance is perhaps best known at the Le Mans 24 hours competition, but the category also existed at many French automobile races of the era, such as the Tour de France.