Feels like a champ car; The Panoz DP01 is refreshingly new and assuringly familiar.(The Panoz DP01 proves to be a much better car than Lola B2K/00)(Product/service evaluation)

Byline: ERIC TEGLER

This season's Champ Car drivers have a new ride. The Panoz DP01 replaces the Lola B2K/00, which served the series well for the past six years. Replete with some Formula One-inspired visual cues, the DP01 looks impressive. But is it a proper Champ Car?

We dropped in on the series' first winter test at Sebring, where new faces peered out from the new cars, including 2006 Champ Car Atlantic champion Simon Pagenaud and runner-up Graham Rahal. There were veterans, too, such as Paul Tracy. With 15 seasons and a championship under his belt, few are better qualified to explain the essence of a Champ Car.

Tracy says a Champ Car is "a car that's never really super-stuck like an F1 car. You don't have really soft tires. It has a lot of midrange punch and top-end power. There's a little bit of turbo lag. It's a good car, a fast car.''

The DP01 is fast. After three days of testing on Sebring's short course, it was within less than a second of the unofficial track record held by the old Lola.

"It seems to work well right out of the box, but the aero is a lot different,'' Tracy reports. "It has more rearward downforce than we had before. It's quicker down the straightaway, and we're seeing higher top speeds, so it's a little more slippery than the Lola.''

Credit the car's revised shape, drawn by Elan Motorsports Technologies' chief aero-dynamicist, Nicholas Alcock. You might expect Alcock to have achieved aero slickness by freely sketching a new profile. Not quite, says DP01 chief designer Simon Marshall.