Group GT1
FIA regulations for top-class Grand Tourer racing, 1993–2012.
Group GT1, often shortened to GT1, was a set of Grand Tourer racing rules originally managed by the FIA. It debuted in 1993 as the premier class of the BPR Global GT Series and also featured at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The FIA took over regulation in 1997, renaming the series the FIA GT Championship. The category ended at the start of 2012. Its history is typically divided into four distinct periods.
Quick Facts
- First race
- 1994 BPR Global GT Series
Facts from the source article.
Early years (1993–1996)
The class that became known as GT1 debuted as Group GT at the 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans, defined in FIA Appendix J regulations that year. In 1994, after the FIA World Sportscar Championship collapsed in 1992, the BPR Global GT series was founded by Jürgen Barth, Patrick Peter, and Stéphane Ratel as a championship for privateers with four-hour endurance races. The series had four categories, GT1 through GT4, with lower numbers indicating greater technical freedom. By 1996, grids had grown due to entries from manufacturers such as the McLaren F1 GTR and the Porsche 911 GT2 Evolution based on the 993 chassis, replacing earlier 964-platform 911 Carrera RSRs. Professional teams began entering, raising costs, and Porsche fielded a factory team with the 911 GT1, which many in the paddock considered built against the spirit of the rules because it was a Porsche 962 sharing only the front chassis with a Type 993 911, with a street variant built solely for homologation. This homologation-special method was not new: Porsche had collaborated with Dauer Sportwagen to race the Dauer 962 Le Mans in 1994, Toyota modified the MR2 into the SARD MC8-R, and other entries included the Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline GT-R, and Honda NSX.
Prototype years (1997–1998)
The grid became entirely professional teams. In 1997, Mercedes-AMG entered with the CLK GTR, another homologation special prototype sharing only the instrumentation, front grille, and four headlamps with the production CLK; no street-legal version existed when the category collapsed in 1999. McLaren, realizing the F1 GTR could not compete against such cars, updated its bodywork so significantly that it built three road cars, the F1 GT, to meet homologation. In 1998, with the CLK LM and 911 GT1-98 introduced, McLaren withdrew backing, though two F1 GTRs were entered by Parabolica Motorsports and Davidoff Classic. In 1999, after Mercedes-AMG won every race the previous season, no GT1 teams entered except Mercedes-AMG, so the FIA ran the 1999 FIA GT Championship with only the GT2 class.
GTS "GT1" (1999–2009)
After the original GT1 category was omitted in 1999, the FIA GT Championship was restructured: the former GT2 class became the top class, called GT, with a new N-GT class below. In ACO-sanctioned championships, the equivalents were GTS and GT. In 2005, both classes were renamed GT1 and GT2 respectively. The Maserati MC12 dominated this era, earning five consecutive teams titles from 2006 to 2009 for the Vitaphone Racing Team.
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