The Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Is Heading To Project Motor Racing

We're edging ever closer to the 25 November release date of Project Motor Racing, and we're starting to get a very clear picture of what to expect from the game's car roster. Continuing its emphasis on the offbeat and the underrepresented, the latest car to be confirmed is the Panoz Esperante GTR-1.

This was American sports car maker Panoz's entry in the GT1 class of the late ’90s, a category that was supposedly production car-based but where the loose homologation rules meant you could pretty much build a bespoke racing prototype and do a couple of quote-unquote road cars based on it.

Despite that relative freedom, Panoz decided that its contender should bear some resemblance the Esperante sports car it was selling at the time, and the GTR-1 therefore went against category conventions with a front-engined layout. Well, front-mid-engined – the 600bhp, 6.0-litre Ford V8 that powered it sat ahead of the driver but behind the rear axle in the car's comically long bonnet.

Despite its odd layout, the Esperante GTR-1 was a big success – in the 1998 IMSA GT Championship, it won the GT1 class in seven of the eight races to take a dominant overall victory. It was also the basis of the Panoz Q9, the first hybrid car to ever run at Le Mans (although it failed to qualify in its sole entry).

It joins another against-the-grain front-engined machine from Panoz in PMR, the later LMP-1 Roadster S prototype, while in-class competition will come from at least one of its period rivals, the Porsche 911 GT1-98.

Read on for all the cars and tracks confirmed to be in the game, plus a thing or two we've spotted in blink-and-you'll-miss-them scenes in trailers.

Confirmed cars

• Aston Martin

  • DBR9
  • Valkyrie AMR-LMH
  • Vantage AMR GT3
  • Vantage AMR GT4
  • Vantage GTE (GTE Decades Pack, pre-order bonus)

• Audi

  • R8 LMP900
  • R8 LMS GT3 Evo II
  • R8 LMS GT4

• Ford

  • Capri Zakspeed Turbo Gr. 5 (Group 5 Revival Pack, day one DLC)
  • Mustang GT4
  • Mustang GT3

• Gillet

  • Vertigo

• Lamborghini

  • Huracan GT3 Evo2
  • Murcielago R-GT
  • SC63

• Lister

  • Storm GT

• Lola

  • T70 Mk3B GT

• Marcos

  • LM600

• Mazda

  • MX-5 Cup

• Morgan

  • Aero 8 GT

• Mosler

  • MT900R

• Panoz

  • Esperante GTR-1
  • LMP-1 Roadster S

• Porsche

  • 911 GT1-98
  • 911 GT3 R (992)
  • 911 GT3-RSR (996)
  • 917K
  • 962C
  • 963

• Praga

  • Bohema (official mod)

• Saleen

  • S7-R

• TVR

  • T400R

Unconfirmed cars (seen in trailers)

• Ferrari 512 M

Confirmed tracks

• Blue Mountains Raceway (Bathurst)
• Brianza (Monza)
• Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
• Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
• Circuit Zolder
• Derby (Donington Park)
• Kyalami
• Lake Jackson Raceway (Sebring)
• Le Mans Circuit de la Sarthe (Endurance Racing Expansion, Q4 2026 DLC)
• Lime Rock Park
• Nürburgring GP
• Nürburgring Nordschleife
• Northampton (Silverstone)
• San Marino (Imola)
• Sao Paulo (Interlagos)