Panoz Esperante: Американдық спорт машинасының тарихы мен жетістіктері

The Esperante is a sports car made by Panoz, an American car manufacturer. TOC

First shown at the 2000 New York Motor Show, the Esperante followed up on the company's first model, the minimal Roadster. The company designed the Esperante to be easy to manufacture, with the chassis designed in five modules making extensive use of extruded aluminum. There was no welding involved, pieces were bonded and bolted together instead. There have been several versions of the original Esperante: the original base model (later given the GT moniker), the GTLM coupe, the GTS, the JRD (an aftermarket upgrade brand similar to Roush Mustangs), and the Brabham. Each model has different specifications. The GTLM, for example, uses a supercharger to boost power from to , raising performance from 0 60 mph in 5 seconds to 4 seconds. The GTS on the other hand is built as a driver's class spec car, to SCCA standards, with harness, roll cage, side bars, etc. Additionally, it is around lighter than the base Esperante, has a steel 5.8 liter V8 racing engine that produces , and is made of easily replaceable panels to facilitate small impact race repair. It can do 0 60 mph (97 km/h) in 4.2 seconds, go up to a top speed of , and achieve 0.98 g of lateral grip. Panoz' engines for the first generation were sourced from Ford Motor Company's Modular V8 family.

Introduced in 2014, the 2015 430 hp Spyder and 560 hp Spyder GT were only in production for about a year. As well as the Ford Modular V8, the second generation was equipped with more powerful General Motors LS engines, with available supercharging.

A racing version of the Esperante known as the Esperante GT LM was developed by Panoz for the GT2 category of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 2006 was a year of noticeable achievement for Panoz. The #50 Multimatic Motorsports Team Panoz Esperante GT LM took a first place podium finish at the 55th Annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring beating GT2 regulars BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, and Spyker. That June the #81 Panoz Esperante GT LM campaigned by England based Team LNT managed to outlast and overtake the remaining LMGT2 contenders in the final hour of the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans. In Europe, Team LNT will be campaigning two Esperantes also. They will be competing in the British GT Championship and Le Mans Endurance Series. Team LNT will be returning to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2007 with both the #81 and #82 cars. During the 2007 American Le Mans season the Panoz Esperante GTLM will be managed, stateside, by Tom Milner and Team PTG. They will be campaigning two GT LMs (#20 and #21). Team PTG scored 1 GT2 class podium in the hands of Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand in 2007 Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg. In the same year, Panoz Esperante GTLM also fielded Robertson Racing Team as 2007 ALMS season part time entries in the hands of Andrea Robertson, David Robertson and Arie Luyendyk Jr.