Panoz Roadster History
Panoz's first car (1992–1995) — a stark, topless aluminum-bodied two-seat roadster on a Frank Costin-derived chassis with a Ford 5.0 V8.
Photo: “Panoz Roadster.jpg” by Nate Grigg / Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
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The Panoz Roadster was the company's debut model, built from 1992 at its small factory north of Atlanta. Dan Panoz had bought the rights to a tube-frame chassis design rooted in the work of British engineer Frank Costin (known for Lotus, Lister, and Maserati chassis), and clothed it in a hand-formed aluminum body to create a minimalist, lightweight two-seater.
True to its stripped-back ethos, the Roadster was sold with no top and no tonneau cover — and no provision for either. Power came from Ford's 5.0-liter (302 cu in) V8, the engine of the contemporary Mustang, paired with a Borg-Warner T-5 five-speed manual. Production was tiny: only about 44 Roadsters were built before the model gave way to the aluminum-intensive AIV version in the mid-1990s.
Generations
First (and only) generation · Panoz Roadster
Photo: “Panoz Roadster.jpg” by Nate Grigg / Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Frank Costin-derived tube-frame chassis with a hand-formed aluminum body and a Ford 5.0-liter V8; a topless two-seater built in tiny numbers (about 44 cars).
Body styles
- Open two-seat roadster (no top)
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