My ultimate goal is to make the Panoz as light and quick as possible, without sacrificing reliability or longevity in any way. Mods like turbocharging or supercharging are out of the question because they shorten the lifespan of the engine (and the car is already scary-fast with a tire smoking 0-60 in 4 seconds flat). Instead, I focus on mods that make the car lighter, reduce engine power losses, and improve handling. This will ensure that my Panoz will have the utmost performance consistent with reliable operation over thousands of miles and many years of spririted driving.

Here is a dyno chart for my car as of September 2003, measured at the rear wheels and SAE corrected. It is taken from 3 runs done at Apex Motorsports in Santa Clara, California. The engine is performing about 5% stronger than stock, not bad for a few simple bolt-on mods, running the crappy environmentalist gasoline we have out here in California. During the dyno run, the car was on the edge of detonation with the knock detector intermittently kicking in. With the non-oxygenated 92 octane gasoline it was designed to burn, the knock detector would not be triggered and the torque would roll off less sharply from 5500 to redline, providing a flatter torque curve and about 10 extra peak HP.

In full loop (cruising) mode, the A/F ratio was pegged right at 14.7:1 exactly. Normally these engines go 11:1 at WOT which is too rich - safe but not good for power. The shorty headers lean it out just a bit to make more power. In open loop (wide open throttle) mode, the A/F stays between 12:1 and 13:1 from idle to redline. This is optimum for maximum power, meaning this engine is tuned as well as it can be. The car does not need a custom chip.

The first mods I made to the Panoz were to stiffen the shocks and remove the A/C system. I did both during its 1,000 mile oil change. I removed the entire A/C system: not just the compressor, but also the extra radiator, hoses, reservoir, etc. The only part remaining is the switch on the dash, which now does nothing. It uses a lightweight idle pulley where the compressor used to be, so the car still uses the stock serpentine belt. The parts needed for this are available in Ford's "A/C eliminator kit".
End Result: dropped about 30 lbs. of weight from the front of the car, reduced drag on the engine.

All 4 wheels use Carrera coilover shocks with stainless steel springs, which are not easy to adjust. I had to remove them from the car to compress them all the way while rotating them. They are adjusted to the stiffest dampening setting.
End Result: better handling, minimized body roll, stiffer ride

The next mod I made was to get a custom alignment and 4 corner balance (at about 1,600 miles). I did this at Custom Alignment in Mountain View, CA (they still have my car featured on the hot cars section of their web site). These guys did an absolutely excellent job. They did the alignment to my own settings which I got from John Leverett, chief engineer at Panoz. They 4-corner balanced the car with my weight in the driver's seat, and the heaviest wheel is within 20 lbs. of the lightest wheel.
End Result: quicker steering response, reduced throttle oversteer, improved agility

Next, at around 2,500 miles, I changed the differential gear ratio from 3.27 to 3.73. Mr. Leverett designed the car to have a 3.73 ratio and the only reason it shipped with the 3.27 is because of the EPA. The 3.27 gears are ridiculously tall; redline in 2nd gear is 83 MPH !? I put the 3.73 gears in and restored the car to what the engineers intended (actually, the guys at Rearend Specialties in Santa Clara did the job, and they gave my car the special attention it deserves). This made a tremendous improvement in performance. 500 miles later, at around 3,000 miles, I changed the differential oil with Mobil 1 synthetic 75 / 90 and Ford friction modifier.
End Result: faster acceleration

Next, at around 4,000 miles, I considered the engine broken in and switched to synthetic oil. From now on, the car gets Mobil 1 (a group IV 5w30) with Amsoil filters.
End Result: extended engine life, peace of mind for the owner

The next mod I made, at around 4,500 miles, was to dump the street tires and use DOT competition race tires. I got a set of BFG G-Force tires in the same sizes as stock: 245x40x18 front, 295x35x18 rear.
End Result: vastly improved cornering and braking, slightly improved acceleration

Next, at around 6,000 miles, I installed underdrive pulleys and removed the bumpers. I used the Steeda pulleys because they include their own vibration dampener so they don't piggyback on the stock pullies. I also replaced the serpentine belt (Ford had done a TSB on the belts and updated the design). The stainless steel bumpers were easy to remove.
End Result (bumpers): dropped about 30 lbs. of weight
End Result (pulleys): engine revs better, sounds better, and gets about 8 more horsepower to the wheels

Finally (if such a thing exists), at around 6,500 miles, I changed the tranny oil with Mobil 1 ATF. According to the service manual, the tranny oil never needs to be changed. This seems strange to me so I will change it periodically, probably every 10,000 or 20,000 miles.
End result: extended tranny life, peace of mind for the owner

I suppose finally really does not exist... as I continued the mods. I installed Ford Motorsport 1 5/8" stainless steel jet hot ceramic coated shorty headers. These replace the stock cast iron manifolds, increasing flow and making the engine run slightly leaner for more power. The Panoz exhaust system remains downstream, 2.5" diameter straight pipes with inline resonators and no mufflers.
End result: about 8 RWHP and 8 RWTQ, 8 lbs. lighter than stock, with improved engine sound and appearance

During the header install, I observed that the air injection ports on the new headers were relocated. Thus, I could not plug in the air injection system. I tried fabricating a flexible hose to make the connection, but no flexible hose I could find could handle the heat of this application. The best I found was a 7/16" kevlar interior, stainless steel braided brake line rated at 450F @ 1000 PSI. But even this hose only lasted 400 miles. So I eliminated the air injection system entirely.
End result: 8 lbs. of weight removed, slightly improved header scavengy efficiency.