Production vehicles or production cars are mass-produced models of automobiles offered for sale to the public, and able to be legally driven on public roads. Legislation and other industrial rules further define the production vehicle within particular countries or uses. There is no single fixed global definition of the term.
The earliest use of the term production car being applied to motor cars, found to date, was in a June 1914 American advertisement for a Regal motor car. [1] The phrase was a shortened form of mass-produced or quantity-produced car. [2] [3] The phrase was also used in terms of the car to be made in production, as opposed to the prototype. [4]
At that time production cars referred to cheaper vehicles such as Model T's that were made in relatively large numbers on production lines, as opposed to the more expensive coach built models. Now the term has broadened to include vehicles that are hand assembled, or assembled on a production or assembly line. The main criteria being that there are a number of the same model with the same specifications.
There is no fixed definition of the number of vehicles or the amount of modification allowed outside of motorsports or national regulations or laws that determine what is or is not a production vehicle. For example, Guinness recognises a modified 2-seat Jaguar XK120 as the world's fastest production car in 1949. [5]
In 2010, the Guinness Book of Records awarded the record for the "Fastest production car" to the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. In 2013, their decision was appealed on the ground that the Bugatti was a modified version—the limiter was turned off, a fact already known in 2010. Guinness, which had listed speeds by British cars with modified limiters as production car records in the 1990s, upheld the appeal and initiated a review of their production car definition. The outcome was that turning off the limiter was not a fundamental modification and the Bugatti record was reinstated. [6] [7] Guinness were also reported in some sources as saying that at least 50 identical vehicles were needed to be made to constitute a production car but several models which were built less than 15 times got certified for production car records. [8] [9] In February 2014, Road & Track wrote that Guinness required 30 identical vehicles. [10]
There have been numerous disputes over what constituted production and modified cars when used in motorsports. Even under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the exact definition of what was (or was not) a production car was unclear and controversial, which led to rules written in 1955. [11] Although the term is defined for particular types of vehicles, and that a certain number of a model must be produced in order to qualify as "production", it is another matter to enforce the rules. [11] For example, the 1968 FIA rules state that "production" for sports cars need to have at least 25 identical cars produced within a 12-month period and they were meant for normal sale to individual purchasers, Group B race series, a minimum of 200 cars were required for homologation, Group A, a minimum of 2,500 identical models have to be built in 12 consecutive months [12] [13] However, FIA rules tend to allow a degree of modification from the original.
Another example is the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association which is concerned solely with the speed of a vehicle. The Association uses its own definition of a production vehicle. [14] The Association allows quite a high level of modification over the original. In 2006 a Pontiac TransAm of John Rains Racing was classified as being the fastest production model (Bonneville D/PS class) with a top speed in excess of 297 mph. [15] Road tests of the same type of car available from the production line were incapable of anything like this speed and Popular Mechanics referred to the car as production based, which was probably a more accurate description.
A stock car, in the original sense of the term, is an automobile that has not been modified from its original factory configuration. Later the term stock car came to mean any production-based automobile used in racing. This term is used to differentiate such a car from a "race car", a special, custom-built car designed only for racing purposes.
The actual degree to which the cars conform to standard model specs has changed over the years and varies from country to country. Today most American stock cars may superficially resemble standard American family sedans, but are in fact purpose-built racing machines built to a strict set of regulations governing the car design ensuring that the chassis, suspension, engine, etc. are architecturally identical on all vehicles. For example, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series now requires fuel injection. The closest European equivalent to stock car racing is probably touring car racing. In the UK and New Zealand there is a racing formula called stock cars but the cars are markedly different from any road car one might see. In Australia there was a formula that was similar to NASCAR called AUSCAR, but it has been ended, and a form of touring cars has taken its place (this is known locally as sSpercars, featuring the Bathurst 1000 and Adelaide 500).
The FIA Land Speed Records Commission has regulations governing series-production cars attempting land speed records under its 2014 Appendix D - Regulations for Land Speed Record Attempts. Series-production cars fall under rule D2.3.2 and state that they must be:
Category B: Series-production Automobiles in production at the time of the application for the Record Attempt and either homologated by the FIA, or for which an application for homologation has been made to the FIA or recognised by the ASN of the country in which they are manufactured for National Records. [16]
The high level of modification allowed under these FIA's rules would tend to indicate that the cars are production based, rather than straight from an assembly line. For example, Category B Group III had a Dodge Dakota with a top speed of 217.395 mph. [16] Forums citing the Dakota's top speed indicate a standard production Dakota R/T would only reach about 125 mph. [17]
Production cars under the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) rules refers purely to the body class. Beyond that the cars are extensively modified. [18]
Various countries have laws that define production vehicles. For example, in the United States Briggs Cunningham's business was classified as a hobby by tax officials because he did not manufacture enough of each model for the Cunningham automobile to be considered a production vehicle, but rather the IRS classified them as high-performance prototype automobiles built as racecars. [19] Legislative definitions tend to revolve around issues of safety or revenue (taxation). [20]
Not all performance specialists are officially recognised and their cars are not usually referred to as production vehicles. The primary means of identifying a cars manufacturer since the mid 1980s has been the vehicle identification or VIN. The first three digits are the manufacturer or WMI identifier. [21] If the performance specialist is the manufacturer then its WMI identifier will be in the VIN. An example would be vehicles made or modified by tuning and manufacturing company RUF, which specialises in Porsche based vehicles. In general, if the RUF vehicle is a RUF modified Porsche then the WMI will be Porsche's (WP0), but if it is built by RUF then its WMI will be RUF's (W09). [22]
These are usually vehicles where the production run is restricted to a specific number of vehicles. An example of this is the 1957 Rambler Rebel, a limited-production car where only 1,500 were produced. [23]
Motor vehicle production statistics are available for countries worldwide, by country, make, and model. Production statistics by country and by model, as far as announced, are available for each make as well. [24]
Pre-production cars come after prototypes or development mules, which themselves may be preceded by concept cars. Pre-production vehicles are followed by production vehicles in the mass production for distribution through car dealerships. For example the Bugatti Chiron in which Andy Wallace achieved a maximum of 490.48 km/h (304.77 mph) on 2 August 2019 was described by Bugatti a "near production ready prototype". [25] [26] [27] [28]
Three lists within Wikipedia and the discussions on their talk pages illustrate the difficulty in defining what a production car is. These are:
In the first two lists a production car is described as:
The third list used the same description until April 2018. It was changed to the following after a vote based on suggestions by a Koenigsegg employee :
The talk pages for all these lists continue to have ongoing discussions about the definitions.
