Good Find Friday features interesting vehicles we’ve found for sale while conducting market analysis or appraisal research. They are not for sale by Wolf and Mare and we have no business relationship with the sellers. We just think they’re worth learning about and sharing with our readers!

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In 1999, Microsoft released a racing game called “Midtown Madness,” where you were able to careen a number of polygonal recreations of real-world vehicles around a populated simulation of downtown Chicago. It was insane fun and a popular title, so much so that it produced two sequels. The fun factor derived mostly from driving like a maniac and one of the best cars in the game to launch over the Chicago river was a sleek roadster from a real — but somewhat obscure — American auto manufacturer named Panoz. In today’s Good Find Friday, I’m featuring one of the brand’s production road cars: a 2002 Panoz Esperanté.

Founded in 1989 by Dan Panoz, son of pharmaceutical magnate Don Panoz, the company got its start when Dan applied for a job with Irish vehicle maker TMC. When the company liquidated, Panoz bought the rights to one of the chassis designs developed by noted designer Frank Costin. The company set up shop in a small factory near Atlanta, Georgia and released its first model in 1992: the Panoz Roadster.

Don Panoz had amassed a fortune through his entrepreneurial success and decided to invest in his son’s venture, primarily by leveraging the old “win on Sunday sell on Monday” approach of using racing to sell road cars. Racing also strengthens the breed, and Panoz became even more involved in racing and created the American Le Mans Series, a racing school, participating in the U.S. Road Racing Championship.

Panoz has the distinction of building cars that won their class in both the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans through privateer companies racing Panoz GTLM cars.

Today’s Good Find Friday car is a 2002 Panoz Esperanté listed on Craigslist out of Suwanee, Georgia with an asking price of $42,000.

Finished in a metallic red finish over a gray leather interior, this Esperanté was delivered new to Panoz of Princeton in Lawrenceville, NJ according to an included copy of the Monroney. The original MSRP totalled $92,180 after options, which included carbon fiber and aluminum accent packages.

The exterior is said to have some blemishes, including scuffs on the front valance and chips on the front bumper. The side skirts behind the front wheels also look to have a fair bit of road rash from stone chips. Metallic colors are always hard to blend, and it’s anyone’s guess how difficult it would be to even match the paint on such a rare vehicle.

The interior also exhibits some light wear, especially on the driver’s side seat bolster. The interior is fully covered in gray stitched leather, and it would appear that some of the leather covering on the dashboard is peeling and shrinking.

Since it was intended to be a fast but comfortable cruiser, the Esperanté is optioned with a lot of comfort and convenience features including ten-way adjustable seats, power windows, power mirrors, air conditioning and a stereo with CD changer.

Ford power is located under the front hood and consists of a 4.6-liter 32-valve V8 engine cribbed from a Mustang SVT Cobra. This aluminum mill pumped out 305hp and 320lb-ft of torque, which propelled the all-aluminum body and chassis from 0-60mph in 5.1 seconds.

As a motorsporting brand, the suspension should be racy and it is. The Esperanté features fully independent double-wishbones and coil-over shocks in the front and rear, with anti-roll bars fitted to both ends for better cornering. The wheels are attractive 17×9” BBS alloys currently wearing BF Goodrich rubber.

Recent service to the tune of $10,000 is a plus, and the car comes with its original owner’s manual, window sticker, and roadside service kit.

Firm numbers on how many base Esperanté variants were built are difficult to come by. Apparently 234 total cars were made, but that also includes the GTLM coupe used for Le Mans racing and the SCCA-spec GTS class cars. It’s a safe bet that more base cars were built than other variants and past sales reflect this.

There are 5 Panoz Esperantés currently on the market, with prices ranging from $47,000 to $68,000, making our feature car the cheapest of the lot. The higher-priced cars are generally GTLM or GTS specifications, though not always. The Esperanté was always available with an automatic transmission and those are the cheapest variants on offer. The most recent sale for an Esperanté was a lovely 2004 example in Pewter metallic that hammered for $39,600 at Barret-Jackson Scottdale this year. It’s now listed for sale by a dealer for an optimistic and irritatingly high asking price of $67,950.

So is our feature car a good price? I’d said it’s probably fair, and I’d bet there’s some wiggle room as the car has been listed on Facebook Marketplace for 30 weeks (assuming it’s still for sale). One potentially significant note is that the photos used in this listing are the same ones used when the car was auctioned on Hagerty Marketplace and sold for $30,502 back in August of 2023. I would definitely suggest reaching out to the seller and inquiring as to the current condition and location of the car, as well as proof of ownership before wiring any money.

As I think about the future of my own personal collection, I start to crave the rare and unusual more and more and not just the beautiful and iconic. I’ve always had a counter-culture bent and it might be time to move at least one of my cars in the quirky oddball direction.

Something like a Panoz might just fit the bill. Would you add the Esperanté to your garage? Let me know in the comments!

Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisal and auction services for sellers and buyers of collector European cars. We also provide importation services. Give us a call or drop us a line!