| A grand tourer (Italian: Gran Turismo), (initialised | | | | Because of their powerful engines, Grand tourers |
| GT), is a high-performance automobile designed | | | | can still compete with many sports cars in |
| for long-distance driving. Any such car could be | | | | top-speed and acceleration. However, in terms of |
| considered a grand tourer, but the traditional and | | | | handling they are a magnitude below sports cars, |
| most common body style is the | | | | because of their weight and many times the |
| coupé (two door) | | | | softer suspension. Grand tourers excel at high |
| with either a two-seat or a 2+2 seat | | | | speed, long distance travel or races and make |
| arrangement. | | | | more practical daily drivers than sports cars. |
| Grand tourers differ from typical sports cars (e.g. | | | | Classification |
| Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche 911) in that they are | | | | In certain professional motorsport classifications, |
| usually larger, heavier (sometimes more than | | | | such as the FIA, It defines a GT car as "an open |
| 3,500 lbs), and tend to make less compromise in | | | | or closed automobile which has no more than one |
| comfort for the sake of driving ability. For this | | | | door on each side and a minimum of two seats |
| reason they mostly have front-mounted engines, | | | | situated one on each side of the longitudinal |
| which leave more space for the cabin than | | | | centre line of the car; these two seats must be |
| mid-mounted engines. They also tend to have | | | | crossed by the same transversal plane. This car |
| softer suspension to provide good ride quality. | | | | must be able to be used perfectly legally on the |
| However, grand tourers do have similarities with | | | | open road, and adapted for racing on circuits or |
| sports cars, such as the fact they mainly use | | | | closed courses." Using the above definition, it is still |
| rear or four-wheel drive, and the term sports car | | | | valid to place sport cars such as the Corvette |
| may be used to describe a car with grand touring | | | | and the 911 in the grand touring category since |
| qualities. Very high-performance grand tourers, | | | | they do contain many, if not all, the amenities of |
| such as the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and the | | | | a grand tourer. However, this weakness in |
| Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren may be considered | | | | motorsport classification sometimes blurs the line |
| to be supercars. | | | | of what is considered a true production grand |
| Performance Characteristics | | | | tourer, and may lead to mis-classification. |