Has anyone had a problem with a Panoz?

Why is she interested? They all look goofy to begin with, and they are not well developed. I had a roadster, through no fault of my own, worst handling car I've ever had (except for the 80's Volvo wagon).

 

Really? I would of thought they would of handled great since the owner of the company owns Road America IIRC. They do have a very cool 4 valve motor built by ford. Did you have the aiv roadster? I have always wondered about the car in your avatar. Do you have any more pics or can you tell me anything about it?

 

I have seen 2Panoz's in my life time and hey they look great very complete cars I think they are awsome but the only problem I have which is why id never buy one is the powerplant. Otherwise its hot.

 

The one I looked at had very questionable build-quality.

 

only if you pop the hood

 

I had a roadster. The car in my Avatar is a Group C2 Lemans car from the 80's called an Argo. It finished 5th and 6th in class the 2 years it raced Lemans. The Cosworth engine was replaced with a 700 hp Chevy.
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Dr. Panoz owns Road Atlanta. He also owns the ALMS.

 

We're actually a Panoz dealer. Feel free to give me a call to talk about the ups and downs of Panoz ownership. Most of our Panoz business has been with the racing variant, but we've done a few road cars as well. We have two road cars in stock right now, a '02 and a '05.

 

Esperante was one of my favorite cars at the Grand Prix this year.
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I was interested in a Panoz AIV Roadster a few years ago, but decided on something else. I really like the cars. It is surprising how small the driver's area is for a relatively wide car. I thought the build quality looked good enough. They are supposed to be great handling cars, and the one I test drove handled well enough (although I didn't push it oo hard). Panoz is similar to Ferrari of the early days in that they seem to sell road cars to support the racing team. They seem to be positioned to be a good collector car if the race team keeps doing well. The esperante I am less fond of (looks wise), but if your wife likes them I think they would not have much in the way of mechanical trouble.
BT

 

Instead of being glib, why not give an answer that might actually help?

 

Did you not actully understand my answer? They are not well developed cars, at least the roadster version I had. For example the front fenders are so close to the tires that if you have a rapid deflation the out of shape tire rips the fender apart, overheating was a problem, etc. The handling was bad if not downright dangerous. I am not kidding when I said it was the worst handling car I have ever owned except for the Volvo wagon (which was worse but not as dangerous) How is this not helpful as pertains to the question?

 

I pretty much thought your initial reply was very much on point.

 

As to the Roadster.... it is in fact what I would label dangerous. Very, very twitchy, does not drift, only snaps, and almost becomes air born at about 85-90mph due to what must be a stunning degree of lift. The early days of the Esperante were like cut, glue, paste. I would think the current iteration has vastly improved. Are they continuing to assemble cars???

 

a slight clarification...don panoz is the owner of road a and alms. his son dan is the production car manufacturer. however, it was don that initially got involved to help danny by simply saying...essentially that if you want to be a successful sportscar producer, you need to build a racing resume and provenance...thus the lmp panoz. the rest is sportscar racing history.

funny how danny's desire to build a production car actually led directlyto us all having the alms to enjoy!

i remember when danny sold his autokraft mk IV in 1989 to help fund is car company.

 

They also own www.chateauelan.com right down the road from RA. I stayed there last year while at Petite. Very nice.

 

That is true that the A.I.V. was not well built and with the Esperantes the later the cars, are the better built out of the bunch. As far as I know they are continuing to build them. A couple of years ago I heard some rumors about them changing it in someway, but they have stayed quiet. Unless Driversource knows something????

 

Production is "on hold" at the moment, not sure when the next production run will begin, but I would imagine that if someone wants a new one, the Panoz factory might be able to find a way to oblige them. There were some running changes from '02-'06 on the Esperante, mostly updates to Ford bits as production changed, but the basics stayed pretty much the same. We've got an '02 Jan Magnussen special edition and an '05 GTLM in stock right now, and it's nice to be able to see the differences side by side.

We're also selling our Panoz GTS race cars from last season and we have two new GTS's in stock as well. These are a great way to get into spec racing with a competitive car that is purpose-built. We did fairly well with ours in SCCA GT2 last year, and they were a lot cheaper to run that the Porsche Cup Car we also ran in that class!

Again, please don't hesitate to call or e-mail me about these cars.

Chet

 

that is correct. dan's house is just at the end of the entrance road. a cute cottage with a two car garage underneith. that is where the first generation panoz was finished.