Ever heard of a Panoz? Cars and Coffee content.

So this week's Cars and Coffee in Dayton featured another interesting car. Usually we seem to be having 1-2 you either would never expect, or never heard of. This one I had never heard of. It had a large Ford engine in it, and from a distance I thought it was a Prowler.

A Panoz.

Yep, see one about twice a month at our little local cruise-in.

In reply to Jerry:

Don Panoz started the American Le Mans Series and for a while owned Road Atlanta, Sebring and Mosport. Panoz race cars ran in the ALMS for years, and they offered several street car models.

I would love an AIV. I've watched these for some time. Sort of a modern Se7en with a Mustang drive train.

Panoz AIV (Aluminum Intensive Vehicle) roadster...their first vehicle. The LMP and GTR series racecars are probably the most well known from them. Haven't been following them for years, but one of their newest cars, the Abruzzi, looks pretty cool...

Personally I'd take their "miata"...the Esperante RSR:

For a while, Panoz was a great source of take-off mod motor parts, since they bought them as crate engines from Ford and then didn't use everything like fuel rails, injectors, etc. Scored some killer deals for my mod motor 57 that way.

Esperante hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Loved the AIV when I was younger.

About how much does an esparante run?

Didn't Panoz used to advertise a lot in GRM?

I always liked the Esperante better.

The Esperante is one of my favorite cars

I've heard Don made his money by inventing the patch, as in the nicotine patch, Dramamine patch, etc. True?

I like the Esperante, but the Abruzzi is an abomination.

I watched this one do about 4 laps at Sebring before retiring for good. It was abysmally slow, it was abysmally ugly.

Cheap somewhat competitive Race Cars but rarely a winner. Still the cheap part made me consider one at one time.

Streetwiseguy wrote: I've heard Don made his money by inventing the patch, as in the nicotine patch, Dramamine patch, etc. True?

Yes.

You guys make me feel really old when you discover all of these obscure cars.

Ah-Ha Panoz... we get a few of the esperante race cars every years at NASA events. They are accurately described as inexpensive for what they are, relatively fast, somewhat competitive, but rarely winners of the club racing world. They look kinda cool but I always liked the AIV better.

If you check the GRM classifieds in the back of the magazine there is always at least one Panoz for sale.

I learned about the Panoz Esperante from video games about 12+ or so years ago.

That Panoz in the first picture is uuuuuuugly.

I've heard of Panoz. Never seen one in the wild though.

Now I wish I had known to ask him what he paid for it.

He never owned Sebring. Only leased it from the Airport authority. I can't think of one decent thing he did for the track outside the pit upgrades. The hotel...I guess for club weekends but other than that nothing else. The GTR-1 and LMP1 are the best looking cars with that nameplate.

I remember getting an invite from them with a pit pass to come see them race at PIR many moons ago. Some very cool cars. Kinda wish they were still around and kicking.

My first race ever... I passed an Esparante on the brakes going into the Octopus at Thunderbolt. He had cut a tire down and could only manage a second off my pace driving around on the rim. It still sounded fantastic.

LopRacer wrote: Ah-Ha Panoz... we get a few of the esperante race cars every years at NASA events. They are accurately described as inexpensive for what they are, relatively fast, somewhat competitive, but rarely winners of the club racing world. They look kinda cool but I always liked the AIV better.

ryanty22 wrote: About how much does an esparante run?

It runs probably 99% of the time....oh... you mean price?

$40k will get you one...