Description:

Started out as a Panoz School Car. Never wrecked. Has been extensively improved and upgraded. Including a Ford Small Block crate race engine (480HP, see below) which replaced the school Ford Explorer 302 HO engine (250HP). Recent eye surgery prevents me from racing so I must sell. This car is easy to drive fast and is very predictable. A great “track day” car. Also may be vintage eligible depending on your local race groups. I drove with ARC Racing (American Racing Club) in Northern California. ARC is part of Northern California Racing Club. The car has an SCCA Northern California log book. Basically neutral handling, (in other words, if you find yourself in the grass that’s because that’s where you drove it or you exceeded the laws of Physics!) Brakes are very powerful, especially when you realize there is no power boost. There is power steering which is not too boosted, gives good feel without killing your arms. Also, new exhaust and mufflers from heads back. Upgraded instruments from Longacre Racing – Large stepper motor tach and stepper motor Oil temp, Oil Pressure, Water Temp, and Fuel Pressure, see photos. Excellent power to weight ratio – 2550lbs/480bhp = 5.31 lbs per bhp. That puts this car in really good company: 2017 Viper SRT: 5.24. 2017 Corvette Z06: 5.42. 2017 Ferrari 488: 4.90, but that’s a twin turbo. Engine: • New upgraded engine, Ford Performance M-6007-Z363FT/RT BOSS Crate Engine with: o Boss 302 4 bolt main block. Bored and Stroked to 363 Cubic inches o Compression Ratio 10.2:1 (Makes 500 bhp on pump gas) o Ford Performance Z304DA Aluminum heads with high-flow ports. Cast from prime A365 T6 aluminum. Heads have:  Premium stainless steel valves, 2.02” intake and 1.60" Exhaust  PAC 1219X conical style (beehive) valve springs  Steel Alloy intake and exhaust seats  7/16” ARP rocker studs  Cower Offset Aluminum Roller Rocker Arms (1.65 Ratio)  Manganese-bronze valve guides  63cc CNC’d combustion chamber  Large exhaust ports (1.620” x 1.420”) o New “Shorty” large port headers – matched to the head exhaust ports o SCAT Pro Comp Stroker Lightweight Forged crank o SCAT Pro-Stock I-Beam 5.4” Forged Connecting Rods o Mahle Forged Alloy Pistons, Mahle rings and wrist pins o Crane Hydraulic Roller Tappet Cam (Duration 294/302; Lift 0.563/0.584) o Ford Performance Zero Offset Hydraulic Roller Lifters o Trend Performance Chromoly Push Rods, 6.8” long, 5/16” dia, 0.080 thick wall, Ball ends o Edelbrock Super Victor Intake Manifold, polished and flowed at TechCraft o 650 cfm Holly 4 bbl, double pumper o K&N Air filter assembly o MSD Billet Distributor o MSD 6AL with Manual Rev limit set/verification o All ARP hardware, inside and out o Ford Zero balance Aluminum Flywheel, 157 teeth o Ford Performance Neutral Balance Crankshaft Damper o Center Force Clutch and pressure plate o New fuel pump and filter o New Ford starter • Dyno shows 414 RWHP at 6200 rpm on pump gas, would make more on race gas with more Distributor advance – dyno sheet included Basic Specs: • Chassis: Steel tube frame construction • Body: Thermal-formed Plastic • Steering: Ford Motorsport power rack & pinion • Front Suspension: Double A-arm with H&R coil-over springs with Koni shocks and sway bar • Rear Suspension: Ford 9" (Coleman Diff) axle with four links, Watts linkage, sway bar • Brakes: Front and rear disc brakes with 4 piston Brembo calipers and PFC discs and pads o Front also called Viper/F40 calipers Dimensions: • Track - 65"; Width - 75"; • Wheel Base - 107"; • Length - 171"; • Height - 52"; • Weight - 2550 lbs Safety Features: • New 6 point Race Quip belts (passenger and driver), window net, composite racing seats, full roll cage with door bars • New 5lb Stroud Safety Halon fire system Other info: • Longacre Stepper motor gauges: Tach, Oil Pres., Oil Temp, Water Temp, Fuel Pres. o Replaced Pi Research dash which was very hard to read • All recommended chassis reinforcements per Panoz have been completed: o Double Shear Brackets for rear trailing arms o Reinforcement plates and ribs on front control arms o Rear shock mount brace • Completely rebuilt Tremec TKO 500 5-speed (Campbell Auto Restoration) o Upgrade from TTK “R” Tremec to handle power of the new engine • Completely rebuilt Coleman (NASCAR) limited slip rear end (Campbell Auto Restoration o Inspected spindles for cracks (since this is a known weak point.) • Recent Fuel Safe brand Fuel Cell – 35 Gal • New Griffin Radiator • New Ford Radiator Header tank • Remote oil filter • New 3 inch exhaust and mufflers. Meets 102 db sound limit easily. • New Optima Red Top Battery • Extra set (4) of 17 inch Ford Racing wheels • Many spares including rotors, pads, shocks, Plexiglass (plastic) rear window, some other body parts. • Also available 24 foot Pace enclosed trailer with new SuperWinch 3000 and remote, tire rack, 2 tool chests, work bench and lights, on-board Optima Yellow Top battery. • Powered Trailer dolly (electric) to move/park trailer.


