Photos Courtesy of Panoz

It’s hard to hear American sports car and not immediately think of the Chevrolet Corvette. However, for 25 years Panoz has been building arguably the rarest American sports car, and has been advertised as “America’s most exclusive custom sports car.” To celebrate the 25th anniversary the folks at Panoz recently unveiled their first of only 25 Panoz Esperante Spyders.

Aesthetically, this hand built creation doesn’t look a ton different from other Esperantes but under the bright red exterior is where things get a bit different. It starts with the chassis that is now a mixture of aluminum steel and carbon fiber. The suspension has been revised and now customers have the option to have 800 horsepower at their disposal. Buyers can choose to go with a 430-horsepower, 5.0-liter V8. Or choose a  supercharged, 5.4-liter V8, available in tunes of 575 and 800 horsepower.

A quick look at the Esperante Spyder specs:

• Aerospace SPF aluminum body or carbon fiber GT body
• Extruded aluminum chassis with pressed steel center section, tubular steel sub-frames and carbon fiber composite superstructures
• 430hp 305ci or 575hp 330ci V8 but tuning option exists to create up to 800hp
• Tremec T56 6-speed manual transmission or 6-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters
• 3.55 ratio limited slip differential
• 3100 curb-weight
• Independent front and rear suspension with double adjustable coil-over shocks
• 4-wheel power assisted disc brakes
• Nappa leather interior

The 25th anniversary Esperante Spyder at its unveiling

Pricing for the rare sports car starts at $181,000 for the base version and stretches to $229,000 for the top of the line GT model. Now we leave it up to you, the reader. If you had the money would you spend over $200k to have this powerful machine?