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Panoz

American sports car manufacturer

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Panoz is an American manufacturer of luxury sports automobiles founded in 1989 as Panoz Auto Development by Dan Panoz, son of Don Panoz (1935, 2018). The company has also been extensively involved in professional racing, and designs, engineers and builds its own race cars (including chassis and components). Panoz products have included the Panoz Roadster and AIV Roadster, the Panoz Esperante, and the Panoz Avezzano and the Panoz Abruzzi.

01Panoz and racing

Since 1997, Panoz cars have competed in racing series around the world. Team Panoz Racing race the Panoz Avezzano in the Pirelli GTS class, and in 2018 won the Manufacturer's Championship. In addition to Le Mans series (Now European Le Mans series) wins, an Esperante GTLM won the GT2 class at the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the same year, won the 2006 12 Hours of Sebring and was on the podium at the endurance season finale, 2006 Petit Le Mans. For the 2007 American Le Mans season, Panoz contracted longtime BMW Motorsport partner Prototype Technology Group to campaign the GTLM in the ALMS and Le Mans. Panoz has also provided IndyCar with the G-Force GF05 and GF09; and the Champ Car World Series with their final race car, the Panoz DP01 which was the final chassis used under Champ Car until the unification of the American open wheel racing series.

A gray colored 2-door Panoz Esperante convertible roadster
A gray colored 2-door Panoz Esperante convertible roadster

02Road cars

03Race cars

Panoz Esperante GTR-1 in the paddock of the 2022 Le Mans Classic.
Panoz Esperante GTR-1 in the paddock of the 2022 Le Mans Classic.

04Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans

Year Entrant No. Car Drivers Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
1997 DAMS 52 Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Éric Bernard
Jean-Christophe Boullion
Franck Lagorce
LMGT1 149 DNF DNF
David Price Racing 54 Butch Leitzinger
Andy Wallace
James Weaver
236 DNF DNF
55 David Brabham
Harry "Doc" Bundy
Perry McCarthy
145 DNF DNF
1998 DAMS
Panoz Motorsports
44 Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Éric Bernard
Johnny O'Connell
Christophe Tinseau
LMGT1 236 DNF DNF
Panoz Motorsports 45 David Brabham
Jamie Davies
Andy Wallace
335 7th 7th
1999 Panoz Motorsports 11 Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S Max Angelelli
Jan Magnussen
Johnny O'Connell
LMP900 324 11th 9th
12 Éric Bernard
David Brabham
Butch Leitzinger
337 7th 6th
2000 Panoz Motorsports 11 Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S Mario Andretti
David Brabham
Jan Magnussen
LMP900 315 15th 8th
12 Hiroki Katoh
Johnny O'Connell
Pierre-Henri Raphanel
342 5th 5th
2001 Panoz Motor Sports 11 Panoz LMP07 Jamie Davies
Gary Formato
Klaus Graf
LMP900 86 DNF DNF
12 David Brabham
Franck Lagorce
Jan Magnussen
85 DNF DNF
2002 Panoz Motor Sports 11 Panoz LMP01 Evo David Brabham
Bryan Herta
Jan Magnussen
LMP900 90 DNF DNF
12 Bill Auberlen
David Donohue
Gunnar Jeannette
230 DNF DNF
2003 JML Team Panoz 11 Panoz LMP01 Evo Olivier Beretta
Gunnar Jeannette
Max Papis
LMP900 360 5th 3rd
12 Benjamin Leuenberger
Scott Maxwell
David Saelens
233 DNF DNF
2004 Panoz Motor Sports
Larbre Compétition
11 Panoz GTP Roland Bervillé
Jean-Luc Blanchemain
Patrick Bourdais
LMP1 54 DNF DNF
2005 Panoz Motor Sports 77 Panoz Esperante GT-LM Bill Auberlen
Robin Liddell
Scott Maxwell
LMGT2 27 DNF DNF
78 Patrick Bourdais
Marino Franchitti
Bryan Sellers
185 DNF DNF
2006 Multimatic Motorsport Team Panoz 77 Panoz Esperante GT-LM Gunnar Jeannette
Scott Maxwell
Tommy Milner
LMGT2 34 DNF DNF
Team LNT 81 Richard Dean
Tom Kimber-Smith
Lawrence Tomlinson
321 15th 1st
2006 Team LNT 81 Panoz Esperante GT-LM Tom Kimber-Smith
Tommy Milner
Danny Watts
LMGT2 60 DNF DNF
82 Rob Bell
Richard Dean
Lawrence Tomlinson
308 23rd 5th

05Panoz Motor Sports Group

Panoz Motor Sports Group was sold to NASCAR in 2012. The assets of the sale included the American Le Mans Series, Road Atlanta, Sebring International Raceway and Panoz Racing Schools. Mosport International Raceway was sold separately to a Canadian consortium led by Ron Fellows and Carlo Fidani.

Panoz, LLC., is an automotive manufacturer that builds and designs street cars and race cars. Élan Motorsports is a company that builds and designs race cars too. Both these two companies are still owned by the Panoz family.

American Le Mans Series

The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was created by Don Panoz in 1999. Panoz also owned the International Motor Sports Association, the organization that sanctions the ALMS. It held its inaugural event, the 1998 Petit Le Mans as part of the Professional Sportscar Racing series. The ALMS has a partnership with the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, the organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, to allow teams to compete to the same regulations. In 2012, the ALMS was sold to NASCAR and then in 2014, the series merged with the Rolex Sports Car Series to form United SportsCar Racing.

Circuits

The Panoz group previously owned Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, United States as well as previously operated Sebring International Raceway in Sebring, Florida, United States. They also previously owned Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada but was sold in 2011. The tracks hosted the American Le Mans Series, now the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, in addition to other top-level auto and motorcycle racing series.

Élan Motorsport Technologies

Élan Motorsports is a company that designs and builds race cars, from top-level professional racing cars through to amateur race cars. The company is owned by the Panoz family. Élan acquired other manufacturers, including famous Formula Ford builders Van Diemen and Indy Racing League constructor G-Force Technologies. Élan-built cars have raced in the Indy Racing League, Champ Car World Series, American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, and other championships.

Panoz Racing School and series

The Panoz Racing School was a driver training school previously operated at Road Atlanta and Sebring International Raceway. Students learned racing techniques in purpose-built Panoz GT-RA cars. Following completion of the course, students were eligible for an SCCA regional racing license. The school also included programs where customers could receive instruction in their own road cars.

The Panoz Racing Series was a one-make series made up of the Panoz School cars, as well as the more powerful Panoz GTS models. The series was designed for amateurs to learn racing in a low-cost environment.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Panoz, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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