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American LeMans
ALMS: Abruzzi Set For Petit Le Mans Debut
ALMS owner Don Panoz confirms his new GT car will contest season-ending ALMS race running as 'unclassified.'
John Dagys  |  Posted August 27, 2010   Bowmanville, ON
Panoz's 'mule' car, seen pictured, stayed in France for the Le Mans Classic, but has since returned Stateside. (John Dagys)
Since the road car’s official launch at Le Mans in June, some had questioned whether the Panoz Abruzzi ‘Spirit of Le Mans’ would make its planned debut in the season-ending Petit Le Mans.


Despite internet rumors and speculation, the Abruzzi program is still on track, according to company founder Don Panoz. Panoz confirmed to SPEED.com that the car will indeed make its debut in the 1,000-mile/10-hour enduro in October.

“We were a couple of weeks late starting on the race car, but that was simply because we wanted to be sure and be comfortable that the road car, the ‘mule’ car as we have it, would get through the [homologation] process,” Panoz explained. “If you’re not sure about that, you can’t start building the race car.”

With the road-going super car not expected to be homologated until the end of the year, the Abruzzi will race unclassified, alongside Porsche’s 911 GT3 R Hybrid in the season-ending American Le Mans Series round.
Despite the ambitious project announced only two months ago, Panoz is confident of seeing the Abruzzi's debut at the next ALMS round. (John Dagys)

Panoz Auto Developments delivered the road-going chassis to Tom Milner’s PTG squad two weeks ago, with it now undergoing the modifications needed to make it race-ready at the squad’s Virginia shop.

Aside from differences in the roll cage, gearbox, electronics and other components, Panoz says the Abruzzi GT2 car won’t be very much different from its production counterpart.

“The car might not be built to all of the things we’d like to see in a car that would race at Sebring [next year],” Panoz said. “There will be things between now and Sebring that we’ll probably change in it, but this will tell us the things that we have to look at.”

The Abruzzi’s Corvette ZR1-based Chevrolet LS9 power plant will remain relatively stock as well. Panoz says the road car engine and block will be used in the race version. An air restrictor will limit the horsepower to around 500, compared to the street car’s 612 horspower.

Drivers for the PTG effort are expected to be announced in mid-September, and Panoz has set realistic expectations for the car’s debut race. Especially considering the team’s planned assault on the 2011 ALMS GT championship, every extra mile of development will be crucial to program.

“With it being a brand-new car, it’s going to have very little testing,” Panoz said. “We want to show it to people, but we’re not going to try to be competitive right out of the box. We realize that we have a lot to learn about.”


ALMS on SPEED
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