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economist suntribune wheels thursday may 23 2002 25 maybe the drive to fight the bigger boys can be traced back nearly a century to two bloody fists a will as strong as the frozen atlantic tides that brought a young boy from to america from italy and a lifelong desire to create opportu nity where there was none before maybe thats where it all starts says danny panoz his animated tenor tones stretching through a georgia phone line his thoughts tracing back to the time when his grandfather set the tone for all the panoz children who would follow maybe he put that battle in all of us eugene panunzio couldnt possibly have known then just a few years into a new century that one generation of risktaking would lead to two genera tions of prosperity and one grandson with a suburban atlanta shop that would spark envy in the streets of modena how could he have known back then panunzio wasnt even a panoz that would come years later when like other immigrants of his time panunzio would shorten his name better to fit in danny says what would also fit well was the old mans fire he would eventually fight his way to a welterweight boxing title and he would scrap for a living in the streets of morgantown a west virginian city settled in 1 772 after a series of battles among native indians anglo and french settlers eugene would set the tone for so much and set a grandson on the right track in an age of bigname bigbuck big- everything car companies theres panoz one man with a dream if i would have listened to the first advice i was given that nobody can do it i would never be here today panoz is exactly in tiny hoschton 50 miles northeast of atlanta in the georgia hills living out that dream cre ating that knockout in the sleek sophisti cated handbuilt panoz esperante its all about passion and the purity that were once found in american cars he says and that passion has been miss ing too long dannys father don panoz had already taken his own risk when he moved the family to ireland in 1 969 to start a pharmaceutical company and avoid government red tape in the united states don would make his money pio neering the technology that would lead to the first nicotine patch panoz a hard ened chain smoker ironically he was allergic to the patch taught danny to lay it on the line in the panoz style his only son would think big while living in europe danny had fallen in love with auto racing and years later would return to ireland as a 26-year- old applying for a job with the thompson motor company tmc a small car builder when danny heard the company was facing liquidation he bought a chassis designed by frank costin the cos in cosworth motors the following year working out of a converted 2000 squarefoot department of transportation salt stor age shed with a dirt floor and two former tmc engineers panoz started his auto development center the goal wasnt to simply blow the family inheritance he wanted to restore the roar to the american sports car with a determination for all things handbuilt i have seen the enemy a panoz advertisement once said he is an endless repetition of apathy and medioc rity and he better pray he never finds himself next to me at a stoplight when he finally went green the first result was the panoz roadster a plymouth prowlerlike partaluminum twoseater that debuted years before the chrysler version and used ford parts v8 engine brakes from a mustang cobra and a rear suspension borrowed from the thunderbird coupe panozs factory consisted of a few buildings four engineers and two paint booths but he surrounded himself with a group of passionate innovative car lovers who understood that the dream never dies and neither does the product by 97 the roadster was reengi neered and became the first aluminum- intensive vehicle aiv produced by a us carmaker it also rolled in as a heinz 57 a rear axle borrowed from a lincoln mark viii a brake light from a taurus tail lights from a land rover side mirrors from a miata and sun visors from a bmw z3 i dont see why millions of dollars have to be spent on engineering new parts systems when there are proven pieced already available panoz says which is exactly where the secret lies these days panoz competes with the best by focusing most of his resources on suspension design and styling things he says matter most to customers he has built nearly 400 cars in 10 years and the oneroom shop is now a sprawling specialitycar complex with 50 employees with the sophisticated esperante a combination of words he says some greek some latin but it loosely means spirit and hope he is riding even higher with an individualistic coupe car driver says is remarkable especially given this climate of regulation panoz says its a decade of trial error and survival everybody thinks that smallvolume manufacturers get all the breaks but actually there are none panoz told auto week last year the big guys can amor tize the cost of meeting the federal reg ulations over six seven years we cant nonetheless he still wants to be the most efficient smallvolume produc er in the world the best cottageindus try manufacturer on the planet he says dannys father don thinks that can also happen on the race track in addi tion to the 30 companies he now owns don is the one driving panoz racing six years ago he told danny to establish a heritage beyond just car sales and he needed to do it through rac ing don would eventually purchase three tracks four driving schools and a few motor companies fielding racing teams staging races and joining the american le mans series with the panoz gtr1 today in addition to the test esperante he calls pepe panoz now 40 also roars around in a 65 mustang fastback he has already sold more esperantes than his roadsters and hes hardly done i always want to make more cars he says that will never change jason stein is a feature writer and the editor of wheelbase communications race week racing page he can be reached at jsteinwheelbasecomcom wheelbase communications supplies 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