Panoz Esperante, a brief history.

[Fit4aking]

Panoz Esperante GTLM, American Privateer

After building and racing a variety of unconventional prototype racers, Panoz turned to GT racing for the first time in 2004. The first step was the introduction of a new version of the Esperante road car a year earlier. Dubbed the GTLM, it featured a 420 bhp supercharged version of Ford's modular engine. To prepare for the racing ahead much of the car's exterior was refined to produce more downforce. All in all, the GTLM was more powerful and lighter than previous versions; ideally suited for racing.

Within a year after the road car was first announced, the racing GTLM took to the track. To even out the various engine configurations and displacements, the sport's governing bodies require all cars to run an intake restrictor with a variable size depending on displacement and method of induction. A supercharger does not work very well with a restrictor so Panoz opted to fit a slightly larger, naturally aspirated version of Ford's versatile V8. Prepared by Elan Motorsport this 5 litre engine proved to be good for 500 bhp despite the restrictors.

Shortly after the 2004 Sebring 12 Hours, the Panoz development team tested the new racer to see how competitive it was with the other LM GT cars it would face in the ALMS championship. After a number of successful test sessions, the Panoz GT racer debuted in the second round of the season at Mid Ohio. In the race it ran as high as third in the Porsche dominated class before being forced to retire. The remainder of the season was used to further develop the car and prepare for a full assault in 2005 with a two car team.

In the second round of the season the hard work paid off and the Esperante GTLM scored a heavily fought over first in class in the Grand Prix of Atlanta. Sadly the winning performance could not be continued in the following races where the cars were often dogged with problems. The team spent a few weeks in Europe for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race where they matched the Porsches' pace, but again suffered with reliability issues. For 2006 the Esperante will be in action more frequently in Europe in the hands of Team LNT who previously ran TVRs.

The production of customer cars must have inspired the works team, which excelled in the opening round of the 2006 season by taking a heavily disputed class victory in the legendary 12 Hours of Sebring race. In the same race, one of the three LNT cars made its debut and although it was not quite as quick as the fully dialed in works racers, finishing the race was a big encouragement for the team. The Esperantes now parted ways with the works cars competing in the ALMS and the LNT examples in the British GT and Le Mans Series, all with considerable success.

At the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans, the two teams reunited with a single Works/Multimatic and a single LNT taking on the ultimate challenge. It did not start out well at all with both cars suffering engine related problems in the test session. The average performance in qualifying did not give the teams much to look forward to in the race and when the Multimatic car was forced to retire early in the race, the drama seemed to be complete. Team LNT then set about proving the skeptics wrong with a very strong towards the top of the class. When it mattered most, at the 24 hour mark, the bright orange Panoz was at the head of the field, finally scoring a (class) win for Panoz in the company's tenth appearance in the French classic.

Quoted from ultimatecarpage.com

Here is the link to the Panoz main site.  Instead of copying a ton of info here, feel free to check it out. www.panoz.com

[Fit4aking]

Panoz, history, well at least its a short story on a recent upstart company.  Using your own body and someone elses motor is nothing new to automotive history.  Americans have been doing it since the 50's.  Using this method to jump right into motorsports can be very succesful if you can pull it off. 

While not cheap, either version of the Esperante, the road car or the race car, comes from the same place.  Lucky for me its the East Coast.  I've driven passed thier headquarters but never stopped in I need to pull rank next time were down there and force the fam inside. 

This thread will be devoted to my Panoz collection.  2 Esperante's (B-class and A-class), 2 Esperante GTLM's (both in R-class) and the beast R1 Panoz LMP.  I'll begin with the B-class version as soon as the GS/Esperante challenge ends and work my way through my current builds.

Always open to suggestions if its realted to this Atlanta based company add it in.  We take advise where we canget it around here.

[Drift2XL]

Money is not a problem for Don Panoz. So he went the expensive way into it. He's a Billionare. He invented the transdermal patch. Like the smoking patches. He owns IMSA, ALMS, RA, leases Sebring and a few more tracks. His son Danny runs the motorsport end. Also he owns the swanky digs you were spending the night in, the Hotel Elan.

On a little side note, The LM Proto is so old that there are two road legal versions in the original GT-1 class guise. Could you imagine taking out one of those on the road.

