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HIDDEN TREASURES
lightning strike.
!7e11, it looks like Mr. Plavetich has

1959 Deutsch-Bonnet
HBR-s (Chassis # 1028)

done

it

again.

In 2005, Plavetich purchased Deutsch-

Bonnet HBR-5 (.*1028) from Don

By Mark R. Brinker

f wanr to be

Jacobsen of Midlothian, Texas. Plavetich

Rich

lPlavetich.

Is he cooll Check.

Does he have

cl

a

I
.'l

a

said, "'W'hen I acquired the car it was a
rough, but straight, restoration project.
Almost all of the aluminum trim was
included in boxes. The package came with

at Le Mans rn'53,'54,'55,'56, '59 and'60.
They also recorded five consecutive Mille
Miglia class victories (1953-1957 ), four at
Sebring ('53, '54, '56 and '59) and two
more at the Tourist Tlophy ('53 and '55).
Even as late as 1959 and 1960, these subone-liter cars were class winners at the
Niirburgring.
DB was a French automobile

manufacturer founded by Charles Deutsch

and Ren6 Bonnet, in 1938. Following
\7\7II, the company focused on producing

wonderful and beautiful
wife who also loves cars? Check. How
about a fabulous career? Check (General
Manager, Nissan Design America). But
does he have a car collectionl Check, and

four extra engines and gearboxes. The
overall condition of the chassis was very
good with only some surface rust. The

it's awesomel (see Hidden Tieasures,
December, 2016). Okay, he must live in a

Plavetich continued, "Many friends in
the car hobby have asked me over the

miserable place, right? Nope. Laguna

years, 'Why a DB?'I usually say, 'Why not?'
I saw several of them race at the Pittsburgh

several hundred units.

Vintage Grand Prix in the mid-1980s and
became fascinated by their small-

Champigny-sur-Marne, France upon

Beach, Califomia. See what I mean?

ln

2012, Plavetich acquired a very
original 1950 Simca 8 Sport Cabriolet
(*BBB6i3). He planned to restore the car
and use it for events and tours. However,
after doing a bit of digging, Plavetich
unexpectedly discovered that his Simca
was the very one that John Bentley and
Paul O'Shea drove in the six-hour Sam C.

Collier Memorial Grand Prix

of

Endurance in 1950 as part of the first
event ever held at Sebring. Thlk about a

THEN

fiberglass body was basically straight and
sound, but the interior was rather rough."

displacement, two-cylinder

*{F-ft,.
X
. '. Ar^(
p
*.r!

,

,-*'J

l6

VINTAGE RACECAR

engines

wrapped in a very sleek body. In vintage
events, the HBR-5 always runs with larger
displacement machines yet is capable of
staying right with them. As I dug deeper, I
leamed of DB's rich history of victories at
Le Mans, as well as considerable racing
success elsewhere." To expand on
Plavetich's insights, DB finished 1'. in class

lightweight sports and competition cars
using primarily Panhard mechanicals.
Their most commercially successful
offering (beginning in 1954) was the
HBR-5 model with production totaling

The HBR-5 was manufactured in
a

tubular steel backbone with transverse leaf
springs up front, independent trailing arms
with transverse torsion bars at the rear, and
drum brakes at all four corners. The engine
was a horizontally opposed, air-cooled,

Panhard two-cylinder, four-stroke with
two valves per cylinder, a roller.bearing
crankshaft, and torsional valve springs.
Early cars had engines displacing 750-cc
but as sales grew so did the engine, first to

'60

"Having restored Tiiumphs, Austin.
Healeys, MGs and Porsches, expertise was
always just a phone call away, and online
parts purchases would show up at my front

at
:\\-o

door via UPS within a couple of

days.

lfith

the DB, I could not find a local shop
willing to tackle roller bearing cranks and
torsional valve springs. The only solution
was to try to decipher cryptic French repair
manuals and give ir a go myself.

rhe

Relationships needed

to be made-in

France and in person. I joined Amicale DB
DB club-and went ro Retromobile.

