G Force unveils changes for IRL in 2003.

Chassis manufacturer G Force will have a new look and name and increased commitment to the Indy Racing League in 2003, company officials announced Sept. 14.

American-based G Force will have a new name, a new logo, an exciting new car and a dramatically expanded technical team in an effort to put the car in Victory Lane on a regular basis in 2003.

G Force owner Don Panoz made the announcements today at Texas Motor Speedway on the eve of the season-ending Chevy 500.

For next season, the G Force will be known as a Panoz G Force, reflecting the unprecedented commitment company owner Panoz has placed in the IRL program.

"The level of competition in the Indy Racing League has increased remarkably, and we believed our commitment to the program needed to reflect that," Panoz said. "Over the past 12 months, we have closely examined every area of G Force and have worked toward providing significant improvements in design, manufacturing and customer service.

"We are totally committed to ensuring the new Panoz G Force car is undisputed as the chassis of choice for IRL competition. Our target is the IRL championship and the Indy 500 - that is our complete goal."

As part of that commitment, Panoz G Force has dramatically expanded its design and technical team.

New appointments include Chief Executive Officer David Bowes, Chief Designer Simon Marshall and Technical Consultant Ben Bowlby. Bowes, Marshall and Bowlby previously worked at Lola where they were extensively involved in that company's CART program.

The trio joins forces with Panoz G Force's existing team led by Director of Sales John Biddlecombe, Chief Aerodynamicist Tony Tyler and Technical Consultant Nigel Bennett.

"We have gone out and recruited the best people to greatly enhance our technical capabilities," Panoz said. "Tony George, Brian Barnhart and the IRL have done an outstanding job in growing this championship and has achieved a level of competitiveness and professionalism never seen before.

"We at Panoz G Force have answered the call to match that growth to make a similar quantum leap forward in our overall organization. Our new structure will enable us to not only keep pace with the current and future demands of the IRL but will place us as a pacesetter at the leading edge of motorsports technology."

Panoz today unveiled the new company logo and gave a sneak preview of the company's 2003 Indy Racing League car - the first IRL design to be known as the Panoz G Force.

Part of the Elan Motor Sports Technologies Group (EMT), Panoz G Force has opened a new design center in the United Kingdom and will complete the final manufacturing of the cars at its U.S. base in Braselton, Ga. The EMT facilities feature full in-house design, fabrication, machining and composite construction capabilities.

The new 2003 Panoz G Force is undergoing extensive wind-tunnel development in the United Kingdom. The first car is expected to be ready for delivery in early December, and the company expects to build 30 Panoz G Force chassis during the offseason, said Tony Mastandrea, EMT president.

"We now have 12 full-time designers and engineers working on this new car and have doubled the amount of time we are spending in the wind tunnel," Panoz said.

Said Marshall: "We are certainly very excited about the results we are getting out of the wind tunnel and believe we will have an extremely strong package for 2003. This year's car was incredibly strong at the Indianapolis 500, and we are working toward replicating that performance at every track in the IRL championship.

"Our design team has worked extensively on a package that will be very strong on the short ovals, the 1.5-mile ovals and the superspeedways. The numbers we are getting from the wind tunnel in regards to reducing drag but maintaining or increasing downforce are very promising."

The new Panoz G Force car also will feature unique one-piece construction to enhance safety.

"The current cars are two halves that are cold-bonded together, which leaves the joint by far the weakest part of the car and absolutely susceptible to intrusion in a T-boning type accident," Bowlby said. "So we've gone to this one-piece construction, which means that the side of the car, the side of the cockpit, will represent the criteria that are imposed by the IRL in terms of side penetration. We've actually passed on numerous occasions, with our test panels, the side penetration criteria.

"So what we're doing is refining the layout, the type of carbon material that's being used to achieve the best possible weight stiffness. I think it's definitely a great move by the IRL to adopt such high anti-penetration standards, and we're certainly upholding that side of it."

One of the original chassis suppliers for the Indy Racing League, a G Force chassis has been a winner every year since its IRL debut in 1997. So far in 2002, the chassis took victories at Texas Motor Speedway with Jeff Ward and Kentucky Speedway with Felipe Giaffone and dominated qualifying at the Indianapolis 500, taking four of the top five starting spots.