Devin Enterprises
In 1954 Devin established his company, Devin Enterprises, to begin selling the first of his own cars.
This first car was the Devin-Panhard. On a chassis of his own design Devin mounted a body produced from a mold of the Deutsch-Bonnet he had taken in trade. To make the body Devin had to teach himself to work in the still relatively new medium of fiberglass. Powering the car was a 745 cc two-cylinder Panhard boxer engine, but Devin modified the engine in a way that made it unique. Devin adapted overhead-camshaft cylinder heads from a motorcycle to the engine and then drove the camshafts by a synchronous toothed belt, building the first such engine with a timing belt.[10] Devin did not patent this system.
Following his work on the Devin-Panhards, Devin began to sell aftermarket fiberglass bodies for custom sports cars. Beginning with a pattern from a small Italian spyder Devin developed a series of 50 sections of molds that allowed him to produce the Devin body in up to 27 different sizes to fit a variety of chassis. Devin would eventually become the largest and most successful manufacturer of fiberglass bodies in the world.
As the business grew he expanded into producing accessories and chassis which could be bought along with the bodies.
Devin's next project was to produce a new car, the Devin Super-Sport, or SS. Using a chassis built in Ireland and a Chevrolet small-block V8 with a body specific to the SS, the car was priced at US$5950.00 for the first years of production, rising to US$10,000.00 in the last year. Devin also sold a scaled-down version of this car called the Devin Junior that was powered by a 2 HP motor and intended for pre-teens.
Devin subsequently released another car, the Devin D, at a lower price than the SS. The Devin D used a Devin chassis and another new body. This car's suspension was made up of Volkswagen parts, while power was provided by a rear-mounted engine from either Porsche or Volkswagen.
Shortly after Chevrolet released their Corvair, Devin launched the Devin C with the same body as the Devin D but a new chassis adapted to use the six-cylinder boxer engine from the Corvair. The Devin C was also the basis of a new premium hard-top model called the Devin GT.
