Where is everyone?

[Squerly]

Haven't been around for a couple of years and I see the forum is pretty dead. Where did everyone go?

[CMPanoz]

I have been absent as well for a couple of years. Work and parental obligations are time consuming!!! I plan on trying to knock the cobwebs off at Road Atlanta with MVP and Chin in Nov.. Hoping for more track time in 2016!

[Don O.]

Good question! I was wondering the same. I am successfully campaigning my Penske GTS in HSR. I was Group 10 Global GT Champion last year.

I run into a few cars at track days when I test. The are two other cars one GTS one GTRA running in HSR but not full time like me.

It would be nice to get a bunch of us together at a track day someday!

Panoz Development is alive and active again. John, Johnny and Lisa are very nice people to know and supported us at Road Atlanta this year and even pitted their new Esperante Spyder GT with us at the last two races!
There was a lot of interest in the car their.

Also the pace car for the Fall Historic race was Don Panoz's personal Esperante road car!

They even have a brand new GTS roller on the showroom floor for sale!

Come on guys let's get excited about these cars again!

I will be running in Savannah with HSR at the Grand Prize of America track on Hutchinson Island next week . (Oct 24th-25th)

If you are in the area come see us. There are two three of us entered!

Don #86

[liya_leacree]

but you see some fresh guys...

[Squerly]

I used to have a lot of fun on this site, but that was back when we all used our cars a lot. I know Brian took some time off to build a house, I did the same, and a lot of the other guy's are either selling (or have sold) their cars. And I guess I'm going to join that selling/sold group shortly as I've decided to get out of auto-sports myself.

I was going to sell a few years ago but decided to wait a bit and see if I changed my mind. Next thing I know 3 years has gone by and it's unlikely I'll jump back into it anytime soon. It was fun while it lasted though.

That being said, I have GTS #36 for sale. It's been sitting for a few years and will have to be sorted out again. Will need new harness, netting and a fuel cell as they have all expired. Given the new owner will have to invest in these things I'm pricing it at $12,500.00. Engine has about 50 hours on it, tranny, clutch, and brakes were fine the last day I got out of it.

Interested parties PM me with their phone # and I'll call you back. Please, serious interest ONLY. This is a Panoz GTS and I'm only pricing it at this price because you will have some sorting out to do before you can race it. You can see pictures of the car here.

Thanks Guys!

[Squerly]

Thanks to everyone that PM'd me and I'm sorry for being so slow getting back to you all. All notifications that come from this site were going into my spam folder so I was unaware of the PM's.

The car is at the Panoz factory at this time. I was at Road Atlanta last weekend and wanted to bring the car home with me but Panoz was not open that day (Saturday) and nobody could find a way to meet me there for the 30 minutes that it would take to pick it up.

But be that as it may, the car is still there and I am trying to buy out some time to make another 200 mile trip to pick it up. The car was running the day I put it on the trailer and drove to Panoz but they have been unable to get it started, or so they say. I'm not sure what the problem is but I would think that the builder of the car would have been able to find a way to get it started if they seriously gave a shit. But it appears to be over their knowledge base and so it isn't running at this time.

Let me pick it up and give me another 20 minutes and I'll guarantee you the car will be running just fine. In the meantime, my cell # is 850-292-5678. I'm way up in the mountains and I don't have any cell service out here, but leave a message and I'll call you back as soon as I can.

Or, you can wait until I get the car back from the Panoz factory and I'll post some pics for all who are interested. For those who are interested, here is a link to a previous thread that shows a picture of the car.

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...ighlight=meats


Best,

Jim

[JML68]

Jim,
Wow! We were extremely disappointed to see your post. We have been very accommodating providing parts and tech support to you over the years you've owned and run this car. While we were certainly disappointed to see what was once one of the fastest, best maintained Panoz GTS cars out there looking so neglected and hacked up, we nonetheless did our best to present the car to potential customers. It was very difficult for all who saw the car to look past the hacked up fenders and the massive amounts of corrosion covering everything under the hood from years of sitting in the trailer, especially for the $22,000 asking price! I guess we can certainly accept some blame for possibly being a little too polite and politically correct when you first dropped off the car.

To be clear, once we finished with our paying customer's work, we got back on your car, diagnosed a bad pick up in the distributor and replaced it so that the car now does start and run. Every time we fire it up to move it out of the way, it actually starts idling a little better as the fresh gas dissolves some of the built up varnish in the carburetor from sitting. Normally we are not in the business of putting our time and money into someone else's car, but took the time and effort to troubleshoot and resolve the distributor issue on yours at no charge. Apparently a poor call on our part! It sounds like you would have preferred for us to have just pushed it outside and told you to come get it rather than fixing it and providing the months of free storage? Our mistake as I guess no good deed does go unpunished! We even brought you customer's willing to pay several thousand dollars more then you are currently asking so I'm not sure what else we could have done!

