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Panoz & Year One Shop Tour
Last Friday the team went to Braselton, Georgia
to visit one of the most prominent race car manufacturers in
the world – Panoz. Panoz was recently featured in Race Car
Engineering for their new DP01, which will be the new spec
car for the American Champ Car series in 2007. We went to
their headquarters to see the facility and the new car,
guided by Simon Marshall, chief designer of the DP01. What
a trip it was!
The tour began in the front showroom, the only
part of the building where we were allowed to take
pictures. This room featured an older Champ Car, an IRL
car, and a car from the Panoz-owned American Le Mans
Series. To our astonishment and delight Mr. Marshall
allowed everyone there to sit in the ALMS car. That was
incredibly exciting, but we had only just begun.
From there we passed into and through all of the
offices and design workstations to the fabrication and
machining shops. Simon was not the least bit hesitant about
handing us parts to hold and look over. We saw oil tanks
and A-arms for the DP01 being welded from laser-cut sections
and pre-bent tubes and chatted with welders for a minute
about their work. From there Simon led us to the engine
assembly room and dyno bays. Again, everyone was very
friendly and open to us intruding into their workspace to
bombard them with questions and touch things. The
composites lab was next, where we watched several of the new
chassis being laid up. Their autoclaves were rather
impressive, large enough fit several of our cars – though we
have seen bigger.
Last but not least
was the assembly shop where the DP01 sat, in a mostly
assembled state. We crawled all over it, sticking our
heads
 anywhere they would fit, touching and poking at
things, asking questions, and writing down product names.
The car will be powered by a 2.65 liter V8 from Cosworth and
will have a Hewland seven-speed gearbox. The car was
designed to be about 100 lbs lighter than the cars of last
season, with lightened components throughout the entire
car. It was stressed, however, that while both weight and
cost were reduced, safety was not sacrificed. No corners
were cut in materials or manufacturing. The aerodynamic
features of the car are truly fascinating. At 200 mph the
car produces about 5000 lbs of downforce, most of that
coming from the underbody. The wings serve mainly to smooth
out airflow, which reduces turbulence for following cars.
Champ Car organizers pushed for these features, hoping to
increase overtaking, which makes for more exciting racing.
One thing that struck all of us is how much more
than anything these car depend on aero. As Simon
answered our questions it became apparent the designs of
nearly every component on the car had taken a back seat to
that of the aero package. The car features a tub and other
components that were all designed to be lighter without
affecting the performance at all or causing safety issues.
After one last longing look at the DP01 and few
words with Simon about internships we headed on our way. We
haven’t taken a trip like this in a while and we hope that
Simon and the Panoz team will welcome us back in the
future. It was lots of fun and we are always looking for
opportunities to learn from the pros.
After leaving Panoz we headed a little further
north and stopped in at the Year One distribution center.
Year One is one of the largest distributors of aftermarket
automotive parts around. They specialize in parts for the
older muscle cars, a market that is ever-expanding. Our
friend Tony Keys agreed to show us around. Their warehouse
is impressive, holding hundreds of thousands of parts on any
given day. In addition to parts they also have a fully
functional shop where they do modification work and full
builds for various customers. They have stored there
several cars that they have built for various displays and
for TV shows like “Overhaulin.”
After ogling the cars and talking with some
mechanics Tony was kind enough to give everybody a Year One
shirt and to invite us back for future tours and also to
display our car at various shows that Year One participates
in. We are very grateful to Tony for taking time out of his
day to entertain us and we hope to continue to work with
Year One in the future.
 more
pictures here
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