Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel racing, touring car racing and stock car racing. Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over particularly long distances or large amounts of time, resulting in a larger emphasis on the reliability and efficiency of the car and its drivers as opposed to outright car performance or driver skills. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an example of one of the best known sports car racing series.
The Porsche 911 GT1 is a car designed and developed by German automobile manufacturer Porsche AG to compete in the GT1 class of sportscar racing, which also required a street-legal version for homologation purposes. The limited-production street-legal version developed as a result was named the 911 GT1 Straßenversion.
The Lister Storm was a homologated GT racing car manufactured by British low volume automobile manufacturer Lister Cars with production beginning in 1993. The Storm used the largest V12 engine fitted to a production road car since World War II, a 7.0 L Jaguar unit based on the one used in the Jaguar XJR-9 that competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Due to the high price of the vehicle at £220,000, only four examples were produced before production of the road-going Storm ceased. Only three Storms survive today, although the company continues to maintain racing models. The Storm was the fastest four-seat grand tourer during the 1990s and early 2000s.
The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout the years has visited other continents including Asia and South America. At the end of 2009, the championship was replaced by the FIA GT1 World Championship, which morphed into the FIA GT Series for 2013.
The 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 63rd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 17 and 18 June 1995 in one of the wettest races in the event's history with about 17 hours of steady rain. The race was won by the #59 McLaren F1 GTR driven by JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya entered in the GT1 category. This was the first Le Mans win for a driver from Finland and for a driver from Japan. It was also McLaren's first win, at its first attempt. Such was the marque's dominance that its cars filled four of the first five places - Ferrari did it with its two cars in 1949, but other manufacturers like Jaguar, Porsche, Ford or Audi achieved their Le Mans fame only after 2, 3 or more years attempting their first win.
The McLaren F1 GTR is the racing variant of the McLaren F1 sports car first produced in 1995 for grand touring style racing, such as the BPR Global GT Series, FIA GT Championship, JGTC, and British GT Championship. It was powered by the naturally aspirated BMW S70/2 V12 engine. It is most famous for its overall victory at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans where it won against faster purpose-built prototypes in very wet conditions. The F1 GTR raced internationally until 2005 when the final race chassis was retired.
The 1999 FIA GT Championship was the third season of FIA GT Championship, an auto racing series endorsed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO). The races featured grand touring cars and awarded a drivers and teams championship. The season began on 11 April 1999 and ended 26 November 1999 after ten races in Europe, the United States, and China.
The 1998 FIA GT Championship marked the second season of FIA GT Championship, an auto racing series endorsed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and managed by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO). The races showcased grand touring cars adhering to two categories of regulations, GT1 and GT2, and awarded driver and team championships in each category. Commencing on 12 April 1998, the season concluded on 25 October 1998 after ten rounds, spanning across Europe, Japan, and the United States.
The 1997 FIA GT Championship was the inaugural season of FIA GT Championship, an auto racing series endorsed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO). The FIA GT Championship replaced the BPR Global GT Series which had been held races and championships from 1994 to 1996 after the series was promoted by the FIA, while Stéphane Ratel took over as promoter and organizer of the new championship, replaced the former BPR Organisation after the departure of partners Jürgen Barth and Patrick Peter. The races featured grand touring cars conforming to two categories of regulations, GT1 and GT2, and awarded driver and team championships in each category. The season began on 13 April 1997 and ended on 26 October 1997 after 11 rounds, visiting Europe, Japan, and the United States.
The FIA GT3 European Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) and regulated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It was a championship derived from the international FIA GT1 World Championship, but meant to provide competition for more amateur racers in closer to production cars. The series used extensive performance balancing and handicap weights to make cars more equal.
The GTR Euroseries was a short-lived auto racing series which ran in 1998. It was created as an alternative to the international FIA GT Championship, while combining elements of the former BPR Global GT Series. The GTR Euroseries was created by Patrick Peter and the GTR Organisation, who had also been a founder of the BPR.
The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports GT Challenge. The series is currently run by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation. From 2023 where dubbed as GT World Challenge Great Britain, while Pirelli began its first season as the championship's official sole tyre supplier in 2016.
Larbre Compétition is a French auto racing team founded in 1988 by Jack Leconte. Based at the Circuit du Val de Vienne in Le Vigeant, Larbre has had considerable success in the Porsche Carrera Cup, French GT Championship, and international FIA GT Championship. Previously working with major automobile manufacturers like Porsche, Ferrari, and Chrysler, Larbre ran one of the factory Aston Martin squads in the Le Mans Series where they won the 2006 GT1 class championship.
SRO Motorsports Group is an international sporting organisation best known for promoting and running a variety of racing events and series, including the Total 24 Hours of Spa, Intercontinental GT Challenge and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe.
The Lotus Esprit GT1 was a sports racing car produced by Lotus Engineering, a subsidiary of Lotus Cars formed to develop racing cars to compete in the GT1 class racing. It competed in the BPR Global GT Series in the mid-1990s.
The 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship was the inaugural FIA GT1 World Championship, a motor racing competition reserved for FIA GT1 cars. The championship was a replacement for the FIA GT Championship which had been held annually from 1997 to 2009. It was the first sports car racing series to be sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as a World Championship since the demise of the World Sportscar Championship at the end of the 1992 season.
The 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship was the third and final season of the SRO Group's FIA GT1 World Championship, an auto racing series for grand tourer cars. The 2012 championship, which opened to GT3 Series Grand Touring cars, featured two titles awarded to the highest scoring competitors over the course of the season: the GT1 World Championship for Drivers and the GT1 World Championship for Teams. The series underwent regulation changes in 2012 with GT3 cars replacing the GT1 category vehicles used in the previous two seasons of the World Championship. Hexis AMR, now under the title Hexis Racing, returned as the defending Teams' World Champions, while German drivers Michael Krumm and Lucas Luhr didn't return to the series to defend their Drivers' World Championships.
Group GT3, known technically as Cup Grand Touring Cars and commonly referred to as simply GT3, is a set of regulations maintained by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for grand tourer racing cars designed for use in various auto racing series throughout the world. The GT3 category was initially created in 2005 by the SRO Group as a third rung in the ladder of grand touring motorsport, below the Group GT1 and Group GT2 categories which were utilized in the SRO's FIA GT Championship, and launched its own series in 2006 called the FIA GT3 European Championship. Since then, Group GT3 has expanded to become the de facto category for many national and international grand touring series, although some series modify the ruleset from the FIA standard. By 2013, nearly 20 automobile manufacturers have built or been represented with GT3 machines.
Group GT1, also known simply as GT1, was a set of regulations maintained formerly by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), for Grand Tourer racing. The category was first created in 1993, as the top class of the BPR Global GT Series, and was included in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It fell under FIA regulation from 1997, after the BPR series came under the control of the FIA, becoming known as the FIA GT Championship. The category was dissolved at the end of 2011. The category may be split into four distinctive eras, from its debut in 1993–1996, 1997–1998, 2000–2009, 2010–2011.
