Panoz Abruzzi 'Spirit of Le Mans' History

The Abruzzi 'Spirit of Le Mans' broke cover at the Circuit de la Sarthe during the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans. A front-engine, rear-transaxle grand tourer with a rear-mounted radiator, it carried a 600-plus-horsepower V8 and showcased Panoz's R.E.A.M.S. (Recyclable Energy Absorbing Matrix System) body construction.

Production was strictly limited to 81 cars — the number of Le Mans 24 Hour races run from the event's 1923 inception through 2013 — with each example tied to a specific running of the race, its chassis number encoding that year's date and the winning drivers' initials. Cars were delivered to owners at the Circuit de la Sarthe, making the Abruzzi as much a commemorative collectible as a road car. Deliveries were planned for the 2011–2013 window tied to the commemorated races; by mid-2014 Panoz no longer listed the Abruzzi, and how many of the intended 81 cars were actually completed is not cleanly documented.