GT championship

The FIA GT Championship is a sports car racingand took advantage of pre-existing material from
series organized by theone-make cups organized by Venturi, Porsche and
Stéphane RatelFerrari.
Organisations (SRO) at the behest of theSoon, other companies such as Marcos, McLaren
ƒâ€šÃ‚©ration Internationale de l'Automobileand Lotus, alongside the pre-existing constructors,
(FIA). The championship is mostly concentrated instarted building cars specifically for the new series,
Europe, but throughout the years has visitedalthough it was still based in real production-based
other continents, most lately visiting Asia.GT cars. The McLaren F1 GTR soon proved the
Regulationsmost dominating car, with Porsche and Venturi
FIA currently defines two categories of GT cars:ruling the smaller categories.
GT1, or Grand Touring Cars, and GT2, or SeriesIn 1997, due to interest from manufacturers
Grand Touring Cars. Each category has an annualMercedes-Benz, Porsche and Panoz, the FIA took
driver champion, team champion, andover as governing body, standardizing the
manufacturer champion. Both categories arerace-length at 500 km, liberalizing the technical
based on production road car designs, which mustregulations and leaving commercial exploitation in
be produced in a minimum quantity of 25the hands of
examples to qualify. Both types may undergoStéphane Ratel,
significant modifications from the road car theywho managed to get TV support from the
are based on, but GT1 allows the use of exoticpan-European TV station Eurosport. The new
materials, better aerodynamics, larger brakes,manufacturers built "homologation specials",
wider tires and larger engine admission restrictors.racing-bred cars that took full advantage of the
For the 2006 season, the FIA has created a newnew rules, to build quasi-prototypes with very
class called GT3. GT3 cars are even closer tolimited production runs of 25 cars. Chrysler, Lister
their production counterparts and are very simplyand Marcos, not wanting to accompany the cost
racetrack prepared with the essentials (rollcagesescalation, moved down to the GT2 class.
for safety, stripped interiors, race spec fuel tanks,This proved to be the wisest move, as Mercedes
etc.). Prestigious motorsports makes such ascompletely dominated the new category and the
Aston Martin, Chevrolet, Dodge, Lamborghini andother manufacturers pulled out after the end of
Maserati take part in FIA GT3 Europeanthe 1998 season. This left Chrysler's Viper to
Championship, a support series in some rounds ofbecome the dominating car in the series, with the
the main championship.aging Porsche 993 GT2 and the Lister Storm
The FIA defines a GT car as "an open or closedproviding a certain degree of competition.
automobile which has no more than one door onHowever, there was no lower inexpensive
each side and a minimum of two seats situatedcategory for amateur drivers, and this lead to the
one on each side of the longitudinal centre line ofcreation of the N-GT class in 2000. While the
the car; these two seats must be crossed by themanufacturer field in the main class blossomed,
same transversal plane. This car must be able tothe new category became swamped with
be used perfectly legally on the open road, andPorsches and Ferraris, but lower running costs
adapted for racing on circuits or closed courses."meant both classes enjoyed a balanced number
All races in the FIA GT Championship were ofof entries. In order to boost the championship's
endurance type, a full race distance lasting astatus, the SRO added the 24 Hours of Spa,
minimum of 500km or a maximum of threepreviously a touring car race, to the calendar,
hours, with the exception of the Spa 24 Hourswhere it became the series' most important race.
and the exhibition Mil Milhas Brasileiras, which is runThe FIA also banned official manufacturer
over a thousand miles and was planned to be ainvolvement, although certain teams had
round of the championship in 2007. However, withpreferential treatment, with Porsche establishing a
the release of the 2007 FIA GT Championship"round robin" system.
season schedule and rules, the FIA GT seriesAfter the end of the 2004 season, the FIA
becomes more of a sprint race event, with allrenamed the classes GT1 and GT2, and
races being a maximum of 2 hours with thesomewhat liberalized the GT1 regulations, allowing
exception of the Spa 24 Hours, and no Mil Milhas"supercars". While this was made to
on the schedule.accommodate the Saleen S7, the biggest
Historybeneficiary was the purpose-built Maserati MC12,
The FIA GT Championship began in 1994 as thewhich lead the FIA to impose aerodynamic
BPR Global GT Series, a privately run series oflimitations on the Italian car. However, thanks to a
endurance races for GT cars with gentlemenweight penalty system, the fight for the
drivers. The series filled the gap left in Europeanchampionship is protected from more domineering
endurance racing after the demise of the Worldcars. The level of competition remains tight, with
Sportscar Championship. The series was organizedgentlemen drivers managing to fight for the wins
by independent company BPR (Jurgen Barth,with professional drivers, some of them with
Patrick Peter andFormula 1 experience.
Stéphane Ratel)