Don Panoz, the mastermind behind the production of hand-built exotic sportscars like the Panoz Esperante and 24 Hours of Le Mans GT2 class winning Esperante GTLM (2006), has outdone himself with this latest creation, the Abruzzi ‘Spirit of Le Mans’.

Built and named to pay tribute to what Panoz considers the world’s greatest motor race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Abruzzi is both a technological marvel and a uniquely delivered ownership experience, with every one of the planned 81 examples being delivered to their European owners at the famed Circuit de La Sarthe racing circuit where the day-long mid-summer classic takes place each year.

The link to Le Mans will go deeper still, with each Abruzzi’s chassis number containing the date of the Le Mans race it was delivered on. Each delivery will also include professional driving instruction on the Bugatti Circuit at Le Mans and all service and repair work will be done at the ACO facilities at the Circuit 24 Hours Le Mans.

The uniqueness of the Abruzzi buying experience doesn’t end there. Panoz will give each new owner the VIP treatment during the 24 Hours of Le Mans race weekend including access to the ACO hospitality facilities and a parade lap of the full 8.3-mile La Sarthe circuit. There will also be a ‘Spirit of Le Mans’ reception held at the clubhouse of the famed 24 Hours golf club in the historic town of Arnage, where new Abruzzi owners can rub elbows with past Le Mans winners including Derek Bell and Jacky Ickx.

Although the Abruzzi will be road legal and available for purchase in Europe and parts of Asia, this front-engine rear-wheel drive very bespoke sports car will not be seen on North American roadways. But if you can afford one, chances are you’ve got a villa in the south of France where you can enjoy this 600-hp piece of rolling art work. And if you do buy one, you’ll have to let us know how its Recyclable Energy Absorbing Matrix System (REAMS) body works out, since its multi-layer composite construction is apparently lighter than carbon fiber and just as strong while also being dent-resistant, shatter-proof and completely recyclable.

A video interview of Don Panoz speaking about the creation of the Abruzzi ‘Spirit of Le Mans’ is available after the jump.

[Source: American Le Mans Series]

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Chevrolet announced a custom one-off Z06 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Corvette’s first appearance at LeMans. Featuring the traditional American racing color scheme (white with blue stripes), as the 1960 Corvette, which won its class at the 24 hour race. The car’s sale will benefit the National Corvette Museum, and anyone who wishes to buy the car must make a $300,000 donation to the Museum, and then pay the $85,000 sticker price of the car.

The special edition Z06 also comes with a Z07 package, featuring some bits from the Corvette ZR1. A celebration will be held in honor of the Corvette at this Saturday’s ALMS race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, one week before the Corvette racing team heads off to contest the 24 Hours of LeMans in Frace.

[Source: TopSpeed]

If you’ve ever heard the Chevrolet Corvette ALMS car, you’ll know that they are far and away the loudest, most evil sounding cars in the field, an impressive feat when you’re competing against Porsche 911s, Aston Martins and open-cockpit prototypes. For a car that sounds like Armageddon, one would expect that being green isn’t exactly a priority, but the latest episode of the Corvette Racing Series shows that the team can find ways to go fast and back up their green credentials. Using little tricks like ceramic wheel bearings, lower rolling resistance tires and lightweight body panels, the ‘Vettes are able to go faster with less fuel, which is the same logic behind Porsche’s 911 GT3R Hybrid,

Coincidentally, the road-going Corvette delivers very respectable fuel economy numbers, especially considering the massive V8s used in them. Sadly, the old dogmatic meme of a gas-guzzling V8 refuses to die.

[Source: Chevrolet]

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Panoz isn’t exactly a household name and yet the American sports car maker has been building exotics for almost two decades. Set to debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month, Panoz will look to heighten awareness of the brand when it unveils the all-new Abruzzi “Spirit of Le Mans” mode. Its third model ever.

For those who don’t know, Panoz gets its name from Don Panoz, the man behind the American Le Mans Series. In the past his road cars have competed on track as well so we’ll be sure to await further news of an Abruzzi GT.

As for the vehicle itself, we don’t know much other than the body is made from a Recyclable Energy Absorbing Matrix System (which sounds to us like carbon fiber mixed with pop cans). The teaser photo above doesn’t show much, but so far we think it looks a lot like a Morgan Aero 8.

We’ll be sure to bring you more info when the Abruzzi gets its world premiere on June 7th.

[Source: ALMS]

In its first outing at the season opener for the Nürburgring Long Distance Championship race, Porsche’s new GT3 R Hybrid placed an impressive sixth overall, raising speculation that there may be a future for hybrid sports cars.

In fact, according to a report by Autoblog Green, Porsche spokesmen Steve Janisse and Andy Schupak have confirmed the German sports car maker is in talks with the America Le Mans Series (ALMS) to run the hybrid Porsche in North America.