-the
There, I was able to connect with
enthusiasts and parts suppliers. In parallel,
I found the few U.S.-based DB enthusiasts
who have since.become fast, close friends

the

in
a

.eaf

':-'-cc and later to 1000-cc. The transaxle
r. a front-whee1 drive configuration with
- -rr speeds and synchros for all but first.
- re attractirre and aerodynamic coupe
- l)' was produced in fiberglass bv
--i'rrrusson. Weighing just 1,300 pour-rds
, rl'r a Cd of 0.36, a frontal area of 1.65
.,:Llare meters and an engine producing
-'.!rre than 50 horsepc-rweq the HBR-5 was
. capable racer.

lo

When Plavetich received his DB in
-,'J5 he instantll, realized it had been
..ced, but the history was compietely
.nknou,n to him. Plavetich said. "The car

--:J a

ro11

-r idence

of

bar that showed

residue

numerous tech inspection

,iLckers-al1 of which had appar.ently
tlllen off over the years. The only cLue I
--LaJ was a partial Pennsylvania State
:rspection sticker from 1961, still attached
.,r the roll bar. That's all I had unril 2007
,, l-ren I received
an email rvith periocl
':1'r,rtographs from Steve Silverstein of

3.rston, showing some DBs in action on
track. One photo was a close up shot of

inspection stickers. In addition, the photos
showed thar Hanna's car had Alfin brake

!7alt
John
-Myron
Koopman, you (Mark Brinker) and others.

drums at the front and smooth standard
Panhard drums at the rear, just like on my
car as purchased. Finally, Howard Hanna
was from Philadelphia, which explained
the Pennsylvania inspection sticker on my
car. It seemed that the mysrery had been

The restoration process opened up

solved. Further research on Hanna
revealed that he was the SCCA F.
Production Champion in 1961 and 1962.

of

numerous tech

diverse backgrounds and locations. Aside
challenges sourcing parts and
rebuilding the Panhard engine and

from

gearbox,

the restoration was

fairly

straightforward."

beautiful

recorded, period photos seem to indicate
that most, if not all, of the events in '61
and'62 were with my DB."
Plavetich says he's been unable to find
any race history for his car after the 7962

drive. They had

SCCA season. His research

.i-rorving evidence

whole

South, and even the Bahamas Speed

Jacobsen purchased #7028 out of the
Maryland area in the early '70s. By the
mid-'7Os, the DB was owned byJohnJames
of Fayetteville, Georgia. Then in the 90s,

,.re:r that my car had evidence of
,rnsiderable fiberglass srress cracks. I also
:lrriced that this Hanna car had a kink in
:le rear wheel arch that was a perfect
::.ratch to the kink on my car. Both the
ilanna photo and my car hacl a ro11 bar

a

new social world with new friends from

!7eek. \7hi1e chassis numbers were nor

He was also the East Coast DB distributor.
access to orher
DBs, but clearly my car was one that he'd
raced extensively. From some of the racing
history websites I was able to compile a list
of events he entered on the East Coast,

As the distributor, he had

HBR-5 on a starting grid. Research of
:l-ie photo o{ car +37, and sr-rrrounding cars
r-r the grid identified the driver and race
rs Howard Hanna at Stuttgart, Arkansas,
r-r May 26, 1962. Upon closer inspection
,i the image, I noticed a dent on the
'.,,.rndow frame that seemed to be a per:fect
:ratch to my car, both in location and
:.rnfiguration. The photo also showed duct
:-rpe around the door handle in the same

Peterson,

Plavetich says the DB adventure
inspired a change in his collecting tasres:
"Having experienced the mainstream
sports car offerings from Germany and the
UK, I now veered to the obscurity of the
French and Italian auromobiles, seeking
out limited-volume cars with innovative
approaches to design and engineering.
They had to be technically interesting,

:1're

rr-r

Vernis,

suggests that

after sitting for a couple of decades,
Jacobsen repurchased the car with plans to

restore it someday. By 2005, Jacobsen's
priorities had changed and Plavetich was
able to make a deal. Through all the years
and a string of owners, no one had made

the Hanna racing connection until

Plavetich figured it out.
Plavetich says the restoration was a big
job and took him from 2005 to 2008. A

particular challenge was

finding

to look at and enrertaining ro
to move me from my
comfort zone and challenge my
mechanical skills while widening my social
network of like-minded enthusiasts. I have
since added a Marra Bonner Djet VS, a

Simca

8

Sport,

a Ford Comete and

a

Lancia Aurelia B20S to my collection, and
each car has provided new adventures and
friends to my world."
Yours truly has owned two Deutsch
Bonnet HBR-5s and ser eight Bonneville
land speed records in one of them. These

are magnificent machines; beautiful to
look at and exciting to race. After
exhaustive research I found no early racing
history for either of my cars. I am not cool.
I do not get to design cars for a living. And
Laguna Beach is a ZT-hour drive from my
doorstep.

I want to be Rich Plavetich. rffi
Do youknow of aHiddenTieas,uet

yow

knowledgeable people on Deutsch Bonner

send

and Panhard mechanicals. Plavetich said,

mbrinker@ uintager ac ecar. c om

photos

If so,

and stories to Mmk at

V|NTAGE RACECAR

]

t7