Gran Turismo 7 Touring Car 600
Rolan Sacco
A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes.[1] The most common format is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coup with either a two-seat or a 2+2 arrangement. Grand tourers are most often the coup derivative of luxury saloons or sedans. Many iconic car models, such as the Ferrari 250 GT, Jaguar E-Type, and Aston Martin DB5, are considered classic examples of gran turismo cars.
The term is a near-calque from the Italian language phrase gran turismo, which became popular in the English language in the 1950s, evolving from fast touring cars and streamlined closed sports cars during the 1930s.[2]
The grand touring car concept originated in Europe in the early 1950s,[1] especially with the 1951 introduction of the Lancia Aurelia B20 GT,[3][4] and features notable luminaries of Italian automotive history such as Vittorio Jano,[5] Enzo Ferrari[6][7] and Johnny Lurani.[8] Motorsports became important in the evolution of the grand touring concept, and grand touring entries are important in endurance sports-car racing. The grand touring definition implies material differences in performance, speed, comfort, and amenities between elite cars and those of ordinary motorists.
In the post-war United States, manufacturers were less inclined to adopt the "ethos of the GT car",[3] preferring to build cars "suited to their long, straight, smooth roads and labor-saving lifestyles"[3] with wide availability of powerful straight-six and V8 engines in all price-ranges like the 1955-1965 Chrysler 300. Despite this, the United States, enjoying early post-war economic expansion, became the largest market for European grand-touring cars,[3] supplying transportation for movie stars, celebrities and the jet set; notably the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (imported by Max Hoffman),[9][10][11] the Jaguar XK120, and the Ferrari berlinettas (imported by Luigi Chinetti).[12][13][14] Classic grand-touring cars from the post-war era especially, have since become valuable cars among wealthy collectors.[15][16] Within ten years, grand touring cars found success penetrating the new American personal luxury car market.[17]
The terms grand tourer, gran turismo, grande routire, and GT are among the most misused terms in motoring.[3] The grand touring designation generally "means motoring at speed, in style, safety, and comfort".[18] "Purists define gran turismo as the enjoyment, excitement and comfort of open-road touring."[19]
According to Sam Dawson, news editor of Classic Cars, "the ideal is of a car with the ability to cross a continent at speed and in comfort yet provide driving thrills when demanded" and it should exhibit the following:[3]
Grand tourers emphasize comfort and handling over straight-out high performance or ascetic, spartan accommodations. In comparison, sports cars (also a "much abused and confused term") are typically more "crude" compared to "sophisticated Grand Touring machinery".[20] However, the popularity of using GT for marketing purposes has meant that it has become a "much misused term, eventually signifying no more than a slightly tuned version of a family car with trendy wheels and a go-faster stripe on the side".[21]
Historically, most GTs have been front-engined with rear-wheel drive, offering more cabin space than mid-mounted engine layouts. Softer suspensions, greater storage, and more luxurious appointments add to their appeal.
There have also been several classes of racing cars called GT. The Group GT3 regulations for modified road cars have been used for various racing series worldwide since 2006. The Group GT1 regulations were used for the fastest category of sports car racing from 1994 to 2001.
The inclusion of "grand tourer", "gran turismo", "GT" or similar in the model name does not necessarily mean that the car is a grand tourer since several manufacturers have used the terms for the marketing of cars that are not grand tourers.
