As Le Mans week has begun in France, ALMS founder Don Panoz has revealed the new limited production Abruzzi Spirit of Le Mans road car. From a design perspective, the Abruzzi clearly draws on the GTR-1 "Batmobile" racer of the late-1990s, Like the GTR-1, the Abruzzi is a front mid-engine design with an unspecified engine providing 600+ horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque mounted low and behind the front axle. Also following in the footsteps of its predecessor, the Abruzzi has its radiators mounted in the rear with cooling air being drawn from a duct in the roof and along the rear side windows.
Uniquely, only 81 cars will be built over three years, each corresponding to a Le Mans race up until 2013, and all of the cars will be delivered at Le Mans. Each buyer will be given a driving course with the car on the Bugatti circuit at Le Mans and invited to the next race as a guest of Panoz and race organizer Automobile Club de l'Ouest where they will have the opportunity to drive their cars on the full circuit prior to the race. For the moment, at least, the Abruzzi is only being homologated to European road regulations. No pricing has been announced yet, but we're pretty confident it won't fit into most bloggers' budgets.
