It was called the Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Q9 and Christophe Tinseau, former Cadillac and Pescarolo driver, was in charge of the development of this avant-garde machine. The French driver recalls the infancy of the concept, its performances, but also its legitimate shortcomings.

How did your collaboration with Don Panoz begin?
"Everything started in January of 1998, Jean Paul Driot (DAMS), who was racing Panoz cars in Europe, called me to ask me to participate in a simulation at the Paul Ricard circuit. I got to the circuit in the middle of the night. I had never gotten in the Esperante GT1. He told me: 'Get dressed, you're taking the next stint.' Seeing the beast, I thought it would be extremely hard to drive. Actually, I got used to it very quickly and, at the end of my stint, I was racing at the same times as the leaders. In getting out of the car, Don Panoz was waiting for me and asked, 'How much do you want to be paid to race with us?" It was the first time anyone had ever asked me that!"

What were your impressions of this highly unique car?
"The car was working well, it was very complete, the front was very long but it wasn't an issue. The couple was quite huge: 1,000 N.m! We glided in third, no need for a diesel! I have great memories of that season, namely at the A1-Ring (Austria) in FIA-GT where I found myself between the two Mercedes CLK GTRs of Bernd Schneider and Ricardo Zonta for a full stint! Then I really had fun."

Then you discovered the Q9 version and its hybrid technology...
"One day Don Panoz told me he had invested a massive fortune in this project that only lasted a year. The principal was simple: the energy stored during braking was kept in a battery, then reinjected via an acceleration electric engine. This gave a 130 hp surplus, which carried the total power to 800 hp. The problem was the battery/cable/engine brought with them an extra 300 kilos of weight. The cables were at least six centimeters in diameter!"

This famous "Sparky" (his nickname), how did you adopt it?
"The battery was developed by Varta. In the beginning, they wanted to use a nuclear battery in the car, but it was extremely dangerous and officiallly forbidden by regulations. When the Varta engineer installed the battery, he evacuated the box then put on an astronaut's suit. He installed the 180-kilo battery in a carbon box next to the seat. We spent the year exploding batteries, it was fantastic! As we had a big weight handicap, the regulations allowed us all imaginable and possible refinements. ESP, ABS, traction control…we had it all, so the car was very easy to drive, the handling and the braking were incredible. Even in the rain, it was easy. This project was too much of a precursor to be viable. It would take years to develop all that!"