The merging of legitimate race inspired design with true American muscle power creates a top-of-the-line sports touring model that can run with the best that the world has to offer. The limited-availability Esperante GTLM involves matching a super-charged and inter-cooled 4.6L V-8 with a 6-spd. manual transmission to result in world-class performance, handling and control.
by Panoz Auto Development
by Panoz
Tom Milner's Prototype Technology Group is returning with the Panoz brand to the American Le Mans Series GT2 class with two Panoz Esperante GTLMs. Team PTG has a rich history in the Series, having captured the 1999 GT team championship along with five all-time GT2 class victories. The team returned to the Series for the 2003 Petit Le Mans, but 2006 marked its first full-season campaign since 2001. Along with longtime tire partner Yokohama, Panoz Team PTG has its sights set on returning to past glory in the Series.
by ALMS
by Panoz
Santa has delivered Panoz fans a unique gift for 2007 with the announcement today that three of the biggest names in North American sportscar racing – Panoz, Multimatic and Team PTG – will jointly launch an assault on the 2007 American Le Mans Series.
Virginia-based Team PTG will take over the day-to-day running of the two-car entry in the American Le Mans Series with Multimatic continuing to provide engineering support from its Toronto base.
PTG drivers Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand will drive one of the two entries in 2007 with 2006 Le Mans 24 Hour GT2 winner Tom Kimber-Smith joining the driver line-up for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
Drivers for the second PTG Panoz entry are yet to be determined.
Auberlen is no stranger to the Panoz marque, having driven for Panoz Motorsport aboard the Esperante in 2005 and the LMP1 prototype car in 2002.
PTG will continue its long and successful association with Yokohama and PFC Brakes with the new Panoz program while Elan Power Products will continue to provide horsepower for the campaign.
Multimatic's unique DSSV dampers will again be used. The state-of-the-art damping technology enjoyed another highly successful season in 2006 – winning the GT2 class in the ALMS and the FIA GT Championship, the P2 class in the European-based Le Mans Series and taking top honors in the Champ Car World Series for the third year in succession.
'The competition in GT2 is becoming extremely fierce and despite the Esperante winning both the Twelve Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2006 we believe the pooling of the resources of PTG, Multimatic and Panoz will provide us with our best chance of success in 2007,' PTG owner, Tom Milner said.
'Our team is extremely excited at this opportunity and we look forward to challenging strong for the GT2 championship.'
In the past 11 years, Team PTG has won a total of 53 races in both sprint and endurance racing events and has won 14 North American sports car championships including four manufacturer's titles.
Some of the biggest names in world motorsport have competed for the team including Hans Stuck, Dieter Quester, Al Unser Jr, Bobby Rahal, Arie Luyendyk, Paul Newman and Boris Said
The Panoz Esperante is a high performance hand crafted limited production sports car manufactured in Braselton, Georgia by Panoz Auto Development Company (PADC).
The racing version of the car, known as the GTLM, has been developed for FIA/ACO GT2 competition by EMT with chassis engineering and manufacturing support from Multimatic. The car is available to customers through EMT and, in addition to the factory ALMS effort, will again be campaigned by Team LNT in Europe.
Multimatic has provided extensive support to the Panoz factory program over the past five years, including running the race team from its Toronto base in 2006.
by ALMS
by Panoz
Coupe
The Panoz Motor Sport Group fielded successful teams racing the Panoz Esperante GTLM, a racing version of the Panoz Esperante GTLM two-seat sports car. Built specifically to compete in the GT2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), it featured a naturally aspirated stock Ford V8 block bored to 5.0 liters with custom crank, rods, pistons, and a heavily massaged intake manifold, producing about 500 horsepower.
On April 17, 2005 Panoz scored its first win with the new car when the No. 50 Panoz Esperante GTLM piloted by Bill Auberlen and Robin Liddell beat the Porsche 911 of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas in the No. 23 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3. This ended the seven-race Porsche win streak that began at Infineon Raceway in 2004.
Success continued in 2006 when the No. 50 Multimatic Motorsports Panoz Esperante GTLM driven by David Brabham, Scott Maxwell, and Sebastien Bourdais won GT2 class at the 54th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
The pinnacle of Panoz Motor Sport's success with this car occurred at the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans when Team LNT won the GT2 class in the No. 81 Panoz Esperante GTLM race car. Drivers Lawrence Tomlinson, Tom Kimber-Smith and Richard Dean completed 321 laps and finished one lap ahead of the No. 83 Seikel Motorsport Farnbacher Racing Porsche 911 GT3-RS.
This replica of the winning Team LNT race car resides at the Panoz headquarters in Braselton, GA.