GT, the abbreviation for Gran Turismo, refers to the type of sports car that can be driven on a long-distance tour. A proper GT should be an FR coupe with 4 seats and combine speed and luxury perfectly. Some GTs are 2-seaters, though, and some are the in-between “2+2” with a rather useless back seat. The essence of all these true GTs is out of dispute — they are fast, they are comfy, and they are beautiful. Some notable examples in the past are Jaguar E-type, Mercedes-Benz 300SL, and Ferrari 250. Sometimes the word GT gets longer — most notably the Ferrari 250 GTO, the O of which refers to the Italian “omologato”. Other lengthened examples are GTR, GTS, and GTC, but the true meanings often vary from brand to brand. Listed below are some notable cars with GT in the name.
Ferrari 599 GTB
Ferrari GTC4Lusso
Ford GT
Maserati GranTurismo
McLaren GT
Mercedes-AMG GT/GT-S/GT-C/GT-R
Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR
Nissan GT-R
Porsche 911 GT1/GT2/GT3/GTS
Porsche Carrera GT
All these cars can still be counted as GTs, but some are already deviating. M-Benz CLK GTR was built as a race car from scratch, and so was the Porsche 911 GT1. This story will be elaborated later on. Carrera GT can surely be used for a fast long drive, but it was one of the hardest road cars to drive in history. McLaren GT is meant to be a luxurious alternative to its spartan big brother 720S but would be overly hardcore due to a similar mid-engine layout.
Since GT is such a prestigious symbol, the marketing magic again plays tricks with the word. To impress the customers at first glance, some cars that are far away from GTs get “GT” in their names. Volkswagen made it happen with the very first Golf GTi, and the “i” refers to injection technology. Since then, GTi are widely used in hot hatches, such as Peugeot 308 GTi. VW pushed this even further with the diesel GTD and hybrid GTE.
The term GT is everywhere today. M-AMG GT 4-door is definitely not a GT but rather an E-Class with a sharper roofline. BMW calls its large clunky hatchback 6 Series GT. Kia calls its top-of-the-line sport sedan Stinger GT. Peugeot demotes the GT even more, making it a trim level. One can now order a “3008 GT Blue HDi” diesel SUV from Peugeot. The weirdest should be the Ford Mustang GT — the GT of which denotes the V8 version. Why use the term GT to highlight a top model when it is already a GT?
The word GT is widely used in the racing world as well. The story started with the technical regulations initiated by BPR Global GT Series in the 1990s. The four groups of race cars were named from GT1 to GT4, and this regulation was later included in the FIA regulation. The 24 hours of Le Mans included the GT1 and GT2 into the classification (called LMGT1 and LMGT2) and is still using GTE (the successor of GT2, with the E referring to endurance) today.
Under the GT regulation, Porsche produced the 911 GT1/GT2/GT3 in the 90s. Although the spirit of GT racing was to use modified street-legal cars on the track, the 911 GT1 and the CLK GTR were totally against it. Porsche and Mercedes did it the other way round: they made a race car first and then turned it street-legal. The only parts that were the same as the original 911 and CLK were headlights and taillights. In the late 90s, LMGT1 dominated the Le Mans circuit, even faster than the race prototypes. GT racing is still popular today, but the races themselves are totally irrelevant to “grand touring”. The meaning of GT racing has been changed to street-car-based motor racing, just as touring car racing.
The word GT is a good example of things losing their essence throughout time. People today simply feel that the word GT sounds amazing without really digging into history. Even Nvidia calls its GPU products “GTX” and customers love them. What is the next thing to have GT in the name?