I can only offer our apologies that you are ending your ownership experience on such a sour note but know that we will continue to provide the new owner all the support we can to hopefully restore this car to its former glory.
Sincerely,
John M. Leverett

[Squerly]

Now you have to know that a post of that nature is going to get a response. If nothing else this thread should provide some entertainment for a sub-forum that has lately fallen short on activity.

Originally Posted by JML68

Jim
It was very difficult for all who saw the car to look past the hacked up fenders and the massive amounts of corrosion covering everything under the hood from years of sitting in the trailer

I take it you're not a fan of the larger 325 rims and tires. Actually, I thought it was a pretty good conversion and certainly one that produced large benefit in the corners. I ran my best time at Road Atlanta (1:36) because of those larger rims/tires. Take a look at the photo below and tell me that looks "hacked".

And "massive amounts of corrosion"? Race cars get dirty, that's a fact of life. As I recall, part of you having the car at Panoz was so you could “go through it". Guess you just forgot that part?

Originally Posted by JML68

To be clear, once we finished with our paying customer's work, we got back on your car, diagnosed a bad pick up in the distributor and replaced it so that the car now does start and run.

And I’m not a “paying customer”? Either through my mechanic(s) or directly through your parts department, I’ve been supporting Panoz for a good many years. The truth is you dropped the ball and this car sat for almost 10 months (free storage as you put it) until a week ago when you got around to fixing the starting problem. Even your most loyal fans will get frustrated when faced with that kind of procrastination. How can you expect anyone to be interested in a race car if they can’t hear/see it run? And yes, I would have rather you pushed the car out by the road where I could pick it up if you weren’t going to do anything with it.

Originally Posted by JML68

Our mistake as I guess no good deed does go unpunished! We even brought you customer's willing to pay several thousand dollars more then you are currently asking so I'm not sure what else we could have done!

Over the last 10 months you referred two (2) people to me, neither of which were interested in buying a car that they couldn’t hear run. That's the crutch of this whole issue John. You knew the car wouldn't start but did nothing to fix the problem. And at the end-of-the-day it turns out to be a simple fix. Had you done that months ago we wouldn't be having this exchange now.

[JML68]

Jim,
As you are the one that chose to post disparaging comments about us on a public forum, I'm surprised you weren't expecting a response!

I have no problem with wider rear tires (though that car routinely ran 1:32-1:34 at RA with the standard set up) however it is illegal with most sanctioning bodies to have the wheels and tires sticking out past the bodywork (which is why flares are normally fitted) and everyone who looked at the car made a comment about it. That and the cutting of the fenders was not done cleanly which doesn't help. Your picture there shows it at its most "favorable" angle.

Dirt and corrosion are quite different things! I don't know if you looked under the hood before it was unloaded but it actually looks like it sat outside for quite a while. I'm assuming this isn't the case and it's just from sitting in the trailer. This was not part of "going through it" as the car and engine would need to be stripped to do it right! That was well beyond the requested scope of work.

All of the work on our quotes to you was completed on your car within the first few weeks of drop off. The starting problem was not something we were aware of until the end, though we were able to bump start the car to validate the slave cylinder repair. While we appreciate your past payments, we have not been paid for the work back in March as you made it clear that you weren't interested in putting any money into it and you wanted it added to the price of the car or the car sold "as-is". By May it was obvious to both parties that the car was not getting any traffic and we would not be able to sell it here at the requested price which is why the customers were sent directly to you since we would not be making a percentage on the sale. We've got a CFO and accountants that we have to answer to and it wasn't our car so we can't throw our money at it! When we had a break in paying work, we went ahead and worked out what the starting problem was and pulled parts out of an old distributor we had and got it running as a courtesy.

We have always had the ability to get the car started if need be. Again, it bump started fine. In most cases it didn't get that far and it was not an issue the potential customers brought up with us. I'm shocked you had guys willing to give you money if only it ran (that was not relayed to us) and you didn't inquire about what it would take to make that happen!?!? An extra $5-6,OOO return would certainly have been worth a few hundred dollar investment in a distributor.

Again, I can only apologize that you are ending your Panoz relationship on such a sour note. We have fond memories of this specific car and will be happy to do all we can to help the next owner restore it to its former glory. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
Regards,
John M. Leverett

[Ranch101]

We just moved to the Charlotte area and will be refreshing my GTS over the winter and looking to run HSR next year. Been doing track days with it and Spec Miatas in Texas last few years. Hopefully I can catch up with the others still enjoying a great car to track and race. Cheers.

[rioredstang]

I am a new owner of a Panoz. I bought GTWC #16. I am interested in any history and pics anyone might have.

I am currently freshing the LS motor in it. I am looking for a shifter assembly if anyone has a spare. I am going to a Jericho trans.