Thursday 25th March 2010

Panoz To Launch New Sports Car At Le Mans

La Sarthe is the chosen location for new 'Abruzzi' sports car

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What the Abruzzi could look like...

US sports car maker Panoz is due to unveil an all-new sports car called the Abruzzi at this June’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Don Panoz, father of the company’s founder Danny, revealed the plans at the Sebring 12-hour race in Florida last weekend. This sketch (right) recently popped up on a Panoz forum, and apparently comes from a former Panoz designer, though it is not an official image.

Panoz is most famous on the European side of the Atlantic for its Le Mans campaigns in the late nineties and early noughties (with a fifth place overall finish in 2000).

...and what the Esperante does look like

But Panoz also has a road car business. The mainstay of this is the Esperante sports car, which is powered by a 300bhp 4.6-litre Ford V8. Whether the Abruzzi will replace or supplement this is as yet unknown.

Other details are also scarce, although it is thought that the series production car will spawn a GT2-spec competition version. Considering Panoz’s racing heritage, it’s probably a fair bet…

[djt100]

I just looked at the website, $130,000 is a lot for a posh kit car... And not a nice looking one at that