Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Panoz is a true roadster, offering minimal provision for inclement weather or occupant comfort. Let’s see if this rare sunny-day-special’s price rains on our parade.
While many of you derided yesterday’s 1976 Cadillac Seville as a “grandpa’s car” or insulted it as an “Old-illac,” its value at the seller’s $7,500 asking price couldn’t be denied. That earned the elder Caddy a solid 68 percent Nice Price win.
If that Seville was too slow and staid for your tastes, then maybe today’s 1998 Panoz AIV Roadster will prove more your cup of spiked Red Bull. This is, after all, one of the most minimalist, wild, and, hence, thrilling sports cars money can buy. We’ll get to how much money that will take in a minute. First, however, we need to get an idea of just what this thing is.
The Panoz family—and that’s pronounced pay-nose—made its fortune in pharmaceuticals, but motor racing was a far greater passion. Led by Dan Panoz and his father, Don, who passed away in 2018, Panoz has built numerous open and closed-wheel racers as well as a handful of road cars.
The AIV Roadster was one of the earliest of those street cars and features an extruded aluminum architecture into which the drivetrain from a Ford Mustang Cobra has been bolted. That means the car has the 305-horse DOHC 32-valve 4.6 V8, five-speed manual gearbox, and independent rear suspension of Ford’s late ’90s snake-bit pony.
This is all in a car that tips the scales at just around 2,500 pounds. That’s made possible by the extensive use of aluminum in the structure, which also gives the car its AIV moniker, indicating that it is an Aluminum Intensive Vehicle.
There’s not all that much else to the car, really. The cabin is accessed by two small doors that sit atop raised gunwales and bracket a pair of narrow seats and an appreciably wide center tunnel. More Mustang bits can be found here, including the instrument cluster, which has been shifted to a driver-oriented position in the center of the dash. That sits above the standard Ford HVAC controls and a pair of off-the-shelf air vents. There are no airbags, as the Roadster’s limited production numbers allowed Panoz to dodge that requirement, but there are seatbelts. Those pull out from the car’s center, buckling on the outside in reverse fashion from the norm. In total, 176 AIV Roadsters were sold, making this car a substantially rare opportunity.
According to the ad, it’s in great shape as well. This is really little more than a toy (although much more useful than last week’s dragster), and as such, it needs to be in decent shape to do its duty at car shows and driving events. These cars did come with a crude top and side curtain arrangement, although the seller doesn’t tell us if those are extant on this car. It does have the small vent wings on the A-pillars, which help a good deal with the wind buffeting in the cabin.
It also appears to have decent tread on its tires, all its proper trim, and no obvious issues with the bodywork or interior. The seller claims the car has 41,000 miles on the ticker tape and that it will come with a clean title. They are asking $39,500 for the sale, which is about half what this Roadster went for when new.
That’s not really a useful comparison, though. Nor is trying to see how this car will stack up, price-wise, against other sports cars—like Porsche’s 911—as it’s just too different a beast. That means we have to take it at face value, and that further means we all need to vote on whether or not this Panoz gets a pass at that $39,500 asking.
What do you say? Is that a good deal for a rare, rudimentary Roadster with an interesting history? Or is that too much for what’s little more than a very fast toy?
You decide!
Facebook Marketplace out of Oregon City, Oregon, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Bill Lyons for the hookup!
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