Race2Play is absolutely thrilled to be bringing its paying members exclusive advance access to the much awaited Panoz cars addon for rFactor! This addon is officially licensed by Panoz Auto Development Company and developed by Image Space Incorporated, the producer of rFactor.
Panoz is a premier manufacturer of limited production, high performance automobiles based in the United States. Its Esperante model comes in a variety of configurations, including a chassis for competition in the National Auto Sport Association. The company also runs a racing school and racing series featuring the Esperante.
In 2006, Panoz autos won their classes in both the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
This special addon for rFactor includes the Panoz Esperante in its four street configurations, as well as the GTS driver's class spec racer, the purpose-built ALMS car, and, as a special treat, the rare and unusual prototype precursor GTR-1!
- March 27 - Esperante street and GTS chassis.
- April 3 - ALMS GT2 racing car.
- April 10 - GTR-1 prototype precursor.
- April 17 - Complete package.
The package won't become available to the general public until April 17, but before that happens Standard and Premium members of Race2Play will have exclusive advance access to start racing these machines today!
The cars will be released in three installments, and Race2Play will have servers running and events scheduled to go with each release. The official Panoz Le Mans Series championship, sponsored by ISI, will kick off in May.
Esperante
The Esperante street car comes in four configurations, in hardtop coupe or convertible form: The base model features a 4.6L normally aspirated Ford V8, and the GT package introduces additional sport trim to the base. The GTLM supercharges that V8 and offers additional sport trim and handling upgrades. The JRD refers to JRD Tuning, the principal aftermarket tuning company associated with Panoz, which delivers additional horsepower and handling packages.
Esperante GTS
The GTS is a purpose-built track car available from Panoz dealers in full race trim. It sports a 5.8L Ford V8 delivering 445 horsepower. This is the car used in the Panoz Racing School and Panoz Racing Series, and meets the requirements for competition in NASA.
ALMS GT2
Panoz manufactures race cars for several teams in the GT2 class of the American Le Mans Series, a premier sports car series in the United States founded by Don Panoz himself following a trip to watch a running of Le Mans in the 1990s.
GTR-1
The GTR-1 was built for endurance-style racing series, making its American debut in 1997 at the 12 Hours of Sebring and its European debut later that year in the FIA GT Championship. The car owed its unusually long nose to the fact that its 6.0L Ford V8 was placed in front of the cockpit but behind the front axle for a more balanced mid-engine weight distribution. After the FIA shuttered its GT1 class in 1999, leaving the GTR-1 nowhere to run in Europe, Panoz started to shift its focus to the prototype class, and the GTR-1 served as the starting point for the company's first LMP class auto.