Automobiles Ettore Bugatti was a German then French manufacturer of high-performance automobiles. The company was founded in 1909 in the then-German city of Molsheim, Alsace, by the Italian-born industrial designer Ettore Bugatti. The cars were known for their design beauty and numerous race victories. Famous Bugatti automobiles include the Type 35 Grand Prix cars, the Type 41 "Royale", the Type 57 "Atlantic" and the Type 55 sports car.
The Porsche 959 is a sports car manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 1986 to 1993, first as a Group B rally car and later as a road legal production car designed to satisfy FIA homologation regulations requiring at least 200 units be produced.
The Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is a mid-engine sports car, designed and developed in Germany by the Volkswagen Group and Bugatti and manufactured in Molsheim, France, by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti. It was named after the racing driver Pierre Veyron.
The Jaguar XJ220 is a two-seat sports car produced by British luxury car manufacturer Jaguar from 1992 until 1994, in collaboration with the specialist automotive and race engineering company Tom Walkinshaw Racing. The XJ220 recorded a top speed of 212.3 mph (341.7 km/h) during testing by Jaguar at the Nardo test track in Italy. This made it the fastest production car from 1992 to 1993. According to Jaguar, an XJ220 prototype managed a Nürburgring lap time of 7:46.36 in 1991 which was faster than any production car lap time before it.
Ferdinand Karl Piëch was an Austrian business magnate, engineer and executive who was the chairman of the executive board (Vorstandsvorsitzender) of Volkswagen Group in 1993–2002 and the chairman of the supervisory board (Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender) of Volkswagen Group in 2002–2015.
Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. is a French luxury sports car manufacturer. The company was founded in 1998 as a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group and is based in Molsheim, Alsace, France. The original Bugatti automobile brand was established by Ettore Bugatti (1881–1947) in 1909 at Molsheim and built sports, racing and luxury cars.
Ruf Automobile GmbH is a German car manufacturer. Formerly using Porsche bodies in white to build cars, today they build vehicles on their own bodies and chassis. They also manufacture performance parts for various Porsche models, including the 911, Boxster, and Cayman.
The Ruf CTR2 is a 2-door sports car built by German automobile manufacturer Ruf Automobile from 1995 to 1997 as the successor to the CTR Yellowbird, but based on Porsche's Type 993 generation 911.
The Ruf CTR also known as the CTR Yellowbird or simply Yellowbird, is a limited-production, high performance sports car manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Ruf Automobile. Introduced for the 1987 model year and based on the Porsche 911, the CTR featured an enlarged and highly tuned version of Porsche's 3.2 litre flat-six cylinder engine, lightened body panels, an integrated roll cage, upgraded suspension and braking systems, a custom-designed transmission, and several unique trim pieces such as polyurethane bumpers, and the use of the side-mounted oil filler necessitated by relocating the oil tank forward to clear the intercooler on that side.
This is a list of the world's record-breaking top speeds achieved by street-legal production cars. For the purposes of this list eligible cars are defined in the list's rules. This list uses a different definition to the List of automotive superlatives. The variation is because the term production car is otherwise undefined.
The International Sporting Code (ISC) is a set of rules applicable to all four-wheel motorsport as governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It was first implemented in 1926.
Ehra-Lessien is a municipality in the district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The Municipality Ehra-Lessien includes the villages of Ehra and Lessien.
The Ruf RTurbo is a sports car built by Ruf Automobile of Germany and introduced in 2001. It is based on the 996 generation Porsche 911. It was offered with a choice of 520 hp (388 kW), 550 hp (410 kW), and 590 hp (440 kW) engines. The RTurbo could be had as either a complete Ruf car with unique VIN or a conversion for an existing 996 retaining the original Porsche VIN.
The Bugatti 18/3 Chiron is a 1999 concept car developed by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti Automobiles and designed by Fabrizio Giugiaro of Italdesign. Powered by a 6.3 L W18 engine, it is a 2-seater mid-engine coupé. The 18/3 Chiron was the last in a trio of Bugatti concept cars by Italdesign, after the 1998 EB 118 coupé and the 1999 EB 218 saloon.
The Ruf BTR is a sports car built by German automobile manufacturer Ruf Automobile. The BTR began production in 1983 and was based on the Porsche 911 available in a narrow 911 or optional wide body configuration akin to the 930 Turbo. The BTR was the first Ruf production sports car with a company specific VIN.
The Bugatti Chiron is a mid-engine two-seater sports car designed and developed in Germany by Bugatti Engineering GmbH and manufactured in Molsheim, France, by French automobile manufacturer Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S. The successor to the Bugatti Veyron, the Chiron was first shown at the Geneva Motor Show on 1 March 2016. The car's design was initially previewed with the Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo concept car unveiled at the 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show.
Land speed racing is a form of motorsport.
