01
Origins
The Abruzzi of 2011 was Panoz at full eccentricity: a limited series — announced at 81 cars, far fewer completed — of long-nosed, dramatically sculpted GTs named for the family's Abruzzo roots, built around the company's REAMS aluminium chassis technology with big V8 power and bodywork like nothing else at any show. Its cab-rearward proportions and baroque surfacing divided opinion violently, which suited a car conceived partly as a rolling tribute to Le Mans, where it was unveiled. Racing ambitions surfaced and faded; the Abruzzi settled into extreme rarity, a collector's curio from America's most stubborn small constructor. It stands as proof that Panoz's independence was total — no focus group on earth would have approved it, and Don Panoz built it anyway.
Panoz Abruzzi · David Merrett · CC BY 2.0