[landstuhltaylor]

I loved the LMP1 Panoz's, they sounded like real cars. Every time I saw the Esperante race cars I always thought they were the second best sounding cars on the track, next to the Corvette's.

[Drift2XL]

The Esperante GT and track cars don't run the 32V 4.6. They run a pushrod. I don't know the specs but I would think either a really built 302, or more likely 351. The SC motor would come with a HUGE weight penalty for the track.

That's also why there are not too many GT's converted for the track. What engine would you put in it? If you took of the SC, your left with a horribly oversquare 331ci. It would take alot of parts to get it to rev to 8K. And still not enough ci to keep up with the 6 liter V-12's that are out running with a more favorable bore-stroke ratio. So that would leave you back with a pushrod V-8.

[Fit4aking]

The engine options are pretty varied in the ALMS.  The rules that I found stated that you can run any engine up to 6.0L normally asperated and up to a 4.0L for any forced induction.  The weight of the car remains unchanged.  There tends to be a wide range of parts that can be swapped out but not pre-determined.  Suspension type os open, as is the braking system, and the type of fuel injection system.  That leads me to believe that they have the ability to tune for power as well as for handling on the different tracks.  We've all seen tracks that can be overpowered and the ability to tune up or down often helps when the suspension is already maxxed out.

I hope to have more info regarding what type of parts can be changed soon.

[Drift2XL]

Well the engine vareity comes from the restrictors that are mandate. And no cheating either. All cars with restrictors in class must have the engine shut off when the tech plugs them up. If the engine runs that means there is a leak to the airbox. And penalties ensue.

Lime Rock is one of those don't overpower tracks. Tar joints all over the place on the old surface. Looks almost as bad as Sebring. The DOHC engines are limited to 6.0L. The Panoz LMP and C5-6R both have 7 liter pushrods. But then they both breathe through 700HP restrictors too.

It should be anything is fair game in the higher classes. The GTS class will have factory parts restrictions as far as heads, block may go. But I'm sure that internals would be fair game. I would not like to think about racing a factory engine that has been tuned to 100% power for 24 hours and pray it lives the race. I've seen too many factory short cuts to speed up production compared to the absolutely minute and important details it takes to build a reliable race engine. Even on the "niche" lines.

[Fit4aking]

I was diggin around and found some trans info on the Esperante GT cars.  I don't think these numbers jive with my settings but I'll be sure to try them next time I get a chance.

Published Panoz/Ford Trans Gear Ratios

Transmission: Tremec TKO-600, 5 speed manual 
Gear Ratios:  1st: 2.87 | 2nd: 1.89 | 3rd: 1.28 | 4th: 1.00 | 5th: 0.82 
Final Drive:  3.89:1, Ford 9-inch w/True-Trac (3.50:1 Optional)
Differential cooler w/integrated pump 

These are just the setting as the car is delivered and I'm 100% sure that they are different from an actual race prepped car.  However it may be reasonable to assume that the FD is all that is changed by some of the less funded teams.

[Blooze]

Interesting that that gear set covers a very similar range as the stock Race transmission in Forza, which is 2.89 to .85

$

[Fit4aking]

The final drive is significantly different at 3.89 compared to the default 3.30.  Even the optional 3.50 is often too steep for a higher power compromise build without great tires.  I'll have fun tryin this out.

[Blooze]

That 3.30 FD has the half-life of a snow ball in hell for just about any car I build.  Most of the time it gives way to something higher; a 4.56 or 4.11 for the lower torqued rigs, 3.90s and 3.56s as power increases.  Then there are the power monsters that finally force it the other direction - 2.90s or 3.10s and such.

Forza is unique in that way - you can get away with some crap in the gearing that would cost a small fortune in the real world.  For the small timer, you run what came with the car or you run what you can find a good deal on in the junk yard.

The idea that you can add a hundredth to third on a whim is indeed extravagent.

$

[Fit4aking]

Those 3 hundredth made quite a difference, further highlighting the difference between the privateers and the factory teams.

On a sidenote, the main differece between a Stage 10 Stasis 6-speed in an Audi Vs the Stocker is the gearing.  The parts are sorta expensive but the labor is by far the biggest detractor.  We swapped in the Diffs as well as the first 3 gears on one last weekend and it took 2 whole days to do.  But having the spare trans layin around just to swap in would have been much easier, and lots more expensive.

