Louis-René Panhard and Emile Levassor founded their company in Paris in 1886 and produced their first car (also powered by a Daimler engine) three years later. The B 1 was presented in 1899. It mounts a Daimler Phenix with automatic inlet valves and is derived from the model in which Ferdinand Charron won the Paris-Amsterdam race in 1898 at an average speed of more than 44 km/h.