Panoz Roadster

In the summer of 1990 Daniel E. "Danny" Panoz unveiled the prototype of the Panoz Roadster. This private event took place under the pavilion at the Chateau Elan in Braselton, Georgia. On hand were the small team of men that built the handmade prototype, Danny's parents, and about 125 members of the automotive press. At the end of the unveiling, Danny helped his wife Melanie into the passenger seat, and drove the Roadster out to the parking lot. A gentleman from Connecticut ordered the first three Roadsters that evening, and he later moved to Georgia to work at the factory.

In 1992, the Panoz Auto Development Company of Georgia launched a new vehicle, the Panoz Roadster. This sports car/hot rod was built using a stainless steel frame and an aluminum body.

These handmade vehicles were the brainchild of Donny Panoz who had purchased the rights to the frame designed by Frank Costin used in a defunct Irish sportscar called the TMC Costin. Panoz had Freeman Thomas design a new body for the car. The car used Ford Mustang running gear — engine and transmission — a solid rear axle and independent front suspension.

Tooling was made so the Superformed aluminum body panels could be produced. This aircraft process produced amazingly strong, light bodywork. Danny was the first person to build a car using this process.

The early cars were built to order for individual buyers. The original Panoz Roadster production continued through to 1995. In total, 44 cars were manufactured and sold to the public. There were a number of running changes that took place over the four years this car was built, but in general, the cars were quite similar. The Costin chassis was never put under a production car. All the early Roadsters featured a TIG welded stainless steel tubing frame, and extensive use of CNC machined and stamped parts. A seven-man crew built the first ten cars, and other workers were added later in production.

Danny Panoz had the vision to use, and demanded, a totally bone-stock Ford Mustang drive train. Those first Roadsters were perhaps the most authentic pure roadster ever built in the world: there was no top or tonneau cover, and no provision or intention of having either. No automatic transmission was offered, only the manual 5 speed. A small heater core delivered warmth to the windshield for defrosting, since the US DOT requirements mandated it. There was no radio, no heater, no air conditioner, and further there was no place to install any of those. Those cars had convert|225|hp, and were built to far outlast any ordinary metal or fiberglass vehicle. Several middle-aged men that test drove the early production cars commented it had the power and acceleration of a hemi muscle car from the 1960's. The Roadster was a hand built driver's car, with snappy performance, head-turning appearance and a decent price tag.

The handling is amazing, acceleration wonderful. The curvy body and reverse-flip hood really wows people. It does not look like a V8 would fit under the hood, and indeed its a close fit. The cockpit is tight and occupants sit shoulder-to-shoulder. The car's track is much wider than it appears, and the gorgeous front fenders follow every nuance of the front tires. Adjustable coil over shocks on polished, exposed front suspension are both functional and beautiful. Danny felt driving is to be enjoyed, and he wanted people to have a car that would take them back to the basic enjoyment of driving for fun.

A few owners did have stereos installed. Danny's philosophy was that cars of the 1980’s and 1990's had been performance stifled, and the beautiful exhaust note of a fuel-injected V8 engine should be heard and enjoyed. Several mufflers were tested and the production cars all left with tubing headers, all four of the Mustang catalytic converters, and glass pack mufflers. To my knowledge, the Roadster was the only modern car to pass its EPA test with factory glass packs and no available stereo. The exhaust had a wonderful, mellow sound, deep and rumbling at idle, with a gleeful rush of sound when revved up.

Of those first few cars, Danny built a champagne-colored Roadster for his mother and a deep green one for his father. His father's car was the first to be fitted with a belt-drive supercharger. One of the original factory body shop employees (Crawdaddy) upon returning from his hoodless test drive in that car, dubbed it the “Atomic Pickle”. The performance was stunning.

One of the last Roadsters to have the cast-iron 5.0 liter engine was built for a customer in Sacramento, CA. His car was equipped with factory roll bar, racing seatbelts, supercharger, high performance brakes and wheels, and was the first Panoz automobile ever produced with a black paint job. Due to the black paint revealing even the smallest flaw, that car was carefully prepared and buffed until it was absolutely perfect. The bodywork and paint on all the Roadsters was hand-prepared, but the black car was special.

Some 5.0 liter Roadsters were fitted with a custom-engraved plate atop the intake manifold with the owner’s name and Panoz logo. A few cars were built to a factory specification, and most were custom ordered.

In 1994 and 1995, Danny began to look into developing an aluminum chassis for the Roadster. Saved assembly time would pay off on the factory floor, and weight reduction would improve performance even more. In 1996, the new prototype of the Panoz Roadster was unveiled. This new version differed substantially from the original car. It had an extruded aluminum space frame with a central backbone. Special adhesives were used to attach the frame and body. Technology developed in the aerospace industry was used in its construction.

Equally important, an entirely new drive train was employed. In 1996, Ford's SVT group had launched the Mustang SVT Cobra with a hand assembled all aluminum V-8 DOHC 32 valve motor. This engine produced convert|305|hp and convert|300|ft.lbf|N.m of torque. The new Mustang engine was mated to a new Borg-Warner T-45 five speed transmission for the redesigned Roadster.

With the aluminum frame, body, engine, etc. the new Roadster was at least 70% aluminum. As a result, Mr. Panoz dubbed it an aluminum intensive vehicle (AIV). Thus, the new version of the roadster became the Panoz AIV Roadster. There were 176 of these roadsters built and sold to the public during the three-year time span 1997-1999. Some cars built in 99 were not sold until 2000. By 2000, the Panoz Company had developed a new model, the Panoz Esperante, dropping the Roadster.

The original prototype’s frame design was bought from a British racing-car designer (Costin). Most of the car's parts, including the transmission and brakes, are borrowed from Ford cars. The tires are BF Goodrich G-Force tires. The aluminum body panels are made by a special extrusion process performed by only one company, the aerospace entity Superform. This same company now extrudes the Morgan Aero 8 aluminum body.

Each model year brought subtle differences. Models from the first few years used the cast iron, 5.0-liter V8 engine from Ford's Mustang line. Starting in 1997, Panoz used the aluminum, 4.6-liter V8 engine, which was considerably lighter and increased the car's power significantly. With the weight savings, an air-conditioning system was installed with little overall weight or performance change. The last year the AIV Roadster was made was 1999, when about 10 were modified with special paints and superchargers and were signed to create the Signature Edition 2000 Panoz AIV Roadster.

The AIV Roadster was eventually discontinued so the factory could focus on the new full-bodied Panoz Esperante. The Esperante requires far less manpower to make and appeals to a larger audience than the Roadster, since it has luxury appointments and power accessories inside a wider cockpit.

The Roadster was sold far earlier than the Plymouth Prowler and was the first American aluminum intensive vehicle. Although the production volume was not as great as had been hoped by the Panoz factory, it provided the start for many ventures for the Panoz family. Panoz entered GT-1 racing, created the American Le Mans Race Series, purchased race tracks including Road Atlanta and Sebring International Raceway, built chassis for Indy Cars and in 2006 won the GT2 class at the 12 Hours of Sebring and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

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References

* [http://www.panozroadster.com/ Panoz Roadster website]