43rd and More - Kit reviews by Wayne Moyer Archive Edition

Showcase Review:
Panoz Part 1 - Provence Moulage 1998 Panoz GTR-1
by Wayne E. Moyer

An American, front-engine, Ford-powered sports car competing on an equal footing with the world's best at Le Mans and whipping them on American tracks? It's deja vu all over again, guys. Dan Panoz didn't just read Shelby's book, he's updated it with modern technology and put it back into circulation. Having decided that the market had room for another low-volume "specialty" sports car, Panoz designed the AIV roadster, a cycle-fendered bullet that looks not unlike Plymouth's Prowler. Any resemblance ends there, though; instead of the Prowler's six-cylinder engine, the AIV sports a 305 horse, twin-cam Mustang "Cobra" V-8 and a lightweight aluminum chassis that puts all that power to use. Having built a sports car, Panoz decided that the best way to advertise would be (see Shelby's book) to go racing. Never one to think small, Panoz made Le Mans his target. With the rules for 1998 favoring coupes, the Panoz Le Mans car didn't look much like the AIV, but Panoz insisted that it have the Cobra V-8 and that it must be in front of the driver. After doing some initial design work to satisfy himself that the concept was feasible, Panoz called in the design team from Reynard to lay out a coupe that would have less drag and more downforce than the contemporary McLaren GT. Remaining adamant about placing a Ford V-8 up front, Panoz was able to bring Roush Racing on board to provide a road-racing engine that could live for 24 hours.

Panoz scrambled to make the field for the 1997 Le Mans, where the cars ran well but failed to finish. Getting serious, Panoz brought in Tony Dowe to manage the racing team, bought Road Atlanta, and began formulating what would become the American Le Mans series. Meanwhile, the Panoz coupes, with Visteon sponsorship for 1998, competed in the Can-Am/USRRC series here at home as well as Le Mans. Their rumbling V-8 engines made the Panoz GTR-1's crowd favorites at Le Mans, but they couldn't match the sheer speed of the Mercedes, Porsches, and Toyotas. One of the two coupes finished the race in seventh place, though.

"Meanwhile", as the old song goes, "back in the States" it was another story. The Panoz team battled with the Champion Porsche 911 GT-1 throughout the year in the USRRC, taking the Team Championship with three wins to the Porsche's two, but Thierry Boutsen scored all the Porsche points and claimed the USRRC Driver's title. The Panoz team did claim the GT class at Sebring, though, beaten only by the Momo Ferrari 333SP.

I was able to see the Panoz GTR-1's at Mid-Ohio, where they dominated the GT class, and photographed the cars extensively. At about the same time the Provence Moulage kit of the GTR-1 as raced at Le Mans became available and I leaped at the chance to build this Ford-powered "Batmobile".

The body shell and baseplate are resin, as are a few of the smaller parts, while the rear wing, wheel centers, and detail parts are photo-etched brass and stainless steel. The wheel rims are turned alloy, while the tires are rubber. P.M. has a VERY nasty habit of throwing in whatever existing tires are "pretty close" instead of making new, accurate tires for each model. Whoever packed my kit obviously did so after a long, wine-lubricated lunch; I got wide, treaded rear tires and way-too-narrow slick fronts, about as unrealistic a combination as you could ever see on a race car.

Body cleanup was easy as there was only a small mold line and remains of feed tags, all underneath the body. The big cheek inlets are so deeply undercut that they're easy to open up, too. There was very little flash, but my sample did have a lot of tiny "pinholes" under the rear fenders and a couple of healthy pockmarks under the chin splitter that had to be filled. There's a lot of interior detail cast on top of the baseplate, too, though the seat with its cast-in belts is a separate piece. Casting quality was excellent on these as well. I also built up the rear wing from its photo-etched components before spraying any primer.

The inside of the body and all the interior was sprayed with semi-gloss black; everything that's not upholstered is carbon fiber and trust me, it's NOT flat black. Actually, it should be on the glossy side of semi-gloss. I used carbon-fiber decals on the console and visible part of the side panels, with the seat and steering wheel painted a very flat dark gray for contrast. Most of the electronics boxes are really "black", gloss black, in fact, with multi-colored wiring bundles. The big fire bottle is red, of course.

I couldn't find a commercial paint to match the bright silver-gray Panoz color, so I mixed some to match my photos. It's definitely metallic silver-gray, and light enough to allow the "spots" on the decal sheet to be seen easily. perhaps Model Car World has the Visteon silver-gray by now?

The decals all fit exceptionally well, but since they cover most of the body and occasionally overlap, they must be applied in several sessions. Think about which ones need to go on first! PM does not give you the correct asymmetric steering wheel for this kit; a shame because the glass fits very well and is really clear so that all details of the interior can be seen.

"Final assembly" was a breeze as this is a simple kit and everything fits well. The overall body shape and the flowing lines have been modeled perfectly, but I thought that PM had really screwed up the front end when I compared the model to my Mid-Ohio photos. The big, deeply undercut front inlets simply weren't there and other details were different, too. Le Mans photos show the same nose I saw at Mid-Ohio. But the PM kit says "Daytona 1998" and when I looked at Daytona photos, lo and behold, they matched the model precisely. Panoz obviously revised the front end after both cars DNFed at Daytona; Provence Moulage says that this is the Daytona car and that's what it is! Other than the front track (those ridiculously narrow tires) all major dimensions check out to 1/43 scale, too.

PM's Panoz GTR-1 is a simple, very easy-to-build kit that makes up into a very accurate and attractive model of a highly successful Ford-powered, front-engine race car. What more could anyone ask for?

Contact Wayne at mailto:wmoyer@infinet.com

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