Car Of The Day: November 28, 2010

Today's car of the day is Hot Wheels' 1997 Panoz Esperante GTR-1.

The Panoz Esperante GTR-1 (also known as Panoz GTR-1 and later the Panoz GTP) was a race car developed by Panoz Auto Development and Reynard Motorsport for grand tourer endurance racing in 1997. Although named after the Panoz Esperante roadster, the GTR-1 actually bore no mechanical relation to the production Esperante, instead sharing only minor styling points. Only two road-legal GTR-1s were built to meet homologation requirements set forth by the ruling bodies which the racing cars ran under.
The GTR-1 competed in the FIA GT Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans in Europe as well as the IMSA GT, United States Road Racing Championship, and American Le Mans Series in North America.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Panoz Esperante GTR-1

I don't normally collect race cars if they don't resemble their road-going version, but this is an exception.  I saw this one hanging on the pegs at K-Mart and it jumped into my shopping cart without hesitation.  Panoz is not well represented in small scale, the paint scheme is gorgeous (love the color...and the clovers!), and this is easily the best this particular casting has ever looked.

Begun in 1996, Reynard Motorsports' special vehicles division began work with Panoz to begin development of a grand tourer style racing car meant for the upcoming FIA GT Championship in 1997. Don Panoz, wanting to keep an American-style of design, insisted that the car be based on his Esperante sports car in some way. Due to this, the Esperante GTR-1 became unique in comparison to its Mercedes-Benz, Lotus, Porsche, and McLaren counterparts in that, like the production Esperante, the engine was located in front of the cockpit. Although located behind the front axle to give it a balanced mid-engine layout, having the engine in front gave the car unusual proportions, including a large nose and a cockpit placed as far back in the body. The unusual look, including a large bulging intake in the center of the nose, earned the car the nickname "Batmobile" due to its resemblance to the car used by the comic book hero. Following the initial 1997 season, the bodywork was modified in 1998 by lengthening the front and rear bodywork for increased downforce and handling capabilities.

For an engine, Panoz attempted to keep the American theme by using a Ford V8 engine similar to the one used in his Esperante. Instead of the standard 4.6L V8, Panoz turned to Roush Racing of NASCAR fame to construct 6.0L V8s based on Ford engines. Panoz's Élan Power Products would maintain the V8 engines and continue in development.

In order to meet homologation requirements which said that racing cars had to be based on production, road legal cars, Panoz built a single GTR-1 which featured full interiors and minor modifications to make it able to be legally registered. This car has been retained by Don Panoz. It now features a slightly smaller 5.3L V8 instead of the full 6.0L V8 race engine, since rules allowed engine sizes to be modified in the racing cars.