Automobiles René Bonnet
Automobiles René Bonnet was a French automobile maker.
The firm was the continuation of Deutsch et Bonnet (DB) by René Bonnet when Charles Deutsch, the "D" in DB, founded his own firm CD. The business was based at Champigny-sur-Marne to the south-east of central Paris.
A principal cause of the breach had involved the determination of Deutsch to stay loyal to Panhard engines while Bonnet was keen to switch to Renault power plants.
The company produced light front wheel drive sports cars with very aerodynamic fiberglass bodies mainly powered by enhanced Renault engines. Its cars participated in the LeMans 24 Hours race in 1962, 1963 and 1964. Management concentration on racing activity may nevertheless have come at the expense of commercial focus, and relatively few cars were sold during this period: by 1964 the cash was running out.
In 1962 the René Bonnet company launched its Djet model, generally remembered in retrospect as a Matra. However, between 1962 and 1964 198 Bonnet Djets were sold. A further 1491 would be sold as Matra Djets between 1965 and 1968. The car went through a succession of engines based on Renault units, and the early ones were powered by the 996 cm³ engine then appearing in the Renault 8: this was quickly supplemented by the 1 108 cm³ engine which Renault would introduced on the Renault 8 for 1964.
The firm worked increasingly closely with its principal investor Matra.[1] Matra was at the time an armaments manufacturer concentrating on missiles, but they were also enthusiastic about the future of the fibreglass technology in which Bonnet was a pioneer.[1] An important role in bringing Bonnet's business and Matra together was also contributed by an energetic former fighter pilot and national politician called André Moynet[1] whose involvement with the enterprise appears to have outlasted Bonnet's own. Matra's rapidly evolving partnership with René Bonnet's auto-making business was the beginning of the subsequently better known Matra Automobile division, formally inaugurated in October 1964. After this Bonnet himself appears to have had little further significant involvement in the business that for two and a half years had carried his name.
[edit] Cars
- René Bonnet Djet 1962 - 1964 (and subsequently produced as Matra-Bonnet Djet/Matra Jet until 1967)
- Aérojet René Bonnet 1964 - 1965 (Car competition, only nine in world !)
[edit] External links
[edit] Sources and further reading
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