Panoz' DPM Mustang

Now You Can Drive Patrick Dempsey's Car

Horsepower is increasing. Quality is increasing. Retro-classic designs are increasing. But you may not have noticed another great trend in the car world: the next step beyond “Resto-Mod” is gaining ground- illustrated beautifully by this car. Burgeoning interest in all things retro continues to build. What is the next step? Not many folks can pay $200,000 for a genuine Chevelle “copo.” No matter how well done the restoration, and although we love seeing them change hands at Barrett-Jackson, there just weren’t many originals made. And they have no air conditioning, they leak when it rains, and just try stopping or turning one.

So tuners began taking classics and upgrading them. First it was stuff like disc brakes and air conditioning. Then they started adding trick amenities like shaved door handles and modern stereos hidden behind retro face plates, (see the Year One Cup Winner covered in Makes & Models a year or so ago) - a trend some call “Resto-Mod.”

 

But what if you didn’t really need a subwoofer and electric door handles? What if you just want a dependable classic that’s also safe and comfortable? Here, in deep “Velvet Black,” you are looking at exactly that. The next big thing in the car world, it is a big step beyond “Resto-Mod.” Whatever name you want to give this next stage is just fine. No one tries to be too strict about these classifications, fortunately, but for the occasional Internet blogger who decrees that “true muscle cars must have four doors.”

Even the term "muscle car" is only a recent name. Regardless of the nomenclature, we really like where this trend is going, especially the way Panoz did it. Panoz is that secret lab of automotive rocket science tucked away in little Hoschton, Georgia. Like Porsche, the Panoz’ engineers led by John Leverett seem to make cars merely as a spontaneous expression to prove to the world that their brilliance has present application. One suspects they’d build these fascinating cars even if no one ever knew. But boy does everyone know. Panoz won the GT2 class at the 24 Hours of LeMans and the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2006. This followed an impressive string of wins throughout the American LeMans series, including the Trans Am Manufacturing Championship, establishing their worldclass engineering, speed, and endurance.

Panoz’ road cars, the Esperante and GTs, are known for high-tech construction: extruded aluminum modular chassis, super-formed aluminum body panels, carbon fiber, 3D CAD suspension and meeting all federal certifications. Significantly, they have a particular expertise in Ford drivetrains and suspensions. For this project, Panoz teamed with their “prototype arm,” JRD Tuning. The Swedes at JRD are the guys you come to when you want, say, a turbo-charged V-8 “M” motor in your Mini, with genuine bespoke Englishwheel- crafted metal bodywork. They are the best of old-world coach-building combined with modern technology. There’s one more character to introduce, at least to the male readers - Patrick Dempsey. Mr. Dempsey is an actor who actually races, and quite well. He’s raced for Panoz, and recently raced the Ford Mustang FR500C for Hyper-Sport, which Makes & Models covered last year. He’s also “Mr. Versace” and “Dr. Mc Dreamy” on the hit television series Grey’s Anatomy.

Ask any female nearby if you want to know more about Patrick Dempsey. Somewhere in the synergy of Panoz, JRD, and Patrick, someone (probably the original “out-of-the-box” thinker, Dan Panoz) had the great idea of taking one of Ford’s all-time classics, and truly updating it. No, it was more like re-making it. Not just adding disc brakes and a cool stereo, but...what would an early Mustang be like, if it were designed and manufactured in 2008, with the latest safety, handling, reliability, comfort and emissions features? Panoz went one step further and not only made such a car, but engineered a way to easily continue manufacturing it. You can not only buy the car, but you can also make more! You can’t just bolt this stuff on. Panoz started down at the floorboard and frame, re-designing it from the ground up. It “has modern creature comforts and safety systems such as crush zones, ABS, traction control, adjustable steering column, electronics, A/C and modern conveniences.”

Again, it was not just an update or re-design, but the designing of a blueprint for manufacturing this car. Their method “reduces overall engineering costs, simplifies component and system integration as well as leveraging warranty and service opportunities.” The players agreed that fine design should be left alone. They took one of the all-time greatest designs, Ford’s 1965 Mustang, and kept it as original as possible. If you know your Mustangs, you’ll see clues to something special here: racing-style fuel filler, custom billet grill, HID headlights, LED tail lights, and those wonderful fender flares. Rather than looking bolted-on, the whole thing looks the way a 1965 Mustang should have looked. It is not just faithful to, but complimentary of, the original wonderful design. The DPM Mustang has full modern instrumentation, inside custom billet shrouds, with full-wrapped panels. It has dual flat-screen displays in the headrests, plus 6-disk DVD navigation right where Ford would have put it in 1965 had anybody dreamed of such a thing back then. Not only proper AC, electric windows, locks, and theft system, it also has gorgeous proprietary features like the exposed shifter linkage.

Yet it’s not just looks. Panoz and JRD put together a “driver’s package” of updated electronics, with an emphasis on daily driving, balanced performance, and usability. The pedal cluster, for example, is set up for heeland- toe driving. Try asking the guy with the fantastic custom car lit up on the $25,000 car show rotisserie if you can heel-and-toe his creation. He’ll laugh. Beneath the muscular skin is the real magic: “The chassis and body is a fully integrated hybrid that retains the classic look of the 65 Mustang, however the chassis was specifically engineered on CAD to integrate current S-195 and S-197 packaging and components in a completely stock, unmodified form.” This “1965” Mustang now has a combination of unibody, space frame and torque box construction for increased structural stiffness, which means much better handling and control, as well as greatly enhanced occupant protection. As an example of truly gifted engineering, working inside the 1965 dimensions, they were able to tie the rear wheel wells together for better handling, accommodate an up-todate rear suspension, add an inner fuel cell for safety, maintain a full rear seat, and add a full size spare, which the original didn’t have. The engine bay is now plumbed and sized to accept any Ford 4.6 liter motor and present-day mechanical systems, without further modification. The body and chassis is sealed in epoxy primer and the bays, liners, bulkheads, and pans are all covered in Rhino Liner. Once again we can thank Panoz and JRD for bringing the car world in to an exciting new dimension.

So where does that leave Mr. Dempsey? Patrick helped get this project going, but he’s now off somewhere overseas making movies and looking good, of course. He is the slated owner of this car, but if you hurry, you can buy it before he gets back! (Panoz will just have to build him another).