Based on the GT3 chassis and powered by a traditional 4.0-liter flat-six engine making 480-hp at the rear wheels, the GT3 R Hybrid also gets two electric motors that power the front wheels, with 60 kW of power going to each axle. The driver will be able to call up this extra power on-demand, for six to eight seconds, giving the GT3 R a temporary all-wheel drive setup as well.

In addition to the hybrid racer’s impressive debut, Porsche also took the top spot on the podium at the Nürburgring with the Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3, driven by Timo Bernhard, Marc Lieb and Marcel Tiemann.

If Porsche can reach an agreement with the ALMS, it hopes to compete with its new hybrid racer in a couple of races later this season.

GALLERY: Porsche GT3 R Hybrid

[Source: Autoblog Green]

Official release after the jump:

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Corvette Racing has just released the first part of a 12 part series, chronicling the team’s build up and follow-through for the 2010 American Le Mans Series. The first video in the series doesn’t waste any time dealing with Corvette Racing’s crushing finale at Laguna Seca, where contact by one of the Flying Lizard Porsches sent driver Jan Magnussen into the wall, just seconds from the finish line. (see below).

Crew Chief Dan Binks expresses his anger, but says that the best way to avoid that situation in the future is to build a car that’s so far out front, this problem won’t occur. Corvette thinks they’ve got such a car, but this year the competition is even tougher, with the GT1 and GT2 classes amalgamated into a single GT class. Plus, for 2010 (like in 2009) the new C6.R is much more closely based on the street car and new for 2010 is a smaller 5.5-liter V8 engine.

We’ll be sure to keep an eye on how the new car stacks up, with the 2010 ALMS Season beginning with the 12 Hours of Sebring, March 17-20.

See after the jump for a video of last year’s season ending crash.

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With the start of the 2010 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) just around the corner, Corvette Racing has announced a new 12-part video series that will take an in-depth look at the new car, while following the team’s season this year.

Each of the videos will be posted on the Corvette Facebook page, starting with this first trailer. Over the past decade, Corvette Racing has been a dominant player in the GT1 category, switching to GT2 last year after there was really no one left to race against. For 2010 the GT1 and GT2 classes have been joined to form a single GT class and the racing will be ultra-competitive with Ferraris, Porsches and numerous other exotics looking to take the win in each and every race.

For 2010 (like in 2009) the new C6.R is much more closely based on the street car and new for 2010 is a smaller 5.5-liter V8 engine.

The 2010 ALMS Season begins with the 12 Hours of Sebring, March 17-20.

GALLERY: 2010 Corvette C6.R

Corvette Racing has just released the first official photos of its new GT Class (formerly GT2) C6.R team, with new livery for 2010. The teams consist of Corvette Racing drivers Johnny O’Connell, Jan Magnussen, and Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R, while Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta, and Emmanuel Collard will pilot the No. 4 car. All drivers have been testing the cars this week at Sebring International Raceway in Florida.

Along with new livery, the car’s have a new 5.5-liter V8 that many expect will be the new base engine in the next generation (C7) Corvette. Last year Corvette Racing only ran a partial season in the new GT (then GT2 Class) cars, using a downsized 6.0-liter version of the old GT1 Class 7.0-liter V8.

The 2010 ALMS Season begins with the 12 Hours of Sebring, March 17-20.

GALLERY: 2010 Corvette Racing C6.R

Official release after the jump:

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Corvette Racing boss Doug Fehan has confirmed that when the team of GT2-spec Vettes debut for their first full season at Sebring in March, they will be equipped with an all-new, smaller V8 engine. Gone is the 6.0-liter V8 from last year, which Fehan said was just an temporary engine. That motor, essentially a donwsized version of the GT1-spec 7.0-liter V8, had very little in common with the street-going Corvette’s V8.

This new 5.5-liter V8, however, is expected to be in many ways similar to a production V8 that will find its way into the next generation C7 Corvette. In fact, it will be built alongside engines for the ZR1 and Z06 at GM’s Performance Build Center.

We’ll be watching the new GT2 Corvettes closely during the 2010 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season, in articular during their race debut at the 12 Hours of Sebring running from March 17-20.

GALLERY: Corvette Racing ALMS GT2 Cars

Official release after the jump:

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After launching the R8 LMS race car in Europe last year, Audi has now announced its intentions to bring the track-only version of the R8 to North America. In an interview with the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), Audi Sport boss Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, said he’d like to have the car run in something like the ALMS’s GT Challenge class in 2011.

The GT Challenge class is the entry-level class, which is part of a new set of classes the series has created to stay competitive confuse people.

“From 2011 on, we want to the cars available to customers in the United States,” he said, commenting that obviously Audi would need to support the teams and not just sell the cars.

With Audi’s huge involvement in the ALMS over the past several years with its TDI diesel R8, R10 and now R15 cars, the German automaker has done a lot to raise the series’ profile. Dr. Ulrich hinted that it would be nice if the GT class could accommodate Audi, which has done so much for the sport. With Audi not as involved in the ALMS any more, however, he even commented that Audi would like to continue to support the series, something the introduction of a fleet of R8 race cars most certainly would do.

[Source: ALMS]