In 1988 Daniel Panoz, son of pharmaceutical mogul Donald Panoz, was looking for a job with a boutique Irish car maker called Thompson Motor Company. In one sense, the timing was bad: the company was going out of business, and its assets were being liquidated. In another sense, though, the timing was perfect, and instead of a job Daniel Panoz wound up with the first component of what would soon
...In 1988 Daniel Panoz, son of pharmaceutical mogul Donald Panoz, was looking for a job with a boutique Irish car maker called Thompson Motor Company. In one sense, the timing was bad: the company was going out of business, and its assets were being liquidated. In another sense, though, the timing was perfect, and instead of a job Daniel Panoz wound up with the first component of what would soon become Panoz Auto Development. That component was the license to a chassis designed by Frank Costin, who had also designed racing chassis for Lister, Lotus, and Maserati.
That chassis was initially intended to serve as a platform for Panoz Auto Development's original Roadster, introduced as a prototype in 1990 and built to order starting in 1992 in the company's small factory outside of Atlanta. The retro-styled cycle-fendered Roadster was a thinly-disguised racing car, albeit one that was street-legal. Power was provided by an off-the-shelf Ford Mustang V-8, driving the rear wheels through a five-speed gearbox. Intended as a weekend toy rather than a practical daily driver, the Panoz Roadster had no top, no radio, and no heater. It was, however, equipped with a DOT-required defroster, the efficacy of which has to be called into question given the lack of a top. Ironically, despite serving as the impetus for the company's creation, the Costin chassis was never fitted to a Panoz Roadster. The original Roadster stayed in production--if 44 vehicles can qualify for that term--until 1995.
The 1996 model year saw the introduction of a new-and-improved model, to be hand-built in a new factory. That factory also provided the space needed to develop a new platform, called the Esperante, which would be offered in several street and competition versions. The road-going Esperante was equipped for everyday use but still offered blistering performance. The racing variants were designed to conform to various production-based competition classes and quickly became serious contenders on the track. The company entered the Esperante-derived GTR-1 in the 1997 24 Hours of LeMans. Although the GTR-1 failed to finish in its first outing, the following year it finished ahead of all but two major factory teams, placing seventh overall. The 1998 racing season ended with Panoz taking nine wins, and four championships, including the U.S. Road Racing Championship title.
The Panoz Motor Sports Group, owned by Dan's father Don, owns three major U.S. road racing circuits (Mosport, Road Atlanta, and Sebring), the American Le Mans Series (created in 1999 by Don Panoz), the International Motor Sports Association, the Panoz Racing School, and other race-related entities.
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