With the coupe version now on his plate, Panoz is relying on mix of Elan’s existing chassis and composite suppliers to handle the closed-top project, with three new chassis, based on the AMR-One, having been commissioned.

On the race team side, Panoz has reached back to his early days in the sport for a solution.

“I go a long ways back with Dave Price, which most people know from some of our first projects together, and he’s running the program for me,” Panoz confirmed. “A lot of the guys from our 1997 team want to be a part of what we’re doing, so it’s a lot like that family coming back together with Dave running things.”

Driver lineups and testing plans will have to wait for now, as Panoz says the DeltaWing’s new engine is about to take a major step that will hopefully set everything else in motion.

“We’ve had all the internals running in a mule engine and things have been doing great,” he remarked. “It makes a lot of power and it’s reliable. Today we’re putting a new top end on a new motor today and that should be the last big item to test before we look at going to the track.”

Despite P1 being banished from the combined 2014 GRAND-AM/ALMS class framework, Panoz hopes to see his large batch of Elan turbo engines become a serious option for teams in P1 and P2.

“It can make more power and we’re committed to making them a success,” he said. “They can be branded other things if a manufacturer wants to talk with us about that. And we have another version of this engine we’re working on, a second type you could say, that’s the ‘real’ P1 engine and has an innovative block with a new material we’re trying that’s 20 pounds lighter.”

That material, according to my sources, is carbon fiber.

Beyond AAR, Highcroft and Nissan, the other major partner in the 2012 DeltaWing program was Michelin, which made a sizeable technical and financial investment in the project to develop and manufacture the car’s unique tires.

Although the company would not comment on its future with the car, it’s believed Firestone, sole supplier for the IZOD IndyCar Series, could be asked to produce tires for the DeltaWing if Michelin winds down its involvement with the program.



PHOTOS: Click Here or on the image below to view LE MANS: DeltaWing At Le Mans 2012



Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. Now in his 27th year in the sport, Pruett was an open-wheel mechanic, engineer and manager before joining SPEED. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.