I sorta hope that Forza would up the PI hit for the fully adjustable trans and offer a few more variations.  Example:  A 5 speed close ratio as a first upgrade, a Tramec 5-speed and the next step (w/ adjustable FD using standard off the shelf ratios), an optional optimized 6 speed (the game programmers could use your calculator to make one pretty close to optimum) w/ adjustable FD, and finally a VERY EXPENSIVE fully adjustable sequential style 6-speed.  It would hopefully prevent everyone from being able to totally dial their cars in for each track without significant cost (monetary and PI) but would allow options for the in-betweeners. 

In my opinion if I were to take a box stock RS4 from the showroom, add a precisely tooned sequential 6 speed and final drive, and try to take it to the track under the premise that the upgrade is only worth a hypothetical 2-4 PI points, I doubt very seriously that I would be allowed to run it in any of the lower SCCA classes.  Hell even upgrading the brake lines on my car in its current state to stainless lines moves it out of the Street class into one of the lower modified classes (with STI's and Evo's).  I doubt my Cavalier will hang with them because of brake lines.

[Fit4aking]

B-Class Esperante GTLM

Not Much Room For Improvement

This car came to be from a recent challenge vs the Corvette Grand Sport.  I have tinkered with this car on the side as well as for the challenge.  It's pretty good to start with and is the car of choice for the CPU in several of the American based career races.  Aero is essential if you expect to add many parts.  Leaving them set to low downforce isn't the worse thing in the world.  In B-class it seems easier to tune such a heavy car by balancing the weight and limiting the rate of transfer than just going for a few clicks of aero.  The availablity of the Blooze Toon and the Blooze Toon Calcuator (by TheJohnNewton) make doing so very easy to do.  Every driver is different so take them with a grain of salt and adjust as necessary to suit your needs. 

The Build
Engine Parts: None, lack of PI.
Platform Parts: All Race, but no weight reduction.
Tires and Wheels: Stock Tires, 20" Wheels, on Racing Hart C4's
Spoilers and Diffusers: Forza Front Spoiler, Forza Rear Wing

The Toon
Tire Pressure: 30psi Front and Back
Gearing: Tremec TKO 600
Alignment:
     Camber Front: -0.8
     Camber Rear: -0.5
     Toe Front: +0.1
     Toe Rear: -0.2
     Caster: 5.0
Anti Sway Bars:  10.17 Front, 12.47 Rear
Springs:  709.7 Front, 580.8 Rear
Dampers:
     Rebound Front: 7.7
     Rebound Rear: 6.3
     Bound Front: 3.8
     Bound Rear: 3.1
Aero Adjustment:  50lbs Front, 65lbs Rear
Brake Bias: 47% Bias @ 100% Presure
Differential: 
     Acceleration:  45%
     Deceleration:  50%

Notes: I wasn't the fastest in this car for the challenge but I didn't have all of the information that I do now regarding several adjustments.  Reran the track tonight and was unable to break the 89 second mark.  I think its more me than the car, I'm inconsistant with the first turn, I find my self not getting through the double apex's correctly and that can have a 5-7 mph effect on my topspeed.  As much as I'd like to say its an end-all-be-all build/toon I'm sure there is room for improvement.  As I work my way up to the B-class hotlapping session I will give this car a shake but I'm not sure it will get a real go as its lack of available PI will seat it well behind upgraded D and C class cars.

[bimmerlovere39]

You use the Tremec, but what are you doing to the 6th gear?

[Fit4aking]

Its still there but the car runs out of power before you can really use it.  I think its set at .76 (or there abouts) on the off chance I get rearended by a Ferrari I can upshift and not roast the motor. 

Even on the oval section of Sunset Penninsula I'm not going fast enough to use it. Even upshifting into 6th costs a mph or 2, and without enough power to get them back its pointless.  I like the wider gearsets on the more powerfull RWD cars to reduce wheelspin exiting corners.  On the true 6-speeds I find myself leaving the car up a gear as a poor mans traction control.  I don't think upshifting a smidge early costs as much time as roasting the tires off for several meters.  I've even found on some tracks that you can power through a 2nd gear turn in 3rd with just the right car and out-accelerate your ghost.  For Example my 500KR can pull 3rd gear on the double apex at Sebring while my Solstice requires the use of 2nd.  The Shelby even in a higher gear pulls the Solstice on the short shoot.