American Le Mans Series founder Don Panoz enters this weekend at Mosport International Raceway with his newest car creation, the Panoz Abruzzi “Spirit of Le Mans”.

Panoz has raised the bar on creative thinking with his designs in ALMS to this point.

He’s run a P1 roadster, a GT1-specification car that was informally dubbed the “Batmobile,” and most recently, the Panoz Esperante in GT2.

The Esperante has a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on its resume, in 2006.

Now, the Abruzzi comes to fruition after making a demonstration appearance at last year’s Petit Le Mans and its first race start at this year’s Twelve Hours of Sebring.

With a fierce look to its entire design, from the nose to rear end and rear wing assembly, the Abruzzi not only looks different from the rest of the GT field but was built with environmental consciousness in mind.

The Abruzzi is the first road-going automobile featuring R.E.A.M.S® – Recyclable Energy Absorbing Matrix System– which offers environmental, performance and structural advantages like no other automobile body system on the planet.

The multi-layer composite system is lighter than carbon fiber yet equally strong and is dent-resistant, shatter proof and recyclable.

In addition, the Abruzzi introduces TRIFECTACOOLING® technology – stage two and stage three systems that lower coolant temperature on both the inflow and outflow from the radiator.

Panoz factory driver Ian James (who has driven prior Panoz creations) and Edward Sandström are tasked with driving the front-engined beast. The renewal of a Panoz carin the GT class sees it up against manufacturer titans from Corvette, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW as well as Ford and Jaguar.

The duo were 10th fastest amongst the GT ranks this morning – a respectable effort out of 16 entries.