My Favorite Ride: Bloomington's rare Panoz AIV Roadster

A 1960 International Harvester B-150 pickup abandoned in the woods near Helmsburg. A1952 Kaiser Manhattan sedan parked at the Bloomington Hardee's on a Thursday night.

John Hurlow's rare 1999 Panoz AIV Roadster.

Where, I ask, would you ever find stories about such a wide variety of vehicles? Nowhere, except right here, where that truck and two cars were featured in three recent My Favorite Ride columns.

After more than 20 years, this is the first Panoz I've encountered. Having never heard of the brand, some research was in order.

The company was started in the 1990s by a man named Don Panoz, known not for the handcrafted European automobiles that carry his name but instead for inventing the nicotine patch.

The 1952 Kaisers:My Favorite Ride: Seen at Hardee's - a couple of 1952 Kaiser automobiles

His son, Dan Panoz, was in the business of designing and building fast cars and the father joined in the enterprise. The Panoz car headquarters is located in Hoschton, Georgia, not far north of Atlanta.

Panoz was the first U.S. auto manufacturer to use what are called "super-formed" aluminum panels for its automotive bodies. The company designed the first Aluminum Intensive Vehicle (AIV) in the U.S.

It's called the Panoz AIV Roadster, and Bloomington's John Hurlow owns a golden-yellow 1999 model. The collector called it one of his favorite cars. "The story behind them is unique and they are a hidden gem in the car collector world," he said. "Not many people know about them, let alone get to see one in person."

He's got one in his garage.

Out in the woods:My Favorite Ride: 'Go another few more miles, look to your right through the trees'

Dan Panoz was employed by the Irish car manufacturer Thompson Motor Co. when the business liquidated in the late 1980s. He purchased the chassis design rights for the company's TMC Costin, an open-top sports car with a 1.6-liter Ford engine under the hood.

The car had been designed by Frank Costin of Maserati and Lotus fame. In 1992, Panoz produced 40 handcrafted Panoz Roadsters at their Georgia plant, launching the company's luxury sports car business in the U.S.

Panoz marketing calls the cars "custom American-made luxury" vehicles. The company is "dedicated to to exclusive sports car craftsmanship," calling the Panoz "sleek, elegant luxurious automotive art … European style with an American attitude."

While scrounging around for information and the history behind Panoz cars, I came across the 2018 obituary for Don Panoz in the Gainesville (Florida) Times newspaper.

It started off with this: "After a short battle with pancreatic cancer, the man who invented the nicotine patch smoked his last cigarette early Tuesday, Sept. 11, and died surrounded by family."

There's a book about the man who started a resort and winery, built fast cars and oversaw pharmaceutical firms. It's called "Drinking, Driving and Drugs: Secrets of a serial entrepreneur."

It tells how a Florida vineyard, unique race cars and a smoking cessation aid shaped an entrepreneur's life.

Back to the cars.

In 1994, Panoz developed a new lightweight aluminum frame using an adhesive process that bonded the chassis to the car's aluminum body panels. About 2/3 of the car is made of aluminum. They upgraded to a 1996 Ford Mustang Cobra powertrain, with a 305-horsepower engine and five-speed manual transmission.

But the Panoz AIV Roadster plan didn't fly, and sales were low. It looks like just 176 were built before the company switched gears and replaced the aluminum-based car with the Panoz Esperante, which is bigger and made with more traditional metals and less aluminum.

With so few being produced, the Panoz AIV Roadster is valuable. A royal blue 1999 model like Hurlow's, with just 300 miles on the odometer, sold for $70,000 at a 2020 Sotheby's auction in Phoenix.

Hurlow, meanwhile, keeps putting the miles on his rare Panoz. Keep an eye out around town this spring; the car will be hard to miss.

Have a story to tell about a car or truck? Contact My Favorite Ride reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-38-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: My Favorite Ride: Bloomington's rare Panoz AIV Roadster