Panoz

[gttouring]

Has panoz come of age? are they a proper GT manufacturer, and is the Panoz esperante or LMGT (whatever the new one is called-help me out here)
has it made its place in history as the samll yankee mark who tried to take it to Ferrari and Porsche? (i wonder has TVR reinvented itself in this way too after many years missing?)
and what would it take for Panoz or a similar make to do so? they have the racing history, and the geneology from the big Esperante Batmobile, and the Panoz LMP01...

[Truckosaurus]

I think Panoz have themselves in the history books already for having the only car to challenge the Audi R8's dominance of the ALMS in recent years.

As for GT racing, its a long step from being a boutique manufacturer to becoming a mass market purveyor of sporting automobiles like Porsche, Ferrari, Maserati, Aston or Corvette.

As for TVR, they've been a road car maker for 50 years and haven't done much more than dabble in international racing, and even then much has been at the hands of privateers.

Perhaps one becomes a "proper GT manufacturer" when you are known more for your road cars than your racing cars....

[pink69]

Panoz certainly have done themselves proud with their efforts with the LMP-01, a car several years old yet still managed to push the dominant R8 all the way several times over the year, even managing to win the odd race. Their new GT2 challenger has the potential to do well but up against the established 996 cars its go alot of hard work ahead for the team. But good luck to them, I hope they can get in there and beat the Porsche guys! Hopefully a return to the LMP 1 category isn;t far away either.

[Erki]

What's the difference between 996 used in Europe and 911 RSR used in America?

[ger80]

both are 911 model 996 RSR

[Félix]

Another Panoz question:

What happened to the connection with Courage Compétition? They were supposed to be the European distributor for the Esperante GT2-LM and they even received one around Le Mans last year... It obviously didn't work as Team LTN seems to have taken control buying 4 cars for themselves and being the representents in Europe. The Courage deal also involved measurements on a C60 to see if a Panoz engine would fit and intentions to design the next car (LC70) to accomodate a big Panoz V8. They seem to have chosen Mugen, but could it still happen, maybe as a revival of team Panoz in the ALMS (since Multimatic now takes care of the GT2s)? Also, what are Van Diemen and other PMS companies up to?