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Panoz Esperante GT1
From Reynard's Drawing Board in 1996
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Panoz Photo Courtesy of: Rick Steiger Motorsports Photography
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An Engineering Enigma
The Battle for Le Mans
Eclipsed by Sportscar Design
A NEW Direction and Stunning Results
Farewell to the Coupe
LINK: Rick Steiger Motorsports Photography
Panoz Motorsports (say: "pay-nose") was launched in the mid Nineties with the express purpose of establishing an American endurance racing car heritage. The car pictured above was the last evolution of a GT1 that was originally built by Reynard Racing for Chrysler (thus the front-engine layout and Viper-esque looks).
By 1996 the GT1s had evolved beyond the performance threshold of the Viper, and

Chrysler was in search of a car worthy of competing against the latest GT1 machines. However, Chrysler wisely decided to drop their GT1 plans and instead focus on their GTS class Viper, which then won its class in Le Mans 3 years in a row. Panoz Motorsports snapped up the orphaned GT1s and replaced the Viper sourced 8.0litre V10s with NASCAR based pushrod Ford V8s.
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