This is the one-off 2010 Panoz Abruzzi road car, and it’s easily one of the rarest cars in existence! Panoz was founded in 1989 as Panoz Auto Development by Dan Panoz, the son of American entrepreneur, Donald Panoz. The American manufacturer is best known for their development of racing cars, road-going sports cars, and their involvement in professional racing. The ‘Abruzzi’ was a unique project car that was developed by Panoz in 2010 with original intentions calling for production of 81 hand-built units (one for each Le Mans race held from its inception in 1926 through 2013, the year the car would have ceased production). During the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, Panoz announced a racing version of the Abruzzi which would be introduced during the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in the Petit Le Mans sports car endurance race. The race version bearing chassis number 2UGLEE4-001 instead made a racing debut at the 59th Annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring on March 19th, 2011. The car was driven by drivers Ian James (USA) and Benjamin Leuenberger (CH), however, failed to finish due to mechanical issues. The racing Abruzzi saw its best finish at the 2 hours 45 min American Le Mans Mosport series with Ian James driving again alongside Edward Sandström (S). Each ‘Abruzzi’ was planned to be linked to a specific Le Mans 24 Hour race, with the chassis number also including the specific race date, as well as the initials of the victorious drivers. With plans to build the cars using a multilayer composite known as REAMS (Recyclable Energy Absorbing Matrix System), of the 81 total cars, only 1 prototype ‘road-variant’ was completed finished in a grey color (shown here), and one other Panoz Abruzzi “Spirit of Le Mans” GT2 racecar. By July of 2014, the Abruzzi no longer appeared on the Panoz website, and the project was seemingly shelved.
How many made? One road-going prototype and one racecar. 1 of 2!
Engine: 6.2L (6,162 cc) supercharged LS3 V8 producing 650hp
Debut: the 2010 24 hours of Le Mans
Top Speed: around 205mph
0-60: around 3.2s
Photo Credit: @aldairion
Research: @rarecarsonly