What exactlt is 'GT'?

[gttouring]

I posted a sort of rant about nasty looking 4 door GT's, I must now post the question to all, what makes a GT car? A Gran Turismo, or Grand Touring car? (of course this may confuse with just a touring car, but what makes a car GT?)

[H16]

GT's are supposed to be the closest thing to a road car in a professional seris. Most are built from road cars, being converted into race cars.

It has been argued, with some accuracy, that the Dodge Viper GTS-R and the Corvette C5R are somewhat prototypes. They are not road cars to start with, rather strong tube framed chassis built within the perimiters of their road going counterpart.

The Callaway still had mufflers on it at Le Mans 2001, the car that took pole. They figured it had at least two seconds left in it, and it beat the Porsches by over a second. Then, mysteriously, the ACO denies the Callaway's entry the next year and the project comes to an end.

I know that Corvette are building a GT version, if anyone wants it, but there was a Corvette (Chevy not Callaway) that participated at the 2001 Sebring event, Le Mans legal. It still had its turn signals and everything. I really feel that if you took the decals off, people would not reconize that as a race car on the street.

[Graham Goodwin]

That very same car still competes H16 - It is now the Xero Motorsport car in Brit GTs. It ran in a few ALMS races for Trinkler Motorsport and was built by Pratt & Miller.

[kmchow]

That's the problem with motorsports these past few years(decades or perhaps always was??). In order to win, sometimes designers push the limit of what can be considered a GT car. The definition also varies depending if we are talking about racing cars or street cars. I was always under the impression that GT cars are usually higher performance/hp cars than their touring car equivalents. Ideally, they should be using their stock production bodyshell with some aero aids. However, it seems manufacturers are producing closet Prototype cars these days???

Then, there's the term GTP??? Does it mean Gran Touring Prototype???

[H16]

Yes, because it has a roof and slightly resemebles a road car (slightly), the Grand Touring Prototype is the name for GTP. GTS stands for Grand Touring Super. VERY few times, a GTP/Group C/Closed Top/Whatever else they call them actually make it to production. The GT40 (which the MKIII was supposed to have been way back in the 60s) is finally being introduced as a production car. There was also the fiasco regarding the Dauer 962, a thinly disguised Porsche 962. There was also a Porsche built "prototype" of a road car that appeared in some mags around 1992, but Porsche never really got interested in producing them. Rumors have floated around that a VERY limited run of Bentley GTPs are being considered. Good luck, you'd never get the average driver in there, much less anyone else. Not to mention some of the FIA GT1s that were silly. These were race cars that met certain laws and were allowed on the street in VERY limited numbers. I think there are around 25 Porsche GT1s while there is one Toyota GT1 that is road legal.

There are a lot of folks close to sports car racing who see very little point in GTS. Either its GT, GTPrototype, or LMP something. GTS blurs the lines of what you can do. Try going and getting a 7.0 liter Corvette engine.

This somewhat justifies the BMW GT DQ from ALMS. An M5 engine in the M3 car.

The Mosler certainly streches the boundries of the GT class, and the Spyker, from what I hear, without restrictions, can do the same. Saleen really raised eyeballs with their S7R the first year, but problems with the company and restrictions on the road car have put that threat in GTS to a halt.

Can anyone explain why Mosler went to GTS in G/A, only to then hear that it was the goal of the company to end the GTS sometime after the 2003, or at latest, 2004 season? Once again, this is the kind of thing that inspiries such confidence in the people who pay the bills.

Mosler were also fumming about the spec rear wing Grand Am gave them that burnt up the tires and made the car oversteer during the 24 of Daytona.

[Gunman]

Originally posted by H16
Can anyone explain why Mosler went to GTS in G/A, only to then hear that it was the goal of the company to end the GTS sometime after the 2003, or at latest, 2004 season? Once again, this is the kind of thing that inspiries such confidence in the people who pay the bills.

I've been curious what Grand Am's reason for moving the Mosler to GTS was too. Prior to the 2003 season, it was approved for GT and GTS.