What luxury sports car combines a multitude of components from other manufacturers with a custom-fabricated body all its own? It’s the Panoz Esperante, naturally.
Your author has always put the Esperante in a class with the Qvale Mangusta, which was featured on a previous edition of Rare Rides. In the early 2000s, start-up manufacturers made custom, low-volume sports cars for a well-heeled clientele they thought eagerly awaited such vehicles.
To be fair, the Esperante was not Panoz’ first time at the car manufacturing rodeo. Founded in 1989, the Esperante’s predecessor was also the premier offering from Panoz — the AIV Roadster. With a form similar to that of a Caterham 7, the AIV Roadster was produced from 1992 to 1995. Panoz began Esperante production in 2000, building standard road car variants and factory-ready racers which competed in SCCA competitions.
The chassis under all Esperante models was a custom, modular one, made of aluminum and attached to a steel subframe. Up top, the uniquely shaped body was hand-assembled out of aluminum for extra lightness.
All examples maintained a rear-drive layout, but Panoz mixed it up with engine offerings. Depending on the year and trim specified, the engine under the long hood was either a Ford 4.6-liter V8 (with or without supercharger), or a V8 sourced from General Motors. It seems the company was more fond of using Ford engines, which were built by Elan Motorsport Technologies rather than sourced directly from Ford.
Said Elan Motorsport engines produced 305 horsepower when naturally aspirated. Those horses were distributed to the rear wheels via a five- or six-speed manual, or four-speed automatic transmission. In standard configuration, the base Esperante accelerated to 62 miles per hour in 5.1 seconds.
Toward the end of the Esperante’s production run, Panoz developed a racing version called the GT-LM. The racer was ready for entry into the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2006, where it competed in the GT2 category. The GT-LM won first place that year in its category.
Panoz followed the Esperante with another coupe offering which took a while to get off the ground — the Avezzano. But it didn’t hit the road until the summer of 2017. It seems the Esperante is still in production, as variants are presently listed on the Panoz website, with prices and company contact information for custom orders.
Today’s Rare Ride comes to us from Atlanta. In silver over black and with just 7,800 miles on the odometer, the coupe asks $35,900.
[Images: seller]
Looks like it has mumps.
Anyone remember mumps?
With anti-vaxers who has to “remember”?
Ooh…I mostly hang out in a bubble of Boomers so I didn’t anticipate the gruesome timeliness of that with the recent destruction of science and reason among young parents.
I’m happy to be working in a school district that doesn’t allow any of that opt out bull$hit.
(And yes my own kids are vaccinated.)
Good on your district, Dan. Far as I’m concerned, anyone who opts out of vaccinations opts in to homeschooling. If these clowns want to watch their own kids get sick from diseases mankind has conquered, then that’s their business. Just don’t expose my kids.
We’ve actually been having whooping cough outbreaks in the area…
Freakin’ A!
When my first was born I was down at Walgreen’s getting my booster before she or her Momma left the hospital. I just felt sorry for the lady administering the shot. I had worn the wrong shirt and had to practically take it off to get the correct part of my arm.
No one should be subjected to that much fur and Dad Bod without forewarning.
Dan,
Could be worse. LA has typhus and IIRC there is a proposal to remove all the carpet in their City Hall to get rid of the rats and fleas. California, striding into a bright medieval future.
Our First World bubble is gone. Rather than fighting the invasion both political parties race to exploit it.
But soon the Ryans’ and Pelosis’ families will have exposed skin in their gruesome game, too.
Yeesh, looks quite cobbled together. The fit on that front bumper especially is unforgivable, or is that post-accident repair?
“Panoz” also means “diarrhea” in Russian, so there’s that.
//“Panoz” also means “diarrhea” in Russian, so there’s that.
It’s not a drug company?
The pharmaceutical company was named Elan.
Panoz is a family name.
That dash layout, not good
At least the greasy bits aren’t hard to come by. (Being Mustang GT parts essentially.)
The headlight switch in that location looks especially bad.
Looks like it was cribbed from the awful Saturn Ion but it’s the SN-95 Mustang cluster moved to the center.
The Ford drivetrain makes it a essentially Mustang roadster.
I stood beside a retirement-aged guy who bought one very similar to this one at Mecum Auctions Harrisburg, PA auction several years ago. His several buddies who attended the show with him were all trying to convince him the whole time he was bidding on the Panoz that they were not going to be responsible for his untimely death-by-wife when he brought it home.
Front end aside, this looks like the love child of a Z8 and a Miata, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Generic, but attractive.
Any fan of the early-aughts Mustangs will geek out on all that Mustang-sourced stuff in the interior (the gauge cluster, in particular).
Dang, I was so sure the next RR was going to be a red ’91 Capri.
Anyway, I understand placing gauges on the center stack to more easily build left and right hand drive models, but not angling them towards the driver is not good.
Oh, Panoz! I know that name from playing Gran Turismo growing up. Now I know a little more about them.
Pretty car but why put the gauge cluster in the center? That was something the British did in the 1960s to keep down production costs on cheap, basic transportation.
Hey, I thought coupes had four doors?
Never got the whole center gauge idea. Why have the driver take their line of sight of the road in front. Also, seems the parking brake lever should be on the driver’s side of the center console, that seems like and awkward layout. unless the idea was to give the passenger something to do.
They almost pulled it off, but those Chevy parts bin exterior door handles blew the deal.
And now I cannot see past the Buick Century door handles.
See also: 97-05 Malibu, Impala, probably some Pontiacs…those handles may have seen more nameplates than any other handle in history.
The dealership I worked for in the very early oughts was a Panoz dealer. Jeebus these things were stupid expensive IIRC, 75kish which for 2001 was some serious dough. Still is for a guy like me.
We had one in the Hyundai showroom, the jokes got old fast from all the 500 fico scores requesting a test drive.
I’ve always wanted to like these, but I can’t get past the goofy front end. I guess that’s supposed to be part of its charm, like the stretched front end of a Bristol. Oh, and RIP Dr. Don Panoz.
Your facts are not accurate at all. The Esperante GTLM scored multiple class wins in races, including the 2006 12 Hours of Sebring and 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans.
I made some corrections, but I’m not going into racing history outside of Le Mans.
Reminds me of an American TVR.
+1 on the TVR comment, except some TVRs are downright gorgeous. Are these IRS rear end or live axle mustang spec?