International sports car racing is unbelievably confusing, with a half dozen classes that all look the same and have nearly the same names. Here's a simple guide that unravels the whole tangled mess.P
GT racing started out many years back with GT1. It was simple. It was one class of top-flight race cars derived from road-going sports cars. Corvettes raced the European marques and everything made sense. Then someone cut the head of GT1 and, like a super Hydra, a half-dozen new classes sprouted in its place. We're here to explain them all.P
This article was put together by Jalopnik reader and motorsports expert porsche9146. If you have any questions for him, drop them in Kinja below.P
Here's what you need to know:
GT1 was designed by the ACO as high tech production based racing for factories. It saw the Corvette C6.R, the Aston Martin DBR9 and the Saleen S7R race for wins all over the world.P
Photo Credits (top and above): Getty Images
GT2 was designed by the ACO as professionals only production based racing for privateers (mostly in customer cars). It saw 911 GT3 RSRs, 430GTCs and M3 GTs race for wins all over the world.P
Photo Credit: Getty Images
GT3 was designed by SRO as pro-am production based racing for privateers (mostly in customer cars). It saw Z4 GT3s, 911 GT3 Rs and SLS AMG GT3s race for win in regional series all over the worldP
Photo Credit: Getty Images
GT1 world and GT3 Europe are now both dead, leaving the real GT1 cars dead for good, but the GT3 class is still being run on a big European stage in the Blancpain endurance series, which allows for pro-pro AND pro-am pairings in separate sub classes. Add to that the many regional GT3 series (such as British GT, Grand Am GT and SUPER GT GT300) still running the cars and it's one of the strongest classes in the world.P
Photo Credit: Getty Images
GT4 is also a part of the Blancpain Endurance Series and many other GT3 classes around the world because it is much cheaper and slower than GT3, allowing for it to be a decent am-am feeder class into GT3.P
Photo Credit: jez B
Japan's national SUPER GT brings another GT class to the table with its smaller GT300 series, which was originally intended for super low power, super high downforce local creations, but a few years back they started allowing in GT3 cars and they've over-run the series. The Z4 GT3, 911 GT3 R and SLS AMG are displacing the quirky likes of the GT300 CRZs, BRZs and Prii. Yes, as in the plural of Prius. Its GT500 class, meanwhile, is completely independent and local, but is more of a super touring car series (like DTM, NASCAR or V8 Supercars) than it is a GT series.
Grand-Am has only one GT class, one that's GT3 based, but it's fundamentally different from the others in that it's actually only half GT3 and the rest are tube framed cars. Next year the only tube framed cars will be one team's BMWs M3s and a few Camaros.
The American Le Mans Series also has a spec class called GTC, which is for Porsche 911 GT3 (named after the road car, not the class) cup cars only. A certain cancellation will come in 2014 since ALMS merged with Grand-Am.P
Any questions?
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