REPORT: Panoz ditches proposed LMP1 program in favor of new Esperante successor
Panoz Esperante GT-LM - Click above for high-res image gallery
It's been a while since we've heard anything from Panoz Auto Development. The American sportscar manufacturer came onto the scene in the late Nineties with their AIV Roadster, and later went onto create various road and race versions of the Mustang-based Esperante. Around the same time company founder Danny Panoz started building cars, his father Don Panoz also started the the American Le Mans Series, vaulting the family business from automaker and race team to race series organizer.
In the past few years, Panoz has crafted several Le Mans prototype racers and even some Indy/Champ Car chassis. The company has achieved limited success with its front-engined LMP1 program, but the Esperante GT-LM racecar made history when it took GT2 class victories at both the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in 2006. More recently, the company had been focusing its energies on a revolutionary new front-engine LMP1 design called Abruzzi to compete with the field of mid-engine rivals. Reports from the motorsport world, however, now indicate that Panoz has aborted the Abruzzi project in favor of a new GT2 program. But as we all know, GT racers are based on road cars, and that's exactly what Panoz appears to have in the works.
According to Autosport, Panoz decided against a purpose-built racing prototype in favor of a road car, and from that they plan make a racing version. Exactly what the car will be like is up to speculation at this point, but we're looking forward to finding out.
Gallery: Panoz Esperante GT-LM
Photos copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Autosport]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Vision7 5:58PM (10/15/2009)
It's about time!! The Esperante was a decent car but, even for a low-volume manufacturer like Panoz, this car is getting a fairly long in the tooth.
I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with.
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Visnick 6:07PM (10/15/2009)
Has anyone else seen this car in person?
Not that it matters but it is one of the best sounding things I have ever heard!
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Joe K. 7:51PM (10/15/2009)
AGREED! That car at Lime Rock sounded like a freakin' hot rod compared to the the GT2 Ferrari and Porsches. Between that, the Viper and Ford, the American muscle was aurally well represented!
Visnick 7:57PM (10/15/2009)
That's where I heard it too.
You could always tell when that thing was coming
BTW: I have pics up from the Risi pits if you care to see them
http://alex.kinstle.com
go to "ALMS Lime Rock 2009"
Cypher09 10:11PM (10/15/2009)
The sound of that Elan V8 bouncing of the buildings of down town Long Beach is almost as good as hearing it crest over the hill at Lime Rock.
Joe K. 10:32PM (10/15/2009)
I have to make it out to Long beach one of these years. Mosport and Mid-Ohio were awesome too.
That's the fun of the ALMS races, each car has an identity, not a constant drone...
Visnick 10:51PM (10/15/2009)
Never been to Long Beach.
Would be nice to go to that and Laguna Seca
ForgedInternals 6:14PM (10/15/2009)
Is Panoz still using SVT 4.6l DOHC 'Terminator' engines? 420hp (600hp for the racing versions) in a Miata sized car has to be ridiculously fun/Impeding death.
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Clavius 6:28PM (10/15/2009)
Awsome car. I remember watching a show (think maybe on Discovery?) where they followed the build of the road car form start to finish. Curious if they'll stay with the Ford engine or go to a GM one. Either way if its lightweight and powerful I'll add this to my dream wish list of cars to own.
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tuna 6:51PM (10/15/2009)
For the new car, Panoz should approach the various and excellent transportation design colleges and academies around the country and ask the students to come up with a design. There are some amazing talent in these programs and the students would love the opportunity. The Esperante is an interesting car, pretty decent looking from the rear. But, on the whole, it is not an attractive road car... the price tag didn't help. Taking advantage of a design student competition would be a win-win.
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ForgedInternals 7:07PM (10/15/2009)
I liked the exterior, the interior on the other hand was too parts bin-ish and mounting the Mustang gauge cluster on the center console and putting thay shroud around it was a really bad idea
adam1drift 7:21PM (10/15/2009)
It’s about time! This is an amazing car but the looks just don’t fit in these times. I’ve been begging Panoz to come up with a new more aggressive design. They need to do something to compete with the Corvette in LeMans too though.
I hope that they don’t go with GM engines, either go with newer or better Ford engines or engineer their own.
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EJ25RUN 7:32PM (10/15/2009)
Is Multimatic still producing the car?
I know PTG runs it but who was originally responsible for the chassis development?
I've seen it twice now at the Petit Le Mans. Definitely one of the best sounders in the field and seeing it go against the Vette, M3, 911, Comp Coupe, Robertson GT, and V8 Vantage is a real highlight of racing right now.
GT2 is the best racing there is right now.
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Mike 9:18PM (10/15/2009)
There are a whole slew of errors in this story.
- The Esperante shares many components with the Mustang, but it's in NO way based on the Mustang
- The Abruzzi was NOT the supposed "new" LMP1 that had been mentioned, it was a new road car that Panoz began development on years ago and we haven't heard much about since
- The proposed "new" LMP1 was actually planned to be a chopped/modded/redone version of the OLD LMP1 made to 2010 specs and to run on bio-butanol. Panoz had a big dinner the weekend of Petit Le Mans at the Chateau Elan to try to bait potential investors, but none were found, so the program was binned
- Next years' new GT2 will not be a "new" program, a new team, new car, or even new drivers. It WILL however feature an EVO spec version of the same Esperante GTLM that Team PTG ran this year, and we've seen in action for 6 seasons now. Team PTG will continue and Dominik Farnbacher and Ian James will continue to pilot the car. I'd expect it to be similar to 2002 when we saw an EVO spec version of the LMP1 prototype, but at the end of the day, the venerable Esperante GTLM will live on for at least 1 more season