Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built sports prototypes which are the highest level in sports car racing or grand tourers based on road-going models and therefore, in general, not as fast as sports prototypes. 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 993 is the fourth generation of the Porsche 911 model sports car manufactured and sold between January 1994 and early 1998, replacing the 964. Its discontinuation marked the end of air-cooled 911 models.
The Ferrari F430 is a sports car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari from 2004 until 2009 as a successor to the Ferrari 360. The car is an update to the 360 with exterior and performance changes. It was unveiled at the 2004 Paris Motor Show. The F430 was succeeded by the 458 which was unveiled on 28 July 2009. An estimated 16,750 F430s were produced between 2005 and 2009.
The Ferrari 550 Maranello is a front-engine V12 2-seat grand tourer built by Ferrari from 1996 to 2002. The 550 Maranello marked Ferrari's return to a front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout for its 2-seater 12-cylinder model, 23 years after the 365 GTB/4 Daytona had been replaced by the mid-engined Berlinetta Boxer.
Uwe Alzen is a German racing driver specialised in touring car racing and sports car racing.
The Lister Storm was a homologated GT racing car manufactured by British low-volume automobile manufacturer Lister Cars with production beginning in 1993.
The Aston Martin Vantage is a series of hand-built sports cars from the British automotive manufacturer Aston Martin. Aston Martin has previously used the "Vantage" name on high-performance variants of their existing GT models, notably on the Virage-based car of the 1990s. The modern car, in contrast, is the leanest and most agile car in Aston's lineup. As such, it is intended as a more focused model to reach out to potential buyers of cars such as the Porsche 911 as well as the exotic sports and GT cars with which Aston Martins traditionally compete.
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 Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a line of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national and regional Porsche Carrera Cup and GT3 Cup Challenge series, as well as the international Porsche Supercup supporting the FIA F1 World Championship.
The 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 66th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 6 and 7 June 1998.
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 - Ferrari had accomplished the same feat with its two cars in 1949, but other manufacturers like Jaguar, Porsche, Ford or Audi achieved their first Le Mans win only after 2, 3 or more attempts. As well as its outright win, the strength of the F1 GTR in the race was underlined by it ultimately filling four of the first five places.
The Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR is a GT1 sports car built and produced by Mercedes-Benz in conjunction with their then motorsport partner AMG. Intended for racing in the new FIA GT Championship series in 1997, the CLK GTR was designed primarily as a race car. As such, the production of road cars necessary in order to meet homologation standards of GT1 was a secondary consideration in the car's design, i.e. the CLK GTR was a homologation special.
The Porsche 911 GT2 is a high-performance, track-focused sports car built by the German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 1993 to 2009, and then since 2010 as the GT2 RS. It is based on the 911 Turbo, and uses a similar twin-turbocharged engine, but features numerous upgrades, including engine enhancements, larger brakes, and stiffer suspension calibration. The GT2 is significantly lighter than the Turbo due to its use of rear-wheel-drive instead of all-wheel-drive system and the reduction or removal of interior components. As a result, the GT2 is the most expensive and fastest model among the 911 lineup.
The Nissan R390 GT1 was a racing car built in Atsugi, Japan. It was designed primarily to gain a suitable racing entry in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1997 and 1998. It was built to race under the grand touring style rules, requiring a homologated road version to be built. Therefore, the R390 was built originally as road car, then a racing version of the car was developed afterwards. Only one R390 road car was ever built and is stored at Nissan's Zama facility, although one of the race cars was later modified for road use. The road car was claimed to be capable of attaining a top speed of 354 km/h (220 mph). However, this claim has never been proven.
The Mercedes-Benz CLK LM was a Group GT1 sports car designed and built by Mercedes-Benz in partnership with AMG to compete in the FIA GT Championship. To satisfy the requirements of competing in the FIA GT Championship, a road-legal version had to be built to homologate the car. That car was known as the Mercedes-Benz CLK LM Straßenversion, and Mercedes-Benz assembled two chassis, one of which was destroyed for crash-testing. The CLK LM went on to win every single championship event in the 1998 FIA GT season, retiring only at the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, which was a non-championship event. The removal of the GT1 class from the FIA GT Championship due to the lack of entrants and rising costs meant that Mercedes' GT1 program was brought to a close at the end of 1998. Mercedes instead focussed their efforts on the newly introduced LMGTP class for the 1999 season, which produced the Mercedes-Benz CLR.
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 1998 Petit Le Mans was the seventh race for the 1998 IMSA GT Championship season, then known as the Professional SportsCar Racing series. It also served as a prelude to the first American Le Mans Series race held at Sebring in 1999. Don Panoz's American Le Mans Series was developed with the backing of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), the ruling body of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It took place on October 11, 1998.
The Porsche 911 is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and originally a torsion bar suspension. The car has been continuously enhanced through the years but the basic concept has remained unchanged. The engines were air-cooled until the introduction of the 996 series in 1998.
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.
The Porsche 911 RSR and its predecessor GT3 RSR, GT3 RS and GT3 R were a line of GT racing cars produced by Porsche that are used in motorsport for endurance races. They are based on the currently highest class in GT racing worldwide, the GTE class from ACO. These regulations lead back to the concept of a GT3 class below the then Group GT1 and GT2 from 1998. After the discontinuation of the GT1 class, the planned GT3 class was from 1999 at the ACO as a GT class below the GTS, as well advertised by the FIA from 2000 as N-GT. After the alignment of the GT rules between FIA and ACO in 2005, this class was renamed GT2 class. When the FIA's GT2 European Championship failed and the participants in the GT1 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans dwindled, the ACO renamed the GT2 class GTE in 2011 and divided it into GTE-Pro for professionals and GTE-AM for amateurs. Over the years, Porsche was continuously represented in this class with different series of the 911.
