Champ Car Confirm Panoz Deal
Champ Car officials have confirmed that Panoz will be the sole supplier of Champ Cars for three years from 2007

The Panoz DP01 will be built by sister company Elan Motorsports Technologies and will be powered by a turbo-charged Ford-Cosworth engine.
Panoz won the fiercely contested battle with current majority supplier Lola to build the car, with a design that will give teams significant cost savings over the current machine. Early estimates are that the car will cost 35 per cent less than the current Lola, with spare parts costs being slashed in half.
"The reduction in cost of the Panoz DP01 and Cosworth engine will benefit Champ Car's teams immensely," said Tony Cotman, Champ Car vice president of operations. "The design and cost will keep our current teams in the series but will also attract new teams to the series.
"Combined with the reduced cost, the new design also makes the Champ Car World Series even more of a driver's series. The lighter, smaller car means teams will rely even more on the drivers to achieve maximum performance."
The DP01 has been designed to better suit the street courses that now dominate the schedule, but will still be able to run on permanent road courses and ovals.
The car is smaller than the current Champ Car in both length and width and weighs 165 pounds less aiming at providing a more nimble and quicker machine. It has been designed to improve the ability to pass and follow cars in the dirty air, with smaller wings and bigger tunnels to create less aerodynamic turbulence. There is an on-board starter to reduce yellow-flag time during events.
The design also has improved safety features including upgrades to the head protection and seat back areas, increased leg padding. It incorporates a collapsible steering column, new side intrusion panels and a two-stage nose crush and a rear crash structure for oval events.
Champ Car president Steve Johnson said: "We are extremely excited about the potential that the Panoz DP01 chassis built by Elan Motorsports Technologies and the Ford-Cosworth engine bring to the Champ Car World Series.
"This combination benefits Champ Car not only by providing a strong package for our current teams, but also by giving prospective teams an opportunity to be competitive right away."
Latest news
Rating the best drivers of the century so far
Autosport's Top 50 feature has been a staple of the magazine for the past two decades since its first appearance in 2002. Here are the drivers that have featured most prevalently during that time
The best motorsport moments of 2021
Motorsport produced one of its greatest years of all-time in 2021 despite a backdrop of ongoing COVID-19 challenges and an ever-changing racing landscape. Through the non-stop action Autosport has collected the finest moments from the past 12 months to highlight the incredible drama and joy motorsport generates
The racing comeback artists who resurrected long-dormant careers
Making it in motorsport can be tough, and sometimes drivers move elsewhere before their best chance arrives. Here are some of those who made it back
The hidden racing gem attracting ex-F1 heroes
It’s rarely mentioned when it comes to assessing the best national contests, but the Brazilian Stock Car series that reaches its climax this weekend has an ever-growing appeal. Its expanding roster of ex-Formula 1 names has helped to draw in new fans, but it's the closeness of competition that keeps them watching
The one-time Schumacher rival rebooting his career Down Under
Joey Mawson made waves in the middle of the last decade, beating future Haas Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher - among other highly-rated talents - to the 2016 German F4 title. A run in F1's feeder GP3 category only caused his career to stall, but now back in Australia Mawson's S5000 title success has set that to rights
The lesson football’s would-be wreckers could learn from racing
OPINION: The greed-driven push for a European Super League that threatened to tear football apart is collapsing at the seams. Motor racing's equivalent, the football-themed Superleague Formula series of 2008-11, was everything that the proposed ESL never could be
The F1 and Indy 'nearly man' that found contentment in Japan
Having had the door to F1 slammed in his face and come within three laps of winning the Indianapolis 500, the collapse of a Peugeot LMP1 shot meant Japan was Bertrand Baguette's last chance of a career. But it's one which he has grasped with both hands
The female all-rounder who arrived "too early"
From Formula 3 to truck racing, Dakar and EuroNASCAR via a winning stint in the DTM, there's not much Ellen Lohr hasn't seen in a stellar racing career that highlights the merit in being a generalist. But she believes her career came too early...