14 replies to this topic

[SamoanAttorney]

News has reached me, now confirmed on internet sites, that Dr. Don Panoz has passed away.

 

He will be remembered for his creation of both the American Le Mans Series and the Petit Le Mans, plus the earth shaking V8 GTs and prototypes that graced the tracks at the turn of the century.

 

Rest in Peace Don, and thanks for creating such a great platform as the ALMS, we all had some great times back then.

 

 

[Afterburner]

Hear, hear. Rest in peace, Don Panoz.

[Victor_RO]

Pretty sure the sportscar racing landscape would be a lot different, and by many measures a lot poorer, without what he has done in the last 25-odd years.

[Ray Bell]

They were sure some exciting cars he had at the Adelaide Millenium race...

An adventurous enthusiast with means, obviously. His type is always sadly missed.

[aportinga]

News has reached me, now confirmed on internet sites, that Dr. Don Panoz has passed away.

 

He will be remembered for his creation of both the American Le Mans Series and the Petit Le Mans, plus the earth shaking V8 GTs and prototypes that graced the tracks at the turn of the century.

 

Rest in Peace Don, and thanks for creating such a great platform as the ALMS, we all had some great times back then.

 

 

Wow - no idea. Sorry news indeed!

[F1matt]

RIP. It looked like he kept sportscar racing going at one point, as for his front engined GT car, an utter monster!

[Henri Greuter]

I did not like your cars at all mr. Panoz but I do respect your aims with them and everyting else you did for Sporscar racing in general.
Thanks for all of that.

Rest in peace


Henri

[JacnGille]

Sad news

[moffspeed]

I did not like your cars at all mr. Panoz but I do respect your aims with them and everyting else you did for Sporscar racing in general.
Thanks for all of that.

Rest in peace


Henri

Le Mans 2000, Mario Andretti in the LMP Panoz roadster. One of those motor sport moments that is branded into your memory, no the car wasn't too competitive, Mario was beyond his sharpest, but you just waited every lap for this monstrous device to appear, the French countryside vibrating under your feet. So different, so daring and so bloody well illogical.

 

What was there not to like ???

 

RIP Don.

[Henri Greuter]

Le Mans 2000, Mario Andretti in the LMP Panoz roadster. One of those motor sport moments that is branded into your memory, no the car wasn't too competitive, Mario was beyond his sharpest, but you just waited every lap for this monstrous device to appear, the French countryside vibrating under your feet. So different, so daring and so bloody well illogical.
 
What was there not to like ???
 
RIP Don.

I don't want to derail the thread since I have a lot of respect for mr. Panoz' efforts to support the health of sportcar racing.

But his cars were based on traditionalist thinking, like what you see within Indycar circles where you still have people that to this day insis that the (indy)cars should be front engined by defenition. Even if it is the less viable option and proven so by now without a doubt.
Other then that, my dislike about the Panoz cars is most of all because they were the cars that (at least for me) made Le Mans '97 an occasionally difficult to tolerate experience because of the engines being so G.dd....d loud that it scared the hell out of me whenever they came up and worse, drove by. Thank God two of them were early retirements but that third one brought me a lot of moments of discomfort.....
Nowadays one of the drivers has a hearing problem because of driving them.

But again, his efforts in general (petit Le Mans etc and so much more), nothing but respect for mr. Panoz....
I am glad for him that at least in a GT catecory, one of his cars at least won at Le Mans, he deserved such a success.

Henri

Edited by Henri Greuter, 13 September 2018 - 08:12.

[moffspeed]

Thanks Henri for the thoughtful clarification.

 

I guess for me the attraction of the Panoz LMP1 roadsters was that they were so relatively crude but so damned effective. Le Mans 1999 and they were just 4 seconds off the super-sophisticated Toyota GT-One's pole time , the following year the lead car was bested only by the Audi R-8s to the tune of 3 seconds in practice.

 

15 years or so later the mighty Nissan with all their resources/technicians tried to copy the same formula with a front engined LMP1 car - it lined up on the grid just south of Calais and the cars were in the pits before I'd finished my first Merguez.

 

I understand the hearing/tinnitus issue but by the time the first Panoz coupes hit the tracks my eardrums were already hopelessly damaged by Matra V12's and, in particular, those bloody Mazdas....

[Ray Bell]

I believe it was the GTA that got mine...

They were exciting cars because of their 'crude' layout challenging all the science.

[Henri Greuter]

Thanks Henri for the thoughtful clarification.
 
I guess for me the attraction of the Panoz LMP1 roadsters was that they were so relatively crude but so damned effective. Le Mans 1999 and they were just 4 seconds off the super-sophisticated Toyota GT-One's pole time , the following year the lead car was bested only by the Audi R-8s to the tune of 3 seconds in practice.
 
15 years or so later the mighty Nissan with all their resources/technicians tried to copy the same formula with a front engined LMP1 car - it lined up on the grid just south of Calais and the cars were in the pits before I'd finished my first Merguez.
 
I understand the hearing/tinnitus issue but by the time the first Panoz coupes hit the tracks my eardrums were already hopelessly damaged by Matra V12's and, in particular, those bloody Mazdas....

Thanks for your explanations too

Could react on many (Non-Panoz-related) topics/subjects you mention but probably better in another thread than one that has the intention to pay repects to Don Panoz.
Maybe we'll find such threads and meet another over there.

[Arjan de Roos]

Will never forget the 97 Le Mans test weekend when a Panoz was fired up in its pits. Almighty Lord, I thought the pit complex annex grandstands were collapsing. 

 

Panoz made real racing come back in more modern times. Straightforward, unconventional and in doing so gaining beauty and sympathy.

[Henri Greuter]

Will never forget the 97 Le Mans test weekend when a Panoz was fired up in its pits. Almighty Lord, I thought the pit complex annex grandstands were collapsing. 
 
Panoz made real racing come back in more modern times. Straightforward, unconventional and in doing so gaining beauty and sympathy.

Arjan,

That front-engine concept of the Panoz was in fact anything but unconventional. It made the car to some extent ultra-conventional, the way things should be according a group of race fans in, at least the USA and then primarily for their favourite category of racing.......
If car racing was a religion, the Panoz GT1's and Roadsters were expressions (or the equivalent) of what in the Islam is known as salafism...