Italy developed the first gran turismo cars. The small, light-weight, and aerodynamic coups, named the "Berlinetta", originated in the 1930s. A contemporary French concept, known as "grande routire", emphasized style, elegance, luxury, and gentlemanly transcontinental touring; the grande routires were often larger cars than the Italian gran turismos.[30] Italian designers saw that compared to traditional open two-seat sports car, the increase in weight and frontal area of an enclosed cabin for the driver and mechanic could be offset by the benefits of streamlining to reduce drag.[31] Independent carrozzeria (coachbuilders) provided light and flexible fabric coachwork for powerful short-wheelbase fast-touring chassis by manufacturers such as Alfa Romeo. Later, Carrozzeria Touring of Milan pioneered sophisticated superleggera (super light-weight) aluminum bodywork, allowing for even more aerodynamic forms.[32] The additional comfort of an enclosed cabin was beneficial for the Mille Miglia road race held in Italy's often wintry north.[33]
The first car to be named "gran turismo" was the 1929 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Turismo, a sporting dual-purpose road/race chassis and engine specification that was available with a wide variety of body styles or carrozzeria. The influential Weymann fabric-bodied berlinetta version by Carrozzeria Touring, "an early example of what we generally perceive to be a GT car",[34] was winner of the Vetture Chiuse category at the 1931 Mille Miglia.[35] An improved and supercharged version, the 6C 1750 GTC Gran Turismo Compressore,[34] won the Vetture a Guida Interna category of the 1932 Mille Miglia.[36] The Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 was designed by Vittorio Jano,[37] who would later be instrumental in the design of the 1951 Lancia Aurelia B20 GT.[38]
The Maserati A6 1500 won the 1500 cc class at the 1949 Coppa-Europa. It was driven by Franco Bordoni, former fighter ace of the Regia Aeronautica who had debuted as a pilota da corsa at the 1949 Mille Miglia.[46][48] The A6 1500 was the first road going production car to be offered by the Maserati factory, featuring a tubular chassis with independent front suspension and coil springs, the 1500 cc six-cylinder being derived from the Maserati brothers pre-war voiturette racing engines. The body of the A6 1500 was an elegant two-door fast-back coup body, also by Pinin Farina.[49]
Enzo Ferrari, whose Scuderia Ferrari had been the racing division of Alfa Romeo from 1929 until 1938, parted ways from Alfa Romeo in 1939: Enzo Ferrari's first car (itself an Etceterini) the Fiat-based Auto Avio Costruzioni 815 racing sports car, debuted at the 1940 Mille Miglia. Two were produced.[50] The first car constructed in Ferrari's name, the V12 125 S, also a racing sports car, debuted in 1947 at the Piacenza racing circuit.[51] Again, only two were produced, but they rapidly evolved into the 159 and 166 models, including the 1949 Ferrari 166 Inter, a road-going berlinetta coup with coachwork by Carrozzeria Touring and other coachbuilders.[52][53]
The Ferrari 166 'Inter' S coup model won the 1949 Coppa Inter-Europa motor race. Regulations stipulated body form and dimensions but did not at this time specify a minimum production quantity.[44] The car was driven by Bruno Sterzi, and is recognized as the first Ferrari gran turismo.[53]
After that race, the national governing body of Italian motorsport, CSAI (Commissione Sportiva Automobilistica Italiana), officially introduced a new class, called Gran Turismo Internazionale, for cars with production over thirty units per year,[54] thereby ruling out Ferrari's hand-built berlinettas.
Ferrari's response for the new Italian Gran Turismo Internazionale championship in 1951 was the road/race Ferrari 212. Twenty-seven short-wheelbase competition versions called Export, some with increasingly popular gran turismo-style berlinetta coup coachwork, were produced for enthusiasts (Ferrari called the first example 212 MM[55][56]) while the road version was called Inter. The Ferrari 212 Export featured long-range fuel tanks, high compression pistons and triple Weber 32 DCF carburettors; power was 170 bhp from the 2600cc Gioacchino Colombo-designed 'short-block' V12 engine, evolved from the earlier Ferrari 166 (2000cc) and 195 (2300cc).[57] All versions came with the standard Ferrari five-speed non-synchromesh gearbox and hydraulic drum brakes.[58] All 1951 Ferraris shared a double tube frame chassis design evolved from the 166. Double-wishbone front suspension with transverse leaf spring, and live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs and radius rods were employed.[59] The Ferrari 212 Export (212 MM) gran turismo berlinetta (chassis No. 0070M) debuted in first-place overall at the April 1951 Coppa Inter-Europa, driven by Luigi Villoresi,[60][61] and in June (chassis no. 0092E) was first in the gran turismo category at the Coppa della Toscana driven by Milanese Ferrari concessionaire and proprietor of Scuderia Guastalla, Franco Cornacchia.[62][63][64][65] The 212 Export continued to serve Ferrari well in the Sports and GT categories until replaced by the 225 S, and although it would later be overshadowed by the internationally famous 250 GT, the 212 Export was an important model in the successful line of Colombo-engined V12 GT cars that made Ferrari legendary.[66]
Lancia had begun production in 1950 of their technically advanced Aurelia saloon; the design had been overseen by Vittorio Jano.[38] At the 1951 Turin Motor Show, the Pinin Farina-bodied gran turismo B20 coup version was unveiled to an enthusiastic motoring public. Here, finally, according to historians Jonathan Wood[4] and Sam Dawson,[3] was a fully realized production GT car, representing the starting point of the definitive grand tourer:
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