History

When Don Panoz bought Road Atlanta the racing school, they were still using some very worn out Nissan 300ZX's. It was decided that they should be replaced with Panoz bodied GT cars. So, the Panoz Racing school contracted with a company in Florida to help them design and build a batch of school cars - since the Panoz Auto factory was already at capacity building AIV Roadsters and working on the design for the Esperante. When the company in Florida did not prove to be up to the challenge in terms of quality and delivery time the project was finally brought to Panoz Auto. The initial batch of cars was delivered to Road Atlanta in the fall of 1998 and were called GTRA's (Road Atlanta). All of the original parts numbers carried the GTR8 prefix to tell us they were GTRA parts designed to the 1998 spec. After building the first batch of school cars, Road Atlanta came up with an idea for an all women racing series with Lynn St. James at the helm. So, a second batch of cars was built with the 4.6l 4 cam Cobra engines. These cars also incorporated some safety updates to bring them up to the standards required by (at the time) Professional Sports Car racing to run as a support race in the ALMS series. The most important of these was the switch from 1.75 OD x .090 wall ERW to 1.75 OD x .090 DOM tubing on all the round tubes in the chassis. These cars were designated GTWC's (women's cup) and were built over the winter of 1998/1999. After being run as the Women's Global GT series for 2 years it was opened up to men as well and renamed the Panoz Pro series. The next evolution of this same basic chassis came in the summer of 1999, when Panoz placed a 400hp Ford 351 crate motor in the car. This is also where the plastic body panels were first used. These cars initially were built to run as a spec series of their own that would run within the SCCA GT1 class. They started out on treaded street tires, but like everything else on this "spec car" they evolved to slicks and finally even from 17" to 18" slicks. The cars were designated GTS cars for SCCA, and the part numbers carry a GTSx prefix with the x being the year the part was created. Most parts on these cars are GTS9 part numbers. These cars have been built to order ever since the '99 and are still available from Panoz. Over the next couple of years 2 more batches of school cars were built, one for Sebring and one for Texas Motor Speedway. Due to availability issues with the old 5.0 mustang engine, most of the Sebring cars had Australian Falcon 5.0's, and then the Texas cars had 5.0's from Ford Explorers. The Australian engines have the throttle body opening to the driver's side, while the explorer engines have a rather tall plenum compared to all the others. Incidentally, the Explorer motors have the "GT40P" cylinder heads which is a cast iron head with a little better flow than the old 5.0 engines had. These cars were pretty strong on the chassis dyno. This car is one of the Texas cars. On July 1st 2007, Skip Barber bought the Panoz Racing School which prompted the sale of the Panoz School and Pro Series cars. Many racing enthusiasts have used this opportunity to pick up some really great cars.Performance Data

• SCCA GTS
  
• 2550 lbs
  

Engine

• Ford Performance
  
• Ford Performance
  
• Steel tube frame, Thermal formed plastic body
  
• 363 cubic inches
  
• 480 bhp SAE
  
• 430 lb ft
  
• Normally aspirated, Holley 650 cfm 4-V
  
• Ford Performance Z304DA Aluminum heads with high-flow ports. Cast from prime A365 T6 aluminum.
  
• Ford Performance M-6010-BOSS302
  
• 4 bolt main (center 3)
  
• Forged SCAT Pro Comp Stroker Lightweight
  
• Forged SCAT Pro-Stock I-Beam 5.4”
  
• Mahle Forged Alloy Pistons, Mahle rings and wrist pins
  
• Crane Hyd Roller Tappet Cam (Dur 294/302; Lift 0.563/0.584)
  
• Premium stainless steel valves, 2.02” in and 1.60 ‘ Ex
  
• PAC Beehive springs, Crower roller rockers, ARP 7/16
  
• Centerforce
  
• Centerforce
  
• Ford Performance Zero balance, Aluminum, 157 teeth
  
• <5 hrs since rebuild
  

Fuel System

• 
  
• Fuel Safe
  
• < 4 yrs
  
• 35 gal
  
• Electric
  
• Pump gas, 91 Octane
  

Oil/Water System

• New Griffin with integral Power steering cooler
  
• Front
  
• Ford Performance F4ZZ-8501-8 Reverse Direction
  
• Griffin
  
• Front
  

Electrical System

• MSD billet
  
• Ford
  
• Optima
  
• None - MSD ignition with rev limiter
  

Transmission

• Tremec
  
• TKO 500
  
• 5 speed
  
• Manual
  
• no
  
• < 4 hrs
  

Rear End

• Coleman/Ford 9
  
• Limited slip
  
• no
  
• Live axle
  
• Coleman
  
• < 4 hrs
  

Body

• Thermal plastic
  
• White
  
• No paint
  
• Very good
  

Chassis

• Tube frame
  
• Panoz
  
• Steel
  
• Black paint
  
• Excellent, never wrecked
  
• Alunimum Double A-arm with H&R coil-over springs with Koni shocks and sway bar. Excellent
  
• Ford 9
  
• Koni shocks, including 4 spares
  
• Brembo
  
• Ford, power steering
  
• Ford racing 17
  
• BF Goodrich, g-force 275/40x17
  

Interior

• black paint
  
• carpeted side panels
  
• Stroud 5lb Halon, plumbed
  
• 6-point, Race-Tec, both sides
  
• Longacre stepper, tach, oil temp/pres, water temp, fuel pres
  
• Panoz, removable
  
• Excellent
  

Spares

• 4 new Kone shocks
  
• Front fender, used. Air intake, new
  
• Front rotors
  
• Plexiglass back window
  
• Left rear quarter panel
  
• Other misc parts